Lots of problems wih Win95 Please help me!
Ricardo Basurto D.
I just bought a Pentium 150 and I´m having many problems with it since
Windows 95 came preinstalled and I didn´t receive any installation
disks.
First: several messages started showing up at start-up sayind that Win95
couldn´t find these files which were mentioned in the Windows Register
or in System.Ini: nwlink.vxd, nwredir.vxd, nscl.vxd, vredir.vxd
vnsetup.vxd
Second: after start-up, windows says it can´t find these other files and
that some features won´t be available: nwnp32.dll, msnp.dll
Final and worst: at first I only received those messages but windows
worked just fine, but since yesterday I started receiving, after
start-up, a message which says that Windows found an error in the
Register (???) and that I should reinitialize the computer to rebuild
the register and solve the problem, since this is the only option I had,
I reinitialized, but the message kept showing up every time I restart
Windows, so I just forgot it and tried to open programs and Oh surprise!
The Start menu won´t open any program (it pops-up and seems to work, but
it just won´t open anything) neither can I open any icon on the desktop,
to open a program I have to right-click an icon and then choose Open but
I´m receiving many error messages when I´m working in any program.
Is there any way to solve these problems without the installation disks?
Is there any internet site where I can find some utility that will solve
the problem (scandisk and thunderbyte detected nothing)? I´m a student
so I can´t afford to buy any software, I barely was able to buy the
computer.
Stephen F Payer
Ricardo Basurto D. wrote:
>
> I just bought a Pentium 150 and I´m having many problems with it since
> Is there any internet site where I can find some utility that will solve
> the problem (scandisk and thunderbyte detected nothing)? I´m a student
Ricardo, You may have hardware (memory/cache) problems; see the
following; there may be too much superfluous info here but it will at
least provide you with good help links.
If you find hardware problems, take machine to seller for fix; if you
continue to limp along with bad cache/memory, you will trash WIN95
registry and see further problems.
So:
The following may help with some of the problems I see in this group.
It's an account of much WIN95 misery over a period of several months,
the fix, and a number of links to good fix sites. So, FYI, read on:
(1) Original Statement of Problem
A few months ago I upgraded old 486/25 system to pentium 166 system
using Elitegroup TS54P AIO motherboard, (Triton 430FX chipset). Bought
it from a local CompUSA . Also upgraded RAM from 8 Meg to 32 Meg.
Everything went OK until I installed Windows95 for first time, with
great difficulty. Then, for next 2 months had all kinds of horrible
problems with WIN95, all possible problems cited in the web WIN95
travail sites: invalid page faults, VxD errors, random lockups,
inability to boot '95, exit '95, install, uninstall, registry
corruption, and on and
on.....
Dual booting to WIN 3.1 went pretty much OK, (mystery) but big trouble
with WIN 95. Thought it was me, personally, vs. the new OS. Should,
(as retired ee), have suspected bad hardware sooner.
Finally got a hint from the Microsoft Knowledge Base that either
memory or caching might be the problem, so, with little to lose,
disabled the L2 cache from the BIOS setup. (Phoenix BIOS v2.5, dated
02/21/96, which came installed on the motherboard).
Surprise! Disabling cache worked. All WIN95 problems disappeared but
now Norton System Benchmark indicated performance equal only to
Pentium 90 system.
Next, suspecting CPU/cache speed mismatch, de-clocked P166 to P133 by
changing motherboard jumpers and re-enabled cache. WIN95 performed
well for ~10 minutes with Norton Benchmark rated p133 performance.
Then previous misery reappeared. So, back to no cache with overall
machine performance degradation.
Question:
Why does disabling L2 pipeline burst cache enable broken WIN95 but
have no apparent effect on WIN3.1, except to run machine at reduced
performance (speed/disk access)?
Which speed reduction(s), bus and/or CPU are most likely to make '95
run correctly?
------------------------------------------------------------->
(2) Answer, in form of e-mail post to another with similar problem:
It took a while, but found fix by simply switching SIMM modules,
one for the other, in their 16 Meg bank slots. I apparently had a
probably slower or partially malfunctioning SIMM module in memory area
used by WIN95. Good Hardware *much* more critical for running '95 than
3.1x. Switching SIMMs cured WIN95 problem; maybe will reoccur to bite
someday when running 10 apps and one of same resides in malfunctioning
SIMM, but for now WIN95 running perfectly, with cache re-enabled, and
busting p166 benchmarks. Why disabling L2 cache & SIMM memory location
intertwined, nobody can say.
Now that '95 running beautifully, strongly recommend it vs. '3.1x/DOS.
Faster and *much* more stable; great features; is and/or points to OS
of future. But wants more attention to install *needs much better
machine* to run.
So:
CompUSA useless; purely crass retailer; didn't even know m/board mfgr;
had only 32 pin SIMM tester! (pentiums use 72 pins); local outfit now
not even doing m/board work; but would test (hah!) and sell me new SIMM!
ECS, (m/board mfgr.), next to useless; Taiwanese outfit; poorly
translated manual; poorly translated e-mail correspondence; kept
insisting I do BIOS upgrade; not the problem.
Try following resources below in best (top) to least (bottom) helpful
order for much more info. and possible fix-------
This source pointed to the nature of the problem:
"WIN95 VxD Errors:
This is a complex and recurring issue. Check out Microsoft's Knowledge
Base (http://www.microsoft.com/kb) and go to Article ID: Q137335
entitled "Invlid VxD Dynamic Link Calls..." The info there might be
applicable to your problem. See also ARTICLE-ID Q52195 and Article ID:
Q142546"
Finally found fix through these people; very good; try, yourself----
http://www.experts-exchange.com
Pretty much same analysis from here--------
http://community.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/podium
(This link incomplete, as is; delete to ...zdnet.com part & go from
there).
See much similar WIN95 misery here------
http://www.astonisher.com/buzz/bugttoc.htm
Intel mostly useless, not much help, but learn a lot about chipsets
here-------
http://cs.intel.com/Intel/other_components/pci_chipsets/threads.htm
Luck with your problem(s),
Steve Payer
Ron Martell
"Ricardo Basurto D." <al36...@mail.mty.itesm.mx> wrote:
>I just bought a Pentium 150 and I惴 having many problems with it since
>Windows 95 came preinstalled and I didn愒 receive any installation
>disks.
<cut>
>
>Is there any way to solve these problems without the installation disks?
>Is there any internet site where I can find some utility that will solve
>the problem (scandisk and thunderbyte detected nothing)? I惴 a student
>so I can愒 afford to buy any software, I barely was able to buy the
>computer.
If you didn't receive the source disks then I would check on your hard
drive for a directory that contains a number of .cab files, the setup
program, and some other items. If so, you can run this setup and
reinstall which should correct the problems.
It is common for the really cheapskate computer companies to do this.
If the source files are not on your hard drive and the dealer did not
provide you with the disks then I would suggest you discuss this
further with Microsoft's software piracy dept.
Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://www.islandnet.com/~rmartell/online.htm
"The ultimate in office automation: Networked Coffee."