Installing Devices

In Windows 98, how you install a device depends on whether the device and the computer are Plug and Play–compliant. To take full advantage of Plug and Play technology, a computer needs the following:

Plug and Play operating system (Windows 98).
Plug and Play BIOS or ACPI BIOS.
Plug and Play–compliant hardware devices with drivers.

The Plug and Play components perform the following tasks:

Identify the installed devices.
Determine the device resource requirements.
Create a nonconflicting system configuration.
Program the devices.
Load the device drivers.
Notify the system of a configuration change.

Windows 98 automatically installs and configures most Plug and Play–compliant devices. For devices that are not automatically configured, the Add New Hardware Wizard, shown in Figure 24.2, installs and configures legacy and Plug and Play devices that require installation information, such as the driver location. Microsoft recommends that, whenever possible, you choose new Plug and Play–compliant devices, even for a legacy computer that does not have a Plug and Play BIOS.

Figure 24.2 Add New Hardware Wizard

Classes of Devices

Windows 98 uses a large number of subsystems to control various classes of devices that identify logical device types, such as the display, keyboard, and network. For many devices, you must use Device Manager in the System option in Control Panel for configuration if you need to make manual changes.

Table 24.1 lists the default classes and devices and shows where you can find the installation tools for changing the device drivers. Your computer might have additional classes, depending on what you have installed.

Table 24.1 Configuration information for default classes and devices

Class and devices		Where to configure devices
Disk class: Disk drives and adapters		Device Manager, under the Disk drives option.
Display class: Display adapters		Device Manager, under the Display adapters option. -Or- Display option in Control Panel. See "Configuring the Display" later in this chapter.
Modem class: Data and fax modems		Device Manager, under the Modem option. -Or- Modems option in Control Panel. See Chapter 21, "Modems and Communications Tools."
Mouse class: Mouse devices		Device Manager, under the Mouse option. -Or- Mouse option in Control Panel. See Help. See also "Configuring the Mouse" later in this chapter.
Multimedia class: Multimedia devices		Device Manager, under the Sound, video and game controllers option. -Or- Multimedia option in Control Panel. See the related media devices in Device Manager for game ports; see also Chapter 12, "Multimedia."
Network class: Network adapters		Device Manager, under the Network adapters option. -Or- Properties for the network adapter under the Network option in Control Panel. See Chapter 15, "Network Adapters and Protocols."
PC Card class: PC Card sockets		Device Manager, under the PC Card socket option. See "Using PC Cards" later in this chapter.
Ports class: Ports		Device Manager, under the Ports (COM and LPT) option. See "Configuring Communications Resources" later in this chapter.
Printer class: Printers		Printers Folder (no class installer). See Chapter 11, "Printing, Imaging, and Fonts."
System class: System devices		Installation handled by the system. Configure using the System devices option in Device Manager.
Unknown class: Detected devices with no driver for Windows 98		Device Manager -Or- Add New Hardware option in Control Panel. See "How Windows 98 Installs a Device" later in this chapter.

How Windows 98 Installs a Device

Windows 98 Setup performs an inventory of all devices on the computer and records the information about those devices in the registry. Setup gets configuration information for system devices from the INF file associated with each device and, with Plug and Play devices, from the device itself. To maintain compatibility, Setup also checks entries in Win.ini, System.ini, and Config.sys.

When a new device is installed, Windows 98 uses the device ID to search Windows 98 INF files for an entry for that device. Windows 98 uses this information or a default driver to create an entry for the device under the Hkey_Local_Machine branch in the registry, and it copies the drivers needed. Then the registry entries are copied from the INF file to the driver’s registry entry, including the DevLoader= and DriverDesc= values for the Driver entry, and the Driver= and ConfigFlags= values for the Enum entry.

Tip

If you use custom setup scripts to install Windows 98, you can include the setting devicepath=1 in the [Setup] section to specify that Windows 98 should check a source installation path to find INF files, rather than looking only in the Windows INF directory when installing devices. When you use this parameter in setup scripts, you can later add INF files to a single network source location to ensure that up-to-date drivers are used any time a new device is installed on computers running Windows 98. For information, see Appendix D, "Msbatch.inf Parameters for Setup Scripts."

