Chapter Five
"Windows 95 and the High-Speed Processor"

Introduction

Installation on systems running at those high speeds reveal a very serious problem: you may never get to the desktop, as the screen will suddenly display the message: "Windows protection error. You will need to restart your computer." This happens even when you try to start the new system in "safe mode". It can become a never-ending loop.

There is a patch from Microsoft that fixes this problem - "AMDK6UPD.EXE" - so-called because it was the AMD chips that first exposed this problem, though now there are many chips that run this fast. This download solves this problem on all faster systems. But - here's the rub - it only updates the system IF you manage to make it to the desktop. If it was possible to run that executable from the DOS prompt, then it would be a perfect fix for this problem. As it is, in order to install the patch, you have to have booted successfully to the desktop. That's impossible if you keep getting the error message.

With this in mind, I would recommend the following for those who, for whatever reason, MUST have Windows 95B or C running faster than 300MHz:

1. First, find another Windows system - one with the latest version of the WinZip utility installed. Put a blank floppy disk in the "A" drive.
2. Download the Microsoft fix to that system, but do not execute it: use the right-button of the mouse to click it, and choose the WinZip utility's option to "extract to..." - use this to unzip the contents of that executable to the floppy disk.
3. To make the next step easier on yourself, remember to choose the option under "view/options" to show all files.
4. What you will then have on that floppy will be the individual files that actually get replaced by the patch. The files you'll be working with are as follows:
   
   • "IOS.VXD"
   • "INT13.VXD"
   • "NTKERN.VXD"
   • "VFBACKUP.VXD"
   • "DISKTSD.VXD"
   • "CDFS.VXD"
   • "ESDI_506.PDR"
   • "HSFLOP.PDR"
   • "SCSIPORT.PDR"
     
5. There are other files that are also part of the package, but you will not be dealing with those - just the ones listed above.
6. To make your job easier, make two new folders on the floppy - one called "VMM32" and the other called "IOSUBSYS".
7. Place the following files into the "VMM32" folder:
   
   • "IOS.VXD"
   • "INT13.VXD"
   • "NTKERN.VXD"
   • "VFBACKUP.VXD"
     
8. Place the following files into the "IOSUBSYS" folder:
   
   • "DISKTSD.VXD"
   • "CDFS.VXD"
   • "ESDI_506.PDR"
   • "HSFLOP.PDR"
   • "SCSIPORT.PDR"
     
9. You may now take the floppy out of the drive, and take it over to the system that needs the files (the one you're trying to boot up). Leave the floppy out of the drive for now.
10. You will be manually replacing each one of these files at the DOS prompt on your new system:

    1) When you boot up, hold down the "F8" key and choose the option to boot to the DOS prompt. (This should happen with no problem.)
    2) Put the floppy in the "A" drive, and change the DOS prompt to A:, then to the "VMM32" folder on that disk.
    3) Type the following (without the quotes, obviously):
    "copy ios.vxd c:\windows\system\vmm32\ios.vxd"
    4) The system will ask if you want to copy over the file that already existsts there - type "y" and hit "enter" to confirm.
    5) Do the same for each file in the "VMM32" folder.
    6) Navigate to the "IOSUBSYS" folder and do the same for each file there - first example:
    "copy disktsd.vxd c:\windows\system\iosubsys\disktsd.vxd".
    7) After you've replaced everything, you can then take the floppy out of the "A" drive and reboot the system. The computer should now boot to the desktop without problems.

revised 3.12.04, RAE Productions