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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Fixing Corrupted Ethernet Drivers

leonard.leotech - Jan 19, 2007 - 8:48 pm

A few months ago, the drivers for my built in Ethernet port were damaged. I decided I would try to look around on the internet to see if I could find the drivers. I found it, but I am having trouble installing it.

-It asks me for the windows 98 install disk, which I don't have
-The ethernet worked before...and there is no problem with my airport extreme or cables, as it will work for another.

stottm - Jan 20, 2007 - 7:33 am

Most systems kept the Win98 files on the hard disk. Look for a folder called C:\win98 or C:\Cabs, C:\Windows\Options\Cabs, or C:\Windows\Options\Install. If you find the files be sure to back them up or you won't be able to reload your system when the disk fails. Notice I said when instead of if. It's not a matter of if it will fail but when. A hard disk is the only moving part in your computer besides the fan and floppy, CDROM drive. Moving parts always fail.

If you can't find it search for *.CAB files. When you find a whole bunch of them in one place that's the Win98 installation files. When prompted for the Win98 CD there should be an option to change the path to look where you want. Point it to the location of the CAB files.

Networking in Win98 is horrid. It is common to have to remove every single network driver, client, protocol, etc. Then reboot, re-install networking and the driver and insert the Win98 CDROM or point to the CABS, and then continue on rebooting as needed. Then it will work. Of course, it's all plug and play (pray) and you cannot skip or otherwise abort part way through or it will simply be installed but not completely (missing files because they were skipped) and it won't work at all. All of the network stuff interconnects so you really have to remove all of it and start over with no networking to make sure it's all viable and proper. Basically, you are redoing the entire networking stack from scratch. It's the only way to be sure it's working properly.

If you really cannot find the Win98 files at all... Let me know, I might have them tucked away somewhere. I'll need to go looking for them, it's been years since I last used Win98. Windows 98 has been declared dead by Microsoft so there's no support for it anymore and no more patches or security updates.

Find out what version of Win98 you have. Go to Control Panel and click on the System Icon. On the General Tab you will see the version listed. There's the original Win98 then there's an OEM Win98 B release and then there's the holy grail Win98 SE Second Edition. Win98SE is the best version of Win98 it's even better then WinME Millennium Edition which many users replaced with Win98SE.

leonard.leotech - Jan 20, 2007 - 8:16 am

Ok...I will get back to you shortly to tell you if it worked...

leonard.leotech - Jan 20, 2007 - 8:29 am

I loaded C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS and I found:
-crypt32.dll
-cryptdllg.dll
-hh.exe
-hhctrl.ocx
-hhsetup.dll
-hlink.dll
-html32.cnv
-itircl.dll
-itss.dll
-kb918547.exe
-Msconv97.dll
-Msnet32.dll
-Q918547.dll
-Schannel.dll
-Softpub.dll
-t2embed.dll
-Vip.386
-Vserver.vxd
-Xenroll.dll

I did a find search for *.CAB
-Most of the files were in my Kodak Easyshare Setup folder, but there were a few that wern't in that folder. There were 131 total files found. Which one am I looking for? The files are not in one specific place, they are everywhere!

I have Microsoft Windows 98 4.10.1998
The driver I need is Realtek RTL8139/810X Family Ethernet NIC.

Sorry for taking up so much time-you guys are really helpful.

stottm - Jan 20, 2007 - 8:33 am

I was afraid of that... You don't have the Win98 CDROM files stored on your hard disk. What happened to your Win98 CD? Did it get lost? The only one I've got is Win98 SE and that will likely require an OS re-install as it's not designed to upgrade Win98 to Win98SE. How about a restoration CD?

stottm - Jan 20, 2007 - 8:35 am

Oh, do you have a CD Burner? i.e. if I were to get you a Win98SE CDROM image over the Internet could you burn it to a CD-R?

leonard.leotech - Jan 20, 2007 - 8:37 am

I am using my macbook pro which has a cd burner and internet...I could make a cd...