When you need to install a new device, rely first on Windows 98 to detect and configure it. How you do so depends on what type of device you have, as the following list explains:

For hot-pluggable Plug and Play–compliant devices, simply insert the device into the computer.
For PCI and ISA Plug and Play cards, turn the computer off before installing. When you power the machine back on, Windows 98 enumerates the device and starts the Plug and Play installation procedures automatically.
For legacy devices, run the Add New Hardware Wizard and let Windows 98 detect the device.

To install a new Plug and Play–compliant device

Check the documentation for your new device. If you are told to do so, turn off the power before inserting the device. (For hot-pluggable devices, such as USB or PC Cards, you do not need to turn off the power.)
Insert the device, and turn the power back on if you turned it off.
The computer detects your device and, if you are installing a PC Card, beeps when the device is configured and loaded. If the computer does not detect your device, it is a legacy device, and you should follow the steps in the procedure "To install a legacy device" later in this section. If the computer does not appear to detect your device, check for your device in the Unknown Device section in Device Manager. You might need to install a driver from within Device Manager.

You can begin working with the device immediately. Windows 98 notifies other drivers and applications that the device is available.

If your computer uses PC Cards or other Plug and Play cards and if a driver is not available for the new device, the Add New Hardware Wizard gives you the following four options:

Floppy drive
CD-ROM
Windows Update Web site (Internet search)
Other (you must specify a search path)

For more information about the Windows Update Web site, see Chapter 27, "General Troubleshooting."

To install a legacy device

In Control Panel, double-click the Add New Hardware icon. The Add New Hardware Wizard is displayed. Click Next twice.
Windows 98 checks for Plug and Play devices on your system. If one is found, you are asked if it is the hardware you want to install. If you answer Yes, the device is installed, and the installation is finished. If you answer No, the wizard continues.
You are asked if you want to install any devices that have problems running (a disabled device, one that has a resource conflict, and so on). If you answer Yes, Windows 98 proceeds to fix the chosen device. If you answer No, the wizard continues.
The wizard now asks if you want to let Windows 98 search for the device. If you answer Yes, the wizard attempts to find and install the device. If the wizard then fails to find the device, or if you answer No, you are prompted to select a device from the list.
In the list of hardware devices, click a device class, and then click Next.
In the next Add New Hardware dialog box, specify the manufacturer and model of the device, and then click Have Disk.
In the Install From Disk dialog box, type the path to the driver files, and then click OK.

Using PC Cards

Under Windows 98, Plug and Play support for the PC Card socket is enabled automatically. If you must use old drivers, Windows 98 should work well with your previous PC Card drivers, although some Plug and Play capabilities such as automatic installation and friendly device names will not be available.

To take advantage of Plug and Play, a PC Card must contain information that Windows 98 can use to create a unique device ID for the card. This is called the card information structure (CIS). Device drivers can be implemented under three possible schemes:

A standard Plug and Play device driver for PC Card (the preferred driver) can handle dynamic configuration and removal, and receive configuration information from the operating system without knowledge of the card in the PC Card bus. The recommended choices are NDIS version 5.x drivers for network adapters and miniport drivers for SCSI cards.
Generic Windows 98 device drivers are supported automatically for such devices as modems and disk drives. If the card contains complete configuration information, the operating system initializes the device and passes configuration information to the driver.
Manufacturer-supplied drivers are required for device classes that Windows 98 does not natively support.

Windows 98 supports many PC Cards, including modems, network adapters, SCSI cards, and others. If Windows 98 includes supporting drivers for the PC Card and for the socket, installation and configuration should be automatic. This section provides some guidelines for enabling Windows 98 protected-mode PC Card support when automatic detection and configuration are not available for your card.

For more information, see the topic "PC Cards" in Help. See also the PC Card Troubleshooter.

