Computer Gurus - Pls help with USB prob

TorzJohnson

TorzJohnson

Joined
Aug 4, 2001
Messages
4,973
My wife got a digital camera and my son got one of those Motorola personal instant messengers for Christmas. Neither one seems to work through either of my USB ports. A green indicator is supposed to come on in the Motorola icon as soon as the base is plugged in to the USB, but it don't do nothin'.

The HP support site said to make sure that USB is enabled in BIOS, but doesn't give me any info on how I can access the BIOS in the first place. Another suggestion was to remove the USB host controller in Device Manager and reboot. I dunno if that's a good idea though...

I realize there are probably a million things that could be the problem but can anybody give me a place to start?

I'm running Windows 98 SE.
 
I don't believe Windows 98 is enabled to automatically recognize USB. Did the hardware come with any software or drivers? If so, just install those.
 
I think it has the drivers there from when I tried to install Verizon DSL on it quite a while ago (I gave up and bought an Ethernet card that time). When I select the option to search for the best driver, it says the best driver for it is already installed. Could it be they are there but USB is disabled in BIOS?
 
Win 98 predates USB and early releases of it did not include USB drivers. So, if you haven't done your updates, the USB ports may be there physically but simply have no software behind them. The first time I plugged a USB device into one of the USB ports on my old Gateway, it ignored the device and I had to do a lot of software updating to get it to go. Once that was done, Win 98 handled my camera via USB very well.

Updating a Win 98 machine that's that old and that out-of-date will be an arduous process.

It's time to seriously consider looking at the after Christmas sales for a 2GHz box with 1GByte of RAM, 100GBytes of Hard Disk, camera card slots, a bunch of USB ports, a Firewire port, DVD Rom, CD R/W, video I/O, and Win XP all loaded up and ready to go for about $700 (sans monitor)
 
They are barely $100 more with the monitor, check your local wholesale club for the best deals.
 
I don't know if this makes much difference but when I wrote Windows 98 SE I really meant Second Edition, not Standard Edition.
 
Win 98 SE doesn't support USB without the drivers. If you installed a USB card you most likely got a disc with drivers on it. That needs to be installed for the device that you plug in to be found. Depending on your system you may be able to upgrade your PC to WinXP Home Edition. I got my copy from BJ's for less than $100. Older systems are tricky when it comes to new technology. Some work, some don't.
 
I think another point to keep in mind is that with Windows 98, even with USB drivers installed, support isn't as good as with later versions of Windows. I can plug a USB device into my Windows XP PC's and not need any drivers to access them. It just treats them as an extended drive.

In Windows 98 you need to install drivers specific to the program in order for it to work at all. So what I would advice you to do is first install the USB drivers for Windows 98 via upgrades. Then plug the device into the USB port, and install the drivers for each device.
 
I spent about an hour or so on sunday upgrading my sister's computer to support USB... win 95 system, '96 computer.

I'd say it's easier to just upgrade the entire computer.
 
As many have said W98SE does not support USB, some devices like USB memory sticks have manufacturers drivers which sometimes work (there are makes that I have never had success with). Some cameras act as if they were USB memories some have proprietary SW to read the damnthing my experience have been that the memory type is easier. Even USB memory readers seam to be easier to configure than some readers (older Canon's are idiotic). So go to the manufacturers page and load drivers, or if non-existent try some USB stick drivers (Kingston's are fairly good). Good luck and if that does not help upgrade to atleast 2k or then XP.

TLM
 
I would forget upgrading to 2K Pro...Microsoft will drop support for it in summer of '05. Definitely move on up to at least XP Home if not XP Pro.
 
Windows 2K does USB, but it does not hot-swap very well at all. For things like a USB printer that you typically leave connected all the time, this is fine. But for USB Cameras or MP3 players, stuff that you expect to plug in and out, it's not the best.
 
jchaney said:
I would forget upgrading to 2K Pro...Microsoft will drop support for it in summer of '05. Definitely move on up to at least XP Home if not XP Pro.
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I would tend to agree, except that if his machine is currently running Windows 98 SE I doubt it would work with XP well. I would say in order for XP to be a workable operating system you need at least 256MB RAM, 10Gb of hard drive space for Windows itself so probably about a 40Gb hard drive, and around a 1GHz processor. Trying to force Windows XP onto a barely capable machin might get rid of the USB problem and cause a dozen new ones.
 
Trying to force Windows XP onto a barely capable machin might get rid of the USB problem and cause a dozen new ones.
Click to expand...

Chief among them being sloooooooooooooooooooooow moooooooooooootion.
 
would forget upgrading to 2K Pro...Microsoft will drop support for it in summer of '05.
Click to expand...

As if we had seen some support so far :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

TLM

2k hot swaps but its not a wise move on memories.
 
ErikD said:
I would tend to agree, except that if his machine is currently running Windows 98 SE I doubt it would work with XP well. I would say in order for XP to be a workable operating system you need at least 256MB RAM, 10Gb of hard drive space for Windows itself so probably about a 40Gb hard drive, and around a 1GHz processor. Trying to force Windows XP onto a barely capable machin might get rid of the USB problem and cause a dozen new ones.
Click to expand...

True...but....(would only attempt this if there was an extra copy of XP available) I am running XP Pro w/SP 2 on a Toshiba Tecra 8000 that was originally shipped with Win '95. I have 192MB RAM installed and it runs great...better than 2K Pro; this is due mostly to the prefetching technique used by XP in my opinion. I wouldn't have attempted it if I hadn't had a copy available that wasn't in use. You can borrow a full copy from someone and try it for 30 days without activation and see if it works...if there is enough memory though...I will be upgrading to the max of 256MB on my machine.
 
Thanks for your help guys, I'll try to find the drivers on the manufacturer's
websites, otherwise perhaps the best advice was to get a new computer. I
hate the thought of getting rid of my good old machine though. :(
 
TorzJohnson said:
I hate the thought of getting rid of my good old machine though. :(
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Unfortunately "good old machines" are outdated. With the vast jump in computer technology in the past few years machines that were top-of-the-line 2 years ago are now obsolete. Of course, some manufacturers anticipate this and allow you the option to upgrade parts if necessary. Dell being one of those companies. Out of all the repairs I've done (over 75 this year alone) only 5% of them were Dell desktops or laptops. Most of the work involved ridding it fo spy/ad ware and viruses. Not one involved hardware. Sometimes I get the "Frankenstein'd" machine that someone's uncle's sister's cousin's gay lover built and I refuse to work on them. Why bother? For the cost of the work that needs to be done you can buy a new Dell.

If you are on a budget my suggestion is to look into a Dell PC with at least:
  • 256MB of RAM (512MB is best)
  • 30GB or higher hard drive
  • Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz or higher
Here is a PC that I highly recommend.
Dell 3000http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_dp_desktop2_3?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
 
Most of the new stuff that you can buy of the shelf comes with 512mb standard, 80-100gm hard drive, and a processor around 2.0 ghz
 
Win98-SE supports USB 1, but not USB 2. If you have trouble with a USB 1 device go check the Microsoft windows support site. If your device is USB 2 you will need to buy a new USB interface card that comes with drivers from the card manufacturer for Win98-SE.
 
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