I haven't touched the hardware since I installed it. I haven't even installed any new software recently (but when I was it was really touchy! Mostly settled down after that, until now...).
-
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A Vintage PC...
- Thread starter onlyonemac
- Start date
Huh. Well, if it's getting unmanageable, I'd first try disabling everything you can manage without in CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT and see if that makes it stabler; if that fails to help, you might just want to reinstall Windows.
Reseat cards and RAM, blow dust out of system - that's what I do.
But this failure to load sounds to me like bad RAM. I have a similar problem on my ThinkPad. It's def. bad RAM but it's soldered on the board :/
But this failure to load sounds to me like bad RAM. I have a similar problem on my ThinkPad. It's def. bad RAM but it's soldered on the board :/
I slightly hate to be that guy again, but...
Anyway. Another vote for possible RAM issues. (Possibly not the RAM itself, the system might be becoming unstable because of bad capacitors, failing power supply, etc.) Could also be your hard disk saying "Good Night Gracie!" as well.
Anyway. Another vote for possible RAM issues. (Possibly not the RAM itself, the system might be becoming unstable because of bad capacitors, failing power supply, etc.) Could also be your hard disk saying "Good Night Gracie!" as well.
Be "that guy" all you want, man - but remember that "that guy" is every bit as much of a walking anachronism as a DOS user, now 
These days their niche in the tech world has been filled by soul-patched hipsters wearing horn-rimmed glasses "ironically" and arguing about which Linux distro is best when all they do is run its particular re-branded Firefox and post on reddit about how much better Android is than iOS.
These days their niche in the tech world has been filled by soul-patched hipsters wearing horn-rimmed glasses "ironically" and arguing about which Linux distro is best when all they do is run its particular re-branded Firefox and post on reddit about how much better Android is than iOS.I may have missed something -- is there any particular reason you're trying to learn coding for an old computer? Further, is there any reason you're doing it on a physical old computer, instead of, say, avoiding the "hardware failure" possibility and doing it in a virtual machine?
If you just want to learn concepts and thinking processes, you can do that anywhere, even in, say, SmallBasic. If you want to learn programming that'll be considered productive and you don't later want to have to relearn some syntax or learn an entirely new language because, say, the version of C in linux today and the version of C in Windows 3.1 in the early '90s have has 20+ years of change, then learning on a newer computer with contemporary software and software development stuff will be a better use of your time anyway.
Old machines are nice, but newer machines generally have a longer physical lifespan ahead of them. If acquiring a piece of hardware and then presuming that there'll never be any physical failures of any sort is up your alley, you may consider the 2013 iMac with the base cpu/gpu, max ram, and a solid state disk. That machine will almost certainly run for a decade with no interruption if you shoot the fans/vents with a vacuum cleaner or an air compressor on a somewhat regular basis. [
] ]'>
In "on topic" contributions: the disk is my personal pet-failure, and unless there's some easily-stressable component that's given to frequent failure anyway (such as a GeFORCE 8600 variant) then the disk is almost always going to be the first thing to fail, and the thing to fail the most frequently.
Hopefully you've got a backup! If not, it would be a good time to start considering the merits of a backup strategy, especially on a 20 year old computer.
If you just want to learn concepts and thinking processes, you can do that anywhere, even in, say, SmallBasic. If you want to learn programming that'll be considered productive and you don't later want to have to relearn some syntax or learn an entirely new language because, say, the version of C in linux today and the version of C in Windows 3.1 in the early '90s have has 20+ years of change, then learning on a newer computer with contemporary software and software development stuff will be a better use of your time anyway.
It's okay, I'll be that guy all day long, and I won't even hate myself for it.
Old machines are nice, but newer machines generally have a longer physical lifespan ahead of them. If acquiring a piece of hardware and then presuming that there'll never be any physical failures of any sort is up your alley, you may consider the 2013 iMac with the base cpu/gpu, max ram, and a solid state disk. That machine will almost certainly run for a decade with no interruption if you shoot the fans/vents with a vacuum cleaner or an air compressor on a somewhat regular basis. [
] ]'>In "on topic" contributions: the disk is my personal pet-failure, and unless there's some easily-stressable component that's given to frequent failure anyway (such as a GeFORCE 8600 variant) then the disk is almost always going to be the first thing to fail, and the thing to fail the most frequently.
Hopefully you've got a backup! If not, it would be a good time to start considering the merits of a backup strategy, especially on a 20 year old computer.
It baffles me that anyone would have to ask this question on a forum dedicated to vintage computing.
You haven't been around long enough to know, I suppose.