I would be afraid though to do the upgrade, because I can't backup my windows 98...

leonard.leotech - Jan 20, 2007 - 8:39 am

I have a restoration floppy, but my floppy drive is jammed.

stottm - Jan 20, 2007 - 8:53 am

Ok, here's what I recommend. Keep this ticket open. Go buy an external hard disk enclosure. i.e. a plastic box with a USB and preferably a Firewire feature where you can put the Dell hard drive inside. i.e. take out the Dell hard disk, put it in the external enclosure and connect to to your MacBookPro via firewire as it's a whole lot faster. It will show up on the desktop. Then copy all your data to back it up.

You should have plenty of disk space on the MacBookPro that Dell is old so the disk can't be that big. Once backed up, put the drive back in the Dell and either reply to this ticket or email me at stottm@mac.com and I will publish the Win98 SE installation CD so you can download it, burn it on your MacBookPro and boot with it to wipe the Dell disk and install Win98SE. Then install your network drivers. Then take map a network drive to your MacBookPro and copy your data back. Or take the hard disk out again and copy the data.

When you are all done, buy a bigger hard disk and put it in the enclosure, Wala you've got an easy backup external disk.

I've searched places like TigerDirect (discount mail-order) and you can get enclosures for around $30 - $60 USD. http://tigerdirect.com/ They have excellent customer support as well and are a reliable vendor of gadgets and computer components. You can also check CDW http://www.cdw.com which is a bit better then TigerDirect but may cost more. Alternatively, you can find a Fry's, Circuit City, etc. to see if you can find an enclosure locally.

stottm - Jan 20, 2007 - 8:55 am

Oh, the DELL Hard Disk is likely an older 5.25" IDE hard disk. So you don't want SATA or 3.5" enclosures.

leonard.leotech - Jan 20, 2007 - 9:16 am

Someone else told me I should try this, but it is a little too geeky for me-I am a software person, not a hardware one....is there anything else I can try? Sorry about that :-(

stottm - Jan 20, 2007 - 2:39 pm

Nothing Geeky about it. There are literally two connections, power and a data cable. You open the DELL, unplug the two cables and remove the disk (you may need a screwdriver or perhaps not). Then you plug the two cables into the disk inside the enclosure and plug it into power and your MacBook via either USB or Firewire. It's not hard at all. The power and data cables are even keyed so you can't plug them in backwards.

--- Seriously, it's easy, I can help you if you get stuck -- It's no harder then changing your wiper blades on a car. -----

Geeky is trying to install Solaris 10 Update 11/06 on a SPARC Sun Blade 100 and it previously had Linux on it so the disks are not being seen by Solaris even though they worked fine in Linux. I just spent all day messing around with this. You would think that Solaris would be smart enough to format the disks properly during an install. While following Googled directions I used the Solaris format -e command and it kept failing when talking to the disk with a segmentation fault. I ended up getting it to work but I had to go back to a Solaris 8 boot cd, format the disks then do it again with Solaris 9 boot cd then finally Solaris 10 can see the hard disks! Turned out to be some sort of SMI flag that Solaris needs on the disks and Linux put an EFI flag on and Solaris just didn't like that, not one bit!

Now I've got to figure out how to run Solaris with just what I want and remove about 300 packages I don't need along with their dependencies without breaking the system. All this just to get a stable Java JDK implementation to run properly! Linux and Java don't mix too well. All I can say is that fancy dancey new file system from Solaris 10 (ZFS) had better be prepared to save my bacon down the road for all this pain and suffering I've had to endure! It's supposed to avoid bad sectors, and eliminate the need for partitions and what not.

All I wanted was a bare minimum Solaris with Ruby on Rails stack, sshd, and the ZFS filesystem. It'll take me a few weeks to hammer this out....

I started out where you're at technically. Beware the geek force, for once you start down this path, forever will it consume you! ;-) Yoda...

leonard.leotech - Jan 20, 2007 - 2:46 pm

I don't want to spend much money on this project-it really isn't worth it. Thanks for your help though.