Smart Computing Article - Windows 95 Error Messages

Subscribe Today | Contact Us | Register Now

Home | Tech Support | Q&A Board | Article Search | Subscribe & Shop

Windows 95 Error Messages

Email This

Print This
View My Personal Library

Operating Systems February 2000 • Vol.4 Issue 1	Add To My Personal Library
Windows 95 Error Messages Common Problems & Their Solutions

Whether you're installing Windows 95 on a Windows 3.x/MS-DOS computer for the first time or are an old hand with this graphical operating system, error messages can either baffle you or help you bring your computer back to health.

You probably will experience fewer error messages in Windows 95 (Win95) than with Windows 3.x, but plenty of problems still lurk in the latest Microsoft operating system. Here's some common error message problems and their potential solutions.

problem: You get "Can't Install Windows 95" error messages during installation.

Solutions: During installation, Win95 does not want any programs in its way. Because it must detect, support, and control your hardware, many common configurations can cause Win95's installation routine to stop or fail.

The first place this error might happen is during the initial installation check. The Win95 installation will stop and an error message will be displayed if the installation program detects any of the following programs:

• Terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) antivirus programs such as MS-DOS' VSAFE command and McAfee Associates' VShield.

• Delete-tracking programs such as MS-DOS' UNDELETE command and Norton Utilities' Norton Erase Protect or SmartCam.

Because these programs intercept normal disk operations, they must be removed before you start the Win95 installation. Unfortunately, Win95 will warn you about a single problem program at a time. To eliminate the problem, you can edit your Autoexec.bat file, put a REM command before the command line that activates the program, restart the computer, then restart the Win95 installation. You might then discover another program that's incompatible with Win95 and have to repeat this chore. This makes installing Win95 quite a troublesome task.

The best way around the problem? At a DOS C:\> prompt, type the command mem /c to view which programs are running in memory. You should then edit the Auto exec.bat file, putting REM commands in front of the command lines that execute these programs. The exceptions are Smartdrv.exe, Mouse.com, and Mscdex.com (the CD-ROM driver). Restart the computer and try your installation again. (NOTE: For information about editing Autoexec.bat files, see "Using & Fixing Autoexec.bat Files" in this issue.)

The second place to look for problems is in your computer's read-only memory, Basic Input/Output System (ROM BIOS) setup screens. Many recent computers have a setting called "Write Protect Boot Sector" or "Anti-Virus Boot Sector." This setting is designed to protect the boot sector of a hard drive from computer viruses that can spread to diskettes and destroy data.

Unfortunately, this setting will either completely block Win95 from changing the boot sector during installation or provide false virus warning messages when the change (a normal part of the installation process) is made. To avoid problems, boot up the computer, press the key(s) to access the BIOS setup screens, disable the boot sector write protection, and save the changes. When you restart the computer, you'll be able to install Win95 in place of your old operating system.

problem: You can't start Win95 because of a "Protection Error . . . System Halted" message.

Solution: This message might indicate a serious configuration problem with your computer, or it might just be a momentary glitch that can be fixed by turning off the computer and restarting it.

If you just installed a new device, such as a diskette drive, that must be initialized on bootup, it might not be configured properly. You can help determine the problem by pressing the F8 function key during the bootup process and selecting "Logged (\BOOTLOG.TXT)" as the startup option. This creates a hidden file called Bootlog.txt.

When a Missing Shortcut error message displays on-screen, the Browse button lets you indicate a new location for the program.

Although the file is hidden to the Directory (DIR) command, you can view it with the EDIT command. To see the file (assuming your system displays an error again), press the F8 key at startup and select Safe Mode Command Prompt. This boots the system without loading any device drivers or Registry options just as if you had booted the computer from a Win95 bootable diskette. The last line in the Bootlog.txt file will point to the problem—either a bad piece of hardware or a bad driver file for that hardware.

problem: You're trying to use the Boot Previous Version Of MS-DOS option from the F8 startup menu, and you get a "Previous Version Of MS-DOS Not Found" error message.

Solution: It might be that there never was a previous version of MS-DOS on the computer. The "Previous Version Of MS-DOS" message comes from a line in Msdos.sys, a special text file that controls Win95 bootup options. The line in Msdos.sys that enables booting to a previous version of MS-DOS is BOOTMULTI=. If the line reads "BOOTMULTI=1," you'll see this prompt. If the line reads "BOOTMUL TI=0," you won't.

