[RESOLVED] Multiple problems with Win95 setup

Hello there,

I hope this is the right spot to try my luck in looking for some answers which have been eluding me for the past few weeks.

I´ve been stuck with a few problems which seem to be inter-related but have been unable to solve them satisfactorily. It´s probably a question of the right combination of drivers, but in my opinion it must be some idiosyncracy on the Windows95 operating system.
I´ve tried Microsoft´s online support but it´s extremely hard to get through. Always get server errors from them.
The problems I have are as follows:

1.a. My Diamond NetCommander ISDN card dials out correctly only ONCE during a session. If I try dialing out again, I get "protocol error" messages. When I reboot, all is OK again, until I log off and try to log on again. Diamond support techs told me it wasn´t a problem of theirs because my setup was, in their option, absolutely OK.

1.b. The Diamond isn´t the only network adapter in my system. I also have the Pcind3 Ethernet adapter (network with 4 stations). To complicate matters further, I use Wingate to give everyone access to the Internet.

1.c. I have the latest Dial-up adapter software from Microsoft with VPN support. TCP/IP is installed on the Pcind3 adapter and on the dial-up adapter.

1.d. All APPEARS to work fine, except this problem with having to reboot the comms server if we log off the internet and want to log back on.

1.e. On all the client stations, I get no problems using Netscape for sending and receiving eMail, but Internet Explorer locks up when trying to look for received mail.
I heard it´s a known problem, but haven´t heard of a solution.

QUESTION 1: Do I need a special program or driver to fix this?

2.a. I´m having a heck of a time getting my secondary IDE bus controller to work.
There´s that yellow exclamation mark next to it...
I´ve downloaded the latest "fixes" and patches but no improvement. I´ve double-
checked the CMOS and all looks OK.

2.b. The motherboard I have is a Spacewalker HOT-637/P and the Hard Disk
controller is Intel 82371 AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller. The chip is Pentium-II
MMX 266 with Intel i440LX PCI chipset and Shuttle Award BIOS v.4.51PG [637AWIQ3] (82443 LX/EX driver in system devices).

2.c. I´ve asked the manufacturers for help (by eMail), but no answer yet (for the last
7-10 days).

2.d. I keep getting crashes from my Microsoft Office Pro ´97. Occasionally I see an error message about stack overflow. It´s all got to be inter-linked somehow...

QUESTION 2: Is there a fix for this problem with the secondary bus, and isn´t this the possible reason for my crashes? Also - isn´t this the underlaying reason for the NetCommander not working quite right?

Final question:
I´ve just re-tried a boot with BOOTLOG.TXT and saw a few "fail" messages.
Nothing ever complains during boot-up, but there it is in bootlog.txt:
I got init fail on the following drivers: ndis2sup.vxd, vserver.vxd, ebios, vshare, EBIOS again, vacodbgd.386 (file not found) and ideatapi.mpd (here there were two init
entries, the first was a success, the second a failure). I also got a fail incomplete for
SDVXD.

I´m sorry if this is not the right place to pose such extremely complex and elaborate
questions, but I´m now beginning to go completely nuts.
IF you can help or perhaps guide me to some place where I could get this help,
I would be most grateful.

Thanks and best regards!

Stephen Russell

PS - Love your site, by the way - it´s resources have saved my neck a dozen times!

Stephen:
I can answer your last 2 problems but not the 1st one, sorry...
Question #2:
The 2nd IDE has a yellow exclamation mark:
I. Make sure you have 2nd IDE PCI controller enable in cmos. If it still shows yellow !, then reinstall the chipset driver for PCI bridge etc.
II. Scan the virus. Most of the common virus effect on master boot record.

III. In case if you have to fix the MBR (Master Boot Record). In DOS mode, insert the Windows95 startup disk, at A:\fdisk /mbr
Fixing MBR won't lost the data.

Final question:
Ndis2sup.vxd, the NDIS 2 support driver did not find any NDIS 2 drivers to support, so it does not load.

Vserver.vxd does not load statically so that it can save memory by loading later in the boot process only if it is needed. For example, Vserver.vxd might not be needed when you start a laptop computer while it is out of its docking station.

Vshare, if you examine the Bootlog.txt file, you will notice that VSHARE loaded successfully earlier in the boot process. The second copy of VSHARE detects that VSHARE is already loaded and does not load.

InitCompleteFailed=SDVXD, Windows 95/98 automatically loads a miniature disk cache to increase the speed of the boot process. When the boot process is complete, the miniature disk cache is unloaded from memory. When it is unloaded, the above line is added to the Bootlog.txt file to indicate that the miniature disk cache has been removed from memory. This is normal behavior.

EBios, the extended BIOS driver did not find an extended BIOS, so it does not load.

Ideatapi.mpd, by the name of the file, I will guess due to the failure of reconizing the 2nd IDE controller. It should be fine after you fixed the yellow ! next to the 2nd IDE controller.

Vacodbgd.386, no idea, sorry!

Good Luck!
DejaVu
PCC Technology Group
New Jersey, USA