Error message on Windows 98

[kimboy]

Hi, I need a little help, Ther's this computer I am working on. It has an AMD Duron 1200
processor, 96 MB DDR RAM, Maxtor DiamondPlus 80 GB HDD, SiS integrated video card,
TPeople CD ROM drive. It runs Windows 98 SE. Recently it developed problems, durin booting it displays errors messages about msnp32.dll(whatever that is). I want to install Windows XP Professinal SP 2 but I can't because both the floppy and CD drives
are ".. is not accessible. Device Is not ready" . Could the OS be the culprit? Anyone know the way to get around this? I replaced the Maxtor drive with a Western Digital
WD200 20 GB drive, but the computer doesn't boot. It displays:"Searching For Master Boot Record on SCSI...Not Found. Insert floppy disk and press any key". In the BIOS setup, there's no hard disk present in the "Select Boot Order" list, only the CD and floppy. I removed the WD200 and reinstalled the Maxtor. This time it displays something about "secondary slave" and the Master Boot Record not being found just like in the WD200 drive. Now I can't even get past the "Searching For Master Boot Record on SCSI...Not Found. Insert floppy disk and press any key". Can anyone help me out? Please? Sorry for the long thread.

 

[Didou]

I doubt that machine would be worth installing Windows XP, it would be so slow that you're better off staying with Windows 98.

 

[Daveskater]

True, you could probably install XP on that PC, but it would be so horribly slow it wouldn't be worth it.

Go into the BIOS and check the boot settings, because the hard drive should be IDE and not SCSI, so it won't be able to find a boot record on an SCSI drive as there isn't one.

If you can get it to boot off of the CD ROM, install Win 98 on the new drive instead.

 

[Po`Girl]

Re : msnp32.dll error

For the record,this is the standard solution -

Start/Run/type: SFC and press enter.

Click on "Extract a system file" and key in msnet32.dll in the box,

insert your W98 CD and click Start. Enter d:\win98\ in the "Restore From" box

and enter c:\windows\system in the "Save File In" box.

Then click OK. After the extract is done restart Windows.

See HERE and HERE


Re : Installing XP

I agree with the above posts,as XP needs 256 Mb RAM to be useable, but for the record -

You should have the Hard Drive attached to the Primary IDE cable as "Master"

or "Cable Select"

You need to make sure the boot order in the BIOS,has CD/DVD as first device.

(inorder to boot the XP CD).

You should read a good step by step HERE

 

[kimboy]

Help Booting Computer.

Hey, thanks for replying. I only use the computer for word processing and listening to music. So installing XP on it wouldn't have much of an adverse effect on the performance, would it? Could you please help me out with getting the computer to boot from the hard disk? Thanks in advance.

 

[Daveskater]

The PC would work incredibly slow on a PC with that amount of ram, and the CPU doesn't help a lot either.

With regards booting the PC, have you tried mine and Po`Girl's suggestions?

 

[kimboy]

I checked the BIOS, only the floppy and CD Drives are present, no hard disk. Can I boot from a CD yet it was telling me 'D is not accessible. Device is not ready'? I've checked the IDE connections, everything's fine. I even connected the hard disk using the power and IDE cable of the CD drive(no slave, the hard disk was the only IDE device in the system). It displayed 'Secondary Slave ATAPI Incompatible' then 'Boot Failure Insert System Disk And Press Any Key'. Any Ideas?

 

[Daveskater]

You need to connect the hard drive to the primary IDE channel. The secondary one is for optical drives such as your CD ROM drive, which is why you're getting the message "Secondary Slave ATAPI Incompatible".

Check the jumpers on the hard drive are set to master and connect it to the end of the cable on the primary IDE channel.