Hi all...
It appears I broke a fundamental “rule” when I installed a new hard drive and OS (98SE) on my Dell Dimension 4100 by not installing the Chipset Software Installation Utility (INF Utility) and updating the 815E chipset drivers before installing my other hardware and drivers and software programs. I am now considering starting over from scratch and reinstalling OS (any need to reformat and partition, too?)
Question: If I do this, do I need to remove/disconnect all hardware first (CD-ROM, sound card, modem, printer, NIC card) so that the OS doesn’t recognize them and start installing generic drivers before I can update the chipset drivers? And when/how in the procedure do I install OS updates from Microsoft if I can’t have my NIC card installed before updating chipsets.
Also, since I switched from WinME to Win98SE (don’t ask!), will I find all the drivers I need for the new OS on the Dell Resource CD (since that CD came with an WinME system) or should I get the various drivers individually from Dell, Intel, and other manufacturer’s websites?
I guess my new procedure would be this(?) :
Disconnect/remove all hardware
Reinstall OS
Install INF Utility
Install Intel Application Accelerator (or ATA Storage Driver??)
Install NIC card and get online
Download and install Win 98 updates
Install Rage Graphics Card (and current driver)
Install CD-ROM (and driver)
Install printer, modem, sound card (and their drivers)
Install various software programs and associated files (My Documents, etc)
Is this a correct approach or am I off base here?
Thanks for any input...
showhost
It appears I broke a fundamental “rule” when I installed a new hard drive and OS (98SE) on my Dell Dimension 4100 by not installing the Chipset Software Installation Utility (INF Utility) and updating the 815E chipset drivers before installing my other hardware and drivers and software programs. I am now considering starting over from scratch and reinstalling OS (any need to reformat and partition, too?)
Question: If I do this, do I need to remove/disconnect all hardware first (CD-ROM, sound card, modem, printer, NIC card) so that the OS doesn’t recognize them and start installing generic drivers before I can update the chipset drivers? And when/how in the procedure do I install OS updates from Microsoft if I can’t have my NIC card installed before updating chipsets.
Also, since I switched from WinME to Win98SE (don’t ask!), will I find all the drivers I need for the new OS on the Dell Resource CD (since that CD came with an WinME system) or should I get the various drivers individually from Dell, Intel, and other manufacturer’s websites?
I guess my new procedure would be this(?) :
Disconnect/remove all hardware
Reinstall OS
Install INF Utility
Install Intel Application Accelerator (or ATA Storage Driver??)
Install NIC card and get online
Download and install Win 98 updates
Install Rage Graphics Card (and current driver)
Install CD-ROM (and driver)
Install printer, modem, sound card (and their drivers)
Install various software programs and associated files (My Documents, etc)
Is this a correct approach or am I off base here?
Thanks for any input...
showhost