How To Add New Hardware 95/98

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NOTE: The general outline on installing any software is explained at Modem Isn't Recognized
Except for the changing of comm ports, use that outline for all hardware that you can remove and still operate you system.

To install a manufacturer-supplied driver, follow these steps:

1.In Control Panel, double-click Add New Hardware.

2.In Windows 95, click Next, click No, and then click Next.

In Windows 98, click Next, and then click Next again to search for plug and play devices. If the device you are installing is not found, click "No, the device isn't in the list," click Next, click "No, I want to select the hardware from a list," and then click Next.

NOTE: If Windows 98 finds your hardware when it searches for plug and play devices, click "Yes, the device is in the list," click the device in the list, click Next, and then click Finish. You do not have to provide a manufacturer-supplied driver.

3.Click the type of hardware for which you are installing the driver, and then click Next.

4.Click Have Disk.

5.Type the path for the driver you are installing and click OK, or click Browse and locate the driver. You must type the path for or locate the Oemsetup.inf file from the manufacturer.

6.In the dialog box listing the .inf file, click OK. Click OK to continue.

7.Click the correct driver and then click OK.

8.Click Finish.

NOTE: If the new hardware is Plug and Play-compatible, you will need to click Next and then click Finish.

To install a new modem, follow these steps:

1.In Control Panel, double-click Modems.

2.If this is to be the first modem installed in the computer, the Install New Modem Wizard starts automatically. If not, click Add.

3.If you want Windows to detect your modem, click Next. If not, click the "Don't detect my modem..." check box to select it, and then click Next.

4.If you chose to have Windows detect your modem, Windows queries the serial ports on your computer looking for a modem. If Windows detects an incorrect modem, click Change, and select the appropriate manufacturer and model. Click Next, and then continue with step 7.

5.If you chose to select your modem manually, click the appropriate manufacturer and model, and then click Next.

6.Click the appropriate communications port, and then click Next.

7.Click Finish.

To install a new printer, follow these steps:

1.Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Printers.

2.Double-click Add Printer, and then click Next.

3.Click Local Printer or Network Printer as appropriate, and then click Next.

If you click Network Printer, you are prompted for the network path for the printer. If you do not know the correct path, click Browse, or check with your network administrator. Click either Yes or No in the "Do you print from MS-DOS-based programs?" area, and then click Next.

4.Click the appropriate manufacturer and model for your printer, and then click Next.

5.If you chose to install a local printer, click the correct port and then click Next.

6.Type a name for the printer (or accept the default name), and then click either Yes or No in the "Do you want your Windows-based programs to use this printer as the default printer?" area. Click Next.

7.To print a test page, click Yes. Click Finish.

You may receive the following error message while installing new hardware:

"The specified location does not contain information about your hardware."

This error can occur if you select an incorrect hardware type or the driver is not Windows 95 or Windows 98-compatible.

If the driver is not Windows 95 or Windows 98-compatible, refer to the manufacturer's instructions for installing the driver, or contact the manufacturer for assistance.

For more information about .inf files and installing drivers or using Win 3.x drivers see below:

1.Click the Start button, point to Settings, then click Printers.

2.Double-click the Add Printer icon.

3.Click Next.

4.Click either Local Printer or Network Printer, then click Next.

5.Click the Have Disk button.

6.In the Copy Manufacturer's Files From box, enter the drive and path for the OEMSETUP.INF file for the driver you want to install, then click Next.

7.Click the driver you want to install, then click OK

1.Use the right mouse button to click the desktop, then click Properties on the menu that appears.

2.On the Settings tab, click the Change Display Type button.

3.In the Adapter Type area, click the Change button.

4.Click the Have Disk button.

5.In the Copy Manufacturer's Files From box, enter the drive and path for the OEMSETUP.INF file for the video driver you want to install, then click Next.

6.Click the video mode, then click OK.

1.Click the Start button, point to Settings, then click Control Panel.

2.Double-click the Add New Hardware icon, then click Next.

3.When you are prompted "Do you want Windows to search for your new hardware" click No, then click Next.

4.Click the type of hardware you want to install, then click Next.

5.Click the Have Disk button.

