Removing Win98 & reinstalling Win95 advice needed.

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Witchsmeller - 25 Jan 2004 15:33 GMT

Hi,

I'm giving a friends PC an overhaul, I formatted the HD (FAT32) & installed
Win98 in it's place. Unfortunately I can't get his old V.34 modem to work,
after spending, on-&-off, a day & a half desperately trying different
drivers & asking for help on other NGs I've decided to revert back to Win95
in the hope the modem will work again.

Having formatted the HD with FAT32 what is the best way to install Win95?
Should I use a Win98 boot disk & re-format the HD FAT16 without system
files & then boot from the Win95 floppy & execute setup on the Win95 CD?

Any advice greatly appreciated, Jase.

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Bill Starbuck - 25 Jan 2004 15:52 GMT

>Having formatted the HD with FAT32 what is the best way to install Win95?
>Should I use a Win98 boot disk & re-format the HD FAT16 without system
>files & then boot from the Win95 floppy & execute setup on the Win95 CD?

You need to know which version of Windows 95 you are going to install.
The original Win95 could use only FAT16. OSR2 enabled the use of
FAT32.

Bill Starbuck (MVP)

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glee - 25 Jan 2004 22:42 GMT

As Bill posted, it depends on whether it is Win95 Gold or A, or Win95B or C.
Win95B and C support FAT32, earlier versions do not.
Win95 boot floppies do not have DOS CD drivers by default...they must be added, or you need to go to www.bootdisk.com and download a bootdisk maker for the version of Win95 you are planning to use.

I am a bit incredulous that you are contemplating reverting to Win95 just for a modem driver. The Win95 driver should work fine in win98....do you not have the modem driver disk?
I am guessing you loaded Win98 original rather than Win98SE, as 98SE had many modem drivers, and the original version of 98 did not.

If you tell us the exact modem brand and model, we may be able to supply you with the correct driver......a far better solution than reverting to Win95.

Signature

Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> Any advice greatly appreciated, Jase.

Reply to this Message

Witchsmeller - 26 Jan 2004 09:49 GMT

> If you tell us the exact modem brand and model, we may be able to
> supply you with the correct driver......a far better solution than
> reverting to Win95.

Glee,

Thanks, it's an old internal ISA, V.34 modem, there is no manufacturer on
the manual but it says:

V.34 Fax/Modem
33,600 bps Stand-Alone and PC Card Models
(Including PnP/Legacy, Voice, SVD And DSVD Models)

I am using Win98SE, Windows detects the modem & installs drivers for it,
device manager states:

Aztech 2320(pnp) Data+Fax+Voice Modem

& "it's working properly", with drivers supplied by ZyXEL. When I try &
connect I get the 'Error 630' Modem not responding properly message.

Looking at the modem itself it is a:

Rockwell 96; RCV336ACF/SP, R6749-21
Also on the chip is: 9734 B30171-4

Apparently the modem is factory set at COM4 and IRQ3 but when I check under
modems in control panel the 'PORT' field is empty & when I click on 'more
info' I get the message 'couldn't open port' (not surprisingly). The serial
mouse being listed as 'COM1'.

I've searched for drives on this information & found this site:

http://www.modem-help.com/chipsets.php?mid=122&nbd=1926

The drivers here match the exact chipset (RCV336ACF/SP, R6749-21) on the
modem itself & supposedly work with Win95 & Win98. When I manually update
the Conexant/Rockwell drivers with the .inf file I've downloaded, Windows
gives me 3 choices of modem to add, none of which Windows thinks are
compatible with the hardware, Windows also says it thinks the best drivers
are already installed.

Zoltrix Ext Sp Phone V.34+ 33,600 (FMVSP336e)
Zoltrix Int Sp Phone V.34+ 33,600 (FMVSP336i)
Zoltrix Int Voice V.34+ 33,600 (FMVOC336Fi)

Any help greatly appreciated, Jason.

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Witchsmeller - 26 Jan 2004 10:51 GMT

>> If you tell us the exact modem brand and model, we may be able to
>> supply you with the correct driver......a far better solution than
>> reverting to Win95.

Glee,

One further point, it seems I only have access to 2 COM ports 1 & 2, I've
checked in the (Award) BIOS but can't find any way of enabling COM3 or
COM4. I did flash the BIOS before installing Win98 so maybe everything is
at a default setting.

