Re: flashdrive

Dave Hinz wrote:
>
> On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 09:06:55 -0700, Robert Heiling <robheil@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Dave Hinz wrote:
> >>
> >>I don't understand why someone would call their hardware
> >> vendor for a problem with an OS - further, I don't see why anyone would
> >> blame Dell specifically, for Microsoft's failure to support USB cleanly
> >> in Windows 98
>
> > But there is/was no "failure to support USB". Why does that myth keep
> > popping up over & over again?
>
> Well, USB was new when win98 came out. If you buy a USB port, you have
> to install drivers that come with the card rather than the built in
> windows drivers, sometimes. It's the "sometimes" that makes it
> somethign vendors don't want to just say will work.

Just about any device that you buy comes with an installation floppy or
CD that contain the drivers for that device. That system is necessary to
accomodate the quirks of that particular device and those drivers may be
different than or identical to the drivers on the Win98 CD. The
manufacturer of the device is the one who knows what is needed and
supplies drivers as needed.

> > I think what you mean is the logic in
> > regard to somebody imagining failure to be the case and the follow-on
> > conclusions therefrom.
>
> I've seen the failure first-hand, on several occasions. I touch an
> awful lot of systems. Best example would be my sister's PC, which (at
> the time) was a win98 box updated from win95. The stock win98 build
> installed on that hardware _would not_ recognize the USB devices plugged
> into the card,

>From your description, I take it that was an add-in PCI card with USB
ports? Win95 drivers would have come with it and Win98 would need a
driver for that card as you discovered and fixed.

> and only worked once I played driver games and sacrificed
> a goat, swore a lot, spent too much time on google, and eventually got
> there.

But that's as it should be, other than the poor goat.<g> Win98 is
open-ended to adding new drivers as long as someone is willing to write
them.
>
> > When our Win98 machine was out of action and waiting for the new
> > motherboard to arrive and be installed, I simply installed its Win98
> > hard disk in this Compaq so that my wife could continue using her
> > programs & data during the outage. Since this Compaq has hardware that
> > hadn't been invented when Win98 was released, the builtin graphics and
> > ethernet and other hardware didn't work immediately. Does that mean that
> > Compaq doesn't support Win98? Does that mean that Win98 doesn't support
> > Compaq?
>
> Right, but you have to -make it work-. That's the part that someone
> selling a consumer item can't be sure has been done on any given system.

But they can test it on typical systems. They have to anyhow, just to
develop the product.

> YOu'd have customers saying "I have windows 98, you said this would
> work, it doesn't!", just because they haven't straightened out what
> takes more than zero effort to do. Since they're not sure if it'll work
> with win98, they don't say it will.

Take my Compaq here as an example. It comes bundled with XP which has
all the XP drivers needed for the hardware and that's all that Compaq
cares to do. Someone could, however, sell this hardware bundled with
Win98 and all those Win98 drivers I hunted down.

> Kind of like our work sites. We know they work on any browser you want,
> because few of us use Win/MSIE when testing our stuff on them.

I'll read that as "a few of us", i.e. some of us. At least I hope so.
:-)

> But, we
> don't want to set up a test lab with all 27 permutations of OS and
> browser that our customers use, so even though we know they work, we
> don't say "This is a supported configuration". Doesn't mean it doesn't
> work, just means we don't test it as a matter of procedure.

Sure, that's understandable. It's similar to my Comcast ISP saying that
they only "support" MSOE because that's the only mail & news client that
their tech support is officially trained in to assist customers. But
there's that word "support" again and that word leads some people to
think that their Netscape, Mozilla, Agent, Xnews, or etc won't work,
when they all work just fine.

> > They were typically available on the manufacturers websites such as
> > Compaq, Intel & Adaptec for example. So who "supports" who? I dunno. I
> > only know that the system works as intended.<g>
>
> You're not the typical computer user, Bob...

Not so sure. Anybody still using Win98 has more than likely been using
computers for a while and learned a few tricks. I may very well be
typical of Win98 users.

Bob
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: New gas furnace/AC recommendations?
    ... Ifa the drivers for the common video chips included in WinXP, ... Win98 drivers for new hardware today. ... POV) back during the time when win-98 was introduced and used (1998 - ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: flashdrive
    ... USB was new when win98 came out. ... to install drivers that come with the card rather than the built in ... installed on that hardware _would not_ recognize the USB devices plugged ... > hard disk in this Compaq so that my wife could continue using her ...
    (soc.genealogy.computing)
  • Re: flashdrive
    ... >>>Um, they're a hardware vendor, Steve. ... > buy Dell because Windows 98 doesn't support USB" is silly. ... motherboard to arrive and be installed, I simply installed its Win98 ... hard disk in this Compaq so that my wife could continue using her ...
    (soc.genealogy.computing)
  • Re: Lost Standby Mode on upgrade of 98 to XP - Any help
    ... If Compaq did not release updated drivers, ... Hardware manufacturer's are responsible for ... > After upgrade from 98 to XP, I lost the standby feature. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: pc freezing
    ... Usually some incompatibility between the stick (hardware) and ... When we used Win98 we usually had to ... instal new drivers for each USB device. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)