hide random home http://www.gateway2000.com/support/techsupt/fb/1900/1945.htm (Amiga Plus Extra No. 5/97, 05/1997)

Basic Troubleshooting Steps: Problems Entering Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Microsoft Windows For Workgroups 3.11.

This document covers many problems that can cause a computer either to not enter Windows or to receive an error upon doing so. This document is designed to cover the most common issues known to our Customer Support department. Therefore, it may not contain the answer to your specific situation.

Possible causes:

Common to both versions - Windows 3.1 & 3.11:

An incorrect video driver setting, or a corrupted video driver can cause numerous problems. Use the standard VGA driver for testing.

To change the video driver to VGA:

  1. Power up the system. At the C:\> prompt, type:

    cd\windows

    and press Enter.

  2. At the C:\WINDOWS\> prompt, type:

    setup

    and press Enter. This brings you to a blue screen titled Windows Setup in the upper left corner.

  3. Press the up arrow key on your keyboard until you are highlighting the information to the right of the word Display, then press Enter.

  4. A new screen appears with a smaller window at the bottom. This smaller window allows many choices. Press the down arrow key until you are highlighting VGA and press Enter.

  5. Another new screen appears, and you are now highlighting a line stating Accept the configuration shown above. Press the Enter key on your keyboard now to continue.

  6. The final screen shows some details about the VGA video driver. At the bottom of the screen it says, ESC=Replace Driver ENTER=Keep Driver. Press Enter now to continue.

    Note: If you see a screen instructing you to put in a Microsoft Windows diskette, follow the on-screen instructions, inserting either a diskette or your Gateway 2000 System CD. If you are running MS Windows 3.1 and using the Gateway 2000 System CD, you will need to press the backspace key on your keyboard to delete the A:\ for the path, and then type:

    d:\windows\

    and press Enter.

    If you are running MS Windows 3.1 and using the Gateway 2000 System CD, you will need to press the backspace key on your keyboard to delete the A:\ for the path, and then type:

    d:\wfw311\

    and press Enter.

A device on either the LOAD= or RUN= lines could be conflicting with something else in the system, remarking them will help to determine if this is the source of the difficulty.

To modify the LOAD= and / or RUN= lines:

  1. Power up the system. At the C:\> prompt, type:

    cd\windows

    and press Enter.

  2. At the C:\WINDOWS\> prompt, type:

    edit win.ini

    followed by the Enter key again.

  3. Now press the down arrow key until you are at the line that begins with LOAD= and put a semi-colon at the beginning of this line.

  4. Use your arrow keys on your keyboard to move to the beginning of the RUN= line and put a semi-colon at the beginning of this line. The semi-colon at the beginning of these lines tell the file to treat these lines as remarks, not commands.

  5. Next, press the Alt key on your keyboard, followed by the Enter key, then the X key. You now see a message stating that the loaded file is not saved and asking you to save it now; press Enter to save and exit this file.

The SHELL= line in the SYSTEM.INI file having an invalid entry is usually due to file corruption or a conflict with another program being loaded, use the default settings for testing purposes.

To modify the SHELL= line:

  1. Power up the system. At the C:\> prompt, type:

    cd\windows

    and press Enter.

  2. At the C:\WINDOWS\> prompt, type:

    edit system.ini

    followed by the Enter key again.

  3. Now press the down arrow key until you are at the line that begins with SHELL=. Make sure that the line looks like this: SHELL=PROGMAN.EXE then save and exit this file by pressing the Alt key on your keyboard, followed by the Enter key, then the X key. You now see a message stating that the loaded file is not saved, asking you to save it now; press Enter to save and exit this file.

Booting with only HIMEM.SYS loaded: This is done to check for a possible conflict in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file.

To boot with HIMEM.SYS only, you must have MS-DOS Version 6.0 or newer.

  1. Reboot your computer, and as soon as you see "Starting MS-DOS" appear on the screen, press the F8 key on your keyboard.

  2. The next thing you see on your screen is a message stating that MS-DOS will prompt you to confirm each CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT command.

  3. When you see a line appear that says:

    Device=c:\dos\himem.sys -or- Device=c:\windows\himem.sys,

    press the letter Y on your keyboard, then press Enter.

  4. For all other commands, press the N key, followed by the Enter key.

  5. Once at the C:\> prompt, type:

    cd\windows

    and press Enter. Now from the C:\WINDOWS\> prompt type:

    win

    and press Enter again to enter Windows.

