Windows 98 Setup Just..Freezing

How much memory is currently installed on the laptop there? 98 has a 512mb max and will often stall with more install when trying to get in on. The setup.exe file is right at the E:\ root directory for the disk itself. If you first boot with a startup floppy choose the with cd rom support option and type setup at the dos prompt once you change from A:\ to the optical drive there.
 
PC eye said:
How much memory is currently installed on the laptop there? 98 has a 512mb max and will often stall with more install when trying to get in on. The setup.exe file is right at the E:\ root directory for the disk itself. If you first boot with a startup floppy choose the with cd rom support option and type setup at the dos prompt once you change from A:\ to the optical drive there.
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Thanks for the response. It's got 32mb (lol) and ran Windows 98 before (It's my sisters old, old, old laptop).

I've tried loading setup.exe right from the E:\ directory and that didn't work, but I guess I can try again.
 
Once you boot to the dos prompt after selecting the "with cd rom support" option change to the E:\ root and type dir/w followed by pressing the enter key. That will show all files at the root of the cd itself. Also look over the disk itself for any scratches or finger marks from handling.

Being that old of a laptop the optical drive itself could also be the problem. Simply tossing in another old software disk to see if any installer will at least show signs of starting up manually will show if the drive is still reading disks.
 
PC eye said:
Once you boot to the dos prompt after selecting the "with cd rom support" option change to the E:\ root and type dir/w followed by pressing the enter key. That will show all files at the root of the cd itself. Also look over the disk itself for any scratches or finger marks from handling.

Being that old of a laptop the optical drive itself could also be the problem. Simply tossing in another old software disk to see if any installer will at least show signs of starting up manually will show if the drive is still reading disks.
Click to expand...

It reads all the files when I do this (dir /w) but it won't do the Setup.
 
I'm just wondering how good the memory is in the old laptop. Besides the optical drive you may have some bad ram if there's nothing wrong like scratches or finger marks found on the 98 cd itself.

The other problem is your reference to the drive letter "E:\". The old dos based program installers always look for the default "D" when thinking cd rom. But even with "Z" that wouldn't see the installer simply lock up. Is this a full install or an upgrade or recovery disk that you are trying this with?
 
PC eye said:
I'm just wondering how good the memory is in the old laptop. Besides the optical drive you may have some bad ram if there's nothing wrong like scratches or finger marks found on the 98 cd itself.

The other problem is your reference to the drive letter "E:\". The old dos based program installers always look for the default "D" when thinking cd rom. But even with "Z" that wouldn't see the installer simply lock up. Is this a full install or an upgrade or recovery disk that you are trying this with?
Click to expand...

Full install
 
With some of the old 98 full version disks you could boot off of the disk itself to see the installer run. I always thought that to be odd since the retail disk I bought required booting with a floppy for manually running setup on desktops. The ststement by voyagerfan99 on the other thread is accurate on this.

Ready access to the drive and seeing it list all files with the dir/w command suggests the drive maybe an old 1x/2x cd rom is still able to read. The question now is on the floppy drive being used. Did the laptop come with one in or swap capable where you can easily exchange from one type to another or did you plug in a usb model?

The fact that the installer began to run is encouraging since that shows a good optical drive while running into a snag like a damaged disk or a memory problem. Another thought would be the need for a bios update, new battery if the board takes one, or the likely need for a new cable going to the optical drive. On any old system one small item can cause a number of problems.
 
Being such an old OS (and hence an old CD), it could be a bad CD. Make sure you check the back of the CD for scratches and dust. To clean the CD you can put some rubbing alcohol on the bottom side of the CD and then wipe it off with a soft cloth.
 
There are some cd repair kits available for covering over minor scratches. Another thing that comes to mind about seeing the installer freeze up would the optical drive simply binding up once it starts getting busy reading the disk.

The quick dos command to list all files in the root directory only takes a second or two while the continuous reading of the disk seen during an installation is a little more then then the old drive can take. The question about what floppy drive is being used would concerm a problem being seen with the floppy itself as far as the load with cd rom support if something is lacking there.
 
