HP ScanJet IIcx & Win98?

I've been running my HP SJIIcx w/the  SCSI card that came with it in the box since 1995. Each have run beautifully in both Win95 and for the last 2 yrs in Win98. In Win95 I used the drivers from the disk in the box. In Dec of 98, when I first installed Win98, I downloaded the most recent ScanJet drivers (ver. 2.3) from HP's website. The scanner and card have worked just fine for me in Win98 since then. Lately I've been experiencing some major problems with Win98, too many crashes to count, and have been unable to successfully diagnose the problem. I decided, after much duress, to reformat my hard drive and re-install Win98. I also decided to check out the HP site for the latest drivers. I found new SJIIcx software available, ver. 2.8, but the site specifically says that I will need to purchase a new SCSI card from a 3rd party for $100 because my scanner will NOT work in Win98 w/the card HP shipped with it. I'm baffled because I've experienced no problems at all that can be traced back to either the card or the scanner I've been using together for more than two years, the length of time I've been running the 1st release of Win98. My first thought was "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" but I'm curious about why HP says my current card won't work in Win98 when it obviously does. I would like to use the latest drivers (ver 2.8) but perhaps I should stick with the older Win95 drivers (ver 2.3). Any advice?