Software loading problem in Win98SE

OK, bear with me. My 5 year old Dell laptop is failing to handle certain
software downloads such as a Linksys wirelessB notebook adapter and WinFax.
For these purposes, I'll focus on the Linksys issue.

1. After running the Linksys notebook adapter setup CD, turning off the PC,
installing the card, rebooting and watching it build the driver base, I get a
prompt to install/run the Win98SE setup CD that came with the machine. When
I do this, the machine cannot find the files on the setup CD (mostly .dll's,
..386's, a few .exe's, "network," & "protocol" - numbering more than 40 files
when I gave up counting).
2. I tried another Win98 CD with the same results.
3. I then tried to use another PC to find these files on one of the setup
CD's and copied them to a number of floppies. I used the floppies to "hand
feed" each file during setup/driver-build process but I eventually had a
problem finding a certain file or getting it to be accepted.
4. Figuring this is no way to load a program, I do an "over-the-top"
reinstall of Win98SE (using the setup CD with no apparent problem). Note - I
haven't done a full-meal-deal clean install yet. But the problem remains as
noted in #1,2 & 3.
5. I had the same problem with WinFax; it wanted the Win98 setup CD to
complete the load process and couldn't find about 5 files it needed, the
difference in this case being that I couldn't find them on the CD or another
Win98 system either.

Am I SOL on this? Is something fatal happening like the motherboard
crapping out?
Thanks,
Gary J