Boot from win95 menu to DOS

[toomyg]

I noticed latley that when I go to dos in the win95 boot menu "start in dos compatablity mode"
that my Hard Drive light stays lit like it`s waiting for something or something isnt loaded right

But everything in dos works OK just the light stay on

anyone know why


thanks

[melloman]

If you are in Windows, but in DOS compatibility mode, that means you are in windows, using DOS drivers. 32 bit disk access is disabled, so access is slower. It's also usually accompanied by an issue with drivers that can't load, or occasionally with virus activity.

Anyway, it will run slower, your long file names may be impacted in some cases.

[Hpro]

Tom do you use a boot manager or EXDRIVE - MAXBLAST or alike there ?this is one of the normal things which will cause this then also try to re detect the hard drive in the bios - may it isn't detected proper = BTW make sure that it always reads the same kind of parameters in the bios - you could let it detect and then safe as user settings thi usually helps..

Type at the dos prompt MEM /C /P and look out the Convetional memory reads 655360 KB anything else - and you have a virus - if there is a PS/2 Mouse connected then it will read less 1024 bites...

[toomyg]

This below is what it reads at the command prompt



¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
Modules using memory below 1 MB:

Name Total Conventional Upper Memory
-------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------
SYSTEM 31,520 (31K) 12,160 (12K) 19,360 (19K)
HIMEM 1,168 (1K) 1,168 (1K) 0 (0K)
EMM386 4,320 (4K) 4,320 (4K) 0 (0K)
CWBINIT 1,104 (1K) 1,104 (1K) 0 (0K)
WIN 3,776 (4K) 3,776 (4K) 0 (0K)
vmm32 142,176 (139K) 6,112 (6K) 136,064 (133K)
COMMAND 7,520 (7K) 7,520 (7K) 0 (0K)
MSDOS 80 (0K) 80 (0K) 0 (0K)
IFSHLP 2,864 (3K) 0 (0K) 2,864 (3K)
Free 618,800 (604K) 618,800 (604K) 0 (0K)

Memory Summary:

Type of Memory Total Used Free
---------------- ----------- ----------- -----------
Conventional 651,264 32,464 618,800
Upper 158,288 158,288 0
Reserved 0 0 0
Extended (XMS) 32,347,568 75,184 32,272,384

Total memory 33,157,120 265,936 32,891,184

Total under 1 MB 809,552 190,752 618,800

Largest executable program size 618,784 (604K)
Largest free upper memory block 0 (0K)
MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

[Windows 95] C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP>
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Does this look ok and as for the HD in the bios it`s set to auto detect it`s been set to that from day one and I did a virus check that was OK and I used Norten Sytem works 2000 to check my boot sectors and surface scan everything can back OK

man I just don`t know

[Hpro]

Someting is eating up your convetional memory and I would say it's either a virus or a third place utility a TSR - to find out boot to "SAFE MODE COMMAND PROMPT ONLY" hit F8 and then select the line using the cursors..As well in SAFE MODE COMMAND PROMPT ONLY as COMMAND RPOMPT ONLY - EXCEPT if you have a PS/2 mouse then it will READ LESS 1024 Bites..

it has to read this

Conventional Memory 655,360 and not Conventional 651,264

Use a boot disk - A CLEAN ONE - Lock the disk and then type : FDSIK /MBR

this will get rid of any eventually left over BOOTSECTOR VIRUSES

look at the picture below..
http://www.thedebug.com/images/memory.jpg