Receive the following error message during boot-up:
While Initializing Device IOS: Windows Protection Error. You Need to Restart Your Computer.
After I re-start, I can only enter Windows in Safe Mode. Any ideas?

Found a reference to this exact error at
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/bulletin/archive/nav/08nav.html#31. If you have Norton AntiVirus installed, then this may be your fix. Hope this helps.

I have the same problem after installing a new AMD K6-2 chip and gigabyte GA-5AX BOARD.

I have found a patch for this problem if you are running an AMD.

My problem is that I cannot even get it to boot in safe mode and cannot install the patch.

Have you found any solutions?

d

This is a win/9x error. it is caused by using a fast proccesor, underclock your cpu by turning down the bus speed to 66 mhz.. install your patch, reboot and reset your bus back to 100mhz. That should fix it.

How do you underclock your cpu. Do you need to set some jumpers or there is something you can do in the bios.

I have this problem at the moment. However, I have found that if you persevere you can eventually get your machine to start windows proper without bringing up the IOS error. Then you can install the patch and (hopefully :) reboot and start up again!
If you cannot get it to start normally or in safe mode Microsoft recommend booting your machine to the command line, then typing win /d:m to start it in safe mode. I have not tried this yet so dont blame me if it doesn't work :)

Hope this helps.

Incase this helps.
just bought an AMD K6-2 500 &
Microstar MS-5169 ATX Mboard
Same problem. Running Win /d:m did nothing.
Changing bus speed worked a treat.
thanx

I found a solution at:

http://year2000.miami.edu/support/win95/win95tips.htm

which solved the problem for us. Their solution quoted verbatim follows:

Solution:
This can be rectified by going into the \windows\system\iosubsys\ directory. Rename the file called rmm.pdr into rmm.old and reboot the machine. This will create a new rmm.pdr and the machine should now boot
properly.

Hope this helps,

Dave and Arthur (who's PC died!)

This did not solve our problem! AHHHHHHHHHH
We are putting an old harddrive in a new system and keep getting the error. Any ideas?????????? We tried the above fix and it did not create a new rmm.pdr file. Sniffle. Crying from frustration...

Renaming the file worked wonderfully!

Thanks!

renaming the file did not work for me. Still looking on InfoSeek.com

The under-clocking, patch installation, and re-clocking worked for my AMD K6-2 500 on a TMC motherboard, but it ate several files in Windows 95. I had to reinstall my VGA drivers and Dial-up Networking.

Just in case anyone is wondering where the heck to get the patch:
http://users.senet.com.au/~ajclark/amd-k6-2-350+.html

the issue here is either one of 2. Windows 95 has a timing issue with amd processors above 350. Underclocking the cpu to 333 mhz defeats the IOS error if that is the cause you should undeclock it by changing the 100 mhz to 66 temporarily then go in apply the patch shut down and change the jumper back to 100 mhz and it should work well Also when changing boards like from old intel to via chips I reccommend deleting the enum key in the hkey local machine registry entry. This forces windows to refind all your devices and set it up like it was a new install. Best to copy with win95 dir to the hd fisrt though as you will need the files there cause it is not going to see your cd-rom for awhile

I have a 733Mhz (eb) Intel Pentium III
and I am getting this error as I try and
install Win98 2ed on it. It had Windows 2000
on it, running fine, but I wanted a dual
boot so I am starting from scratch, first
installing Win98 then Win2000. I can boot
to safe mode but so what....
I had one machine that I had put together
(PIII/500) that 6 months later had all
kinds of Windows errors showing up. After
checking everything else out, the problems
went away completely when I replaced the
memory DIMM......

Here is something that may help others with this problem. I was working on a friends Packard Bell computer who was getting the windows protection/initializing IOS error message mentioned above. All I knew is that the RAM had been upgraded and it had not worked since. The CMOS was locked with a password so I had to hack into it with cmospwd.exe (an excelent yet simple little program any sys admin should have!). I made sure that the system was recognizing the RAM and that all the CMOS settings were correct. No improvement (hey ya always start with the last change made!) I tried renaming the rmm.pdr. Still no help! Finally I tracked down a diagram of the motherboard (a PB600) and then realized that whoever installed the RAM had one chip in one bank and the other chip in another bank! Therefor each of the two banks had one chip and one empty slot. Anyone who has worked on classic pentiums knows that you MUST fill a bank in order for it to work (that's why have to install two chips instead of just one). It was kind of tricky because the BIOS counted the RAM at boot and the only error message was the windows protection error. Just something obscure I ran accross that can also generate the same problem that you are discussing here. Hope this helps someone and spares them the hours of web surfing I had to do to figure it out.

just bought a new computer with the k-6 500
had the same problem when tring to install
windows 95, underclocked the processor and
it worked like a charm, i would advise to try
this first before anything else, then get the patch to fix the problem, might save you some time....

My friend is having the IOS device problem but his problem is not in win 95 it is in win 98 he has an amd k6-2 400 mhz with 48 megs of ram what could be causing this problem formating did not help at all. I thought this problem was supposed to be fixed with win 98, i've done some tech support before but this is a first for me

Thanks
J

Well, my buddy is getting the same error. Only thing I see different from the above posts is that he has a Pentium 233 MMX, with the bus speed already set to 66 MHz. He has two DIMM's on his MB a 32 and 64. He has two hard drives, one is 540 mb, which boots 95 fine, with the occasional protection fault when playing Baulders Gate. But now when we use all the same hardware, aside from a new 8gb WD hard drive, he gets this Windows Protection Error almost always.

