Stupid Win ME

[silent ben]

Grandad hands me his computer and says "fix this so i can use this USB printer". Easy i thought, just wack in the Win ME disc and install the USB drivers. How how wrong i was. When windows asks for the CD, it recognises it but cant find the files it needs.

So far today i have managed to get it on the internet for 20 mins, restarted after installing SP1 and IE6 only to find the internet now doesn't work. I tried to make a network setup disc on my computer (running XP) only to find the network setup wizard doesn't work (no idea why).

SP1 installs the USB ports so i'd made some progress. I plug in the printer, and the Driver CD is missing. I go to the lexmark website, download and install the drivers, press print and.....

It says "please choose a file to print to". WTF, just print it you a$$. I go to setup the printer so that it knows its in the USB port, but the USB ports have disappeared. I have finally decided theres 1 option, a reinstall.

Theres a problem tho. I have win XP, and grandads win ME discs. The computer is really poor, its got a riser card in it. 200mhz with 64MB of RAM and a 4GB hard drive. ME sucks, XP wont run and my brother has lent out my Win 98 cd .

Also, i have no idea how to format the PC. Using a boot disc, entering command prompt and typing "format c:\".

Questions:
1) why doesn't this PC recognise the USB ports even though they are installed?
2) Which windows should i install?
3) How do you format a PC with ME installed?

Thanks for any help you can provide

Ben

[EvilMunky]

Win ME was a mistake - it was a Bad OS from day one.

Go for Windows Xp with Service Pack 1

To install xp on a clean partition just stick in the cd and boot from it - you should get the choice to create new partition - do that.

Just make sure you backed your data up first!

[directhex]

you'll need to boot a win9x floppy, format it with format c: as you said, then boot the me cd to run the installer.

[silent ben]

Found the problem, 1 of the 2 sets of USB ports wasn't working. Plugged it into another port and it magically wirred into life. Thanks for all the help anyway lads.

Ben

[Flash]

is the usb slots switched off in the bios?

this was done in almost all of the old P100-P266 Pcs due to the fact there were hardly any USB devices around at that time

[madocks]

aye bin ME, id rather use win 95 / 3.11 than ME, its the devils spawn!

[silent ben]

Grandparents dont like change, so i wasn't allowed to change anything. It was to be like i was never there