"1 - the floppy WAS connected wrong
2 - your bootdisk worked magically
3 - my win98se install CD refused to work"

I've heard it said; "two outta three ain't bad". ;>)

What is the cd doing (or not doing)?
Is it a burnt copy? (Some older CDROM drives won't read burnt CD's.)
Is it too scratched?
Is it a proprietary cd? (Brand name recovery disk; COMPAQ, DELL, HEWLETT PACKARD, GATEWAY, IBM/LENOVO, etc)

To give up on the machine is your decision. But we're here to help if you don't. ;>)

I'll leave this thread open for a while in case you decide to pursue working on this machine.

The CD was being READ just fine. But ever time i punched in setup.exe to get the install going, it just hung the computer. Not quite giving up i even went into the win98 directory on the CD, and tried to run the setup.exe in there. Same result.

That was the last straw... the box has already been dismantled for salvagables. There is only so much tech taunting i can take.

I much appreciate your wisdow on this one Dan, i suspect i may have need for this forum in the future, actually, this forum has been tremendously helpful everytime i have used it, and since you are one of the moderators, i want to thank you personally for such a helpful resource!

"There is only so much tech taunting i can take." ;>)

Thank you, and you're welcome.