New hard drive problems

katerpillar · 02-14-2005, 01:08 PM

Hi there. I have just cobbled a computer together from two broken ones - I've pinched a hard drive from the one with a busted power supply and a random blue-screen issue, and put it in the one with a busted hard drive. I then ran the Windows 98 boot disk and it's running - it just updated the version of Windows that was already there.

The problem is, Device Manager says I have no drivers for the following:

PCI Ethernet Controller
PCI Multimedia Audio Device
PCI System Management Bus
PCI USB

Without these I can't get on the network and I have terrible resolution on my display - I don't know what other hidden issues there may be!

My best guess is that I should reformat the hard drive and start again.

Is this my only option? If so, is there any info I should write down now before wiping it?!

ShoobieRat · 02-14-2005, 01:15 PM

Sounds like you're missing the motherboard drivers.

Samm · 02-14-2005, 01:36 PM

Yeah, definately sounds like your mobo drivers haven't been installed.

If this is a fresh install of windows, then reformatting won't make any difference.
If it isn't, and drive is from another machine, then reformatting & doing a fresh install would be a good idea anyway but still doesn't solve your driver problem.

Look on the mobo itself - there should be the manufacturers name & model number printed on it. Use this to download the relevant drivers.

gsbtech · 02-14-2005, 03:43 PM

Displaced win98 installations by moving a hard drive have never worked well for me. Win98 is a dirty OS to begin with. It's hard to know if you've removed all of the old hardware information. Also, win98 is not very good about a handling a change in hardware unless you first uninstall the old drivers. While you need to download the correct drivers for your hardware, you should still format and reinstall a fresh copy of win98.

Nubius · 02-14-2005, 03:50 PM

You need to hit up the mobo manufacturer website and download their available drivers for that board.

Burning them to a CD would basically be you're only choice to get it over to that broken computer unless you have a spare NIC card with drivers that you can throw in there to get it accessible to the internet

02-14-2005, 01:08 PM	#1 (permalink)
katerpillar Newb Techie Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 1	New hard drive problems Hi there. I have just cobbled a computer together from two broken ones - I've pinched a hard drive from the one with a busted power supply and a random blue-screen issue, and put it in the one with a busted hard drive. I then ran the Windows 98 boot disk and it's running - it just updated the version of Windows that was already there. The problem is, Device Manager says I have no drivers for the following: PCI Ethernet Controller PCI Multimedia Audio Device PCI System Management Bus PCI USB Without these I can't get on the network and I have terrible resolution on my display - I don't know what other hidden issues there may be! My best guess is that I should reformat the hard drive and start again. Is this my only option? If so, is there any info I should write down now before wiping it?!

02-14-2005, 01:15 PM	#2 (permalink)
ShoobieRat Master Techie Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 2,934	Sounds like you're missing the motherboard drivers. __________________ ----------------------------------------------- Don\'t hate the player...Hate the game...

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02-14-2005, 01:36 PM	#3 (permalink)
Samm Super Techie Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 441	Yeah, definately sounds like your mobo drivers haven't been installed. If this is a fresh install of windows, then reformatting won't make any difference. If it isn't, and drive is from another machine, then reformatting & doing a fresh install would be a good idea anyway but still doesn't solve your driver problem. Look on the mobo itself - there should be the manufacturers name & model number printed on it. Use this to download the relevant drivers.

02-14-2005, 03:43 PM	#4 (permalink)
gsbtech True Techie Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 168	Displaced win98 installations by moving a hard drive have never worked well for me. Win98 is a dirty OS to begin with. It's hard to know if you've removed all of the old hardware information. Also, win98 is not very good about a handling a change in hardware unless you first uninstall the old drivers. While you need to download the correct drivers for your hardware, you should still format and reinstall a fresh copy of win98.

02-14-2005, 03:50 PM	#5 (permalink)
Nubius Banned Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 11,640	You need to hit up the mobo manufacturer website and download their available drivers for that board. Burning them to a CD would basically be you're only choice to get it over to that broken computer unless you have a spare NIC card with drivers that you can throw in there to get it accessible to the internet