Nec VERSA 500D, VERSA 550D Upgrade Information

NEC Versa 500D/550D
Windows 98 Upgrade Information

Follow the instructions provided in this document to upgrade your
NEC Versa® 500D/550D system to Microsoft® Windows® 98.

Please read these notes in thei r enti rety.

CAUTION

Although not a requi r em ent, NE C recomm ends that you use
the system’s AC power adapter throughout this process. The
Windows 98 upgrade can take anywhere from 25 minutes to
two hours depending on your system , and interrupting the
process with a loss of power can be cat astr ophic if the
system performs an emergenc y save-to-file.

Background

At present, the “Save-to- Disk” po wer management feature of this system does
not fully function in Windows 98. It is very important that this feature be
disabled, particularly if you will be using the FAT32 file system. Instructions
for disa bling “Save- to-Disk” are in the se ction below labeled, “D isabling the
Save-to-Disk in the BIOS Setup”.

Updated utilities will be distributed at a later time that will remedy this.

Note:

click on the “My Computer ” desktop icon. Right click on the
C: drive icon, and selec t Pr oper ties. If the system is running
FAT32, it is listed here nex t t o “File system.” If it is FAT16,
FAT or FAT 16 appears.

To identify your computer’s file system, double

CAUTION

Converting your har d drive to the FAT32 file system format
will signifi c antly enhance file operati ons and save disk
space.

If you intend to convert y our har d drive to the FAT32 file
system format, it is imperative that you disable “Save-to­Disk” functionality in the BIOS setup.

Failure to do this can result in catastrophic dat a los s.

NEC Versa 500D/550D Windows 98 Upgrade Important Information 1

System Requirements

The system requirements for your NEC Versa using Windows 98 are
approximately the same as they are for using Windows 95. As with Windows
95, Windows 98 requires 16 MB of RAM. For hard disk space a typical
installation requires 225 MB of free hard disk space, but may range from 165
MB to 300 MB, depending on system configuration and options selected.

The system requirements for your NEC Versa are:



A minimum of 16MB of RAM.



Approximately 50 MB additional hard d isk capacity.

If backing up Windows 95 system configuration files, another additional



50 MB for a total of 100-MB additional hard disk space.

Note:

your system has insufficient hard driv e space to proceed.

NEC recommends that you do the following in the order listed to upgrade your
system.

The Windows 98 Setup Wizar d informs you if

1. Disable the “Save-t o- Disk” feature in the BIOS setup.

2. Upgrade your operating system to Windows 98.

3. Upgrade your mouse driver.

Disabling Save-to-Disk in the BIOS Setup

Follow these steps t o disable “Sa ve-t o-Disk” in the BIOS setup.

1. Boot the system and enter the BIOS setup utility by pressing the Ctrl, Alt, S

keys, as indicated on the screen, befor e Windows is loaded.

2. Once the BIOS setup utility is displayed, press the Page Down key in order

to display the “Power Management S et tings” menu.

3. Press t he do wn arro w to navigate to the “Save to ” row entry.

4. Press the space bar to change the “Disk” setting to “RAM” if it is set to

“Disk.”

5. Press the Esc key to display the “Exit” menu.

6. Pr ess the F4 key to save the settings and reboot t he syst em.

2 NEC Versa 500D/550D Windows 98 Upgrade Important Information