30 C HAPTER 2: C USTOM I NSTALLATION S ETUP FOR W INDOWS 95/98Performing the Preinstallation ProcedurePreinstallation is important for proper setup of yourWindows 95/98 system environment. It deletes the default.INF file and the default Windows driver for the NIC.You must perform this procedure to ensure that the latestNIC driver and the 3Com NIC Diagnostics program(a Windows-based program) can be successfully installed. Ifyou do not perform preinstallation, the 3Com InstallationWizard will not run successfully.Follow these steps to perform the preinstallation procedure:1 Turn the PC power on and boot Windows 95/98.2 Click Start in the Windows 95/98 taskbar, and thenclick Run.3 Insert EtherDisk diskette 2 in drive A, and then enter:a:\preinstl4 Click OK. If your PC supports the Windows 95/98 Plug and Playfeature, the Preinstallation Software screen appears, asshown in Figure 7, displaying a list of available IRQs.Click OK. The next step is to install the NIC in your PC(see Chapter 1). Then go to “NIC Configuration in aWindows 95/98 Plug and Play PC” to configurethe NIC.Figure 7 Preinstallation Software ScreenRecord the displayed IRQs. You need to verify thatan available IRQ is assigned to the NIC when the NICConfiguration Settings screen (Figure 28 on page 49)appears later in the 3Com Installation Wizard.
