no os

[lefty1990]

I inherited a laptop recently and after using it a few times I went to boot up and I got the following message: "While initializing device IOS Error: An I/O subsystem driver failed to load. Either a file in the ./iosubsys subdirectory is corrupt, or the system is low on memory." Using Windows Help, I verified that there was not a corrupt subdirectory. Not knowing how much memory the computer is suppossed to have loaded, I went ahead with another windows help troubleshoot suggestion and disabled the non-system device drivers to see if any of them were causing the problem. While I was in there I also deleted the aol connection drivers. When I tried to restart, I get the message "no operating system found."

I desperately need to get this thing running but it is not worth paying someone else to fix when I have my own brain, I just could use some help. THank you for any help you all can offer.

[BigBlue66]

Hey,

Use your startup floppy disk and boot to an MS-DOS prompt. Change to the C:\ prompt. I will assume that you're running WIN98 or 98SE, and this problem happened within the last five days. If so, at the C:\ prompt, type:

Scanreg_/Restore

Use a space in place of the underscore. You will get a menu with the last five days worth of registry backups, assuming that you load ScanReg on startup. Pick a date before you deleted the files and choose to restore. You should be back at square one, before you made any changes. From here, you're free to troubleshoot some more.

If you have not enabled ScanReg on startup, you can probably still try fixing the registry. At the C:\ prompt, type:

Scanreg /Fix

As for the original problem, after you're back up and running, go to Start/Run and type msconfig. Choose Selective Startup and disable loading the system.ini file. If everything works right, then edit the system.ini file to find the conflicting line and disable it. Do this with the other startup files, such as win.ini, config.sys, autoexec.bat, etc. until you find out which file is causing the error message. Then, edit the file as suggested above for the line item that represents the error message.

If unsure of how to do the above paragraph, post back. But the first thing you should do is either restore or fix the registry so you're back at square one.

Good luck.

Big Blue 66


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"Right turn Clyde!"