Member Avatar for rglowe77

I recently purchased a used Dell Latitude LS laptop with 128 megs of ram. The operating system is Windows98 SE. It did not come with a floppy drive or a cdrom drive. I seem to be caught in a "Catch 22" situation.

In order to install some external devices, such as a cdrom drive, I need the drivers for that device. In order to install those drivers I need to use the 98 SE CD. I don't have the 98 SE CD, and even if I did, how would I get the laptop to read it?

I have searched through all folders on the hard drive and am convinced that the drivers needed are just not there. Someone must have deleted all the drivers before I bought the machine.

What can I do to communicate with this machine?

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Practical, no-frills ways to get drivers onto that Latitude LS (Win98 SE) without a floppy or internal CD — ordered by how likely they are to work and how easy they are to try.

Try a PC Card (PCMCIA) route first. If the laptop has a PC Card/CardBus slot you can use either a CF-to-PCMCIA adapter plus a CompactFlash card (copy drivers to the CF on another machine) or a PCMCIA Ethernet card. With the CF adapter the card shows up as a removable drive so you can copy driver folders and run the installers locally. With the Ethernet card you can connect the laptop to another PC or a router/switch and copy files across the network. This expands on ’s idea with exact, practical choices.

If you can’t or don’t want to buy cards, use a direct-connection transfer. Windows 98 has Direct Cable Connection (accessories -> communications) that works over a null-modem serial cable or a LapLink/parallel cable. Connect the two machines, run Direct Cable on each (one Host, one Guest) and drag the driver folders across. If both machines have Ethernet, a simple crossover cable (or a small switch) plus a shared folder is even faster — map the share from the laptop and copy the driver directory.

If hardware options fail, remove the laptop’s 2.5" HDD and attach it to another PC (using a 2.5->3.5 adapter or a USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter). Copy the driver installers or the entire Windows 98 CD contents into a folder on C: (for example C:\DRIVERS). Reinstall the drive and point the Add New Hardware wizard to that folder when Windows asks for the CD.

Last-resort notes and tips: external USB CD-ROMs sometimes need vendor drivers on Win98 or won’t be bootable from BIOS, so test them only after you can put drivers on disk. When Windows prompts for a CD choose “Browse” and point to the folder you copied. If specific drivers are hard to find, use the Dell service tag to look for OEM downloads or note the chipset/vendor and search for that driver. Thanks to , , and for ideas this post expands and clarifies.

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Member Avatar for Kamex

I don't know a whole lot about laptops, but are you able to network with it? You could copy the entire contents of the Windows 98 CD onto another computer, then transfer them over the network. When Windows asks you for the cd, just specify the win98 folder of wherever you copied the CD contents.

Lemme know if this works.

Member Avatar for Thong_Ispector

You can use a PCMCIA card ... I use a flash card with a PCMCIA adapter which will show up as an additional drive in the OS or you can use a network connection to another machine. There are some parallel cable jumpers that can also work. You can also use an internet connection.

I assume this PC has a modem or network card...

In reality a PC with no removeable media is very odd.
( I Hope it was cheap)

Member Avatar for tenev

i have a similar problem to that except that my hard drive has no operating system on it. i am trying to install windows 2000. the computer has a usb port (i tried an external CD-ROM with USB connection) without any luck.

the usb flash drive option... does it work if i don't have an operating system installed?


any ideas or suggestions would help... thanks!

Member Avatar for smundye

You seem to be able to get onto the Internet OK.

All drivers are available for download. (Check with a Google search for exactly what you want).

If, perchance, you are using a different machine to talk to us, download to that machine and then copy drivers to a floppy and then move floppy drive to the other machine (Add new hardware - it will have the drivers) or if it has a USB port, use a memory stick to transfer drivers to your target machine.

Regards

Stuart

Member Avatar for Opopp

I never knew you even needed drivers for A: drives! Is it a laptop thing because I have never needed to install such a thing on any of my PC's, ever.

Because my first thought was a bootdisk.

Member Avatar for smundye

Yes, of course you need drivers for an "A" drive but, as I thought I had implied, every MS Windows has them so "Add Hardware" will detect and install them (it).

Obviously a memory stick loaded from another machine is the easiest way to transport drivers for other devices if the target machine cannot itself access the Internet. I just mentioned transferring the actual drive as a last resort; but it will work.

Regards

Stuart

Member Avatar for kccomputerdr

I'd get a cd drive off of ebay.

Member Avatar for BILL S

You seem to be able to get onto the Internet OK.

All drivers are available for download. (Check with a Google search for exactly what you want).

If, perchance, you are using a different machine to talk to us, download to that machine and then copy drivers to a floppy and then move floppy drive to the other machine (Add new hardware - it will have the drivers) or if it has a USB port, use a memory stick to transfer drivers to your target machine.

Regards

Stuart

I have an instance where my driver disc was lost, the item is no longer on the market and a search for it online proved taxing. I have yet to do it but plan to move the file contents to my Sony camera's Memorystick Duo. It is 256MB so should handle it, but not sure where it resides. It's for the Dazzle* Digital Photo Maker or DPM. Using the driver, I can import still and moving analog video to Movie Maker rather then the old software that was on disk/c
If you can help me, I don't have to relagate the hardware to storage for ever. Thanks!
Bill

Member Avatar for BILL S

I Googled my own threads, here. At the time I bought Dazzle's DPM, I was on my first computer, dating around 2000, so ME was pre installed on just about all new PCs at that time. I was also able to get online assistance for the driver to mate the USB driven hardware to MS's Movie Maker. The software supplied for editing has some incompatibility to WinME.
I am updating this because I have now replaced the whole Dazzle package with a new one, mainly to get the supplied disc. My Win 98 SE has now only prompted me for a product key I no longer have. I have been asked to call MS about that issue, but opted to carry on for now, not too well, I might add... a Conexent (?) video encoding board in the PCI slot is doing the job with Movie Maker, although the chip is 500MHz and rather choppy to say the least, it DOES work.
That product was around $20 to $30 only, at Micro Center computers
VStream product...not bad for a budget!
I still am needing the drivers to mate DigitalPhotoMaker, or DM5000 Dazzle* to WinME's Movie Maker though

BILL S.

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