Is the PC running 98 or 98SE?

Some manufacturers of hardware and software no longer support plain 98.  Others do 
not support 98SE either, only XP and Vista.

Is the pen drive USB 1.1 or 2.0, and how about the PC?  In theory either should work, 
just at the lower of the two speeds if mixed 1.1&2.0.  That would be true under XP. 
 However, as I recall when I was running 98, some combinations did not actually work 
as expected.

Is the hardware on the PC possible USB 1.0 instead of 1.1?  The first implimentation 
of USB was tempermental.

To learn about the hardware, without taking the PC apart, try (1) reading the owner's 
manual or motherboard manual, (2) download and run a free diagnostic program like 
AIDA32 or Belarc Advisor or FreshDiagnose.

Are any other USB devices connected to the PC.  While theory says that you can have 
dozens of USB devices connected, in practice the limit is a lot lower, and in the 
case of some 98 PCs, might be as low as one.

Do you have any reason to beleive that the USB ports on the PC work?  That is, have 
you successfully attached any USB device (floppy, ZIP, hard drive, mouse, etc)?  
If not, they may not be properly installed.  Check the 98 device manager and look 
for yellow exclamation points (meaning some problem).

Also, are the USB ports turned on at the BIOS level.  Most motherboards have an on/off 
option, and 98 will never see the ports, if they are off at the BIOS level.

As an alternative test of the PC hardware, download a free KNOPPIX CD ismage and 
burn it to a CD, then boot from it.  This will run a version of LINUX, directly form 
the CD, totally bypassing 98 and any limitations it has.  Can it see the pen drive? 
 If yes, then the PC hardware is OK and you merely have a some software problem (likely 
drivers).  If no, then 98 and drivers are not the problem; look elsewhere.

By the way, if this is a desktop PC, you could install a PCI-card with USB ports. 
 These are fairly cheap, and come with their own drivers (on CD or possibly via download). 
 So long as you get one that supports 98 (or 98SE, if you are running that), that 
should remove all question of the PC hardware's ability to support USB.







On Friday, December 15, 2006 at 8:33 pm, Arthur wrote:

>I recently acquired a windows 98 box from my aunt and gave it to my brother to upgrade 

>his win 95 (which only had 8mb ram). It runs fine, but we seem to be having difficulty 

>getting it to detect flash drives (usb). I have tried my iomega 64mb, a 256mb(i 
can't 

>remember the brand) and his 512MB verbatim store'n'go. We downloaded and installed 

>the drivers from the website, and it said to insert the usb device at any time after 

>installing. Even after restarting the system and trying to reistall them we have 

>been unable to get the computer to display the drive as having been detected. 

>

>Is there something special that has to be done to get the storage device working?

>

>Arthur 

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