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hello i have a computer with a blank FAT 16 partition on it which i want to install windows 95 on. i have a bootdisk and the windows 95 cdrom, and i have got as far as getting a little dos shell and accessing my cdrom drive from that. problem is, when i type setup in the cdrom drive it pauses for a few seconds and then gives me back a command prompt without saying anything. any help? thanks alot :)
One thing that can happen is if you have windows 95 B or C version, it's 32-bit. This will not work on an old machine that only has one memory module. I had this happen. If this is you, just put in a pair of modules, giving you 32 bits of width.
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i have microsoft windows 95 companion, will this work?
my machine isn't that old really, 2 gig hardrive, pentium 166 mhz, 32 megs RAM and i just got a brand new CD-ROM drive yesterday.
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Jazz,
Just ignore Blacksmith's post; I think he's been hitting the crack pipe a little hard today.
> One thing that can happen is
> if you have windows 95 B or C
> version, it's 32-bit. This will
> not work on an old machine that
> only has one memory module. I
> had this happen. If this is you,
> just put in a pair of modules,
> giving you 32 bits of width.Huh? Windows 95B and 95C are no more 32-bit than previous versions! In fact, NO version of Windows 95, 98, or even Windows Me are fully 32-bit. Heck, the whole multimedia subsystem from Windows 95 to Me is *totally* 16-bit!
Further, all these versions of Windows must start up in 16-bit mode, then load 32-bit drivers and switch the processor into protected mode. Also, they must all unload their 32-bit drivers and shut down as a 16-bit OS.
These versions of Windows are essentially very, very fancy program managers for DOS, with a GUI, protected mode interface, and memory management features. They all run on top of DOS, a 16-bit operating system. Because of this, these versions can never really be 32-bit.
I think I know what you're thinking and how you got so confused. I think it's two things, really:
#1:
Windows 95B and 95C have support for the FAT32 file system--a 32-bit file system. This 32-bit file system is optional. Also, FAT32 does not make Windows 32-bit and this has abolustely nothing to do with the width of the memory buss!
#2:The size/width of the memory buss determines the size/width of a bank of memory. If your system has a 32-bit wide memory buss (like 386 and 486 systems), then each bank of memory must be 32-bits wide. This means if you have two memory modules that are 16-bits wide, you'd have to install them in pairs. If you have a 32-bit wide DIMM, you only have to install one. Pentium and later systems have a memory buss that's 64 bits wide. This is why you must install SIMMS in pairs in these systems (Each SIMM is 32 bits wide, it takes two to match the width of the buss). You don't have to install DIMMs in pairs in these systems because the DIMMs are already 64 bits wide.
As for your problem, Jazz:Is your CD-ROM drive working okay? Try booting from it or navigating through different subdirectory levels. (Often, all may seem fine at the root directory level, but digging deeper, issues might become evident.)
I'd make sure your boot disk and the CD-ROM disc are okay and there's damage to the media.
I'd also check the hardware and I'd check your disk partition configuration as well. I have seen more than a few installation issues caused by improperly partitioned drives.
Check your CMOS settings. You might try more conservative settings or "fail-safe" or "factory default" settings if you have the option. Heck, you might even try disabling your level 1 and/or level 2 caches (if you've got the option).
If your memory isn't all on one module, you might even try removing one or two and swapping them around. Again, it's *highly* unlikely that defected RAM would cause this issue, though.
You might also try disconnecting any unnecessary hardware (adapter cards and such). It's very unlikely that these could cause a problem, but I've seen stranger things. If an adapter card has it's own adapter BIOS and something's messed up or Windows doesn't like it and it gets mapped into just the right spot in the memory map...
These are just a few things to get you started, maybe--hardly an all encompassing troubleshooting checklist.
Good luck!
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If your CD is only the Win 95 Companion CD, then it is NOT the proper install CD.
Do a DIR of the CD you have - does it have a directory called Win 95 ?
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Well, Andrew, thanks for the sarcastic remark about crack. I'm only trying to help. I had a 486 which would not install win95C until I put in a second memory module. Then It worked. For whatever reason.
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woa, woa, woa!!!!
so this blacksmith guy just made all that s--- up??????? just because he felt like it sounded right????? he says in his own post 'for whatever reason'. he does not know and he's telling us? okay.......
it is hard enough to understand computers without people who don't know what they are talking about offering their help when they don't know and are just guessing.
