Win ME Installation probs

Here's my system config:

AMD Athlon 1.4GHz
512MB RAM
Western Digital 40GB 7200 Hard Drive
KinetiZ M/B
Creative Labs GeForce2 GTS graphics card
Creative Labs SB Live! 5.1 Player sound card
Creative Labs DVD 12x Encore Infra (with DXr3 card)
HP CD-RW 8100
Hauppage Win-TV GO TV card
Netgear PCI Network card

I've recently bought the upgradable version of Win ME. I tried to install it over Win98 (not SE). It crashed 49% of the way through copying the files. I rebooted, and tried again. It got to 51%, and crashed again.

So I reformatted the drive, and tried a fresh install of Win ME from scratch. Before this happened though, I had problems booting up with CD drivers, since it would crash on the message

"Scanning PCI slots with mechanism 2"

with the standard Win98 Boot disk in. So, after removing my PCI cards one at a time, and booting back up, I found it was my sound card that was causing the problem. I thought it might be because it was conflicting with the Creative sound card built onto the M/B. So I set the BIOS settings back to optimal defaults, hoping to disable the On-board sound card, and it seemed to work OK.

This time it went through the file copying, but gave me tons of error messages while "updating system configuration", the bit after it sets up the control panel and application groups. The error messages were along the lines of:

"The program, KERNEL32.EXE has stopped running. If this problem continues, please reboot the machine."

There were loads of these messages, some referencing DDHELP.EXE, and others I can't remember. Eventually, after multiple hits of the ENTER key (and plenty of cursing and swearing), it finished, and seemed to boot into WinME. However, all it gave me was a grey screen, no icons, no start bar, just a mouse pointer. After doing a CTRL+ALT+DEL to show the programs running, I found, to my delight, that there was NOTHING in the list.

So, I tried another reformat, installed Win98 from scratch (which went in with no problems what-so-ever), then an upgrade install to ME. It wouldn't even try it from Windows, so I went back to DOS, and tried from there. Again, it got through the file copying, but gave me all those error messages about the KERNEL and various other programs. After a few reboots, I actually saw the front end of WinME, icons and all! However (!!), when I tried to open My Computer, it wouldn't load, saying something about an HTML program has crashed. I presume this is something to do with the way the window is displayed, much like an internet browser. Control Panel did the same.

I am at the end of my tether. I was going to try and install Win95, and then Win98SE over the top, and maybe brave WinME again, but I'm not optimistic. Plus, I'm weary as to whether Win95 will understand my 40GB drive.

Does anyone have ANY suggestions or ideas?

Sorry it's been a long one, but I thought I'd give as much detail as I could.

Thanks

Barry

I've just been to Microsoft's knowledge base, and I found an entry which states that ME has a problem with Sound Blaster Live! cards. Here's the link:

<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q289/8/00.ASP?LN=EN-GB&SD=gn&FR=0" target="_blank">http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q289/8/00.ASP?LN=EN-GB&SD=gn&FR=0</a>

Do you think this might have been the problem all along? If so, should I try taking the sound card out, doing a clean install of ME again, then, when everything's hunky dory, install the card?

Or would it be better just to stick to Win98SE? I'd rather go the ME option, since it's newer, and plus I've forked out good money for it, but if it's gonna be a hassle, I'd much rather have my sound card working than a version of Win98 with sparkly bells and whistles on! (that's ME I'm talking about, btw!!!)

Cheers

Barry

I would take all non-essential cards out and leave the floppy hard drive and video card in. Copy the WIN9X folder to the hard drive and install from there. After a good install and everything is running ok. Load the motherboard drivers. then get your video working. then install each card one at a time, do a stability check, (run some programs) that utilizes each card, 3d games for video, WAVE and MP3 for sound etc. I had trouble doing an over the top of WINME on 98 and fDisk, format and winme went on just fine.

Why install ME if 98 is working fine?? Even if you do get your sound card to work you will be dealing with more memory probs then 98 ever had!!!! Stick with 98 or go win2k, cuz ME will give you more problems the longer you have it on your system....Please, Please, Please don't put that piece of $hit OS on your hd!!!!!!

Here are some reasons ME sux: New drivers: WDM vs. VXD, tried to do away w/ DOS, when a program ends in ME it doesn't release mem addy's,....etc

Do your self a favor, stick w/ win 9.x or win2k

[quote]Originally posted by widget:
<strong>Why install ME if 98 is working fine?? Even if you do get your sound card to work you will be dealing with more memory probs then 98 ever had!!!! Stick with 98 or go win2k, cuz ME will give you more problems the longer you have it on your system....Please, Please, Please don't put that piece of $hit OS on your hd!!!!!!

Here are some reasons ME sux: New drivers: WDM vs. VXD, tried to do away w/ DOS, when a program ends in ME it doesn't release mem addy's,....etc

Do your self a favor, stick w/ win 9.x or win2k</strong><hr></blockquote>


Please don't be so sure. ME is very stable. I have installed it last January and haven't have any problem so far. It is very stable but also it is non-tolerant to applications with small deviations from its requirements. Most peripheral manufacturers have updated their drivers to meet ME requirements by now. Baza problem seems to be in this category.

Baza_Boy, If you need advice, Stick with WIN 98 and upgrade it to WIN XP. But if you really has to put Win ME in your system, then do what Silverman adviced you to do. Good lucky.

[quote]Originally posted by kewos2:
<strong>Baza_Boy, If you need advice, Stick with WIN 98 and upgrade it to WIN XP. But if you really has to put Win ME in your system, then do what Silverman adviced you to do. Good lucky.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I agree here 100%. ME is by Microsoft's own admission, the worst operating system that they released.

If you want to use the full power of your system, go XP, as there is nothing more frustrating than seeing that nasty BSOD at least once a day right in the middle of that important download/game/application/etc :D :D :D

Thanks everyone for your opinions and advice. It has been very helpful.

I did try to do a clean install of ME without the sound card, and it still kicked up a fuss, so it wasn't that. I also tried a Win95 to Win98SE, but Win95 didn't like my 40BG drive. I presume if I'm gonna go down this road, I'll have to partition the drive, but I can't remember what the limit is for 95. Will 10GB be ok, or do I have to go lower?

Those error messages I was talking about, I made a better mental note of what they said this time. It said something like:

"REGSVR has caused an invalid fault in *****. If the problem persists, try rebooting your PC."

More often than not, the ***** was KERNEL32.EXE. Does this help anyone in figuring out my problem? Not that I'm too bothered about ME anymore, not from all your comments, but I'd just like to know if there's a serious problem with my PC. I can't see there being one since 98 has gone on fine. It's probably just ME playing hard-to-get.

I won't be going to XP though, not just yet anyway, not with all their licencing clamp-downs. I tend to do a format of my drive quite often, just for a good clear up of crap mainly, and I don't want all the hassle of talking to Microsoft everytime just to get permission to do a reinstall!! But that argument should be in another forum!

Anyway, thanks again for the help, guys. I'm gonna go for a Win95 - Win98SE tonight and see how many problems I can get this time!

Cheers

Barry

Before you quit ME, try this. Disconnect all peripherals: speakers, scanner, ... etc. excpet for the mouse, keybord and monitor. Now install ME clean see if it works.