Checking Specific Driver Problems

Loading a specific driver in CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, or Windows 95 Registry may cause a computer to stall. This could be due to a hardware or software (device driver or TSR) conflict.

To determine whether hardware or software is stalling the computer, try the following:

• Press F8 at the Starting Windows 95 message, and select Safe Mode Command Prompt Only. If this option prevents the computer from stalling on startup, a device driver or TSR is a likely cause of the problem.

  Restart the computer, and press F8 again, and then select the Step-By-Step Confirmation option to check for TSRs that are loading and may be causing the problem.

• If you use disk compression and the computer still stalls after using Safe Mode Command Prompt Only to start the computer, restart the computer in Safe Mode Without Compression by pressing CTRL+F5 when the Starting Windows 95 message appears.
• Check the CMOS settings in the computer's BIOS configuration menus, making sure the settings match your installed hardware.
• Check the hardware installation and the manufacturer's documentation to verify that all devices are correctly installed.
• Check resource settings in Device Manager for specific installed hardware to make sure no conflicts exist in the IRQ, I/O address, DMA channels, and memory addresses used. Compare your actual installation with your hardware documentation for inconsistencies in the settings used. For information, see Chapter 19, "Devices."

To check whether a specific driver is stalling the computer

• Restart the computer. Press F8 when the Starting Windows 95 message appears, and then select the Logged (BOOTLOG.TXT) option. Search the BOOTLOG.TXT file for errors. For information about this file, see Chapter 6, "Setup Technical Discussion."