Anyway, if anybody chooses to take anything away from my post, my hope it's that this stuff is going to fail and that you should have backups, and ideally, a way to get your data onto a newer machine.
Also, if your backup involves unsheathing a machine and removing its disk(s), it's probably a bad backup plan.
Anyway, if anybody chooses to take anything away from my post, my hope it's that this stuff is going to fail and that you should have backups, and ideally, a way to get your data onto a newer machine.
Also, if your backup involves unsheathing a machine and removing its disk(s), it's probably a bad backup plan.
My reference to said comic by no mean hinges on the greybeard UNIX user stereotype and whether he still exists or not. Mainly I was just shaking my head at how the OP really seems to be trying to treat this thing at least to some degree as a "production computer" (IE, keeping and doing "real work" on it) when a better, or at least more likely to be reliable, alternative might literally be had for a nickel or less.Be "that guy" all you want, man - but remember that "that guy" is every bit as much of a walking anachronism as a DOS user, now
(Yes, I know, there's this bizarre convoluted backstory about how he can't have a computer in his room except when he can and how he's totally learning how to code and build microcontroller-based projects but then sometimes asks incredibly basic questions and apparently can't afford to even occasionally spend $5-$10 on his favorite hobbies. Clearly this situation is too complicated for me to fully grasp, leaving me incapable of offering anything but wiseacre remarks, and I apologize.)
I guess all I'm saying is that if this person was my next door neighbor I'd happily no-strings-attached *give* him a Pentium 4 out of my garage for free if I thought it would "help". (Granted I'm not at all sure about that.) Until I get around to going to the electronics recycling center there's three to choose from out there, and probably a few more on a nearby street corner. I'll totally grant that as a "Hobby Machine" this 386sx box of his is an interesting specimen and if I found one in a junk pile I'd probably take it home and play with it. But it's 20 years old, you should:
A: Trust it considerably less far than you could throw it, and:
B: Expect that it's going to break down if you use it all the time. Back it up and stock spare parts accordingly if you're really going to insist that using its bare metal is the only way to accomplish your goals vs. running the same software in virtualization/emulation. (Or just using newer software, which if you're "learning to code" and expect to develop marketable skills from doing so probably isn't a bad idea.)
That second part, again, bugs me, considering the OP apparently considers a mere replacement floppy drive for his Quadra a completely-beyond-his-means investment. If the HD in that Compaq is throwing in the towel you could probably trivially replace it with, say, a 2GB CompactFlash card in an IDE adapter (that's what I'd do), but that's gotta be like, what, $20-$30? That's almost *two*(!!!!) Mac floppy drives! (Or a whole Pentium 4 computer?)
Again, whatever, clearly I don't get what's going on here. Carry on.
I'm not planning on making a career out of coding (I'm actually studying electronics next year, and I have done more modern coding as well, by the way). I simply enjoy coding on old hardware for the sake of it.
I don't like emulators or virtual machines; I hate this "it does the same thing" idea. I say "it's not the real thing". I get no satisfaction or enjoyment from watching an emulated CPU run an emulated program. I like to read "this subroutine allocates XYZ memory and returns a pointer in processor register ABC" and know that it's actually doing that inside my computer, rather than just simulating it.
I back both my Mac and this machine up on a more-or-less monthly basis, which I consider appropriate considering the frequency with which I use them and the kinds of things I do on them.
It does, but still I'm prepared to do it. Particularly since it's so easy to do the actual backup from the Linux command line
.I've seen that comic too many times and I think others have as well. We're all sick of it and I don't think any of us really appreciate it anymore. Perhaps you should stop wasting our bandwidth and Cory's webspace.
Obviously I could try things like reinstalling and cleaning the machine out (although it's already spotless inside), but I was just wondering if there were any well-known issues which any of you may have encountered or heard of.
At first I thought it was something to do with being connected with a network, but then it happened even when I wasn't connected. Another time I thought it was because I was loading DOSKEY (it worked as soon as I disabled that), but then I read that there's no problem with Windows and DOSKEY (and it happens even without DOSKEY). I'll try replacing/validating my USER.EXE and GDI.EXE files (the ones which seem to be the most likely cause of the problem); if that doesn't work I might be left doing a full reinstall... :-/
Yup, agreed. I think that sums up the whole reason this forum exists.
Possibly, but with a machine that old you're likely to see hardware bit-rot similar to what affects many of our 68K machines. Assuming it's a software problem, my recollections of the Win 3.1 days are that doing a full reinstall was pretty standard when something got fubared, unfortunately.
What is "bit-rot"? Is it something I should be concerned about? If so, what can I do to prevent/fix it?
bit-rot is the loss of information stored in ROMs, especially EPROM/EEPROM due simply to age. Why? i dunno but it happens.
