Notice nobody answered the question.  (Which was the last MPLAB version for 
98?)  I love this list :-)

Here is a recap of the facts...I know I like to tell stories and the facts 
get obscured:
  - Works fine on 98SE -- on my desktop.
  - Does not work on 98, on the laptop.
  - Laptop is a Dell Latitude D300  (300 as in MHz)
  - Memory is 32 or 64 M -- don't remember.
  - Hard drive is 6 GB
  - Already has Win98, RH 7.3, a tiny Slackware partition, a DOS partition 
for booting an embedded linux system, and a few other data partitions.
  - Was happily running MPLAB 6.1 when it suffered an unfortunate GRUB 
incident.
  - Now restored, Mr Van Winkle got a shiny new MPLAB 7.22 install -- acted 
funny.
  - Attempt to install MPLAB 7.00 -- installer refused to attempt it.
  - One (count 'em, 1) USB port.
  - Microsoft won't sell you Win98SE.  They will happily sell you XP, for $100.
  - Reinstalling an OS is a lot easier to say than to do. Well, it's not 
the OS, but the customizing.

Mr Van Winkle did very well in the interim, running from a Knoppix CD.  But 
he couldn't talk to his beloved PICs.

Now, someone suggested that during my 7.22 trial run, the USB driver didn't 
load.  I do recall, from earlier days, there seemed to be two USB drivers 
present with the ICD2.  But I checked on my desktop system, and I see only 
the "Firmware Client".  And that driver was present when I was running it 
on the laptop.  I was able to compile, download to the device, and hit 
"run"; but when I stopped, the source display did not move into the 
code.  Single-step resulted in the "Target not in debug mode" message.

Someone suggested replacing the BIOS.  I remember when the BIOS was 
supposed to be the hardware specific part of a computer's operating 
software.  Now it's all done in the drivers.  I don't get the feeling there 
are upgrades to a Dell laptop BIOS, though.

Dwayne Reid had a good set of suggestions.  Some I may try.  (How to kick 
it up to 98SE).  But not Ontrack Drive Manager.  This is a boot sector 
virus that does disk address translation--suitable for Windows-only 
installations but unecessary in most cases or if the BIOS is newer than 
about 1996.  And I think GRUB hides itself in the same "secret location" so 
there would be a conflict anyway.   I keep partitions smaller than 2 GB; 
the Windows partition is only for software that has to run on Windows.

I have been watching the trailing edge of technology overtaking the 98 
line.  Microsoft discontinuing support, now programs that suport SE/ME but 
not the original, drivers that are only available from the vendor's website 
(not supplied with the device), and now we're getting programs that support 
only 2000 and up.  Progress, I guess.  I have a new machine at home with an 
XP partition that I use for installing what I call "grunt" software (you 
can hear the hard drive grunt when you install it).

Never could figure out why it's impossible to write a storage class driver 
for 98.  This is the one nice feature of the NT line (2000, XP)

OK, I'll take an Athlon 3600 with 2 GB of RAM, and the biggest HD you have; 
after all, I've got PIC's to program!

Barry  (Soapbox? Me?)



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