Yeh I remember when plug an play was going to solve all the installing hardware probs, big laugh, you generally have to point the install hardware at the specific item on the driver CD using browse, or it will never find it.
Win 2k can be a pain in the arse instead of letting you point at the item on the driver disk, it searches the whole bloody CD, then still can't find it.
If the problem is with the win 98 itself missing a file, why not just reinstall windows over the top?.