Note: If this step works and allows you to enter Windows, this means that there is a conflict with one or more lines in your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You can re-boot your system using the F8 key to do an interactive boot, loading one more line each time to determine which line is causing the conflict. This information can help to solve your difficulty. If you are unable to resolve this issue on your own, contact our Technical Support staff for further assistance.

Duplicate entries in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file: This is most commonly caused by re-installing software packages or drivers.

To get rid of duplicate entries in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI:

  1. Power up the system. At the C:\> prompt, type:

    cd\windows

    and press Enter.
  2. At the C:\WINDOWS\> prompt, type:

    edit system.ini

    followed by the Enter key again.

  3. Now press the down arrow key until you see a line marking the beginning of the 386 Enhanced section. It will have brackets around it denoting it as the beginning of a new section. It will look like this: [386Enh].

  4. Now look through each line of this section for duplicate lines, and, when found, put a semi-colon at the beginning of the duplicated line(s). If you have two lines exactly alike, only put a semi-colon at the beginning of one of the lines.

  5. Now save and exit this file by pressing the Alt key on your keyboard, followed by the Enter key, then the X key. You will see a message stating that the loaded file is not saved, asking you to save it now; press Enter to save and exit this file.

Note: An example of this would be two identical lines in this one section like the following: DEVICE=MACH.386.

B>Missing entries in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file: This is most commonly found when you have an IDE CD-ROM. You must have at least the first of the following two lines in your SYSTEM.INI files [386Enh] section to be able to enter Windows.

VirtualHDIrq=Off 32BitDiskAccess=Off

To check for missing entries in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file:

  1. Power up the system. At the C:\> prompt, type:

    cd\windows

    and press Enter.

  2. At the C:\WINDOWS\> prompt, type:

    edit system.ini

    followed by the Enter key again.

  3. Now press the down arrow key until you see a line marking the beginning of the 386 Enhanced section. It will have brackets around it denoting it as the beginning of a new section. It will look like this: [386Enh].

  4. Now look through each line of this section for both of the previous two lines. If these lines are not present, type them in just as they appear in the example above.

  5. Now save and exit this file by pressing the Alt key on your keyboard, followed by the Enter key, then the X key. You will see a message stating that the loaded file is not saved, asking you to save it now; press Enter to save and exit this file.

Note: Make sure when you edit the SYSTEM.INI file that you do not add either of these lines if they already exist. The 32BitDiskAccess line may already be present, just set to "On". In this case, just change it to make it read exactly as it appears above. The VirtualHDIrq line should only appear in the "Off" mode.

Calls to invalid devices in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file: This usually happens after re-installing video drivers. An example would be the following two lines.

device=mach.386 device=mach32.386

Note: The first line is from the original video drivers, the second line is from the updated video driver installation. The update install should have removed or remarked the original line, however sometimes this may not take place, then you will have a call to a virtual file named MACH.386, which is not valid.

To remove invalid devices from the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file:

  1. Read the exact error message displayed upon attempting to enter Windows.

  2. At the C:\> prompt, type:

    cd\windows

    and press Enter.

  3. At the C:\WINDOWS\> prompt, type:

    edit system.ini

    followed by the Enter key again.

  4. Now press the down arrow key until you see a line marking the beginning of the 386 Enhanced section. It will have brackets around it denoting it as the beginning of a new section. It will look like this: [386Enh].

  5. Inside this section will be both device= lines as shown in the above example. Press the down arrow key until you are at the line stating device=mach.386 and put a semi-colon at the beginning of this line.

  6. Now save and exit this file by pressing the Alt key on your keyboard, followed by the Enter key, then the X key. You will see a message stating that the loaded file is not saved, asking you to save it now; press Enter to save and exit this file.

  7. Re-enter Windows to see if this resolved your difficulty.

Improper areas of memory being accessed by something other than Windows:

This is usually caused by the settings on the EMM386.EXE line in the CONFIG.SYS file. To troubleshoot for this possibility set this line to the Gateway default of

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=F000-F7FF

or

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE

depending on the version of MS DOS & MS Windows you have.

To change this line and set it back to the Gateway default setting:

  1. Power up the system. At the C:\> prompt, type:

    edit c:\config.sys

    and press Enter.

  2. Find the line that begins with either

    DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE

    or

    DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE.

    Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, move your cursor to the beginning of that line and type:

    rem

    and press the space bar one time.

