Device Manager missing in Win98 (Help please)

[Bligg]

Hmm, Where do I start?
My Fiance's father has an old Packard Bell PC. It took a dive a couple of weeks ago - it would not power on at all, no lights or anything.
Since I'm the only one he knows is familiar with computers, he hands it to me and says fixit.
Normally I'm comfortable with my limitations and in this type of case I'd say take it to a shop, BUT if I can't fix his computer how am I supposed to take care of the complicated splendor that he calls daughter?
Bad comparison? You damn right, but its been done and the PC sits in my house, so lets make with the questions.

I started by replacing the power supply, still no juice. Next I replaced the motherboard, cpu and memory - viola, I can boot to Win98!!

As Win98 is detecting all the new motherboard hardware it asks for the Win98 cd. I skipped past most of it because it was not detected as the intended device. I thought I'd fix it all in device manager once the desktop loaded.
Desktop loads.
I go to Control Panel - System Propterties and scour the screen for the device manager tab - which is notthere.

The video, sound, lan drivers all need to be corrected but how do I do that without device manager?

My guess is this is a Packard Bell version of Win98 and they've disabled the device manager, but how?

If anyone has any suggestions or has a solution about how to get device manager back it'd be much appreciated.

-Bligg
AIM: ZukaJedi
email: [email protected]

[Ymaster]

Well, I'm very sure that no one is going to be able to help you on this. This is the first time I have ever heard of such a thing. Just do a normal install of windows and don't skip anything this time. That or do a custom install with every dam option under the sun...

[Ymaster]

Have you tried getting to the Systems Properties by right clicking on My Computer?
Only thing I can think of is to use TweakUI and try to check off all of the control panel boxes...

[KR02]

Do you have a spare copy of w98 laying around? If so, use that, rather than the one that came with the PC.

[Bligg]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention the cdrom. It is so old that it won't read cd-r media. As it is I only have an archived version of Win98, if ya get what I'm burnin at.

Well if nothin else I'll just replace the cdrom and reinstall as needed.
Also, right-clicking on My Computer and going to properties showed the same thing - no device manager tab.

Thanks for the posts.

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BLIGG
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Mmm...omnipotence, gotta get me some of that!

[This message has been edited by Bligg (edited September 10, 2000).]

[JOEBOO]

To my recollection, (and it has been a while since I have used a crapardbell), they use a proprietary version of Win9x, be it 95, 98, whatever. I think the name of the monitoring app is cybertrio. Can someone confirm or deny that? It should be listed in the start menu, open it and you should have a check box option to utilize this utility or turn it off. It basically functions as a half baked local profile, al la NT. What this means is that you can not modify, change or add any drivers, registry entries, (unless it is to HKEY/LOCALMACHINE/SOFTWARE....or below within the directory structure of the registry), this is to prevent said user from making any potentially harmful changes to the machine that would otherwise inhibit its functionality, e.g. taking away the device manager, or limiting the users ability to set virtual memory etc. etc. Simply enter CyberTrio (if I have the name right....pretty sure it is Cyber"something"), and look for an option to disalbe the program as a whole. At that point the device manager should reappear and you should be able to replace/install drivers etc. good luck hope that helps.
p.s. if it isn't in the start menu go to the control panel and uninstall it, or use a 3rd party utility (clean sweep, windelete, whatever) to remove it...same effect different road.

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Keep honking I'm reloading.