I don't normally have anything to do with computers that still have WIN98SE on them, however a mate of mine who has a:

Pentium II 266MMX
128mb ram
10gb hd
2mb S3 video card
Creative labs sound card
1 x CD-ROM
1 x CD-R burner

Recently he decided to catch up with the 21st century and wanted to get onto the internet, but I am not paying for broadband he says, he is a bit of a technophobe when it comes to computers.

So I opened his box, and he has got 1 free PCI slot, no problems, nips out to my local computer hardware supplier and got a mercury modem (Intel chipset 1537EP), I have used these before and never had any issues (granted never put one into a Win98 machine before).

I slots it into the motherboard and restarts the machine, installs the drivers and checks the device manager, it comes up with the following error:

NTKERN.VXD device loader(s) for this device could not be load the device driver. (Code 2)

It then says I need to update the driver......??

So I downloaded the driver from the Mercury website, burn it to CD on my laptop and this was a newer version and it loaded into the machine, I rebooted and again I get the same error message.

I found this on here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=12005

and followed it, but it made no difference.

I then decided to backup his data and reformat and reinstall..... so an hour later it is done, I install the "newly" downloaded driver and I get the same issue.

A search of google reveals nothing that has been helpful, it most points to USB devices being connected, a USB mouse is connected to this machine but it is working fine.

The modem is phyisically okay as I slotted it into my XP machine and it loaded up okay, connected to the net okay. I thought that maybe the modem does not work with Win98SE or the spec of the computer was not high enough, however it is just over the minimum specs required.

Does ANY one have an idea as to what I can do to get this sorted out, I am near to chucking this machine out of the window!!!

All help/advice is gratefully received.

Check the bios settings for any PCI related adjustments that someone may have messed with or better yet, just load bios defaults, save changes and exit then see if that helps. Install updated motherboard chipset drivers next.

Thanks I will try that out.

Cheers.

Tried the suggestion, nothing, still get the same issue.

Anyone have any idea??

Thanks. TC

Intels own version of the driver ?
i got one for an 536ep because of driver problems and as i remember it fixed the issues (i can't remember what they were though)

or an maybe an IRQ assigment problem, check sharing and IRQs in System Information.

if you have a lot of IRQ sharing going on, try disabling his com ports (and possibly any unused printer port as well) in the bios if if you need some IRQs, the PCI modem will have an onboard com port with some jigglying things about you can get it to be com 2 which is correct for a modem and you won't be using extra irqs, i think it might be the case as you said he only had one spare slot (now none). there maybe options in the bios which could help, like changing the PCI irq assignment from auto to manual for the PCI slots, even possibly moving the cards around in side the case (i know, it sounds dumb).

i would try to get an internal modem on com 2 anyway in any case.
(i use external now because of stuff like this, no com problems, no IRQs, no power draw on the PSU, and nicely portable with cool flashing lights wooooo)
hope some of this helps
miko.

Hi guys, first off thanks for your suggestions, I tried them out on this modem and still no joy, but thanks anyway.

GOOD NEWS though, I went into my loft and found an old modem, AST-255, I searched for some drivers on the net and downloaded them, installed it all PERFECTLY.... I am amazed, I guess that this version of 98 does not like software modems, oh well all is sorted out.

Once again, thanks for your help guys, this is what makes MSFN so damned good!!

**** straight msfn rocks...

well i don't know what we did, but i'm glad you got it fixed, tell your pal to drop by.

yup !