6.In the Copy Manufacturer's Files From box, enter the drive and path for the OEMSETUP.INF file for the driver you want to install, then click OK.

7.Click the driver you want to install, then click OK.

You must have an Oemsetup.inf file to install Windows 3.1 drivers from disks. If the disk you are using does not contain this file, contact the driver manufacturer for assistance in installing the driver.

After you install one or more Windows 3.1 device drivers in Windows, the devices associated with those Windows 3.1 drivers may appear in the Windows hardware lists.
These hardware lists appear in the Add New Hardware Wizard that is started by double-clicking the Add New Hardware icon in Control Panel, and in other wizards such as the Add Printer and Install New Modem Wizards.

If Windows includes a driver for the same device for which you installed a Windows 3.1 driver, it may be difficult to distinguish between the Windows 3.1 driver and the Windows driver in the hardware lists.

The reason is you have Win 3.1 drivers:
When you install a Windows 3.1 device driver in Windows, an Oem<n>.inf file is created, where <n> is an incremental number starting at 0. The presence of an Oem<n>.inf file causes the device to appear in the hardware lists.

Because Windows 3.1 setup information (.inf) files do not conform to the Windows setup information file format, Windows may be unable to clearly identify the drivers associated with one of these files.

The fix
To remove all Windows 3.1 drivers from the hardware lists, rename all the Oem<n>.inf files in the Windows\Inf folder. Doing so does not affect the Windows 3.1 drivers that you currently have installed, but does prevent you from reinstalling the drivers without the original Oemsetup.inf files included with each driver.

To rename the Oem<n>.inf files in the Windows\Inf folder, type the following commands at a command prompt, pressing ENTER after each command:

cd \windows\inf
ren oem?.inf oem?.xxx

If there are more than 10 Oem<n>.inf files, you must also type the following command:

ren oem??.inf oem??.xxx

NOTE: Do not use the oem*.inf wildcard designation in place of Oem?.inf and Oem??.inf. Doing so may cause the wrong files to be renamed.

If there are no Oem<n>.inf files in the Windows\Inf folder, you can force Windows to rebuild the entire driver information database by renaming the Drvdata.bin and Drvidx.bin files in the Windows\Inf folder. To do so, type the following commands at a command prompt, pressing ENTER after each command:

cd \windows\inf
ren drvdata.bin drvdata.xxx
ren drvidx.bin drvidx.xxx

After you rename these files, the driver information database will be rebuilt the next time the hardware lists are displayed.

Windows setup information files can contain a key that identifies the manufacturer of the associated driver, and that distinguishes that driver from drivers included with Windows. This lets you install third-party Windows drivers without creating confusion when you view the hardware lists.

For example, if you have a third-party Windows driver for the Hewlett- Packard LaserJet 4M printer installed, you see two lines similar to the following lines when you view the hardware list in the Add New Hardware or Add Printer Wizard:

HP LaserJet 4 (Microsoft)
HP LaserJet 4 (Hewlett-Packard)

1. Visit your modem manufacturers site and download the most current version of your modem drivers. Expand or unzip them as necessary and save them to a floppy.

2. Go into device manager and remove the modem entry.

3. Shut the computer down and physically remove the modem from the computer and then restart it. Again check device manager to make sure there are no other modem entries.

4. While you have the modem out of the computer, check the jumper settings. If the modem is plug n play, make sure it is jumpered correctly. If it requires different jumper settings for specific Com ports, then jumper it for Com 1. If your using a serial mouse and it is on Com 1, then jumper the modem for Com 2 if need be. Confirm that the settings are correct.

5. Now shut the system down, install the modem and then restart the system. Now boot into the computers Bios setup. Usually by touching the "Del" key or something similar. Go to the peripheral setup portion of the Bios setup and disable either Com 1 or Com 2 based upon what you have set for the modem, save the settinmgs and reboot the system.

6.  Now Windows 98 should see the modem correctly during boot, however don't let Win98 use it's own mini-driver, use the drivers that you saved to the floppy.

7.  After you have finished loading the drivers, reboot the system and verify that the modem is where you want it to be.

8. Go to "modems" in control panel and use it's test feature to test the modem. If it tests properly and is at the Com port you desire, your done.