(IDG) -- Microsoft says Windows 98 "works better and plays better." But don't tell that to Danielle Scott of Toronto. When the 23-year-old office supplies store clerk tried to install the Windows 98 upgrade on her 200-MHz Pentium, the software crashed during setup. "A lot of my files were corrupted; I couldn't use my programs or e-mail. I was paralyzed," she states. It took her two days to recover her data.

Scott's nightmarish installation is far from an isolated incident. Internet newsgroups are littered with first-person accounts of Win 98 bugs and glitches: malfunctioning notebook power management; printers, software, and drives that don't work; and even systems that won't boot. As if these problems weren't enough, Windows Update, a new Windows 98 feature intended to help users avoid problems, may make them worse.

Microsoft, which doesn't provide a toll-free help line, says Windows 98 is safe and stable. "The operating system isn't broken," says Shawn Sanford, a Windows 98 product manager. "The volume of Windows 98 copies shipping is very high, and there are going to be issues."

Microsoft points to a survey conducted by market research firm Telecommunications Research Group showing that nine of ten Windows 98 home users are satisfied with the OS. But Microsoft sold more than a million upgrade copies of the new OS within a month of its release. So the 90 percent approval rating means that 10 percent -- or at least 100,000 users -- aren't happy at all.

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Even computer manufacturers, which in most instances march in lockstep with Microsoft, are posting upgrade warnings on their Web sites. Top vendors such as Compaq, Dell, Gateway, and IBM are telling customers to download BIOS and driver upgrades before they install Windows 98. And Dell strongly discourages its customers from using Windows Update, which automatically downloads and installs updated OS files from the Microsoft site.

The software giant's take on the situation? Windows 98's problems are minor and mostly due to drivers that didn't make it on the upgrade CD-ROM. And while some notebooks can't take advantage of Windows 98's new power management features without a BIOS update, those updates are (or soon will be) available via the Web. As for Windows Update, Microsoft acknowledges that it still has some "hiccups" to work out with hardware makers but adds that the core technology itself is sound. "The premise of the technology is great--a central place where you can get updates for your operating system," insists Microsoft's Sanford.

Sanford may be right. But why do so many people have trouble upgrading? Why were so many drivers left off the upgrade CD? And why didn't Microsoft collaborate earlier with hardware vendors to ensure that notebook BIOSes would be ready for Win 98?

Missing drivers

Most user problems involve hardware peripherals -- scanners, printers, tape drives, and so on -- that worked perfectly under Win 95 but won't function post-upgrade. George Kalas, a Webmaster in Houston, installed Win 98 on his 120-MHz Pentium PC clone and quickly discovered that his Iomega Ditto tape drive would no longer work. Then Kalas unsuccessfully searched the Iomega and Microsoft sites for answers. "Windows 98 was supposed to have a huge supply of updated drivers, so I'm floored that it didn't recognize this drive," he says.

Why the missing drivers? Though the Win 98 CD contains more than 1200 drivers, it leaves out many glitches. If you're using a Turtle Beach Montego 64 sound card in your Dell Dimension PC, for instance, you'll need to download the appropriate Win 98 driver from Dell's Web site. And you'll need to scan the Web for drivers for many other peripherals, too, including the Bay Networks FA310TX network card.

"If this were a perfect world, we would continually add drivers to the CD," concedes Sanford. "But we have to freeze the code at some point. If we kept adding drivers, we'd never release a product."

Hardware not ready

In some instances, today's hardware simply isn't ready for Windows 98's new features. Many notebooks need an updated BIOS -- the basic instructions for controlling hardware -- to take advantage of Windows 98's Advanced Configuration and Power Interface feature, which allows a PC to conserve power by turning off specific peripherals. The Toshiba Web site, for example, warns of "significant difficulties" in installing the company's ACPI-compatible BIOS after its notebooks were upgraded to Windows 98. The notebooks still function, but can't use certain new power management features.

Other notebook peripherals require BIOS upgrades, too. If, for instance, you want your PC Card modem (or other device that uses the credit cardsize slot) to work on your Gateway Solo 9100, you must update the BIOS before moving to Windows 98.

Who or what is to blame? "Most hardware vendors are still testing their ACPI-compliant BIOS," says Sanford. "Windows 98 is the first operating system that supports ACPI, and somebody has to lead the way, whether it's the hardware or software vendor."

But in the case of ACPI, it seemed only recently that no one was leading the way. Windows 98 was in beta for well over a year -- plenty of time for notebook vendors to prepare their systems for the new OS. So when Windows 98 shipped unexpectedly with the interface in June, many vendors were caught off-guard.

Some industry watchers believe Microsoft is to blame. "I don't think the problems can be laid totally at the hardware guys' feet," says Dataquest software analyst Chris LeTocq. He says that in 1997 Dataquest advised Microsoft to develop a "98-ready" program that would spur hardware vendors to prime their machines for the arrival of Windows 98. "But (Microsoft) never did that," LeTocq says.

Where can you get help?

Both Microsoft and hardware vendors have posted a number of Windows 98 drivers and upgrade tips on their Web sites. Nonetheless, some users feel that this information is too hard to find. "Neither the Microsoft nor the Iomega site was of any help at all," says user Kalas, who combed the Web fruitlessly for a timely solution to his nonfunctioning Ditto tape drive. (Six weeks later, Iomega provided a fix for the problem.)

Indeed, obtaining Win 98 troubleshooting information on the Web often seems like collecting lost dollar bills on Manhattan sidewalks. Despite the many reports of upgrade problems, the home pages of Compaq, Dell, Gateway, IBM, and Microsoft offer no direct links to a Windows 98 help page. On the other hand, the "official" Microsoft Win 98 page (link below) does provide a link to upgrade tips.

By the time you read this, Microsoft should already have released its Multimedia Update, which will fix at least some of the known bugs and add a number of multimedia enhancements to Win 98.

And those Win 98 upgrade problems? "We don't want to play down people's issues, but we're actually getting fewer support calls" than after other OS launches, Sanford says.

Is upgrading to Windows 98 safe? The answer is yes, as long as you take a few precautionary steps in advance. First, call your PC vendor or check its Web site for updated driver and BIOS files. Next, back up your data and be sure to select the install option that lets you keep Windows 95 files on your hard drive. And don't forget to cross your fingers.

Additional reporting was done by Yardena Arar.