Important

If you are using a network card, your PC Card socket driver and network driver both must be Plug and Play–compliant drivers (that is, developed for Windows 98 and compliant with NDIS version 3.1 or later) or both must be real-mode drivers. If these drivers are of mixed types, the computer might hang, or you might not be able to connect to the network.

If you are performing a clean install, Windows 98 Setup automatically detects the presence of a PC Card socket and automatically enables it. If you are not performing a clean install, you can use the Add New Hardware Wizard to make Windows 98 automatically detect the socket.

To verify that Windows 98 has properly detected your PC Card socket

In Control Panel, double-click System, and then click the Device Manager tab. The Device Manager dialog box appears.
Look for a PC Card Socket listing.
If Windows 98 has not detected a PC Card socket, your socket controller might not be supported by Windows 98.

To find out if a PC Card socket is supported

In Control Panel, double-click Add New Hardware.
On the first screen in the Add New Hardware Wizard, click Next.
When the Add New Hardware Wizard asks you if the device you want is in the list, click No, and then click Next.
When the Add New Hardware Wizard asks you whether you want Windows to search for your new hardware, click No, and then click Next.
In the Hardware Types list, select PCMCIA Socket, and then click Next.
Select the manufacturer for your device, and examine the Models list.

If your socket does not appear in the list, you might want to find out if this type of socket is supported. Most likely, if it did not install automatically, the socket type is not supported.

If your PC Card does not appear in Device Manager after you insert it, you might need to enable protected-mode support for that PC Card by using the following procedure.

To enable protected-mode support for PC Card by running the PC Card Wizard

In Control Panel, double-click PC Card.
– Or –
In Device Manager, double-click the PC Card controller.
– Or –
In the Windows 98 Help index, look up "PC Cards" and then "enabling support."

To find out if Windows 98 has enabled PC Card support

In Device Manager, double-click your PC Card controller, and then click Properties.
Click the General tab.
In the Device Usage box, if the box labeled Disable in this Hardware Profile is not checked, PC Card support is enabled.

Real-Mode Drivers and the Ios.ini Safe Driver List

Microsoft strongly recommends that you use 32-bit, protected-mode drivers wherever possible. With protected-mode drivers, much of the configuration information is stored in the registry rather than in Config.sys or other files.

General Guidelines

The following lists the general guidelines for device entries in Config.sys and whether such entries are required or can be removed under Windows 98:

When you use only protected-mode drivers, the only configuration information the operating system needs to know for system startup is the location of the Windows 98 system files and the directory for the swap file. You do not need to load drivers in Config.sys or Autoexec.bat.
Any boot device in your computer that needs real-mode support does not require an entry in Config.sys. In the unusual case that the CD-ROM is part of system startup, entries for this device must be included in Config.sys.
If your computer requires any real-mode drivers, an entry for loading the driver must be included in Config.sys and Autoexec.bat, as was true under earlier versions of MS-DOS.

Windows 98 automatically unloads any real-mode drivers for which it has protected-mode drivers to provide the same functionality. For example, the real-mode Dblspace.bin driver is unloaded, and the protected-mode Dblspace driver, Drvspacx.vxd, takes over. However, the protected-mode device driver should take over only when it guarantees functionality similar to that of the real-mode driver, not merely because it can drive the hardware.

Tip

To determine whether a particular driver is running in real mode versus protected mode, click the Performance tab in the System option in Control Panel.

Safe Drivers

Real-mode drivers that can safely be used are identified in the list of safe drivers, which identifies drivers and terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs that Windows 98 can replace with corresponding protected-mode drivers. The list of safe drivers (Ios.ini in the Windows directory) can include the following information:

Name of the driver or TSR, using the same name as used in Config.sys or Autoexec.bat.
Driver requirements.
Whether the driver hooks INT13.
Whether the driver monitors INT13 (regardless of whether I/O is controlled by a protected-mode driver).
Whether the driver accesses hardware directly.

Windows 98 does not store the version number of the driver or the TSR in the list, so the vendor must change the name of the driver if a future version is enhanced so that the driver is safe or unsafe.