  3. Now move your cursor back to the beginning of that line with your arrow keys and press the Enter key one time to create a blank line. Press the up arrow key once to get your cursor at the beginning of the blank line and type:

    device=c:\dos\emm386.exe noems x=f000-f7ff

    or

    device=c:\windows\emm386.exe noems x=f000-f7ff

    depending on which directory your original line pointed to, DOS or WINDOWS. Make sure you type the exclusion ( X= ) at the end of the line using the number zero, not the letter "o".

  4. Now save and exit this file by pressing the Alt key on your keyboard, followed by the Enter key, then the X key. You will see a message stating that the loaded file is not saved, asking you to save it now; press Enter to save and exit this file.

  5. Reboot your system and try running Windows again.

Note: If this works, then something on your EMM386.EXE line is invalid. You may troubleshoot this further to find out which part of the line is causing the actual conflict if you desire.

If you have a BNC network card, then you must have it properly terminated for the computer system to be able to enter Windows.

To check for proper termination, observe the following information:

If you are connected to a network, then you must have a T-connector on the network card. You must also have a BNC cable connected to either both open ends of the T-connector, or one end having BNC cable, the other having a terminating resistor. If the resistor is faulty, you will experience problems. If your system is not attached to a network, then you must have either the card terminated with one terminating resistor applied directly to the network card, or have a T-connector installed with a terminating resistor on both ends of the T-connector.

Applying only to version 3.11:

If your network adapter is set up with different options than are listed in the SYSTEM.INI file, or if there is a problem with the network setup, you may experience problems.

To test for an improper network setup in the SYSTEM.INI file, type:

win /n

and press Enter. If this works, then the Windows program is working fine. The problem is with the network setup, consult your Userís Guide for the proper settings for your network card.

Error Messages

If you receive a specific error message, write it down, it may help to pinpoint exactly where the problem lies. This information could help to resolve the issue more quickly.

The following is a list of possible error messages you may encounter:

  1. Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run windows.

    Make sure that the path line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file points to the directory that contains the file and that it exists on your hard disk. If the file does not exist, try running the Setup program to install it or remove any references to it from your SYSTEM.INI file.

    mach32.386

    Press any key to continue

    This is caused by the SYSTEM.INI file having an incorrect setting on a device line in the [386Enh] section. The line that is incorrect is as follows:

    device=mach32.386

    By remarking this line, your problem should be solved.

  2. Cannot find file ĎAD_WRAP.COMí specified in the WIN.INI or (one of its components).

    Check to insure the path and file name are correct and that all required libraries are available. This example denotes that the WIN.INI file is looking for a file named AD_WRAP.COM, which may or may not be the same file in your case. In any case, you can follow the instructions in one of the previous examples to remark out the line in the WIN.INI file causing your difficulty.

  3. Error loading PROGMAN.EXE.

    This is generally caused by the SHELL= line in the SYSTEM.INI file being invalid. Use the instructions in an above example to set this line to the default setting and try running Windows again. The default setting is: SHELL=PROGMAN.EXE.

  4. A device has been specified more than once in the SYSTEM.INI file, or a device specified in the SYSTEM.INI file conflicts with a device which is being loaded by an MS-DOS device driver or application. Remove the duplicate entry from the SYSTEM.INI file, and then restart Windows. Duplicated device: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MACH.386. You will then be at the C:\> prompt. This may not be the same exact file name as the one which you are getting, however the concept is the same. Use the instructions found in a previous example to remove the duplicate entry from the SYSTEM.INI file.

  5. If your system hangs at the Windows logo, and you have a network card installed, improper termination could be the cause of your difficulty. Use the previous instructions regarding network card termination for determining the proper terminating resistor configuration for your system.

Once again, all of the above listed troubleshooting steps are primarily the basic steps used to resolve some of the most common issues found by our technicians. These are not the only possible solutions to the above difficulties, nor are all of the possible symptoms listed. If these steps do not help you to resolve your issue, please call our Technical Support staff at 1-800-846-2301 to further assist you.

The information in these articles is provided "as-is" without warranty of any kind, and all warranties are hereby disclaimed, whether express or implied, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Gateway 2000 will not be liable for any damages whatsoever, whether direct, special, indirect, incidental, or consequential (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of, or related to your use of, or inability to use the information in any such article, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some states and jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. You may not further distribute, reproduce, rent, sell, transfer or license these articles.

If our documentation hasn't helped you,
this might be a good time to send
an e-mail to Technical Support.

[Products] [Global Site] [Tech Support] [Corporate Information] [The Cow Zone] [What's New] [Glossary] [Search] [Home]

[Gateway 2000]
Copyright © 1996 Gateway 2000 Inc. All rights reserved.
Please see our Legal Information. Please send feedback to Webmaster Central.