Somebody PLEASE help me

[leatherface1974]

I am nearing completion of building my first PC. So far, most everything has gone smooth as silk until now. I have installed Windows 95 and was intending to install my 98 upgrade then. Well, the installation of 95 went fine. My system rebooted and started to load the OS when this message came up:

"While initializing device IOS:
Windows protection error. Please restart your computer."

I rebooted and have gotten the same message over and over. Can someone please shed some light on the subject? Its very disheartening to make it this far and to hit a snag.

Here is what is installed so far:
Biostar M7NCD Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ cpu w/heat sink and fan
512mb ram (crucial)
Antec Case 350w PSU
Nvidia Geforce 2 mx card (pulled from my last system)
Win 95 OS

Any idea of how I can correct this and get the system to boot correctly?

[YODA74]

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263466

http://www.md4pc.com/questions/41.htm

[pave_spectre]

I think the important part of YODA's article link is " This issue is resolved in Microsoft Windows 98."

You dont need to install 95 first. Since you have an upgrade copy of Windows 98 reformat the drive and then try booting from the Win98 CD. Since its an upgrade copy, during the installation it should ask for the 95 CD to verify that you are entitled to an upgrade. It will then proceed with a completely clean instalation and you shouldn't have any of the problems that can result from doing an actual upgrade.

[leatherface1974]

Ok, I was planning on installing win98 but I cant find my registration key now (its been a long time since ive needed it). In all reality, I had planned on just doing an upgrade/install of WinXP, but wanted to test the system first with 95. If I reformat the HD then install XP, do any of you think that will solve the problem?

Thanks

[gwallen4]

XP should work fine.

Send me your email address and I will email you a registration key for Win98 Upgrade so you can try that if you want. However, I haven't had much luck getting nForce2 chipsets to work with Win98.

[ixl]

Hi all...

We don't share registration keys around here. I don't mean to be a pain, and I realize this is an old product and there's nothing nefarious going on here -- I just don't want to set a bad precedent or get Microsoft on my back.

Thanks.

c

[gwallen4]

Yeah. I'm sure Microsoft is monitoring this forum.

They are probably saying to themselves, "Ahhh, there's another smuck who lost his key. Now he'll have to buy XP.

[mjc]

Actually MS uses robot software to monitor all the internet...or at least tries to.

And yes, a cease and desist order does tend to dampen the spirits of those who host forums.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Do you have your 98 upgrade installed elsewhere or on another harddrive? If so, using Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) on that pc will reveal your key code.

[leatherface1974]

I appreciate the offer for the key, but I was fortunate enough to locate mine. Now, I've run into a new issue. My HD is a Seagate 80gb, but I'm only showing 2gb. This was a brand new retail HD, so I formatted it after installation. I suppose I could reformat (I haven't installed anything else other than windows) and start from scratch. ANy other suggestions?

[gwallen4]

The Seagate may have been formatted with FAT16 which only allowed 2GB partitions. You may have inadvertently chosen that file system if you told fdisk that you were partitioning the HD for Windows95.

Later versions of Windows (95B, 98, etc.) allow FAT32 which is the filing system that you need.

Easiest way is to start over. Make a Windows98 StartUp floppy and run fdisk and format from there. Or you could use the included Seagate installation disc to partition and format the drive.

I like partitions of 16 GB for C: and 64 GB for D:. Keep your OS and programs on C: and your data on D:. But that is just my personal preference.

[leatherface1974]

Update-

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for all the good advice and help. I got my system working nicely- Just have to get the internet set up on it now and it should be just fine then. One final question....

During all the installations, bootups, etc- the system was at around 98-110 degrees F. Is that ok? I have a heat sink, thermal puddy that came with it, and a fan on the processor. Once I start using this system much more and gaming I assume it will get hotter. What is an acceptable temperature range? I have no intentions of ever overclocking or using the system much more than gaming/internet. What temps should I be aware of?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Those temps sound fine, they are about 36 to 43 degrees celsius which is quite normal for AMD processors and when you get to 60 or more celsius is when you might want to start asking why. It is supposedly ok to be higher than that but I would be more concerned more on a 'departure from the norm' than a steady, narrow range of readings.

If you have a Pentium these readings should be somewhat lower and I'll let someone more familiar with those to guide you as to if it is safe or not.

98 and 110 degreesF is from barely warm to a non-scalding hot water in comparison. Plumbing codes limit hot water to 110 degrees normally for human contact. Dishwashers and other sterile appliances require hotter temps JFYI. 110degF will not blister skin, about 130degF may, or at least, be very uncomfortable... I was subjected to 200+ degreesF water recently and received second degree burns as a result. Ouch is an understatement! :eek: All healed now though... :)

You mentioned gaming though and that plus video editing are a couple of apps that are processor intense resulting in higher temps. I suggest taking some idle temp readings, then taking some immediately after some gaming to see if your still within safe limits. Report back if you feel the need.

[gwallen4]

Your temps are fine - 37-39 C.

You could possibly see a 10 C. increase when you start exercising the CPU. But that would still be within a safe level - <50 C.

If you find that you are running higher than 50 C., I would change out your cooling solution, either a better heat transfer medium (i.e. Arctic Silver 5) or a better heatsink/fan.

By the way, can you tell us how you fixed your problem. It would help us give better advice to future forum participants.

[leatherface1974]

Ok- Here's how I solved most of my issues-

The boot up issue-
While initializing device IOS:
Windows protection error. Please restart your computer."

I reformatted the Harddrive and booted exclusively from my Win98 upgrade disk and the Win98 back up disk I had made way back when.

That pretty much took care of that issue.

My Issue with the 80gb HD only showing as 2gb-

I'm not exactly sure how I fixed it, but I used the Seagate startup/partioning disk after I booted up the system. I ran the disk, and hit the "Maintenance" option I think. One of the options presented to me was to partion the remaining HD space. I chose that option and the program created a second "drive" for me- registering at 72GB, I don't know what happened to the remaining 8gb, but I'll honestly never need it. But now it boots from the 2gb drive where I have windows installed and all my programs, games, etc are on the 72gb drive.

Those were pretty much my main "issues". I have hit a few other snags along the way, but was able to solve them with a little thought and going back through the instruction manuals.

Thanks again for the help- I'll probably be posting back for more assistance soon.