Now I'm wondering whether or not there is a patch for this, or if it's just one of the many quirks to Microsoft we haven't found out about yet. We flashed the Bios this evening, and it seemed to fix all the problems, but not sure. We did this after the installation of 98, so we will have to try a reinstall soon.

If anyone has a clue of what I can do pertaining to a Pentium instead of a AMD chip, I'm open for suggestions.

I'll give that file renaming idea a chance...anything is possible at this point.

Thanks in advance,

Wil

PSS ID Number: Q157924
Article last modified on 06-04-1998

95

WINDOWS

======================================================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows 95
- Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release versions 1, 2, 2.1
---------------------------------------------------------------------

SYMPTOMS
========

When you restart Windows 95 after installing a program or making a
configuration change to your computer, you may receive one of the
following error messages:

- Windows initializing device IOS: Windows protection error. IOS failed
to Initialize, Please restart

- While initializing IOS: Windows protection error. You need to restart
your computer.

- Windows initializing device IOS: Windows protection error. You need to
restart your computer.

After the error message is displayed, you may not be able to start Windows
95 normally. However, you should be able to start Windows 95 in Safe mode.

RESOLUTION
==========

It may also be possible to start Windows 95 normally after using the
following procedure:

1. Boot Windows 95 in Safe mode or to a command prompt.

2. Perform one of the following two steps:

- Edit the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files and disable any
references to Smartdrv.exe. To disable a line, type "rem"
(without quotation marks) at the beginning of the line.

- Rename Smartdrv.exe to another name.

3. Restart your computer normally.

STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95 and
OEM Service Releases. An update to address this problem is now available,
but should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem.
Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft does
not recommend implementing this update at this time. Contact your OEM or
Microsoft Technical Support for additional information about the
availability of this update.

MORE INFORMATION
================

Users experiencing this symptom with an OEM version of Windows 95 should
contact their computer vendor about the availability of a solution.

The problem occurs only on certain system configurations, and does not
occur if Internet Explorer 4.0 is installed on your computer. These system
configurations have a minimum of 32 MB of RAM and a large number of device
drivers. The problem is rare and can occur only at startup. Users whose
systems are starting successfully today are not impacted.

Additional query words: 95 msn msnetwork
======================================================================
Keywords : osr2 win95 kbenv kberrmsg kbfaq
Version : 95
Platform : WINDOWS
Hardware : x86
Issue type : kbprb
Solution Type : kbfix
=============================================================================
Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1998.

I have windows 98 on a machine I bought not to long ago. I installed a second 64meg chip about 4 months ago, and have various strange problems ever since....thoough none have been constant. Today I tried to start my computer and got the windows protection error. I am unable to start it in normal or safe mode. Could someone help?

I've had my computer for about eight months AMD k6-2 400 Mhz 132 Megs of RAM. Have not changed anything on it for several months. In the last few days I've been getting "Windows Protection Error" I can start in safe mode. I tried reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows '98 but it didn't help. What stumps me is that it ran fine for 8 months. Any suggestions as to the problem? and solution?

I had (and have again) this error message and spent DM 3,63/min (ca. $1.20) to call Microsoft Support.
They said to me that:

Windows 95
If I have the smartdrv.exe I should delete it

Windows 98
If I have RAM from different vendors I could have an incopatibility between the modules.

Also it can happen when one RAM module is damaged.

And sometimes it happens when you have a Quantum harddrive in combination with a certain MB/RAM/PCI-Card.

Hope this helps

Yes, I too have the ever popluar IOS problem
have tried the patch the clocking down Idea is somthing I will try......for those of you
who think you know memory.....(not) memory
should be put in in intervals of 4 meg 8 meg
16 meg 32 meg 64 meg 128 meg and so on I have proven this. watch for fast page or edo that are not the same.... also the (ns) Nano seconds should match on all memory this will
reduce the confusion and actually make the system run faster......I have a 1st generation 486-33 with a 5x86 cpu...it is equivilant to a 75P with 8 50ns 4meg 30-pin
simms....I keep it for sentimental reasons...
and prove my point... if your system has 24 meg's of ram it probably runs slower get it fixed and upgrade correctly.....have fun!!!

The renaming of the pdr file worked for me on a Win 95 computer. Thanks, you made me look like a computer genius! None of the others made sense as I don't have a quantum hard drive, only have one ram slot filled, not overclocked, no smartdrv, etc. I still don't know what caused the problem, but if it doesn't show up again, I don't care.
Ooh, maybe I spoke too soon. I see the Blue Screen of Death on the computer right now. Well, I'll keep trying.

I think it is the odd combo of parts that leads to this error imho. I've found that bsod and other things will go away with just good hardware combos.

Anyhow, I've pasted together 2 computers from spare parts. Both got this error (amdk2-350 and 500). The amdk500 would not boot at all (safe or not or with win /d:m) .. the amdk2-350 would boot in safe and boot on perhaps the 2nd/3rd go around and it also displayed this problem only after installing new drivers. I tried the patch people speak of but it did not help in either case ... but there seems to be at least 2 patches with the same name (I say that because I found 2 with 2 different file sizes). I changed the bus speed to 66 on the amdk500 and that worked. I installed the patch and things were nice but then it started again ... I reduced the bus again and I'm just leaving it there :) ... I tried the patch on the amdk2350 and I got these very bizzarre errors about *.vxd files ... I ended up re-installing win95 and I will not try the patch again :) ... I'll live with the need to simply reboot when it appears as it nearly always reboots without a problem.

Remember that these computers are rather complex and getting so disparate things to work together is no easy feat. This has been the best source for solving/understanding this problem. Congrats to computing.net

Peter