Tips on Common Hardware Problems in Windows 95/98 Add-on Cards / Peripherals All Staff
Common Port Problems
A modem problem may be related to the port that it's attached to. Go to Control Panel/Systems and select the Device Manager tab. Click on the Ports icon and make sure the port's speed, bits and other settings are correct. Check that the IRQs and COM port settings requested by internal modems don't conflict with the COM ports identified by your system BIOS. In some cases, the BIOS setting for internal COM ports must be disabled to allow internal modems to assume control.
Driven to Subtraction
Some video boards come with DOS-based DCII drivers, but--like the DOS Plug-and-Play drivers--they don't work with Windows 95. If you install one of these boards, make sure you comment out any references to the drivers in your CONFIG.SYS or WIN.INI.
Interrupt settings (IRQs) - Where Can I Change Them?
Windows 95 assigns IRQs automatically, but if you need to change them to a specific value, you can. Select Control Panel/System/Devices, then find and double-click on the device you want to change the IRQ for, or highlight it and select properties. A panel for that device will appear. If you select the Resources tab, a 'Resources' window will pop up. One of the choices in the window is 'Interrupt Request' with the current value listed. If you click on that to highlight it, the change setting button will become usuable. If you click on that button, you will get the 'Edit Interrupt Request' panel that will allow you to change the interrupt and tell you immediately if your new choice conflicts with other equipment.
Interrupt settings (IRQs) - Where is a List of My Settings?
Control Panel/System/Devices, in this area there is an option to print a detailed or summary report. The detail report is huge - 18 pages on my system! The summary report is two pages, and contains a list of all the interrupts currently assigned in the system, and what they are assigned for. This report also lists DMA channel assignments and port addresses.
Another method is to simply right-click on the My Computer icon, and select Properties. This will bring up the System control panel. Select the Device Manager tab, and double-click on Computer within the scrollable window. From here you can view IRQs, DMA channel usage, I/O assignments and Memory settings.
IRQ Artistry
When your system is crammed with peripherals and you're running short of IRQs and DMAs, you can use the PS/2 mouse port to buy yourself a little elbow room, if you're not using it.
Many newer machines let you disable the PS/2 port through BIOS settings. If your machine allows this, disable the port via the BIOS settings.
In Windows 95, remove the PS/2 port driver from the Device Manager. Shut down and restart.
You should now have at least one IRQ free.
If your system doesn't allow you to turn the PS/2 mouse port off through BIOS, disable the PS/2 port driver in Windows 95 without removing it. Shut down, restart and reallocate your hardware.
Mind Your IRQs
Windows 95 automatically assigns IRQs for most resident system hardware (even if a peripheral didn't have one before). When you install a new, nonsystem device, like a sound board, make sure it doesn't request a previously assigned IRQ. Problems commonly occur when a video card gets assigned an IRQ that another piece of hardware might request. Windows 95 does this when it can, in an effort to provide better graphics. So double-check to see what IRQs are used and which are requested when installing new hardware.
Plug and Pray
Don't install the DOS Plug-and-Play configuration utilities that come with some ISA Plug-and-Play hardware. These utilities can interfere with Windows 95's startup or keep it from loading at all. Try plugging the card in and booting the system before changing anything. Some cards that don't come with their own Windows 95 drivers may still be identified by the system.
Refreshing News
Some video cards come with DOS configuration utilities to change the card settings, such as refresh rates for given video modes. Windows 95 doesn't handle changing refresh rates, but the functionality of such configuration programs shouldn't be hindered if you boot Windows 95 in command-line mode (press F8 on boot and then Shift+F5).
Sound Advice
Some sound cards come with installation utilities that don't conform to the Plug-and-Play spec, but do assign DMA, IRQ and memory addresses through software. If you have one of these cards, install it before you upgrade to Windows 95. If Windows 95 is already on the system, use the card's installation program instead of relying on Windows 95 to detect the hardware and configure it. Make sure that the DOS-level support is properly set up when you're done, with the appropriate changes in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files.
Windows 95 with SyQuest Drives:
More and more people are asking about using SyQuest IDE drives under Win95. The following information may be helpful. The support for SyQuest IDE drives as removable drives started with build 431. In order to enable the support, one has to put:
RemovableIDE=True in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file.
If this line is not there, then Win95's protected mode IDE driver will not load. In addition, one may find an entry in the IOS.LOG file in the Win95 subdirectory in which there will be messages such as: "ESDI punting due to removable hard disk.Unit number xx going through real mode drivers."
When the line mentioned above is added to the [386enh] section of SYSTEM.INI, the IOS.LOG file will disappear and the Win95 file system will be 32-bit.
The other requirements for this support are that the SyQuest drive MUST have a formatted cartridge inserted when Win95 starts and there must not be another 32-bit module loaded in SYSTEM.INI such as the one provided by DTC for their IDE boards.
There is another setting called "Virtual Memory" in Win95. This will be in "MS-DOS compatibility mode" if C: drive is a removable drive, SCSI or IDE.
ZIP Zaps Printers
If you have an Iomega ZIP drive installed, you should disconnect it before upgrading to Windows 95. If you don't disconnect, you won't be able to print to any printer attached to the ZIP drive's pass-through port. After installing Windows 95, reattach the ZIP drive and install the 32-bit ZIP drivers, which are on the Windows 95 CD-ROM in the drivers\storage\iomega directory.
