RE: W98 to W2K upgrades

So how'd it go Tom ?

And I know how you feel. I have a PC that SO needs to be wiped and
COMPLETELY redone at home but "The Mrs." uses this and is comfortable with
how it is setup. But there are some issues with it and the only thing that
is going to fix them is a complete reload. So she one of these issues causes
something to not work I have to say "well I've said I need to redo this but
I can never get it to do that" and smile. This is pushing a year now. She is
a very sweet lady so there is no fight or anything, she just isn't to the
frustration point with it that I have got to about 10 months ago :-) And the
kids just use one of the other computers and avoid this one like the plague
:-)

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: pctech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pctech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Tom Liotta
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 6:59 PM
To: pctech@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [PCTECH] W98 to W2K upgrades

Adam Lang wrote:
> 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.

In general, I agree. However, I had done almost the same upgrade on very 
similar machines with no issues that wouldn't have also happened on a 
clean install. A fundamental reason for upgrading in these cases was to 
preserve various general settings such as desktops.

Had these been business systems, it would have been different. Because 
this last PC was the Mrs.'s machine, the attempt to preserve as much 
look-and-feel as possible was needed. What one does to preserve the 
atmosphere at home isn't always what one might do professionally. (Of 
course, 'professionally' I don't do W98->W2K conversions.)

In any case, a clean install resulted in exactly the same error, i.e., I 
also tried that. The problem has two potential resolutions: (1) A BIOS 
upgrade and (2) a return to W98.

The BIOS upgrade will give resolution in two possible ways: (1) a proper 
handling of the ATI AGP graphics chips in W2K, interrupt handling for 
which seems to be the real problem, perhaps due to improper 
plug-and-play handling, and (2) access to a new primary IDE drive that 
appears to have an incompatible ATA number -- the spare drive I want to 
put in there is already old, but it _is_ spare and will provide more 
than enough space for some recovery operations plus the basic advantage 
of a second drive. Due to an apparent proprietary BIOS, the upgrade 
attempt is going to be via a BIOS extension card. (From now on, I will 
_always_ determine whether a BIOS is proprietary to the system 
manufacturer first! Who'da thunk it?))

If a return to W98 is required, I'll still want to install the spare 
drive in order to make future recoveries feasible. I'll first install 
the current drive temporarily as a secondary in another W2K PC and pull 
the needed files off of it in order to return them to W98 later. (The 
drive was converted for W2K at the beginning of the upgrade.) The _BIG_ 
requirement is recovery of a saved address book. Because the original 
drive is small, I'll then reformat it back to be compatible with W98 and 
install W98 clean on it. The spare drive would then be used as a 
secondary where general files and applications will reside, separate 
from W98 and its registry, etc.

Whew. Wish I knew what I was doing.

Tom

:
> > ----- 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
>>
>>--
>>This is the PC Technical Discussion for iSeries Users (PcTech) mailing
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> 

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