If you've successfully booted a previous version of MS-DOS on the computer before, use Windows Explorer to see if you have the following files in the root directory of your computer's C: drive. ( NOTE: To do this, you must go to the Windows Explorer View menu, select Options, then enable Show All Files if the button isn't already checked.)

Io.dos (will be renamed Io.sys)

Msdos.dos (will be renamed Msdos.sys)

Command.dos (will be renamed Command.com)

These files are the MS-DOS boot files that will be renamed and used when you select Previous Version Of MS-DOS during the bootup process. If these files are missing or damaged, you won't be able to run anything but Win95 without replacing them. The Windows 95 Resource Kit, which comes as a book or as a free help file version on the Win95 installation CD-ROM, explains how to recreate these files if they are lost.

problem: You get the "Missing Shortcut" error message at startup or when you attempt to run a program.

Solution: Win95's Start menu has shortcuts to program groups and program files for all programs you've installed under Windows. Shortcuts are pointers to programs you want to run. One program group shortcut is the StartUp group. Programs found here automatically run when Win95 is started. If you delete a program without deleting its shortcut, you'll get a "Missing Shortcut" message at startup.

To avoid this problem, delete the Shortcut to a program in addition to the program's files and folder. You'll find that commercial uninstall programs such as Symantec's Norton CleanSweep 2000 (http://www.symantec.com), will remove unwanted programs quickly and thoroughly.

If the "Missing Shortcut" error message isn't because you deleted a program, you better investigate. Does the program need to be run from a CD-ROM drive? Unless you have the correct CD-ROM in the computer, you'll get this error. If you have more than one physical hard drive, are both of them working? If your second hard drive isn't working properly, all programs stored on it will be inaccessible until you shut down the computer and restart it.

You can use the CD-ROM drive's Properties dialog box to assign a permanent drive letter to the drive.

Have you added a hard drive or repartitioned a hard drive lately? The extra drive letter or letters this creates will take precedence over your CD-ROM drive's drive letter, forcing it to the next available one and making the shortcuts to CD-ROM programs point to the wrong drive. If you add a Zip drive or another removable-media drive, the CD-ROM drive letter will change again, spoiling all shortcuts and program references. You can click the Browse button and tell the computer which drive letter the shortcut should point to, but this can become tedious.

To avoid the problem of the "bouncing" CD-ROM drive letter, try this trick: Open the Control Panel, select System, then select the Device Manager tab. Click the CD-ROM category, select the CD-ROM drive, select Settings, then reserve a drive letter that's several letters beyond your last hard drive. You'll then need to reinstall CD-ROM programs to set them to the new drive letter, but that's it. It might be a good idea to make this change on a new computer before any other software is installed on it.

To determine where a shortcut in a program group is located, right-click the Start menu button, choose Explore, and scroll through the list of shortcuts to find the one you're having problems with. Right-click it and select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab to see which program the shortcut points to. If that program is not in the specified location, the shortcut won't work.

problem: You're trying to install a program on a D: drive, and the installation program quits with a "Not Enough Space Available On Drive C:" message.

Solution: An unhappy fact about Windows programs is that nearly all of them must use space on you hard drive, even if the program's own folders are placed on another drive. This is because Windows programs use and install dynamic-link library (.DLL) files, which are support files that are called into memory as needed.

These files are installed on the C: drive because the \WINDOWS and \WINDOWS\ SYSTEM directories are the home of "shared" .DLL files, which are files that can be used by several programs. For this reason, it's vital to keep plenty of storage available on the C: drive to avoid running out of space during program or driver installations. The easiest way to do this is to change the location of the virtual-memory swap file, and then change the location of the temporary files.

Both of these space-eaters are stored on the C: drive by default, but that can be changed.

You can change the location of the virtual-memory file by right-clicking My Computer, selecting Properties, then selecting the Performance tab. Click the Virtual Memory button and choose the Let Me Specify My Own Virtual-Memory Settings button. Choose any local hard drive letter other than C:. If you've added more hard drive storage, this is a perfect way to use part of the second hard drive.