I think this is fundamental to my problem, in the BIOS under "PnP/PCI
CONFIGURATION" I see:

MODEM USE IRQ: 3

and in the IRQ listing:

IRQ 3 (COM2) ON
IRQ 4 (COM1) ON
IRQ 5 (LPT2) OFF
IRQ 6 (FLOPPY) OFF
IRQ 5 (LPT1) OFF

etc. but no reference to COM 3 or 4. I know I can manually change the
default COM port on the modem card via jumper settings (to COM2), would
this be a possibility or would I have conflicts elsewhere? This modem was
working before under 95 with the same modem settings so there
(theroetically) must be a way to get it to work under 98, assuming the
drivers are correct!

Here's hoping, Jason.

Reply to this Message

glee - 27 Jan 2004 02:42 GMT

Prior to flashing the BIOS, you should have recorded all the BIOS settings, so that you could be sure they were set correctly after the flash. Flashing probably set some settings to defaults.

If your modem is set to use IRQ3, then the BIOS setting "MODEM USE IRQ: 3" is fine.
You will not usually find a COM3 or COM4 setting in the BIOS....COM1 and COM3 share an IRQ, as do COM2 and COM4, so only COM1 and COM2 need to be listed there. That is not unusual.

Try this:
In Device Manager, remove the modem.
Shut down, set the jumper on the modem to COM2 IRQ3
Start the computer, and in the BIOS setup Disable COM2 (Serial Port 2)...this will free the resources from the physical COM port, for the modems "virtual" COM port.
Exit setup saving changes, and let Windows detect the modem and install the drivers it prefers.

Alternately, set the modem jumper to the plug'n'play setting, if it has one, and let Windows choose the settings.

Signature

Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

> >> If you tell us the exact modem brand and model, we may be able to
> >> supply you with the correct driver......a far better solution than
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>
> Here's hoping, Jason.

Reply to this Message

Gerry Voras - 26 Feb 2004 07:41 GMT

What modem are you using? There are tons of inf files in windows that
surely we can come up with something that will work,. In general, I
recommend a USR Sportster 28.8 internal, and a Hayes 14.4 external as nice
generic models.

For your serial ports, I'd recommend runing the mouse off of onboard com1
(3F8h, irq 4). Disable all the onboard and espansion card com ports.
Assing the modem to com4 (2e8h, irq3). That will take care of serial
conflicts.

Prior to flashing the BIOS, you should have recorded all the BIOS settings,
so that you could be sure they were set correctly after the flash. Flashing
probably set some settings to defaults.

If your modem is set to use IRQ3, then the BIOS setting "MODEM USE IRQ: 3"
is fine.
You will not usually find a COM3 or COM4 setting in the BIOS....COM1 and
COM3 share an IRQ, as do COM2 and COM4, so only COM1 and COM2 need to be
listed there. That is not unusual.

Try this:
In Device Manager, remove the modem.
Shut down, set the jumper on the modem to COM2 IRQ3
Start the computer, and in the BIOS setup Disable COM2 (Serial Port
2)...this will free the resources from the physical COM port, for the modems
"virtual" COM port.
Exit setup saving changes, and let Windows detect the modem and install the
drivers it prefers.

Alternately, set the modem jumper to the plug'n'play setting, if it has one,
and let Windows choose the settings.

Signature

Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

> Witchsmeller <spamspamspam@spanishinquisition.co.uk> wrote in
> news:Xns947C63F626DE8Witchsmeller@195.92.193.157:
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
>
> Here's hoping, Jason.

Reply to this Message

Haggis - 26 Jan 2004 14:53 GMT

your modem may be setup for com2....disable com2 in bios then try to install
modem

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> Any advice greatly appreciated, Jase.

Reply to this Message

Witchsmeller - 26 Jan 2004 15:06 GMT

> your modem may be setup for com2....disable com2 in bios then try to
> install modem
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>>
>> Any advice greatly appreciated, Jase.

Thanks for the reply, the modem is factory set to COM 4 (IRQ3) & it seems
I only have access to 2 COM ports 1 & 2. I've checked in the (Award) BIOS
but can't find any way of enabling COM3 or COM4. I did flash the BIOS
before installing Win98 so maybe everything is at a default setting.

I think this is at the root of my modem problem, in the BIOS under
"PnP/PCI CONFIGURATION" I see:

MODEM USE IRQ: 3

and in the IRQ listing:

IRQ 3 (COM2) ON
IRQ 4 (COM1) ON
IRQ 5 (LPT2) OFF
IRQ 6 (FLOPPY) OFF
IRQ 5 (LPT1) OFF

etc. but no reference to COM 3 or 4. I know I can manually change the
default COM port on the modem card via jumper settings (to COM2), would
this be a possibility or would I have conflicts elsewhere? This modem was
working before under 95 with the same modem settings so ther
(theroetically) must be a way to get it to work under 98, assuming the
drivers are correct! The serial mouse is COM1 BTW.

Cheers, Jason.

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