I need help with an old Win98se laptop I want to set up as a "first" laptop for my son. Something he can use for home work and net surfing.
I took it out of storage and it fired right up, I also did a restore with the oem discs that I still have for it. So it is as if it just came out of the box back in 1998.
I have tried two wireless adapters with no luck, one was USB wireless G the other PCMCIA card with 802.11 support. Both showed up in the System menu as working properly, but I can not find a way to connect to my wifi router like my Win Vista laptop. Do I need to down load a wifi manager/utility or applet? If so were??
How do I get the win98se laptop to "look" around at wifi signals and then connect to one?
In case someone is wondering, yes I have tried to install Win XP with no luck. It ALWAYS hangs up at 13 minutes remaining, even with a WIN XP friendly bios update.
Originally posted by ddp: what is the make & model# of the laptop to see what you have? does the wireless card showup in the taskbar?
It is a Sony Vaio PCG-XG29 with P3 750 and 256mb ram. No nothing ever showed up in the taskbar like in my Vista Machine.
Leads me to think that in the "old days" we might have needed a wifi utility to connect to a wifi signal.
Yes, I have a copy of Win Xp srp3, I have updated the BIOS but the install hangs at the 13 minutes remaining mark. It is very frustrating. I have attempted the install about 6 times with no luck.
Originally posted by ddp: try loading win98 then do upgrade with xp as i've done that a few times.
OK, I tried a different Windows XP disc and the laptop did in fact accept the install!!! So once I update the the drivers from the link you provided, and I get the wireless adapter loaded it should log onto my router just as my Vista laptop I assume right? Of course after I input the appropriate security information.
Originally posted by ddp: try loading win98 then do upgrade with xp as i've done that a few times.
I was up all night but I got everything to work on the vintage laptop! I found out that part of my problem was my early wifi PCMCIA card, that although is 802.11, is 100% proprietary and only works with its own receiver/transmitter, (which I have but I think no longer works). So once I tried using a USB wireless G adapter I had laying around I suddenly had the wifi app in the system tray.
In fact I am posting this note from the vintage Sony!
Thanks a lot for all the advise AND the drivers link!
