I got an error message when starting Win 95 "Multi function device (Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller) has some child devices using 32 bit drivers and others using compatability mode drivers. Restart and windows will use compatability mode drivers for ea. child device attached." In Device Manager, is says "System failure. Try changing the driver for this device. My computer recently crashed and after using the recovery disk from the Manuf. (HP) there was an error message saying that the cd was damaged, so I loaded Win 95 from another disk from another computer. Now it runs, but during the boot process I get an error message saying that the C:Windows/system/VMM32/NtKern.vxd is damaged. Now my CdRom won't work. Are these problems related? Anyone out there who can help???

as a timesaver, I would format the whole thing and reinstall from scratch

Well, in win '98 this problem can be fixed using the following. IF it is an ide-controller problem : start > run > regedit once that comes up, do a search (under edit) for "noide" without quotes, once this is found (will have to do several searches), on the right of noide change from 0 to 1. Then restart. Worth a shot, if this doesn't work follow Luke's advise. Good luck.

See if you have a NOIDE entry in the Registry. Open the Registry editor (START-RUN-Type,REGEDIT-Click, OK). When the Registry Editor opens navigate to the following Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Currentcontrolset\Services\VXD\IOS Highlight the IOS Key and look in the right pane for a NOIDE entry. If found, highlight the NOIDE entry and go to EDIT and select DELETE from the drop down menu. Close the Registry editor and RESTART the computer. See if this returns your CD-ROM and removes the System from the MS-DOS Compatibiltiy Mode (shown in the System Properties window on the Performance tab). The NOIDE entry may reoccur if there are still problems present which force it into the MS-DOS Compatibiltiy Mode. But repost if this helps and see what error messages remain.

The problem with formatting and starting over is that the CD Rom drive won't work. I can't get the computer to read from the CD Rom, and I can't reinstall using the Recover Disk since it is corrupt and won't work anyway.

Okay, I deleted the NOIDE entry and I will restart my computer. That doesn't solve the problem with the NTKern.vxd file that is corrupt does it? What then? and what if I can't reboot?

Repost with whatever the error message is that comes up. You can always get a new boot disk to start the computer from BOOTDISK.Com