I picked up an mp3 player (nomad jukebox 20GB by creative). The player works fine, but the USB drivers are absolute crap. I can't get the sucker to connect to the PC (win xp pro). I found this thread on their euro boards:
http://uk.europe.creative.com/support/f ... u=6&page=2
I emailed them, and they told me this:
Dear Customer,

Please try the following:

1. Temporarily uninstall all firewall, antivirus, and background
monitoring software.

2. Disable all items currently initialized in your system tray, which
is where the clock is located on your taskbar on the bottom right.

3. Close all programs via MSCONFIG:

a) Click START / RUN / Type MSCONFIG and press ENTER.

b) Select SELECTIVE STARTUP and uncheck 'LOAD STARTUP ITEMS.

c) Select the SERVICES tab and select HIDE ALL MICROSOFT SERVICES.

d) Uncheck all results and click OK.

e) Click OK and reboot when prompted.

4. Go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, and remove the
Creative Playcenter 2,3, or ZEN, saying Yes to all on shared files.

5. Then go to Windows Explorer, go to the C:\ Program Files\Creative
folder.

6. In that folder, delete CTCDDB, Media Manager, News, and
Playcenter2/3 if any of those folders are there. Also, look in the
Documents and Settings folder for Application Data \ Creative folders in
each of your login's. You should find additional copies of the CTCDDB
and Media Manager folders that Windows has created for each of these
logins. Delete them as well.

7. Then restart the system, and try to reinstall from disk and install
the into a different folder or location don't use the default location.

8. keeping all applications disabled.

9. Reboot if prompted and reinstall all software removed in STEP 1.

I did that, and nothing changed. I still cannot get the computer to recognize the mp3 player. Everytime it installs the drivers, it fails. I am going to email creative again, but I doubt they have a clue how to help me. At this point I'm willing to install win98 on my desktop pc and see if it can handle those drivers OK. What would be involved in making my computer be able to have a dual boot for xp and 98? Is there any easier route?

Thanks.

you'll most likey have to partition your harddrive - though in winXP I have no idea how to.

I can't help on the drivers thing. All I can say is I will never buy a creative product again. Not after having trouble (for three fucking hours) installing my Audigy drivers in WinXP.

Anyway...you need a boot manager. And probably more partitions. I've never done a duel-boot with multiple Windows platforms on one system, always Linux and Windows. Separating WinXP and Win98 onto separate partitions is typically safer, but more than likely all your harddrive space is in one partition.

Are you running in NTFS or FAT32? IF you're NTFS then I know of no way to change the partition. If you're running FAT32, you can use FIPS if you're feeling brave. Or partition magic or something.

OK, I figured i would ask before I go screwing up my system. I found this article: http://www.free2code.net/tutorials/os/w ... _98_se.php

which looks like a good solution. However, I already have xp installed. Is there any reason why I shouldn't be able to do this in reverse order? Just install windows 98, and then tinker with the boot process?

Annoying creative logo:

Pig...no, you can't do it in reverse order.

The reason is that WinXP will check for a previous version of windows and allow you to either upgrade or install XP as a separate O/S. It'll then put in a boot loader for you so you can multi-boot, and boom, you're (relatively) done. Minus the tweakage, of course.

From my recollection, win98 lacks this feature. It'll see that XP is installed and refuse to install itself because a newer version of windows exists. If not, it'll rewrite the boot record and you'll have no way of getting into XP.

Now, there may be a way around that. IF you can get win98 to install, you may be able to boot off the XP CD and do a repair or whatever...that should rewrite the boot partition to use XP instead of 98. At that point, you could probably manually edit the boot loader to include win98 as an option.

However... I'm not sure if this'll work. I THINK it will, but I've never done it. This all, of course, assumes you can get win98 to install in the first place. Anyway, your choice... if you want to give it a shot, lemme know, I'll do my best to help.

I'm glad I asked. So, if I try to install 98 on top of XP, I get to possibilities:

1) It overwrites 98, and I have to reinstall XP and follow the instructions as normal after that.

2) 98 installs fine, and I can repair off the XP CD and/or edit the boot loader.

Does that sound right? Either way, I shouldn't need to worry about losing my programs and files, right? Anything I should know before attempting this (besides back up my stuff)?

Hmm, i hope i can be of minimal assistance, since i got both win98SE and win2k installed on my pc, with dualboot. I know Xp doesn't equal win2k but it's close enough.

I've tried installing win 98SE over Win2k, and like Satis said, it overrode my win2k. With the added note that all "specific" win2k folders (or more like NT folders)were still there, but totally useless etc.

So, if you were to install win98 i'd recommend doing a backup; format, install win98 and then install XP. That's by far the most secure way. Ofcourse, it'll take a few hours, but what the heck.

If the repairing/editing of the boot loader works that'd be better ofcourse, but this is the only way i'm sure off lol.

No f'in way am I reformatting on purpose! If I end up having to, then fine. But I am not going through that headache if I can avoid it.

Lol, fine, i reformat like every few months.

I assume 1 should read "overwrites XP, and I have to reinstall XP and follow the instructions as normal after that".

Anyway, basically...

1. It won't let you do it.
2. It'll let you do it, but you'll have to play with repairing the boot record/jacking with the boot loader.

oh...and may I suggest you make a winXP boot disk so you can get into DOS/console mode. It's possible you could do an fdisk /mbr and have it fix the boot record that way... dunno for sure. Be easier than running the XP repair.

I installed 98 from dos. When it asked me to specify the install folder, I put in win98 instead of windows. XP was not overwritten, and now I have a dual boot 98/xp machine.

Yay, resolution! The only thing to note was that I couldn't install it with windows running. I had to do it from dos.

how'd you get it to dual-boot? I mean, 98 doesn't install a boot loader that I'm aware of... how do you choose which O/S to boot up with?

Hell man, I dunno. Once 98 rebooted to continue installation, it gave me the option to choose and still is. /me shrugs

I am now uploading my first 1/2 Gig. It's taking forever to rip all my CD's.

well, can't argue with that. Congrats. Now I just wish I knew how that happened. heheh.