WW1140:Windows Solution for Faulty Pentium Floating-Point Unit

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.1, 3.11
• Microsoft Windows for Workgroups versions 3.1, 3.11

The "Windows Solution for Faulty Pentium Floating-Point Unit" (WW1140) Application Note contains a utility called PENTFIX.EXE. The PENTFIX.EXE utility automatically disables the Intel Pentium floating-point hardware that contains the floating-point division accuracy error. When you use the PENTFIX.EXE utility, the Pentium behaves similarly to an Intel 486SX or 386 that does not contain floating-point processing hardware.

You can obtain this Application Note from the following sources:

• Microsoft's World Wide Web Site on the Internet
• The Internet (Microsoft anonymous ftp server)
• Microsoft Download Service (MSDL)
• Microsoft FastTips Technical Library
• Microsoft Product Support Services

THE TEXT OF WW1140

  Microsoft(R) Product Support Services Application Note (Text File)

WW1140: WINDOWS(R) SOLUTION FOR FAULTY PENTIUM(TM) FLOATING-POINT UNIT

                                                   Revision Date: 2/95
                                                       1 Disk Included

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| INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT AND ANY SOFTWARE THAT MAY     |
| ACCOMPANY THIS DOCUMENT (collectively referred to as an Application |
| Note) IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER      |
| EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED      |
| WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR       |
| PURPOSE. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and    |
| the use of this Application Note. This Application Note may be      |
| copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All  |
| text must be copied without modification and all pages must be      |
| included;  2) If software is included, all files on the disk(s)     |
| must be copied without modification (the MS-DOS(R)  utility         |
| diskcopy is appropriate for this purpose);  3) All components of    |
| this Application Note must be distributed together;  and  4) This   |
| Application Note may not be distributed for profit.                 |
|                                                                     |
| Copyright (C) 1995 Microsoft Corporation.  All Rights Reserved.     |
| Microsoft, MS-DOS, and Windows are registered trademarks of         |
| Microsoft Corporation. Intel is a registered trademark and Pentium  |
| is a trademark of Intel Corporation.                                |
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Introduction

The WW1140 disk included with this Application Note contains a utility called PENTFIX.EXE. The PENTFIX.EXE utility automatically disables the Intel(R) Pentium floating-point hardware that contains the floating- point division accuracy error. When you use the PENTFIX.EXE utility, the Pentium behaves similarly to an Intel 486SX or 386 that does not contain floating-point processing hardware.

Installing the PENTFIX.EXE Utility

To install the PENTFIX.EXE utility, follow these steps:

1. Quit Windows, or open an MS-DOS command prompt within Windows.

2. If you received a disk with this Application Note, insert the disk in the appropriate floppy disk drive.

   If you downloaded this Application Note from an online service, skip to step 3. This procedure assumes that you have already downloaded and extracted the compressed file.

3. At an MS-DOS command prompt, type the following command and press ENTER

         copy <source>:\pentfix.exe <location>
   

   where <source> is either the letter of your floppy disk drive or the directory containing the file you downloaded from online services, and <location> is the path to your Windows directory. For example, if you are installing from a floppy disk that you inserted in drive A, and C:\WINDOWS is the path to your Windows directory, type:

         copy a:\pentfix.exe c:\windows
   

   Or, for example, if you downloaded the WW1140.EXE file from online services to C:\DOWNLOAD and C:WINDOWS is the path to your Windows directory, type:

         copy c:\download\pentfix.exe c:\windows
   

Running the PENTFIX.EXE Utility

To run the PENTFIX.EXE utility, double-click the PENTFIX.EXE file. For additional information about the PENTFIX.EXE utility, run the PENTFIX.EXE utility and choose the Help button.

TO OBTAIN THIS APPLICATION NOTE

You can find WW1140.EXE (size: 37626 bytes) 
                       , a self-extracting file, on the following

• Microsoft's World Wide Web Site on the Internet

        On the www.microsoft.com home page, click the Support icon.
        Click Knowledge Base, and select the product.
        Enter kbfile WW1140.EXE (size: 37626 bytes) 
                               , and click GO!
        Open the article, and click the button to download the file.
  
  

• Internet (anonymous FTP)

        ftp ftp.microsoft.com
        Change to the Softlib/Mslfiles folder.
        Get WW1140.EXE (size: 37626 bytes) 
  

• Microsoft Download Service (MSDL)

        Dial (425) 936-6735 to connect to MSDL
        Download WW1140.EXE (size: 37626 bytes) 
  

   ARTICLE-ID: Q119591
   TITLE     : How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online
               Services