[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: Win98 help

[terry]

On Nov 24, 2007 2:58 PM, Leroy Tennison <leroy_tennison at prodigy.net> wrote:
>
> Daniel Hauck wrote:
> > Fred James wrot
> >> All
> >> Sorry for the OT, and for such an old OS, but ... daughter sent a VOC
> >> file, and wife downloaded RP5022drivers.exe from RCA
> >> <http://support.rcaaudiovideo.com/downloads.aspx?product=23> because it
> >> was supposed be OK for her Win98 SE ... and then all sound was lost -
> >> including Windows startup sound, Power Pup (one of the paper clip's
> >> persona), YouTube, etc.  Any suggestions on how to reinstate the sound
> >> would be appreciated.  Thank you in advance for any help you may be able
> >> to offer.
> >> Regards
> >> Fred James
> >
> > Oh that's okay.  Run a Microsoft OS and get a Microsoft answer:
> >
> > Reinstall the OS from scratch.  Do all updates, service packs and
> > drivers.  If the same results are yielded, then install the drivers,
> > service packs and updates.  Change the order of installation until you
> > get a winning combination.
> >
> > One of the problems of dealing with a closed source OS is that you
> > really don't know for sure what the failing component is and, as you
> > already know, the error messages are less than accurate most of the
> > time... when you even get error messages.
> >
> > This isn't much help at all, I know.  But it is something of a reminder
> > of why we choose to leave Microsoft behind when situations permit.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
>
> Wait a minute, you have the right answer, just one minor detail missing.
>   Wipe the hard drive and install - Linux!  (Sorry, I just couldn't
> resist the cheap shot).
>

Not at all a cheap shot, a viable alternative.
My daughter is now a Linux user for similar reasons.
Her old Win98 system was mucked up in a couple of ways and she was
complaining about it, and as we all know Win98, has long since reached
end-of-life.  I knew that I could fix a couple of her issues, a couple
of others were just not fixable, but what needed to be done was a
couple hours worth of hit and miss drudgery.

Needless to say, I spent those 2 hours on a Linux install.  Actually,
the install wasn't much more than an hour, the rest of the time I
spent installing additional software, copying personal files to the
/home/user-name-here, and just doing overall customization.

She resisted at first but  learned to like it quite a bit.  The longer
she used it, the more she liked it. After a couple months she became
quite happy with it. One thing is that there's no longer any
anti-virus / anti-spyware  hastles, there's pretty much no maintenance
worries at all.  I don't have to fix anything any more, it just pretty
much stays fixed on it's own.

I didn't make any claims about it being a wonderful or even a better
OS at all.  I only stated that Win98 had reached end-of-life and that
it would be difficult to maintain it in a decent state any longer,
upgrading to XP would cost a little over $100 cash would have to go
out and buy it, and it would take somewhat longer to get everything
working - I could install Linux much quicker and easier and get the
capabilities she wanted and needed right away and I could save her
personal files rather easily,   (I have a 2gig thumb drive).

I fixed her washer yesterday.  :)


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