Driver locations

I have to do a reinstall of Windows 98 tommorrow on a laptop for a friend of mine, and he uses his modem to dial onto the internet. I'm not sure of the brand of compuer, but its a 800mhz not sure of the proccessor. It had a problem where everytime it booted up, the desktop had a background that said %thisdir% and everytime you ran something, explorer.exe would crash. Now the problem, is that there were no disks that came with the computer, and I can't take the modem out to find the drivers that way. So is there specific folder that I can go to to grab the drivers for the modem? or is there some way that I can get the chipset number from the OS for the modem?

Any help would be appreciated.

I'll reply tommorrow, going to bed now :)

I just did a search for my modem drivers, and they were all .vxd files in the c:\windows\system directory.
I think some go into the c:\windows\system32\drivers directory though.

here are the file names in case there is some sort of standard
Ltcom.vxd
Ltmodem.vxd
Ltvcd.vxd

I think there might also be some registry entries. Your friend may be better off just getting a new modem. Why can't you take it out to see what brand it is?

and LionK33per, I think windows 98 unlike the others after it does most of its stuff in the system folder not the system32 folder.

If you can burn a disc or copy to a network directory the system32 folder, you can rename it and put it back on the harddrive after install . . . this allows Win98 to find the drivers on it's own . . . small problem is the folder can be over 700Mb. In this case, omit the Windows Language folders (all bot 1033), Macromed, Adobe, and the like to shrink the folder size. Leave the Microsoft directory as some Winmodems place their files there . . . If this is not feasable, try using the generic drivers under the Win98 install, I've had to do this and it has worked fine once I found a compatible one . . .

The manufacturer of the laptop should have the specifications of the computer including the modem and most likely the drivers as well.

-Maestr0

I heared of some driver backup s/w, somebody mentioned to me. but have no idea about the name.
Infact am looking for it, and if i get it i will let u guys know.
Hope this was helpfull.

:)

well since it's a laptop maybe it has a pcimcia modem take the modem out look the specs , and the info such ass manufactured. model number fcc id try seaching in www.driverguide.com
And like Maestr0 said check the spects that the manufacturer has in its website use www.google.com to get the results avergud search engine.

cheyenne1212,


To see your driver and modem type:

1) go to control panel

2) Click on system

3)choose device manager

4) Right click on your modem and choose property

5) You should see the modem manufacturers details and model

6)if you click on driver tab and click on the driver details button, you should see the driver name and location.


Dr_Evil

Hi cheyenne1212,

The problem I have found with Win98 is that there is a folder called "drivers" which has a subfolder called "modems". There is not very much in there. Most of the default and generic drivers are in .cab files in the "WIN98" folder on the CD. With any luck you should find something compatible in there.

Several friends have had problems with WIN98 re-installs because they were not aware of that :( As soon as they pointed to the WIN98 folder, it found drivers for them. You may have to try both folders in the end?

If you can get to look at the modem, the largest chip will probably tell you the generic chipset?
eg "Rockwell". Remember that "Ambient" = "Intel"

Good luck

cheyenne.. I hope this isn't coming too late..

you can back up all the drivers with any of these tools..

My Drivers 2.21
http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/60861.html

WinDriversBackup
http://www.jermar.com/wdrvbck.htm

Driver Magician
http://www.softpile.com/Utilities/Ba...960_index.html

Driver Extractor
http://grandutils.com/DriverExtractior/

there's a few more apps like these but this is enough for you to get started
and note to others : some only work on certain OS's..

and remember.. you need to think about the chipset drivers for the mobo...
I'd recomend getting the lastest drivers for that after you've restored what you have.

www.driverguide.com

True you have to be a member, but its a rare occasion to not find the drivers that you need on the site. Definately worth a look!