Whats more concerning is the fact that death of ICs is looming around the corner. As they age, and since epoxy isnt a 100% perfect seal, moisture still gets in and eventually starts to oxidize the metalization layers on the silicon die, this will cause the semiconductor to get noisy, and leaky. Ultimately failure of the IC.
I am starting to see this growing at an alarming rate with old 70s, early 80s stereo receivers, and amplifiers. transistors are getting noisy, and leaky all on their own without even using it. Just from age. Well ICs are made up of transistors, so assuming that, the same thing could happen. Might explain the reason why RAM fails for no reason on the early 128Ks, etc.
Whats more concerning is the fact that death of ICs is looming around the corner. As they age, and since epoxy isnt a 100% perfect seal, moisture still gets in and eventually starts to oxidize the metalization layers on the silicon die, this will cause the semiconductor to get noisy, and leaky. Ultimately failure of the IC.
I am starting to see this growing at an alarming rate with old 70s, early 80s stereo receivers, and amplifiers. transistors are getting noisy, and leaky all on their own without even using it. Just from age. Well ICs are made up of transistors, so assuming that, the same thing could happen. Might explain the reason why RAM fails for no reason on the early 128Ks, etc.
Yeah, by "bit rot", I just meant age-related hardware failures of any kind.
I know, i figured as much
Bit-rot also refers to the degradation of data over itme, even on media that hasn't failed. It's one of the reasons we're seeing things like ZFS and ReFS show up. "Better late than never," I suppose.
And, it's not just the base OS! Some people INSIST on running old, insecure web browsers. I mean come on, Firefox 3 beta 1? You may as well be running IE6. In fact, Internet Explorer 8 is still receiving security updates and is a more secure option (until April) than Firefox 1/2/3.
In a lot of ways, it still acts as a support group for people on the trailing edge, and I suppose it depends on whose perspective you take and trust: the site administrator's (I've been on this site for more than a decade, by the way), or the people who have co-opted the site as a place to complain about modern technology.
I absolutely love a lot of the modern developments like the floppy emulator, work on documenting newer SCSI hard disks and how they work in new machine, and the physical repair movement that's started on the site a little bit earlier than the modern development movement.
However, that's all 68k-focused stuff, and part of what I like about that is that it acknowledges that 68k Macs are Internet computers, but that they are absolutely not world-wide-web computers, and it focuses on simply extending their life for tasks they could alreayd do.
The PowerPC stuff is where it starts to get fuzzy and what I'll say about that is that it's interesting to see this forum act as a support group for those machines. The RDF is strong with that crowd though, and every once in a while, they say extremely weird things.
When this forum was new, it was reasonable to have a IIci or a Q650 as your main computer and use it on the Internet. More than half of us browsed the forum on IE3/4 and with dial-up. In a lot of ways, the Power Macintosh G4 and G5 families have taken that place, but due to the fact that almost 100% of us are using fast broadband connections that are always on, the viability of that is (from my perspective) a bad idea, just because the older a machine is, the less likely it is that you'll be running it with security patches. This is less of an issue with Mac OS X, but the attitude isn't limited to Mac OS X, and it's a significant issue with linux/bsd and Windows, which have known, remotely exploiable security vulnerabilities. I would be ZERO surprised to find out that OnlyOneMac's PC (both the linux and Windows installations) have been rooted/exploited and he's on several botnets.
And, it's not just the base OS! Some people INSIST on running old, insecure web browsers. I mean come on, Firefox 3 beta 1? You may as well be running IE6. In fact, Internet Explorer 8 is still receiving security updates and is a more secure option (until April) than Firefox 1/2/3.
In a lot of ways, it still acts as a support group for people on the trailing edge, and I suppose it depends on whose perspective you take and trust: the site administrator's (I've been on this site for more than a decade, by the way), or the people who have co-opted the site as a place to complain about modern technology.
I absolutely love a lot of the modern developments like the floppy emulator, work on documenting newer SCSI hard disks and how they work in new machine, and the physical repair movement that's started on the site a little bit earlier than the modern development movement.
However, that's all 68k-focused stuff, and part of what I like about that is that it acknowledges that 68k Macs are Internet computers, but that they are absolutely not world-wide-web computers, and it focuses on simply extending their life for tasks they could alreayd do.
The PowerPC stuff is where it starts to get fuzzy and what I'll say about that is that it's interesting to see this forum act as a support group for those machines. The RDF is strong with that crowd though, and every once in a while, they say extremely weird things.
