flat panel woes

Hello,

I've got a "new" desktop computer:
AuthenticAMD
AMD-K6tm with multimedia extensions
32MB RAM
1.96GB HDD

The computer arrived with no OS. I installed Win98SE - oddly enough, this one wouldn't boot from the floppy, but it booted from the CD. ?

The problem is - and I've run into this on other old computers - if I install Win98 with an old CRT monitor and then switch to flat panel after the installation, it accepts the flat panel monitor with no problem.

But I have repeatedly had a problem where when I install Win98 with a flat panel monitor during the installation process, everything is fine (including the display) until the computer boots for the first time AFTER installation is complete - that is, after it's rebooted and installed PnP devices and hardware. Then, when booting for real, I get a message in DOS that Windows can't find these device files:

vnetsup.vxd
vredir.vxd
dfs.vxd
vnetbios.vxd

If I bypass all these files, after Windows finishes booting, I get a window that says it's unable to load dynamic link library msnp32.dll and that "some or all" of Microsoft Network is not available.

Then a window comes up that says new hardware found (unknown device) and then the wizard boots. Since the computer isn't connected to the internet, I have it search in a specific location: a folder on the HD named "Proview" that contains the drivers for the flat panel monitor. But it can't find the .inf file it's looking for, and subsequently the display is incorrect.

Now, I COULD just hook up the CRT monitor and reinstall Windows. But I'd really like to learn how to get around this problem, so I don't need to keep the CRT monitor around any more. Can anybody help me get the display working correctly without resorting to hooking up the CRT monitor???

Thanks in advance.

 

Odd, those files all relate to networking. Normally this problem occurs when you fail to install components; or you uninstall a firewall

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q137454/

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...indows/tshoot/startup98/causes/vnetsupvxd.asp

It would appear to me that when you install windows, it does not detect any network devices and thus does not install the networking components.
Then when it installs PNP devices, it detects your network card )(Presumably after you have loaded the motherboard drivers?) and now needs network files to install it.

Most microsoft windows cds since 98SE have been bootable (meaning you do not need to boot to a floppy with cdrom support and then change drives to boot to them and install windows). All that is required is that in the bios (setup ===> How to configure your bios from hardwarecentral ) the boot order be set to cdrom prior to hard drive. Not booting from a bootable floppy just implies that the floppy was not included in the boot sequence. Maybe instead of floppy, cdrom, hard drive it is set to usb, cdrom, hard drive or just cdrom, hard drive, do not allow other devices.

 

Hi Oshwyn,

I got the display to behave more normally by tracking down a display adapter driver (why it wasn't on the Win98 disk is a mystery). Once I got that installed (a story in itself), I could access the appropriate monitor file, and that aspect of the problem is mostly resolved, but I still can't get it to display at 1024x768 (out of range) and it looks just slightly fuzzy.

So it would appear from your response that the
vnetsup.vxd
vredir.vxd
dfs.vxd
vnetbios.vxd
files are all related to a networking card that may or may not be missing? I followed the instructions on the second link you provided, and it worked up to a point. At step 5 it fell apart when it asked me for the Win98 disk and then couldn't find a file called dhcpcsvc.dll on the disk, which it wanted to copy to c:\windows\system\dhcpcsvc.dll**NET7.CAB. Opening a separate WinExp window, I searched for that file but couldn't find it on the disk.

I followed the secondary instructions on that website for checking to see if the win.ini files are correct, and did not find any problems there.

Perhaps reinstalling Windows will find the files now that I've got the display working (mostly) correctly?

I've gotten these same DOS messages about the same missing files on other computers when installing Win98 using an LCD monitor, and only discovered by accident that if I hooked up my CRT monster - err, I mean monitor - I could bypass all that. But I'm not seeing any connection with networking issues. So what's going on? IS there a connection???

 

update

After reinstalling Win98 and reselecting the components I wanted to install, I got mega error messages for missing files that couldn't be found on the Win98 disk, including:
msanalog.vxd
ksclockf.ax
ksdata.ax
ksinterl.ax
ksproxy.ax
ksvpintf.ax
ksuser.dll
ess.sys
I went round and round with rebooting and looking for the missing files...

Current disposition: I can boot the system with only one error message that "resolves" itself by continuing with no user intervention: after the Win98 spash screen, a DOS screen boots with an "invalid value for device binding" error message (two times) followed by an "error loading device driver NDLSHLP.sys ". Then Win98 resumes loading normally.

Any fix for this? And what about any CRT monitor influence during install on any of this?

 

After you install Windows, you need to install the motherboard drivers, then the graphics drivers, then other drivers.

Once you have installed the motherboard drivers Windows can start communicating with the hardware through PnP correctly (example, allowing it to identify the correct inf files).

The other thing is that you will need a good set of graphics adapter drivers installed because the communication with the monitor is done through the graphics adapter.

I would say this is the way it works (from my experience):
The motherboard/chipset drivers allow correct communication with the graphics adapter. The graphics adapter drivers allow correct communication with the monitor.

The problems you are still experiencing may be due to graphics drivers.

Something I found the other day. Windows could not identify the correct inf file. I went to Find (Files and Folders...) and did a search for the cards model number using Containing text, in the driver folder. It found the inf file. I right-clicked on the file and selected "Install ". This adds the drive model to the list of models in the driver database. I rebooted, PnP identified the hardware (although I could have selected it from the list). All I had to do was direct it to the drivers folder.

Matt

 

What I also suggest is to go to Device Manager and find out which types of hardware are listed as not installed correctly.
As Oshwyn pointed out, there are connections to network items. These may depend another set of drivers, for another piece of hardware, being installed first (why it cannot find that dll file).

If you cannot get drivers installed for the unidentified hardware, open the case remove any PCI or ISA cards. When you get back to Windows "remove" all the unidentified hardware in Device Manager and reboot. If this gives you a "clean" Device Manager, identify and find drivers for the PCI/ISA cards.

Matt

 

The ks* and ess files are for an ESS soundcard (probably ISA). You will need find the model number. If not too old, the drivers may be available on the internet (I remember having trouble getting drivers for an old model).

Edit: msanalog is a "Analog Joystick Virtual Device ", it will be able to be installed along with the soundcard drivers.

Matt