Nonexpanded Windows Mouse Driver Freezes Machine

Last reviewed: November 30, 1994
Article ID: Q62276
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.0, 3.0a, 3.1, 3.11

SUMMARY

Microsoft Windows files must be decompressed before they can be used by the computer. If you copy a compressed mouse driver from the Windows disks to your hard drive without decompressing the driver first, adding it to your CONFIG.SYS file, and then rebooting the machine, the machine hangs.

Rebooting the machine, or turning it off and on again does not solve the problem because the unreadable file prevents the computer from going through the startup procedure correctly.

MORE INFORMATION

To correct this situation, do the following:

  1. Boot from an MS-DOS floppy disk.

  2. Delete the compressed mouse driver file. (Depending on your Windows version, compressed files have "$" or "_".) If the compressed file was renamed, giving it the correct last letter, check the size of the file against the compressed file on your floppies.

  3. Copy EXPAND.EXE from Windows Disk 2 onto your hard drive.

  4. Insert the disk with the file to be expanded into a floppy drive.

  5. Type the following, where X: is the source disk, and press ENTER:

          EXPAND X:FILENAME.SY$ C:\WINDIRECTORY\FILENAME.SYS (Windows 3.0)
          EXPAND X:FILENAME.SY_ C:\WINDIRECTORY\FILENAME.SYS (Windows 3.1)
    

    FILENAME.SY$ is the name of the compressed file to be copied. WINDIRECTORY is the name of your Windows directory. FILENAME.SYS is the renamed file that appears on the hard drive.

    The following are examples:

          EXPAND A:\MOUSE.SY$ C:\WINDOWS\MOUSE.SYS (Windows 3.0, 3.0a)
          EXPAND A:\MOUSE.SY_ C:\WINDOWS\MOUSE.SYS (Windows 3.1, 3.11)
    

NOTE: The information about EXPAND.EXE is covered in the Windows version 3.0 README.TXT in the "Copying Files from the Windows 3.00 Disks" section.


KBCategory: kbusage kbtool
KBSubcategory: win30 win31
Additional reference words: 3.00 3.00a 3.10 3.11 hangs crashes freezes
locksup locks up


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Last reviewed: November 30, 1994
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