Playing around with a recently acquired laptop - circa 2000 production. It came loaded with a fresh install of W98SE. I've checked device manager - no ghost devices - all devices have loaded drivers.

My problem is in the realm of USB...

When I connect an optical usb mouse - the computer recognizes it and works perfection.

When I attach a Sandisk Mini Cruzer (1g) it recognizes the device, searches and installs the drivers - shows up in device manager - but does not show up in my computer - there is no drive letter assigned and I can not access the drive.

The same thing happens when I attach an external dvd drive mounted in an ADS 2.0 USB external drive kit - it recognizes the devices, searches and installs the driver - but does not show up in my computer as a usable drive.

Out of curosity - I installed a PCMCIA card reader in the laptop and fwiw - the device was recognized, drivers loaded and device loaded properly. A drive letter was assigned and I can access the memory card.

So, at this point, I'm at a loss. Is there some reason why USB 2.0 storage devices will not load properly into this system (they work fine on my XP desktop)? I understand that the laptop only has support for usb 1 (1.0 or 1.1 I'm not sure) - but both the ADS and the Sandisk should be backwards compatable.

Is there a KB I'm missing?

Appreciate any thoughts!

Thanks -

Does your laptop have a USB 2 port.....or is it just a USB 1 port?

Windows 98/SE doesn't have enough USB support for a Flash Drive. You must, in most cases, download the special drivers for 98/SE from the Drives web site.

I had to do this for my SanDisk Micro Cruiser 512 meg flash drive.
The drivers fit nicely on a Floppy Disk.

I've found very few computers running win 98/SE that would not recognize my Cruiser Micro after I'd installed the drivers and rebooted the system.

Try it after loading the drivers and rebooting your laptop.

Good Luck,
Andromeda43

As mentioned -

The laptop only has USB 1.0 support (1 port). Which does work when using a usb mouse.

I did install the required w98se drivers for the sandisk cruizer and the ads usb external box. The drivers were loaded when the device was initially installed - and then nothing. Have rebooted and reinstaleld the drivers manually with no luck. The ADS box has its own power supply, so I can't be overtaxing the usb port.

Wondering if this was normal or abnormal behavior on a 6 year old laptop.

I may have to try a PCMCIA usb 2.0 card and see if that solves the problem...

You've tried this already?

How is the sandisk mini formatted?

I hope NOT NTFS, is it?

jaclaz

Finally got the Sandisk flash drive to work thanks to info posted on another board.

I had to go into device manager and manually assign it a drive letter on the settings tab - it would not automatically assign a drive letter. Once I did that, it worked.

Still having problem with the ADS USB 2.0 drive box - it won't properly load the driver set. Now getting a yellow exclamation. Have removed and reinstalled the device - manually installed the drivers... What's the possibility of an irq conflict? It's been so long since I've done any heavy lifting in W98SE - there is a MS utility that would let you see assignments and conflicts - can anyone promt me with the name?

Thanks -

You're probably talking about MSINFO32 or HWINFO:
http://www.mdgx.com/98-4.htm#HAIN
More info here:
http://www.mdgx.com/me2.htm#WWWBF
and here:
http://www.mdgx.com/me1.htm#REMI

To see hardware assignments for all AGP, PCI, USB, ISA etc devices attached to your computer, u can also use PCI List [freeware]:
http://www.entechtaiwan.net/files/pcilist.exe
More info here:
http://www.entechtaiwan.net/util/legacy.shtm

More diagnostics tools [free(ware)]:
http://www.mdgx.com/speed.htm#SPE

To try to fix your USB problems, install also [if you haven't already]:
98SE SP2:
http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html
98SE2ME [installs most USB files from WinME setup CD + web updates]:
http://www.msfn.org/board/?showtopic=46349
NUSB:
http://www.msfn.org/board/?showtopic=43605
Current drivers [if any] for your USB devices from their vendors.

Hope this helps.

MDGx - thanks for the info - I'll give it a try when I get home tonight.

Another thought - the external drive box specifications says it only works with usb 1.1 and 2.0

How can I check my system - perhaps I'm only running usb 1.0 (it's old enough)?

Can I check via the drivers loaded for the usb hub in device manager or is there a utility that could scan my system and report back?

That could easily explain the driver mounting problems...

In normal conditions USB drivers [most recent ones anyway] should properly detect the USB port version u have [1.0, 1.1, 2.0] and work ok, but that's just in theory. ;(

You could also try a go with SIW:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/about_siw.html
I find it a very detailed info program (FREEWARE).

On windows 98 you might need to download and install WMI, see FAQ here:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/siw_faq.html

jaclaz