Recently reformatted and reloaded a Dell P3-500 with 384K with Win 98. Noticed printer wouldn't work and it turns out the USB ports don't work. In control panel PCI devices are yellow question marked, one is "PCI Communications Device" the other is "PCI Mass Storage Controller", clicking on either shows "drivers not loaded", however I don't know what cards/drivers these are?? Presumarly the USB ports are on one of these cards.

Thanks!!!

Tom

"PCI Communications Device"Would typically relate to a modem.

"PCI Mass Storage Controller"Could be an on-board or add-on card for ATA or SCSI devices.

Which model of Dell is this?

Presumarly the USB ports are on one of these cards.
You should be able to tell just from looking whether the USB ports are On-Board or on a PCI Card.

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif!!!

Windows 98 and 98SE both need drivers for any peripheral device and any pci add on cards you may have. You'll need to find the driver disks that came withthe cards, printer or download them from the manufacturer's site such as HP if your printer is one of their's.

If you can't identify the add-on cards, there's several programs that can do that or you can do it by taking them out and finding the manufacturer and model number, the fcc code or identificatioon on the chips themselves.
Easiest is id'ing it with software such as Everest Home Edition. There's another that slips my mind which Sylvander recommends that would most likely be the best choice, hopefully he sees this thread and suggests it for you. I'm on the road and don't have access to my records at home.

Presumarly the USB ports are on one of these cards.


The USB ports are [usually] mounted on the motherboard, and with Windows 98 USB drivers will be necessary to get USB working. Those would probably come from the motherboard manufacturer's website, or if you have it the Dell Restore disk should install them along with everything else.

You can also look in Device manager and see if USB is already installed, it might be ready because I think USB will show up with a yellow exclamation mark too if drivers are not installed. As Paul indicated, with a Win98 machine USB could be either onboard or an add-on card, that can be checked by looking at the bacl or opening it up and looking on the motherboard. Newer machines are almost always onboard.

If USB is installed and working according to Device Manager then it's drivers for the individual comoponents that wil lbe needed. Be careful installing drivers, most want you to install drivers FIRST, and plug the device in at some point during the installation, rather than plugging in the device and letting Windows ask for drivers. That is especially true for printers or the newer all-in-one printer/scanner/fax outfits. Read the documentation first, or the manufacturer's FAQ.

Use Unknown Device Identifier = http://tinyurl.com/bcbhn [free] to identify the unknown devices.