To change where temporary files, such as print-spooler files, are stored, add the following lines to Autoexec.bat if you have a local hard drive called D:.

SET TEMP=D:\TEMP

SET TMP=D:\TEMP

Make a folder called TEMP on drive D:, reboot, and you're all set. These two variables will send print jobs, disk copy images, Microsoft Word backups, and all other types of temporary files away from drive C:. Remember, no matter how many hard drives you have, Win95 stubbornly insists on using C: unless you say otherwise.

problem: You're using a particular program, and it stops working. The mouse pointer might still move, but nothing you type puts anything on-screen. You press CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up a list of running tasks, and your program is listed as "not responding."

Solution: You have several choices. If you select Cancel, you're giving your program some extra time to try to start working again. Sometimes a program is listed as "not responding" because it's waiting for hard drive activity to cease. If you're running a lot of programs and have less than 32MB of RAM, the disk swapping necessary to run programs simultaneously might temporarily put some of them on hold. Our first suggestion, in most cases, is selecting Cancel and waiting awhile.

The End Task option is the second level. This will shut down most programs, even those that have stopped responding to normal keyboard or mouse commands. Be careful about using this option, because you won't always be able to save your work.

Shut Down is the ultimate exit. This starts the Win95 shutdown process and should either deliver you to the "It's Safe To Turn Off Your Computer" screen or just turn it off for you (on some models). Again, be careful about using this option, because you might not be able to save your files.

problem: You're restarting Win95 and you see this message: "Windows not started properly on last attempt." The computer has pre-selected Safe mode and is counting down until it automatically runs Safe mode. Should you accept this choice?

You can shut down any program that has stopped responding, but you'll lose any unsaved data.

Solution: Selecting Safe mode could either be your best move or a complete time-waster. It depends upon why you decided to restart Win95. Here's a basic rule of thumb: If you are restarting because of an error you made, don't use Safe mode, which is designed to load a minimal set of drivers and is intended for diagnostic purposes. If you are restarting because the computer is having a problem, especially if you have just installed new hardware, go ahead and use Safe mode, although you might want to try the Logged option first to create a bootlog file.

problem: You're turning on a computer and it says "Windows was not shut down properly" and it offers to run ScanDisk. Why?

Solution: This option isn't on every computer, but it's a pity Microsoft didn't include it with the initial release of Win95. This is a built-in bonus for users of the latest release of Win95, the so-called "B" release (OSR2).

Here is why this option is included. When Win95 is shut down properly, there's a lot of disk activity for a few seconds before you're told it's safe to turn off the computer (a few computers turn themselves off instead). During the shutdown process, Win95 is sending your final document changes to your drives and is closing and deleting the many temporary files it created.

If this process is interrupted, there's a potential for data loss, however, there is a much greater potential for lost allocation units, space on the hard drive that can't be used for data storage until it's reclaimed as a file or deleted for good. That's what ScanDisk does during the bootup process and the reason why you shouldn't skip it.

problem: You're running a combination of programs, and one of them suddenly reports an Illegal Operation error and shuts down. A few lines of code are displayed on-screen.

Solution: Illegal Operation errors are the latest variation on a long-standing problem in Windows: Programs that take over another program's memory space and cause a crash. Win95 has a better internal design than Windows 3.x, but it still happens.

To determine why your program has generated an illegal operation, look for patterns such as these:

• Invalid Page Fault errors often happen on a PC that lacks sufficient RAM for the tasks in memory. The computer is paging to disk, and something has gone wrong. You should: run ScanDisk and check for errors; make sure you have plenty of space on your virtual-memory drive (described above); or add RAM to your computer.

• Other errors might point to a problem with the combination of programs you are running. If a program gives you an "Illegal Operation" message, your PC's conflicts might be caused by video driver interaction with an application or wrong .DLL files already in memory for one program.

Look at the Taskbar to see which programs are open. Does it make a difference whether you run Program X (the one that gives you the Illegal Operation errors) alone instead of with other programs? If it does, then check with the programs' vendors on their Web sites. There are often bug-fix downloads or instructions on configuration changes you can make.

