At 21:51 05-07-98 -0500, Joel Vandroogenbroeck wrote:
>...Windows95 crashes...When I reboot in safe mode, I see that
>in the Device Manager, most of the drives are listed twice.
>If I manually re-list the devices as singles, I can boot again
>normally...My systems are normal PCs, Pentiums, with Win95,
>and...Iomega external parallel Zip drive...I upgrade all Zip
>softwares many times and everything goes well for a while...

Although I don't use Zip drives, duplicate Device Manager entries
have happened to me many times.

Whenever you install a device driver on top of itself, or when
a device driver is automatically reinstalled by running the setup
program for accompanying software, a device is added to the
Registry. (Never mind that you haven't physically added a
hardware device to the system, adding a software device driver
tricks Windows into thinking that you have added hardware.)

If you haven't first removed the original entry for the device
from Device Manager, this can create a duplicate entry in the
Registry and although two identical entries usually don't
show up in the normal Windows Device Manager, they will likely
show up there in Safe Mode. If the device is Plug and Play,
deleting only the extra entry (while leaving the original)
usually results in Windows redetecting the device and restoring
the duplicate entry. In that case, it is necessary to delete both
entries so that when Windows redetects the device, and creates an
entry in Device Manager, it will be the only entry. If the device
is not automatically detected by Windows, deleting the extra entry
should suffice.

It used to be that updating my video drivers by running the
manufacturer's setup utility resulted in duplicate entries for
my display adaptor in Safe Mode. The manufacturer of my video card
seems to have been fixed this. If I improperly changed my SCSI
controller's device driver, I have gotten duplicate entries for all
five hard drives, all CDROM drives, scanner, etc. Running the
Intellipoint setup software for my Microsoft mouse results in two
mice in Safe Mode Device Manager. To avoid this, you have to delete
the mouse before reinstalling the software.

I expect that your Zip drive's utility software does not
automatically remove the original device from the registry when
you rerun it. This results in the duplicate Device Manager entries.
I have not found that my Device manager duplicates have caused
any problems with system stability, and I sometimes leave them
alone for long periods. Could your crashes be caused by something
else? I wouldn't think your duplicates would be *caused* by system
crashes unless you reinstall the drivers when this happens. (Of
course, there may be bugs in the Zip drive software.) Try deleting
your devices before rerunning the Zip drive software next time.

Regards,
Bill