In, say, vmware player which is free, it would actually be doing those things, it's just in a container in the overall area of your real machine. I don't actually see how that's different, other than that backing up a vmware machine doesn't involve disconnecting and reconnecting a 20 year old hard disk from the inside of a machine, which is a plus if there ever was one. You can even set vmware to have a low memory limit in order to simulate running on a 386, and if you use virtualbox, or vmware ESXi, you can set a cap on the number of processor cycles the VM gets.
He may have hotlinked it, but I'll gladly host a thousand copies of it and pay for the disk space and bandwidth to display it, because it's absolutely true.
Oy, this argument again...must every thread about using vintage technology be co-opted for a sermon on how Everybody Who Doesn't Upgrade Is Stupid And Horrible? Cripes, this one wasn't even about using it as a daily driver.
It definitely seems to be kind of an "if you have to ask, you'll never know" thing, but to analogize: if I have a boring but reliable, say, Toyota sedan, but I really like the styling, handling, and feel of an old '53 Corvette, it doesn't matter a bit if I splash on extra chrome bits or add a '50s two-tone paint job to the Toyota sedan. It doesn't matter that the Toyota may be safer, or more fuel-efficient, or cost less to maintain. It doesn't even matter if I drive the Toyota sedan like it's a '53 'Vette; when you get down to it, it's not a '53 Corvette, and it will never be, and because it isn't, it will never sate the desire for the car I really want. Maybe it's psychological; maybe knowing that it's not the real thing is what makes it unable to satisfy; I dunno, and it doesn't matter. It just doesn't work that way, at least for certain kinds of people.
More on-topic again, it took me exactly 15 minutes (no exagguration) to get Windows to boot this evening. I took a log of most of the unsuccessful attempts:
At this point I picked on VGAFIX.FON and replaced it with a copy from my installation disk, but to no avail...
The above listing includes a number of attempts where I found myself crashed at a blank desktop with only an eggtimer cursor and no Program Manager. This is something which I have never had before.
Here is a log of a successful attempt which I took yesterday (but with the same setup):
Yesterday it started successfully on each of the approximately five times when I reboot the PC for other reasons.
Here is also a copy of my CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files (mostly unchanged since numerous installers got through with them):
What I'm not getting about this is what can be so different between one attempt and another that could cause a different outcome each time (even the failed attempts are not always the same). The RAM passes the BIOS check and the check done by HIMEM.SYS when it loads; the hard drive passes CHKDSK's bad sector test. Are there any other more advanced tests which I could/should do? And why does DOS never show a problem (and neither does Windows once it's loaded successfully)?
Thanks,
onlyonemac
Code:
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
Code:
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAFIX.FON
LoadStart = OEMFONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = OEMFONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = USER.EXE
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAFIX.FON
LoadStart = OEMFONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = OEMFONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = USER.EXE
INIT=Keyboard
INITDONE=Keyboard
INIT=Mouse
STATUS=Mouse driver installed
INITDONE=Mouse
INIT=Display
LoadStart = DISPLAY.drv
LoadSuccess = DISPLAY.drv
INITDONE=Display
INIT=Display Resources
INITDONE=Display Resources
LoadStart = kbduk.dll
LoadSuccess = kbduk.dll
INIT=Fonts
LoadStart = ARIAL.FOT
LoadSuccess = ARIAL.FOT
LoadStart = ARIALBD.FOT
LoadSuccess = ARIALBD.FOT
LoadStart = ARIALBI.FOT
LoadSuccess = ARIALBI.FOT
LoadStart = ARIALI.FOT
LoadSuccess = ARIALI.FOT
LoadStart = COUR.FOT
LoadSuccess = COUR.FOT
LoadStart = COURBD.FOT
LoadSuccess = COURBD.FOT
LoadStart = COURBI.FOT
LoadSuccess = COURBI.FOT