If the error message references a video driver, try downloading a newer version for your video card. Or, as a workaround, set your system up using one of the standard Video Graphics Array (VGA) drivers, either VGA or Super VGA (the latter will allow you higher resolutions and more than 16 colors). These generic drivers are slower, but they can solve compatibility problems for you in the short term. After all, what's better: slow work or no work?

problem: You're trying to open a program and you get an "Insufficient Memory" error. You look at the Taskbar and see only a couple of programs running.

Solution: Win95, like Windows versions before it, has several important memory resources, only one of which is actual RAM memory. The combination of your actual RAM and your virtual memory (disk space used as a RAM substitute) is called the system heap, and its only limits are the amounts of these storage types that you have available. Windows also relies on a user heap to track programs in use and a GDI heap to track fonts and graphical objects on-screen.

Most often, it's actually the GDI heap that has run low on space. The primary cause of this is "memory leakage." That is when programs that have been run don't return all their system, user, and GDI heap resources to Windows when they're closed. So-called memory-enhancement programs, such as Connectix' RAM Doubler (http://www.connectix.com/products), are designed to help preserve these resources, but often have only a minor impact. What's the easiest way to stay out of danger?

The Windows 95 Resource Meter provides constantly updated information about your important system resources.

First, start by adding Win95's own Resource Meter to your StartUp group. This program can be obtained from the Start menu by selecting Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and then Resource Meter. If you don't find it there, add it to your system by opening Control Panel, selecting Add/Remove, selecting the Windows Setup tab, and then selecting it from Accessories.

This program will run minimized in the Taskbar, displayed as green if you have plenty of resources and changing to red if resources become low. Move your mouse to it for a quick look at your remaining resource percentages or click it for a full-sized view. If any of the resources drop below 50%, restart Win95.

Second, evaluate what you're doing. If you run Windows 3.x programs under Win95, you're increasing your chances of program crashes and memory leakage. Virtually all vendors have improved Win95-specific versions of their software. It's probably time to switch. Do you use an option such as a notebook computer's Suspend option instead of shutting down and restarting the computer? This option remembers the system's configuration and allows you to go back to work in a few moments after you turn on the computer. You should, however, still periodically shutdown and restart. This, rather than the suspend/resume option, will restore any lost resources.

problem: You leave your computer on all the time to allow yourself quick access to the World Wide Web. You log on and off periodically, checking e-mail and surfing for information. You have just received a "Windows Explorer Is Dangerously Low On Resources" error that prompts you to shut down the computer, but now you can't.

Solution: Even if you install the Resource Meter, there's a built-in problem in most releases of Win95 that will prevent you from shutting down correctly after this type of message. An important system file called Kernel32.dll leaks resources in a way that can't be detected with the Resource Meter. This happens when you use the Winsock file, a .DLL file that allows you access to the Internet.

If you have the original Win95 version or have downloaded the OSR1 (Windows 95a) release, you have a faulty Kernel32.dll file. To get a replacement, access the Win95 Downloads Web page (http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads), scroll to the bottom of the list, and click the Windows 95 Kernel 32 Update link to download it.

problem: You're running a program and you get a Fatal Exception Error, a full-screen, text-mode error message referring to one of the programs or tasks running. You can't seem to get out of it, except by rebooting.

Solution: The so-called "blue screen of death" is never—as it's gloomy nickname implies—good news. It points to duplicate, incompatible .DLL files being called into memory or another serious system malfunction. Here's how to try to recover the next time it happens.

Try pressing the ENTER key to see if you can get back to the Windows graphical user interface (GUI). If you can, save your work under a different file name and shut down the computer. Using a different file name will let you avoid burying good work under a file that might be corrupted to the problems your system is having.

Watch for patterns. If you find that two programs running together seem to produce the Fatal Exception Error, don't use them together until you find out why they can't run at the same time. Check for updates or configuration tips on the companies' Web sites.

Not all error message problems, obviously, are listed here. But this article will give you some courses of action when Win95 error message problems arise. To learn about additional sources of technical support help for Windows products, see the "Windows 3.x Error Messages" article in this section.

by Mark Edward Soper

Want more information about a topic you found of interest while reading this article? Type a word or phrase that identifies the topic and click "Search" to find relevant articles from within our editorial database.

Home Copyright & Legal Information Privacy Policy Site Map Contact Us