I have a user with a Compaq armarda 1580DT laptop that has been away for a new system board. On its return the Windows 95 OS displays an Error box with a yellow triangle containing an exclamaition mark and the text 'The boot sector could not be read [PW22]' This is cleared by clicking the OK box in the error box. The error appears to have no effect on the PC but I need to clear the fault before I can return it to the user. The fault does not manafest its self in safe mode. The Bootlog.txt is normal. I can find no references to PW22 on the web. If you have seen this error or can help then drop me a line. out of ideas! Nick

I too have this problem on my Armada 4120 which was sent back to Compaq for a new motherboard. Not only could I not find anything on the web about PW22, but Compaq themselves couldn't help explain the error. They said that there were articles on microsoft webpage about this, but the ID numbers they gave me don't exist. Help!

Make that three Compaq Armada laptops with this PW22 error.

Hmm... Up that to four. I have a Compaq Armada 4150. It was bought used from a dealer that buys/sells corporate PCs during mass upgrades so it was a completly blank HD. I installed Win95 B and I too get the error.

Found the answer… I too had the same problem; I reformatted the HDD and that error PW22 came up. I called Compaq and there was one SP**** that I did not install. The error code is due to the HDD being formatted FAT32. The SP that affected this is SP3223 and SP5472. The SP5472 is the one that I had not installed and the error ended. To keep this short and sweet, just read up on the purpose of these SP on Compaq site. Enjoy

I'm, programming with interruptions (int86x function)under language "C". I need read boot sector, of hard disk with FAT12,FAT16 and FAT32, but when retry read hard disk with FAT32, show one error. How read boot sector to hard disk with FAT32?

To fix the PW22 error, take the following measures: 1. Disable hibernation using F10 Setup 2. Install Compaq's SP4578 (Power Management) 3. If it's present, rename VWIN32.VXD to VWIN32.OLD 4. Enable hibernation These steps came from a Compaq tech rep, and it worked to clear the PW22 error. Actually, just disabling hibernation will prevent you from getting the "boot sector could not be read [PW22]" error. So if you never use hibernation mode, you won't really have to install the SP!