LoadStart = COURI.FOT
LoadSuccess = COURI.FOT
LoadStart = TIMES.FOT
LoadSuccess = TIMES.FOT
LoadStart = TIMESBD.FOT
LoadSuccess = TIMESBD.FOT
LoadStart = TIMESBI.FOT
LoadSuccess = TIMESBI.FOTHere is a log of a successful attempt which I took yesterday (but with the same setup):
Code:
[boot]
LoadStart = system.drv
LoadSuccess = system.drv
LoadStart = keyboard.drv
LoadSuccess = keyboard.drv
LoadStart = mouse.drv
LoadSuccess = mouse.drv
LoadStart = SVGA256.DRV
LoadSuccess = SVGA256.DRV
LoadStart = mmsound.drv
LoadSuccess = mmsound.drv
LoadStart = comm.drv
LoadSuccess = comm.drv
LoadStart = VGASYS.FON
LoadSuccess = VGASYS.FON
LoadStart = VGAOEM.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAOEM.FON
LoadStart = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = FONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = FONTS.FON
LoadStart = VGAFIX.FON
LoadSuccess = VGAFIX.FON
LoadStart = OEMFONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = OEMFONTS.FON
LoadSuccess = GDI.EXE
LoadStart = USER.EXE
INIT=Keyboard
INITDONE=Keyboard
INIT=Mouse
STATUS=Mouse driver installed
INITDONE=Mouse
INIT=Display
LoadStart = DISPLAY.drv
LoadSuccess = DISPLAY.drv
INITDONE=Display
INIT=Display Resources
INITDONE=Display Resources
LoadStart = kbduk.dll
LoadSuccess = kbduk.dll
INIT=Fonts
LoadStart = ARIAL.FOT
LoadSuccess = ARIAL.FOT
LoadStart = ARIALBD.FOT
LoadSuccess = ARIALBD.FOT
LoadStart = ARIALBI.FOT
LoadSuccess = ARIALBI.FOT
LoadStart = ARIALI.FOT
LoadSuccess = ARIALI.FOT
LoadStart = COUR.FOT
LoadSuccess = COUR.FOT
LoadStart = COURBD.FOT
LoadSuccess = COURBD.FOT
LoadStart = COURBI.FOT
LoadSuccess = COURBI.FOT
LoadStart = COURI.FOT
LoadSuccess = COURI.FOT
LoadStart = TIMES.FOT
LoadSuccess = TIMES.FOT
LoadStart = TIMESBD.FOT
LoadSuccess = TIMESBD.FOT
LoadStart = TIMESBI.FOT
LoadSuccess = TIMESBI.FOT
LoadStart = TIMESI.FOT
LoadSuccess = TIMESI.FOT
LoadStart = WINGDING.FOT
LoadSuccess = WINGDING.FOT
LoadStart = ROMAN.FON
LoadSuccess = ROMAN.FON
LoadStart = SCRIPT.FON
LoadSuccess = SCRIPT.FON
LoadStart = MODERN.FON
LoadSuccess = MODERN.FON
LoadStart = SYMBOL.FOT
LoadSuccess = SYMBOL.FOT
LoadStart = LHANDW.FOT
LoadSuccess = LHANDW.FOT
LoadStart = SSERIFE.FON
LoadSuccess = SSERIFE.FON
LoadStart = COURE.FON
LoadSuccess = COURE.FON
LoadStart = SERIFE.FON
LoadSuccess = SERIFE.FON
LoadStart = SYMBOLE.FON
LoadSuccess = SYMBOLE.FON
LoadStart = SMALLE.FON
LoadSuccess = SMALLE.FON
LoadStart = AN.FOT
LoadSuccess = AN.FOT
LoadStart = FRA.FOT
LoadSuccess = FRA.FOT
LoadStart = FRB.FOT
LoadSuccess = FRB.FOT
LoadStart = FRC.FOT
LoadSuccess = FRC.FOT
INITDONE=Fonts
INIT=Lang Driver
LoadStart = langeng.dll
LoadSuccess = langeng.dll
INITDONE=Lang Driver
LoadSuccess = USER.EXE
LoadStart = progman.exe
LoadStart = SHELL.DLL
LoadSuccess = SHELL.DLL
LoadSuccess = progman.exe
INIT=Final USER
INITDONE=Final USER
INIT=Installable Drivers
INITDONE=Installable Drivers
INIT=TSRQuery
INITDONE=TSRQueryHere is also a copy of my CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files (mostly unchanged since numerous installers got through with them):
Code:
DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH
COUNTRY=044,,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
REM ** FILES=30
LASTDRIVE=Z
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
STACKS=9,256
FILES=40
Code:
@ECHO OFF
DOSKEY /INSERT
C:\WINDOWS\net start
SET SOUND=C:\SB16
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E
C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\MSIE50;C:\MSBOB;C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;C:\BORLANDC\BIN
SET TEMP=C:\DOS
MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((437) C:\DOS\EGA.CPI)
MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=437
KEYB UK,,C:\DOS\KEYBOARD.SYSThanks,
onlyonemac
The BIOS doesn't do a serious memory test, it basically just checks for the presence of RAM at succeeding addresses to figure out how much is in the system. You'd want to run a full-fledged memory-test utility to rule out the possibility of RAM failure. Also, the hard disk's being good and the filesystem's being intact doesn't mean that the contents of a file didn't somehow get corrupted.
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