On Mon, 19 May 2008 00:07:27 -0700, "Gary S. Terhune" none wrote:

Doing what you suggest should be a last resort, desperate tactic to get back
in and retrieve data before reformatting and reinstalling from scratch.
Problem is, when you run Setup again, yes it rebuilds the hardware profile,
but it also replaces newer versions of many files with the older, original
ones from the CD. In short, what you end up with is DLL Hell, mis-matched
file versions, broken Windows Updates, etc.
Hi Gary,

What you say may be correct. I don't use Windows Updates on my Win98SE
systems anyway since I have copies of all the updates and apply them
as needed. The ones I wanted were already applied to this system.

When I did the Win98SE re-install on changing the motherboard it
actually offered the option to keep at least some of the newer files.

Everything I normally use on this system is working as normal, so for
me it isn't an obviously broken system.

I never downgraded IE6 to an earlier IE either. I still have the
original IE6 and it seems to be working fine. I usually use Firefox
anyway, and that is also working fine. I haven't found anything
amongst my applications I have had to re-install, it has all worked to
date.

I doubt I'll be re-installing everything at this stage since, for me,
the re-installation for the new motherboard is working fine.

It is working much better than with a motherboard that wouldn't start
just for starters.

Ross