Okay...I don't know if anyone's suggested this, but I'd transfer the OS (dos) to the HD, as well as 98 setup files. Now I assume you have the boot floppy, and the letter is A:. In the command prompt, type in this:

A:\FORMAT C: <-Better have your HD wiped clean, that can make a difference
A:\SCANDISK C: /SURFACE <-Just to make sure that you don't have a faulty HD
A:\SYS C:

Now you should have the command promp installed to your computer, so you can boot without the floppy and/or CD. DON'T REBOOT YET!

Having done this, type in the following to copy the installation files from the CD to the HD:

md C:\WIN98
copy E:\WIN98\*.* C:\WIN98

Now you should have all the installation files stored in your hd. Now, remove all CDs and floppies that you can think of, and reboot. After rebooting, the command prompt should come up. Type in C:\WIN98\SETUP to run the setup off the HD, and it should be up and running, or up and freezing again...
 
You missed something there namely the C:\Win98\Win98" since the setup.exe is outside of the Win98 folder at the root of the 98 disk. While that was an old method commonly used at one time it goes into an unsuitable topic.

On the other hand once the installer reaches a certain point it will automatically run scandisk or report that scandisk needs to be run from a boot floppy in order to proceed with the Windows installation. The problem is apparently seeing the installer lock prior to reaching that point.
 
i never thought to copy the install files off the CD and run it from harddrive. I should try that some time.
 
hackapelite said:
Okay...I don't know if anyone's suggested this, but I'd transfer the OS (dos) to the HD, as well as 98 setup files. Now I assume you have the boot floppy, and the letter is A:. In the command prompt, type in this:

A:\FORMAT C: <-Better have your HD wiped clean, that can make a difference
A:\SCANDISK C: /SURFACE <-Just to make sure that you don't have a faulty HD
A:\SYS C:

Now you should have the command promp installed to your computer, so you can boot without the floppy and/or CD. DON'T REBOOT YET!

Having done this, type in the following to copy the installation files from the CD to the HD:

md C:\WIN98
copy E:\WIN98\*.* C:\WIN98

Now you should have all the installation files stored in your hd. Now, remove all CDs and floppies that you can think of, and reboot. After rebooting, the command prompt should come up. Type in C:\WIN98\SETUP to run the setup off the HD, and it should be up and running, or up and freezing again...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great help. I'll try that when I'm not busy a little later and edit this and tell you how it went.
 
PC eye said:
You missed something there namely the C:\Win98\Win98" since the setup.exe is outside of the Win98 folder at the root of the 98 disk. While that was an old method commonly used at one time it goes into an unsuitable topic.

On the other hand once the installer reaches a certain point it will automatically run scandisk or report that scandisk needs to be run from a boot floppy in order to proceed with the Windows installation. The problem is apparently seeing the installer lock prior to reaching that point.
Click to expand...

When WIN98 setup starts, it does NOT perform a surface scan. That's why I added the "/SURFACE" parameter, to check for faults on the disk itself. Plus, the setup file IS in the Win98 directory, at least it's been in all the 98 CDs I've come across. I've installed 98 a thousand and twentyseventimes by only copying the WIN98 folder to the HD, and it's worked fine so far. The setup.exe at the root of the CD only appears to launch the actual installer.
 
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hackapelite said:
Okay...I don't know if anyone's suggested this, but I'd transfer the OS (dos) to the HD, as well as 98 setup files. Now I assume you have the boot floppy, and the letter is A:. In the command prompt, type in this:

A:\FORMAT C: <-Better have your HD wiped clean, that can make a difference
A:\SCANDISK C: /SURFACE <-Just to make sure that you don't have a faulty HD
A:\SYS C:

Now you should have the command promp installed to your computer, so you can boot without the floppy and/or CD. DON'T REBOOT YET!

Having done this, type in the following to copy the installation files from the CD to the HD:

md C:\WIN98
copy E:\WIN98\*.* C:\WIN98

Now you should have all the installation files stored in your hd. Now, remove all CDs and floppies that you can think of, and reboot. After rebooting, the command prompt should come up. Type in C:\WIN98\SETUP to run the setup off the HD, and it should be up and running, or up and freezing again...
Click to expand...

OK, I copied it to Win98 in the C: drive, and type in C:\Win98\Setup and literally nothing happens.

EDIT: Never mind! It works! I guess it just needed a fresh format. I booted from CD and it worked solid. Now installing the Internet Wireless Card is going to be the difficult..seems like however many times we attempt to install this, it takes 3 hours.
 
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