connecting USB Devices - Help

[woolfie]

I'm trying to help out some friends of mine who are running Windows98 Second Edition on a Dell laptop.

They're having a problem with Windows finding the drivers for any USB device that we've tried (printer, cable modem, 2wire household gateway).

When you attach the device, Windows detects the device correctly and searches for a driver but can't find any. This is consistantly the problem. I've tried putting the drivers in a directory and pointing to it but Windows still says it can't find them. I know the drivers are there and current.

Has anyone seen anything like this and, better yet, solved it?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[bmac50]

USB can be strange and some devices want the software first while others want the device connected first. Seeing how you already have the software installed try disconnecting the device and reboot the machine, then plug the USB device in.

 

[woolfie]

Thanks for the reply. I tried deleting the device in device manager and rebooting. Still won't find the drivers.

The first time, it downloaded drivers from the microsoft web, but then could not locate the drivers to install. WEIRD.

 

[bmac50]

When you deleted the drivers and rebooted you did have the device disconnected right? If that's the case try just the oppsite, have no drivers installed but have the device connected then install the drivers.

Also in the device manager make sure that it's not disabled and if there's a firewall involved it might be better to disable it while installing the drivers.

 

[woolfie]

The device is not disabled....just no drivers for it are found. No firewall.

Tried it both ways and still get the same issue. I tried this on an XP machine and it worked perfectly. I'm not sure if it's a general problem with 98, or if this 98 install could be screwed up. I was thinking that it might be the USB port, but the devices are recognized, just can't install the drivers.

 

[beerhunter2]

Are the drivers you downloaded Win98 compatable? You mentioned that it worked perfectly with XP.

Also, you mentioned that this is a Dell laptop. Did you try going to Dell's website and downloading drivers from there?