🚀 go-pugleaf

That's what happends to be FIRST <G>


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bman2@ix.netcom.com (Brenden Mecleary ) wrote:

>    First off, let me say that I am not a computer expert, but I do
>have a intermediate level understanding of computers and how they work,
>and I pity the poor fellow who isn't and runs into this problem.  Okay,
>yesterday, August 24th, I bought the Win95 upgrade.  That evening, I
>began to install it.  Everything went fine, or so I thought.
>    I managed to get my modem working after a bit of fiddling with the
>options in my comm program, but my Diamond Stealth 64, which ran in
>24-bit color at 800x600 under Windows 3.11, was only running in 16 bit
>at that resolution, now.  I tried 32 bit.  That kicked it down to
>640x480.  I looked at the driver.  It was the wrong one!  I switched to
>the DS64 driver that was supplied with W95.  "The driver has been
>installed properly, but there is a conflict, please use the conflict
>troubleshooter to solve it."  <<Exasperation factor 1.03>>  "Okay" I
>say to myself.  I start it up, follow the directions.  When I get to
>the part where I determine what's conflicting with what, I find that
>it's conflicting with an "unknown device driver".  Well, that
>contingency is conveniently not considered in the help.  <<Exasperation
>factor 1.76>>  I figure "That's fine, I'll use the drivers off the
>disks that came with the Stealth".  So I pop in the disk, install the
>drivers, everything seems fine, and Windows tells me "You must restart
>for the changes to take effect.  With pleasure, I think, as I tell it
>that it can restart.
>    The computer starts as it should, then goes to that annoying blue
>screen with grey text (you know, from 3.1, when it says "This
>application has stopped responding to the system"?) saying that there
>was an error with Windows at a certain address.  <<Exasperation factor
>3.81, Heart Attack Probability 97%>>  I restart, and the computer comes
>up to a little text menu ("Windows did not load properly the last time
>the computer was started up."), with a timer that asks me if I want to
>safe boot or try to normal boot again, among other things.  I choose
>safe boot, and it starts up in 640x480, 16 colors.  But at least it's
>working.  I remove the offending drivers, but can't install the proper
>drivers because the Add New Hardware setup won't work in Safe Boot
>mode.  Fine.  I restart with CTRL-ALT-DEL (in hindsight, I should have
>used the Shut down option to restart).
>    It tries to start.  It gets partway through loading, then freezes. 
>Okay, CTRL-ALT-DEL.  I get the same boot message about W95 not starting
>up properly.  Fine.  I try normal boot, expecting that Windows will
>detect my video card properly like it did before.  It starts loading,
>then goes back to the boot menu, frozen completely.  <<Exasperation
>factor 10, Heart Attack Probability 83%>>  I have no choice but to use
>the reset button, as the three finger salute no longer works.  It
>starts up, loads the BIOS, then states very matter-of-factly: "Invalid
>system disk, please replace and press any key".  <<Total
>nervous/emotional breakdown at this point>>   I recompose myself, and
>reboot again.  No dice.  Two more tries get me nowhere fast.  I put in
>the Windows boot disk that I made during installation (thank God...),
>and it started up to A:\.  I go looking around the Windows directory.  
>Absent-mindedly, I remove the boot disk, and while doing a directory,
>the computer says something about an invalid COMMAND.COM command.  Of
>course!  I never did see COMMAND in the root directory after I booted
>off that disk.  Luckily, I had made a backup of all my root directory
>files on my D: drive.  I copied all of them back to C: and rebooted.
>    It got to the lo-res windows screen where it loads.  La dee dee dum
>dah dah...  It flashes back to the DOS screen, as it sometimes did, and
>stopped cold.  It appeared to have happened while the AUTOEXEC.BAT and
>CONFIG.SYS were loading.  Ohhkay <<Extreme disappointment>>.  I boot
>off the disk again and delete the AUTOEXEC and CONFIG.  I restart and
>get the "Windows did not load properly..." screen.  Fine, I know why. 
>Just boot normally, I tell it.  It does.  Hallejulah!  It auto-detects
>my video card incorrectly, but at least it's working!
>    This morning, I switched video drivers, and it didn't conflict,
>knock on wood!  But, it still isn't giving me 24-bit color at 800x600,
>which I need.  I also have several more problems, which I would love to
>have solved.  Here they all of them:

>1) The Diamond Stealth 64 is not switching to 800x600x24bit, like it
>should.

>2) My scanner, a HP scanjet IICX, is not working.  It shows up in the
>device list, under "Other devices", as HPC2500A (which is right), but
>DeskScan II won't recognize it.  Neither will it show up on the SCSI
>chain in the "SCSI addresses" program that came with the scanner.

>3) Windows does not recognize my joystick.  I can calibrate it, but
>there is almost no input when I do so.  (This might be a function of my
>game card, which I have had problems with before.)  In DOS games,
>though (like Descent), it works just fine.

>4) In my root directory, I have two files that total 2.58 gigabytes as
>shown when I click on them, but when I get their properties, it shows
>that they are 0 bytes.  They obviously don't exist, seeing that I have
>a 500 MB hard drive (so they would total 5 times my hard drive space!).

>5) That leads me to my last problem: I cannot DELETE those files! 
>Those two files, and two other folders all "Don't exist".  Windows says
>"Cannot XXXX file YYYY because it does not exist", where XXXX is the
>action I try to take (delete, rename, move to the recycling bin...) and
>YYYY is the odd file name, like:
>00.mpd.[00
>[0016.2bd
>[00162b.e0]

>    So.  (He he...) Does anyone know how to fix ANY of these problems?
>I would REALLY appreciate any help anyone could offer on any of them. 
>I am still impressed with Windows 95, it's just that I'm negatively
>impressed.  Someone please help!  Thanks in advance!

>                                                Brenden Mecleary
>                                                bman2@ix.netcom.com
>                                                "Why me?"