Re: W98 to W2K upgrades

Just as a side comment, that doesn't directly help you right now, unless of
course you take the advice, is never do an upgrade.  ALWAYS do a clean
install of an OS.  This is emphasized even more going from a 9x lien to an
NT line.  They are completely different operating systems underneath.
There is even a chance that a variety of programs you use on the computer
won't run, or at least need different versions, under NT line.

I can guarantee life is easier if you do it that way.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Liotta" <qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Newsgroups: midrange.public.pctech
To: <pctech@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 7:42 PM
Subject: [PCTECH] W98 to W2K upgrades


> Though I'll accept all suggestions, this is more a rant than a request
> for help.
>
> My wife has used a PC we've had for some 6 years. She's no computer
> person by any means, but has gotten well into e-mail, browsing and
> similar PC functions. Spends nearly as much time as I do at her keyboard.
>
> Nothing fancy... 333Mhz, 256MB. Upgraded from the original W95 to W98 SE
> a couple years ago when I had a spare license. Another spare license
> brought the attempt to upgrade to W2K this weekend. Upgrades were
> motivated by desires for more stability.
>
> Start the upgrades by general cleanup -- everything from running a
> couple rounds of RegClean to removing unused programs and apps to disk
> defrag. Common stuff. The primary concern was to make the newly upgraded
> PC look as similar to the previous version as possible while getting the
> benefits of an OS upgrade. She has the apps she uses and knows; they do
> exactly what she wants them to do and there's zero need for new bells
> and whistles. (An ideal 'user'.)
>
> Now the rant...
>
> The W2K upgrade does _not_ like the ATI 3D RAGE PRO AGP display adapter.
> I have no idea why not. When it boots, the logon window appears; and
> approx one minute later, the system crashes hard with a
> DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error in AtiBt829.sys, does a memory dump
> and reboots.
>
> Shouldn't be a big deal. Search for info in various forums, search for
> W2K drivers, etc. I found a few, downloaded, transferred on floppy, used
> Safe Mode to work some replacements, but clearly not to the point of
> making a difference. Go to microsoft.com for Hardware Compatibilty List
> issues or driver updates. But...
>
> Though there seem to be a few issues with AtiBt829.sys and W2K upgrades,
> there are apparently _zero_ sets of suggestions on exactly what to do.
> No info anywhere on how to actually update the drivers.
>
> Microsoft Windows Update is the real knee-slapper in this case. Of
> course, there's no way to connect to Windows Update with the PC in
> question; I need to connect with a different PC in order to download
> what Microsoft recommends in this case... and there does seem to be a
> recommended fix, there are references on microsoft.com and links to
> follow that lead to Windows Update for the fix.
>
> [THE rant:] But when I connect with another PC -- which has a different
> display adapter and therefore has no need for no stinkin' AtiBt829.sys
> update --  Windows Update provides no way that I can find to get to the
> recommended fix. Aaaaggghhhh. All links go to Windows Update.
>
> Meanwhile, there's Mrs. Me tapping her foot in the background... "When
> can I have my computer back?"
>
> Fortunately, Safe Mode shows that all the e-mail archives and documents
> and photos and everything else are still intact.
>
> Sigh.
>
> Tom Liotta
>
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