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cruman,
Computers are easy to understand if you just put the time into it. They are basic machnes that only to what they are told to. Computers were invented in 1942 to crack the Nazi encriptionm and you STILL don't know how to use a computer? How old are you, 90? This is the 21st century! GET WITH THE TIMES, YOU IDIOT!!
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if computers are so easy to understand, then there would not be fifty million posts to these forums from people having trouble and asking questions. are you calling all of them idiots?
obviously, there are people who do not have all the answers. like the guy started this thread. and the blacksmith guy. and thousands of other people all over the world who post questions to forums like this. you can be an expert with a phd and still not know why some things don't work.
as i was saying, finding answers and getting good information sometimes can be hard enough without people posting things when they don't know what they are talking about.
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To the guy who posted number 10:
> They are basic machnes
Computers are not exactly basic machines. With the large number of components like cascaded DMA controllers, cascaded IRQ controllers, memory controllers, UARTs, keyboard controller, DSP chips, buss bridges, etc., the number of different manufacturers and vendors they come from, the different revisions, the firmware, the drivers, and the millions of lines of code-not to mention bugs, it seems remarkable that they work as well as they do! They are anything but simple.
> that only to what they are told to.
Is it really that simple?
If you tell a system to shut down and it locks up, or if you tell an application to compress a file and it deletes it instead, the computer is not doing what you told it to do.
Yes, computers tend to do what they're told, but what they're told is subject to interpretation by software (applications, operating systems, etc.) you may have little or no control over.
What are they being told to do and who's doing the telling?
Did you write your firmware? Did you write your adapter card ROM code? What about your operating system? Your device drivers? Your applications?
A large part of what your computer does is based on instructions that you didn't write and will never see. Therefore, you are not only not completely aware of what your computer is being told, you often have little or no control over some of it.
> Computers were invented in 1942
> to crack the Nazi encriptionmComputers were not invented in 1942 to crack encrypted Nazi messages. A computer called ENIAC was built to crack Nazi codes. ENIAC was a computer, but by no means the first one.
Ever hear of Babbage or Pascal or Turing? Vannevar Bush built an electric computer in 1927. John Vincent Atanasoff built a digital computer in 1939. What about the IBM Mark I? The Mark I is considered to be the first digital computer, but not the first computer. And what about Konrad Zuse and the Z3?
> and you STILL don't know how to
> use a computer?Where in his post did Cruman say he did not know how to use a computer? Obviously he knows something about using them. He was able to post to this forum.
> GET WITH THE TIMES, YOU IDIOT!!
Why are you calling this guy an idiot? He made a good point. People use forums like these to get information. If people who don't know what they're talking about provide incorrect information it defeats the purpose.
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Well, there are two sides to every coin... Yes, there is a need to understand what you are talking about, but everyone makes mistakes. You can't learn to walk without falling. I learn something new atleast every week, if not every day about computers (more properly from my perspective, PC's, I've barely touched Apples, Sun workstations, etc....). I've seen blacksmith post several times, and typically, in my opinion, he's not been far off most of the time. As he said, he thought he had a chance to help and tried to do just that. I've seen plenty of people offer much worse advise as well. And then there are those who like to post to forums just to flame and bash. I guarantee you that there is no one on this planet who understands or knows everything about these complex and sometimes frustrating machines. As Kevin said, it's amazing they work as well as they do, hours upon hours. With mechanical tolerances smaller than a human hair, drive heads riding on a cushion of air, EMI from all the electronical stuff in your case swirling around in there, noisy power from our beloved power companies running through our chips, not to mention crappy software, processor and chipset steppings, and thousands of motherboards and other components with their own flaws and bugs, I sometimes can't believe it can all work together in such a cohesive way. I still peek in my case every so often just to see if I can't catch the elves that make it all work in the act. Wait, what's that sound? Is that the high pitched laughter of an electic fairy folk I hear? Nahhh... must be a bearing going bad in a fan or something... I guess....
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on the subject of the windows 95 installation from the first posted message, jazz i'm having the exact same problem, i tried so much sh*t already to make the thing work that i have permenantly switched to my favorite OS...LINUX ! "Support open source :)" but i still have to fix this computer and if u can then please tell me how u installed it the first time:)
and stop arguing over stupid things guys, 3 wrongs dont make a right :)
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