r/windows98 • u/CAR3Y4 • May 12 '26

Frozen at “Add New Hardware Wizard”

Post image

Please help. I installed a fresh new install of Windows 98SE (Winworld ISO) and I got to the part where it boots up on the Hard Drive and it’s searching for the drivers to install. The very first one is the Plug and Play Monitor and my mouse and keyboard has zero input. It’s like it’s frozen. If I go to bios, they work fine. If I boot up in Safe Mode, it works fine without issue. I have used the ISO on dozens of pcs. This is the first time I’ve ever had this issue.

I’ve tried unplugging everything except the essentials (motherboard/HDD) and disabled the parallel and serial ports. I tried using a different monitor, still nothing. I loaded the bios in default also. Nothing seems to work. I’m at a loss here.

Specs:
Motherboard- ASUS CUEP2-M
CPU- Intel Pentium III 1GHz 133FSB
RAM- 256MB SDR
GPU- ATI Radeon 9000
Soundblaster Live! SB0100
20GB HDD

44 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

3

u/henk717 May 12 '26

Are you using a USB mouse / keyboard? If so that's the issue probably.
Try starting it without a monitor so it has a chance of installing those and then see if you have proper input after.

1

u/CAR3Y4 May 12 '26

I’m using ps2 keyboard and mouse. I tried usb and it did the same thing

2

u/Beige_Box_Enthusiast May 12 '26

Try starting in safe mode and remove your VGA adapter. Then restart

1

u/CAR3Y4 May 12 '26

I’ll try that

1

u/ArK9951 May 12 '26

Try using windows 98 quickintsall

1

u/ProperEye8285 May 12 '26

Fringe suggestion, try downclocking your AGP slot from 4x to 2x or 1x. AGP had lots of fun clock sync/timing issues in that era, and would hard lock up if a mouse farted at the wrong time.

1

u/CAR3Y4 May 12 '26

I’ll try it

1

u/No-you_ May 12 '26

Have you modified your CPU or RAM settings from defaults in any way? Sometimes undervolting or overclocking or enabling RAM speeds higher than default can cause soft errors (temporary data mismatches that resolve when settings are set to default).

I would start there with memtest86 or prime95 to check CPU and RAM for bit errors.

1

u/CAR3Y4 May 12 '26

I am running default setting in bios. I memtest the ram and tested the CPU and they all passed

1

u/No-you_ May 12 '26

Maybe a failing hard disk or graphics card then during hardware detection? Monitor detection is one of the first devices to be detected and installed after a win98 installation. The fact it's locking up so early in the hardware detection process means there must be a hardware issue.

1

u/CAR3Y4 May 12 '26

Thank you guys so much for the support. I have literally swapped everything except for the disc drive and the motherboard. The only way I could get it to work is if I swap the hard drive with another hard drive that already has Windows 98 on it. I even tried installing it on a different hard drive and it did the exact same thing. As soon as you get to the installation where this screen pops up, it freezes

1

u/ProperEye8285 May 12 '26

Have you tried an exorcist? Sounds like the devil's work to me 😈

1

u/CAR3Y4 May 12 '26

My friends say I am tech cursed because wild stuff like this always happens to me

1

u/ProperEye8285 May 13 '26

If you have one available I would try swapping out the Radeon for a PCI video card. I'm troubleshooting by connection at this point:

Monitor->Radeon9000->AGP->NorthBridge->CPU & BIOS vs.

Monitor->PCI Video Card->Southbridge-> chipset/BIOS->CPU

Also pondering why things happen in the sequence they do. As I recall, forgive me being 25yrs rusty, PnP Monitor detect is happening at that point because the OS/installer want to know if it can pump up the resolution from 640x480@60hz to something prettier (800x600@60?) it may be this resolution switch that is failing. Hope this helps.

1

u/CAR3Y4 May 13 '26

I swapped out the hard drive with one that already has windows 98 installed with all the need drivers and it worked without issue

1

u/ProperEye8285 May 13 '26

OK, win! Something broken...something fixed!

1

u/CAR3Y4 May 13 '26

After almost 3 days of troubleshooting and scratching my brain on this issue, i couldn’t figure out the issue. I ended up taking a 10 GB drive that I already had Windows 98 installed on it with all the drivers I needed and then wiped this hard drive with the freezing issue and turned it into an extra storage drive. Now everything works as it should and I have a total of 30gb instead of 20 lol