Subj:   Re: PCBUILD Digest - 12 Jun 1998 to 13 Jun 1998 (#1998-99)
Date:   98-06-15 14:44:44 EDT
From:   RBHemming (Robert B. Hemming)
To:     [log in to unmask]

To the List:

I had a similar problem with a 486dx2-66 that I did an upgrade on from Win
3.11 to Win95 OSR2.  I know the scoffers on the list will say that can't be
done, but I do it regularly.  Any OEM version of Win 95 can be set up as an
upgrade.  It is all set out at the Win95 OSR2 FAQ.

I found the problem ... finally ... to be the Soundblaster drivers.  I would
get on boot up the message "Device performed an illegal operation", details
would show the SB16DRV had caused a stack fault.  Unbeknownst to me at the
time, this was a big clue, I was being told "exactly" what the problem was,
only I did not know what the message meant at the time.  I "assumed" it was
the 32 bit SB16 drivers causing the problem, it was the 16 bit SB16DRV doing
it.  A bootlog probably would have helped by tellling the same thing.  There
would have been a failed load of SB16DRV listed there also.

The device manager in Windows 95 is merely a graphical representation or
reflection of entries in the system registry at bootup, and the registry was
properly loading the 32 bit SB drivers (even though it is called SB16.drv).
Then ... the System.ini file was was trying to load the 16 bit SB16 drivers.
The sound would work but the computer would wierd out and some software would
not run right.  MS Office for Win 95 would not load its TSR for its tool bar.
Systray would not load either.

After many, many, many hours wasted reinstalling SB drivers, searching the web
for the latest updates, etc., etc., and running RegClean and booting to Safe
mode in an attempt to "repair" the registry, I had an "flash" inspiration and
edited "system.ini" and removed the 16 bit drivers for Sound Blaster.  The
next boot was perfect and everything worked OK.  This was last month.

I recently found, In reading the notes for "RegRepair 2000" I learned that Win
95 retains the two "old" win 3.1 ini files for 16 bit compatibility, while all
the 32 bit software and drivers are configured in the registry.  So my
instinct was correct.

The problem arises when you have upgraded a windows 3.1 with win 3.1 software
to windows 95 and then upgrade the win 3.1 software to win 95 (like
wordperfect 7 or 8) or winword 6 (for win 3.1) and then install Office 95.
Win 95 does not know to strip out the old 16 bit software entries from the
"ini" files, and they will tend to crash the 32 bit upgrades.

With the preceding information as background, then, as a possible diagnosis
and fix, I would strongly recommend that the SoundBlaster drivers be removed
(or better, commented out with a "rem") from the system.ini files and see if
the machine boots properly.

As an aside, I have found that when one upgrades from a lower version of
windows to a higher version, there sometimes tend to be layers of problems
kind of like an onion, you need to get down to the core and then work your way
out.

Robert.

In a message dated 98-06-14 00:48:34 EDT, you write:

<<  Date:    Sat, 13 Jun 1998 08:46:55 +0200
 From:    [log in to unmask]
 Subject: Incomplete boot

 The problem machine is a vanilla P54-133 with Mach64, 3-COM NIC, 1 EIDE
 HD and CD-ROM. It had been running WfW 3.11 without problem and after
 installing Win95 it also seemed to run fine. Since it is used by our
 secretary, who does a lot of literature searches with Netscape and
 special database programs, I upgraded it from 16-32MB RAM (4 identical
 8MB simms) and put in a Creative SB AWE 32.

 After this hardware installation Win 95 refused to complete the boot
 process, stopping after loading the background image (or color) with a
 movable mouse pointer, but nothing else. Pressing ctrl-alt-del brought
 up the task list and it was completely empty. Another ctrl-alt-del
 rebooted with no error messages to the same point. Config.sys and
 autoexec.bat contain nothing but keyboard stuff for the German keyboard.
...

 Now, here may be a clue for those of you that understand more about
 WIN95 than I do:

 The machine will boot into protected mode (F8) with no problems at all
 and protected mode runs fine with full desktop and so on. This really
 has me stumped. Running scandisk shows no problems on the drive.
 "Bootlog.txt" is not written to the drive, so I can't go on that.

  >>