Technical help needed for PC running Windows 98 SE

Mmartin_47

So I got a call to fix a good friends point of sale register computer (this is his backup register). Right now he is running Windows 98SE for his POS software called "The General Store". Earlier his mouse went bad today and he had another friend come over and install the mouse. I received a call from him later on today stating that now he cannot launch his POS program. I checked the shortcuts settings and it's pointing to a whole different drive that does not even exist. Went ahead and changed it back to C:\ instead of E:\

Now I get an error saying something about increasing conventional memory. I played around with the settings but no luck, and yet the program still cannot run. Any ideas?

Claymoore

Wow, let's step into Wikipedia's wayback machine and have a discussion about Autoexec.bat, Config.sys, HIMEM, and Conventional Memory

Check autoexec.bat and config.sys, but it's my guess the new mouse driver isn't being loaded in high (upper) memory. This can be accomplished with combinations of LH autoexec settings or DEVICEHIGH= settings in config.sys.

You can also try running Memmaker (if it's even still included on Win9 to automatically adjust some of the memory settings.

Now, anyone else still think Vista is a pain in the a$$?

royal

Claymoore wrote:

Now, anyone else still think Vista is a pain in the a$$?

Compared to all the vxd errors that I constantly saw on 9x, definitely not.

JDMurray

A lot of inexpensive POS (Point Of Sale) machines still run Windows 9x, Windows 3.1, and even MS-DOS, so those tech skills are still needed. I've actually worked for a company that had a POS product based on the Pick OS. I'll never see that again.

undomiel

I cut my IT teeth on autoexec.bat and config.sys tweaking way back getting Dark Sun and Strike Commander and *shudders* Ultima 7 running way back in the day.

tiersten

Claymoore wrote:

Check autoexec.bat and config.sys, but it's my guess the new mouse driver isn't being loaded in high (upper) memory. This can be accomplished with combinations of LH autoexec settings or DEVICEHIGH= settings in config.sys.

Why would there be a mouse driver there anyway? This isn't Windows 3...

tiersten

JDMurray wrote:

A lot of inexpensive POS (Point Of Sale) machines still run Windows 9x, Windows 3.1, and even MS-DOS, so those tech skills are still needed. I've actually worked for a company that had a POS product based on the Pick OS. I'll never see that again.

Ah Pick OS. I've not used it directly but I have used and developed with the database system from it in the form of jBase. Bizarre system is all I can say. I ended up writing several admin utilities and modules for the banking package that ran on top.

Kaminsky

Best advice is whenever you come across that OS, uninstall it and put anything else on and then snap the installation disk. Worst OS I have ever come across .. even worse than apple macs and that's saying something.

tiersten

Kaminsky wrote:

Best advice is whenever you come across that OS, uninstall it and put anything else on and then snap the installation disk. Worst OS I have ever come across .. even worse than apple macs and that's saying something.

98SE is the worst OS you've ever come across? I take it you never had the misfortune to use Windows ME then

malcybood

tiersten wrote:

Kaminsky wrote:

Best advice is whenever you come across that OS, uninstall it and put anything else on and then snap the installation disk. Worst OS I have ever come across .. even worse than apple macs and that's saying something.

98SE is the worst OS you've ever come across? I take it you never had the misfortune to use Windows ME then

I had Windows ME upgrade from Windows 95 and all I can say is......oh dear

32mb RAM & 800MB HDD probably didn't help

Mmartin_47

Problem fixed. A mapped network drive was disconnected and did not reconnect automatically. Idiot that installed a mouse, I know him through a friend. Same guy that screwed up his friends wireless network settings.

Kaminsky

tiersten wrote:

Kaminsky wrote:

Best advice is whenever you come across that OS, uninstall it and put anything else on and then snap the installation disk. Worst OS I have ever come across .. even worse than apple macs and that's saying something.

98SE is the worst OS you've ever come across? I take it you never had the misfortune to use Windows ME then

Win ME was a given and will always count as the lamest. With such a high bar for the worst, SE is a better yard stick for worst comparison

Kaminsky

Mmartin_47 wrote:

Problem fixed. A mapped network drive was disconnected and did not reconnect automatically. Idiot that installed a mouse, I know him through a friend. Same guy that screwed up his friends wireless network settings.

You should still change the OS.... It is only pretending to behave itself until you go away ... trust us on this !

Mmartin_47

Kaminsky wrote:

Mmartin_47 wrote:

Problem fixed. A mapped network drive was disconnected and did not reconnect automatically. Idiot that installed a mouse, I know him through a friend. Same guy that screwed up his friends wireless network settings.

You should still change the OS.... It is only pretending to behave itself until you go away ... trust us on this !

Yeah but I doubt he would want to spend $ to upgrade. It's actually a DOS program running on 98. He can probably upgrade to at least 2000 I suppose.

Basically the application works as a client/server. Server being the cash register and client meaning the inventory computer, which also prints out daily reports when the store is closed.