Re: Win 98 utils not in XP

Dave <davenpat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:IISdnT7w1YbZvt3ZRVnyuQ@xxxxxx:

Frazer Jolly Goodfellow wrote:

Presumably it will boot into Safe Mode OK?

Not too sure yet. We had a conversation either yesterday, or the
day before and if I remember rightly, through the haze of the
whisky,

o A snifter or two definitely helps.

o Sufficient feels like it's helping and may well do so, but who
cares.

o Excess mostly hinders but you only realise that the next day,
clearing up the mess you made. :-)


he said that it was booting, getting to one point and
then booting again. But perhaps he was not pressing the right
keys to get into safe mode.

He needs to stab the F8 function key as it's booting up, then select
the boot mode desired.

As he does not have a floppy drive, I am going to put together a
boot CD this weekend that should allow him to get a clean boot
into his system.<snip>

Not sure what you are trying to achieve here: XP is very different
from Win9x amd Me at this level.

I must admit at this point, he did try to re-install his system
the other day and the lap top still crashed.

Q1: Have all user data, preferences and settings information been
saved from the sickly PC?

NB: If the system is to be repaired/replaced under insurance or
whatever, be aware that responsibility for backing up/restoring user
stuff resides with the user. Which is very clearly stated in the
small print you'd OK'd earlier but only first read just after you
realised you'd lost everything :-)

Q2: What was provided by laptop mfr for recovery? Windows XP CD +
separate apps CDs, or composite factory imaging CD, or what?

I'll try and talk
him through it later this week, as he is now talking about
adding the lap top to an insurance claim for his camera lens.
Claiming that it was in the same box that the bottom fell out
of. (His camera lens was dropped and made itself into two parts
that were only joined by 3 or 4 plastic pillars.)

Faulty memory can also cause similar symptoms - Safe Mode uses
much less RAM than normal XP mode, hence may avoid the fault.
Download MemTest86, burn a bootable CD and run it over night.
Zero errors is the only acceptable outcome.

Thanks, I'll do that. It will be useful to me when I have to
work on computers for the disadvantaged, when they get up to XP.

MemTest86 works standalone so is not dependent on the version of
Windows. I find it a very useful tool because as well as testing the
memory per se it gives a good indication of the state of the cpu and
motherboard of the PC. There's a diskette bootable version available
as well.

<snip>

Can you expand on this just a little please. I was not aware
that kernel mode still exists.

Certainly does. Windows NT (predecessor to Windows 2000 and XP) all
have a layered model of code execution priviliges. At the top (or in
the centre, depending on your architectural model) is kernel mode.
Software running in kernel mode has full access to everything,
including direct access to hardware devices. It has very little, if
any, error checking and recovery mechanism other than the dreaded
Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) i.e. in kernel mode the code running is
'trusted'. In order to allow for high performance graphics adapters
to run flat out MS had to compromise and allow graphics drivers to
run in kernel mode. Despite the implied risk, it hasn't caused the
chaos some experts predicted.

so any
driver bug will usually take the system down. Deinstall the
graphics driver, reboot then reinstall same will usually fix
it.

Noted :-)
I have seen this happen before, as well.
You aren't half ringing some bells in my memory tonight. Thanks
for that.

BUT I strongly recommend your check out and eliminate/fix each
of the potential causes in turn; it is entirely possible for
multiple fault conditions to exist.

I have and wear the tee shirt for that ;-)

I used to work in the aerospace industry until 1999, until I
retired and if anything unusual went wrong, it would happen to
me. I never found out why and I was the one that got called in
if there was a 'safe hands' job to be done, or anything that was
out of the ordinary.

Experience is an extremely valuable asset to have under your belt.
Fortunately the computer industry is so age-biased (50+ is geriatric)
that I've had the opportunity over the past few years to re-apply my
crumbling skills into a new, self-employed, career phase.
.

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