By default, the following drivers are considered safe:

MS-DOS version 5.0–compatible real-mode block device drivers.
INT13 driver (provides INT13 functionality and directly accesses hardware).
INT13 monitors (hooks INT13 for monitoring I/O but does not access hardware directly or modify the I/O buffer).
INT13 hooker (hooks INT13 for altering I/O but does not access hardware directly).
ASPI Manager (implements the Advanced SCSI Programming Interface for the MS-DOS specification).
CAM Manager (implements the MS-DOS Common Access Method specification).

For more information on interrupts, see Chapter 10, "Disks and File Systems."

Unsafe Drivers

A real-mode driver is considered unsafe if it implements functionality that is not supported. For example, a real-mode IDE or enhanced small device interface (ESDI) driver that uses dynamic encryption is an unsafe driver because Windows 98 does not support encryption. Windows 98 protected-mode drivers do not implement the following functions, so if a real-mode driver uses any of them, it is considered unsafe and should not be added to the list of safe drivers:

Data compression (other than DriveSpace-compatible compression).
Data encryption.
Disk mirroring.
Bad sector mapping.
Fault tolerance (maintaining error correction code [ECC] correction on a separate disk).
Input/output controls (IOCTL) defined or extended by the vendor.

If Windows 98 provides an appropriate protected-mode driver, you should use only the real-mode driver in the following cases:

The real-mode driver is used for a boot device.
An MS-DOS mode application uses the driver’s device, in which case the protected-mode driver must be unloaded to load the real-mode driver.

Ios.ini Formats

The following is the syntax of the list of safe drivers in Ios.ini:

filename, qualifier_string ; comments

qualifier_string is optional.

Qualifier string	Meaning

do_not_care	Indicates that it is acceptable to load the protected-mode driver and not use the mapper for this real-mode driver, because it doesn’t matter whether it sees any I/O requests. This is the default.
must_chain	Implies that the device driver or TSR is safe, but it has an INT13 hook that needs to see INT13 requests. In this case, the protected-mode drivers are loaded, but the system routes the logical requests through the real-mode mapper and then switches back to protected-mode at the end of the INT13 chain.
must_not_chain	Implies that the driver is safe as long as it does not see any INT13 requests. In this case, the protected-mode drivers are loaded, and the real-mode mapper is not used.
non_disk	Indicates a driver that controls a device that is not a disk, such as Interlnk.exe. Integrated office system (IOS) issues INT25 calls to all logical volumes in the system and determines whether the request is mapped to INT13, ASPI, or CAM. If the request is not mapped, this is a monolithic driver, as is the case for Interlnk.exe. Adding non_disk prevents IOS from considering Interlnk.exe in its safe-driver processing.
monolithic	Similar to non_disk. Any driver that is monolithic and safe must have this qualifier set to indicate to IOS that the protected-mode port drivers can be loaded and the driver’s entry point can be handled to prevent contention.

Ios.ini also contains an Unsafe CD section. Adding a driver to this section indicates that this compact disc file system (CDFS) will not be loaded on the CD drives that this driver controls.

The following is an example of some Ios.ini entries:

386max.sys     ; Qualitas
4dos.com           ; 4DOS shell program
ad-dos.com     ; Afterdark
ad_wrap.com    ; Afterdark
adi2.com           ; Afterdark
aspi3x90.sys       ; DTC SCSI no PM driver
ramdrive.sys, non_disk; MS-DOS
interlink.exe, non_disk; MS-DOS
laddrv.sys, non_disk; MS-DOS

Tip for Troubleshooting Protected-Mode Drivers

If you believe that a protected-mode driver should be controlling a device, but the device appears with a real-mode driver in the System option in Control Panel, you can check entries in Ios.log. The Ios.log file in the Windows directory is created when a protected-mode driver is not available or the operating system detects that an unknown device driver is controlling a device.

In most cases, the first line in Ios.log states why the protected-mode driver was not loaded. If the first line mentions Mbrint13.sys, the problem most likely is a virus (unless you are using a driver that replaces the master boot record).