I recently received an old Japanese NEC LaVie NX LB26C/62A laptop from a friend and was asked to reformat it. Given the age and the exotic nature of the system, finding drivers was nearly impossible. However, with a little help from Everest, a system information tool which identifies your computer’s hardware components, I was able to track down drivers for most of the LaVie’s hardware. Incidentially, the LaVie NX LB26C/62A seems to be identical to a Packard Bell Easylite 301, which made the whole job of getting the system back up and running a lot easier.

I originally intended to put a lightweight Linux distro on the system, but it seems that except for Damn Small Linux and TinyME 2008, most modern Linux distros were too much to handle for the LaVie’s little CPU So you either look for older Linux systems that were used back in the 1990s, or you simply settle for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 98 SE. Since my friend doesn’t use the computer to go online or download stuff, I chose Windows 98 SE, a system he is already familiar with. But even just ‘upgrading’ Windows 98 enough for it to be usable for most of today’s everyday tasks was quite difficult already. First of all, here are the respecitve hardware drivers for the LaVie NX LB26C/62A.

LaVie NX LB26C/62A Windows 98SE Hardware Drivers

1. Video: Trident 9388 Video Driver (Win95&98)
2. Sound: ESS Maestro-2E (ES1978s) Audio Driver (Win 98SE)
3. Modem: Psion Dacom Gold Card Global V.90 56K+Fax Utility (Easyswitch) (Win95&98)

• Easylite 301 Driver Page on support.packardbell.com

You can use a USB stick to port the drivers over to the system, but since Windows 98’s USB support is rudimentary at best, you will first have to install drivers for your USB stick. Many sticks will work with generic USB drivers, but not all of them. Technical-assistance.co.uk has generic USB drivers for Windows 98 SE available:

• Generic Windows 98 SE USB driver: Technical-assistance.co.uk

Modernizing Windows 98

Although Windows 9x systems don’t support Unicode, there are a few things you can do to make your system more ‘international’. Get the two files below to add limited Unicode support to your system and to be able to input Chinese, Japanese & Korean text in Microsoft Office:

• Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows 9x
• Microsoft Global IME for Microsoft Office (Windows 9x)

There area two tools that will make your life with Windows 98 a lot easier. TweakUI will let you change various design options of Windows systems without having to modify the registy. KernelEx is an open-source compatibility layer which aims to make Windows XP-only programmes run on Windows 98. Through KernelEx, you will be able to use the newest version of Firefox or Adobe Flash, which you wouldn’t be able to run otherwise.

• TweakUI for Windows 98: Annoyances.org
• KernelEx on SourceForge.net

Getting WPA encrypted W-LAN to work on Windows 98

There is also a way to get WPA-encrypted Wireless Internet working on Windows 98. Normally, commercial software would be required here. But thanks to the Netzwerkportal.de, I found a free alternative. I used a Digitus PCMCIA 802.11g Wireless Internet card for my tests and found their solution worked for me.

1. Get the McAfee Wireless Security Installer 4.1, for example from Netzwerkportal.de.
2. Run the installation and keep clicking ‘next’ until you get to the screen with the License Agreement. Read the License Agreement and continue if you accept it. When you get to the point where the installation dialogue asks you to specify an installation folder, make sure you activate the checkbox in the lower right corner, so you will only install the free components.
3. Reboot your system.

You should now have a little icon for the WSC Wireless Network manager in your system tray.

• WPA encyrption on Windows 9x systems: German tutorial on Netzwerktotal.de

Everyday software

Most modern software doesn’t support Windows 9x anymore, but KernelEx should at least help you a little to circumvent the intentional vendor lockouts and make modern browsers, such as Firefox 3.5, work on your Windows 98 system. If you need to make sure that your software will work on flawlessly on Windows 98, though, always try to use the officially supported versions.

• Java JDK/JRE 5.0 (Windows 9x supported)
• Outpost Firewall 1.0 Free: OldVersion.com (get the ‘old’ free version from oldversion.com, not the current free version from agnitum.com, to save RAM)
• OpenOffice 1.1.5
• VideoLAN VLC 0.8.6 (last version to support Windows 9x)

Afterthoughts

Working with Windows 98 is not easy anymore these days, since more and more software projects drop support for the Win9x series. Many people will say that now, more than 10 years after the initial release of Windows 98, it’s about time the system disappears from computer screens. While I understand this opinion and people’s frustration with Win98 endless bugs and security flaws, I also understand people who can’t afford a modern computer system, or are for one way or another stuck with Windows 98. This post merely tries to show them how to work more effectively on an old system

Don’t forget to make sure that you still need proper antivirus protection (even though Windows 98 compatible antivirus may be a little hard to come by) and a firewall if you intend to browse the web. Try to keep your online times to a minimum, though. And please remember that you’re using all tools provided here at your own risk! Good luck!

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