Asp

I've been using Sigil, a free ebook editor, for some months on XP. A few days ago it stopped working. If I start the program, I see the process start, then a second later exit, never opening a window. I uninstalled it and reinstalled. Same. I deleted all its temp files and storage. I tried Safe mode. I tried the Portable version. Turned off my antivirus and firewall. Same. I may have installed a Windows update (the last one, presumably) since the last time it worked. You can try the portable version from here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Authoring-Tools/X-Sigil.shtml I guess one of its dependencies is not found or is the wrong version, but no idea how to work out what, I can't find any error messages.

Sorry for the delayed response. I haven't noticed the "posterising" since my initial report. However, not long after I had an issue with my power supply. The house's circuit breakers tripped and when I reset them and restarted the PC, the fan was extemely loud. Don't know which is cause and which effect, but it seemd a bad omen so I replaced it. So far working fine, and no further video glitches. I've learnt that power issues can cause any number of weird effects. New PC, about 4 months old. The mobo is Intel DH61WW. Monitor is Acer AL1715, VGA connector, 1280x1024 pixels.

Sometmes my video suddlenly becomes posterised: instead of smooth colour graduation, I see banding. I haven't made any changes in video settings. This has happened before, and then later, as mysteriously, it somehow reset. I have onboard Intel graphics video, which I thought was pretty foolproof, and a LED monitor connected by VGA. Don't seem to be any user settings I can play with, except the colour depth screen settings, which I changed from 32 bits to 16 then back to 32, in case that was the problem, but it looks the same. Also rebooted of course, but that failed to change anything. I have the feeling this change came after watching a Youtube vide, so it may be something Flash related. I realise this is hard to diagnose at a distance, but maybe someone has a clue of what is going on. -- I just noticed in Device Manager that I have two monitors listed. Appear to be duplicates, "Plug and Play Monitor". Is that normal? According to the "Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel" I have only the option for "Single display" anyway. I uninstalled them and let the system search for new devices, and it came back with the two monitors again. -- Another PS: I shut the PC down for an hour and when I restarted the video was normal. Could this be hardware? I still have two monitors in Device Manager, so whatever that means it's not the cause. Next time it happens I'll try rebooting with a LInux CD.

It's not the drive, it's the disk. I tried seveal different drives. I'll give Spinrite a try, but I seriously doubt it will work. Your customers were presumably using relatively new disks, not almost 20-year-old ones. I think that the data is there, magnetically, but the surface is gummed up and screwing up any attempts to read it. This from the fact that I got a file listing momentarily before it became unreadable. I don't think any software can fix this. I need to physically clean the disk.

Yeah, sure, do you remember how much that floppy drive did cost at the time (and how much the floppy disc was)? The floppy in question is from about that era, distributed by Adobe, so I'd assume it wasn't crap quality. I used to make a floppy backup of my work every day, had a drawer full of them. Just threw a few boxes away. But this one disk has stuff on it I can't find anywhere else.... The software is still useful on new hardware, it just goes hundreds of times faster. (IBM XT 4.77 MHz, new PC 2.9 GHz). Anyway, I'll look for a forum where vintage tech is is more on topic.

The drive could read other, newer, disks, I tried that first. But not the old ones I need. Also tried two different drives, including one USB one which came with a laptop, old but probably never used. The climate here is very humid. We get mould on everything. All metal corrodes quickly. I was packing up some junk when moving recently, I found a few 10+ year-old VHS tapes, still sealed. They had mould on the tape. So the shutter may keep dust off but I'd bet the surface has a film of gunk. If no better suggestions I'll find a fine cloth and clean the disks with alcohol. At this point, nothing to lose. If that doesn't work, I'll see if I can dig up a 5" drive. Those disks are lower density, maybe more durable? Back in the day, a guy in our office had a CPM PC, no hard disk, everything ran off a floppy. Just used the same one every day for years.

Some laptops had an accelerometers that detected if the laptop was falling, and immediately parked the hard disk heads to reduce the risk of a head crash. has articles about various drive suspension methods, like this one using home made bungee cords. However, reducing sound conduction can also increase heat, as the drives aren't directly in contact with the metal case.

I've got some software on floppy disks, from the early 1990s. It came on both 3.5 and 5.25 disks. So far I've only tried the 3.5", not having a 5.25" drive. When inserting the disk, I can get a file listing, but then a few seconds later the disk is unreadable. And if I put another disk in the drive, that is too. I use a drive cleaning disk and the drive works again. I guess that the data is there but the surface of the floppy is dirty, though it looks okay to my eyes. Next thing to try is cleaning the disk surface. Wiping with alcohol? The software is Adobe Font Foundry, a utility that came with Adobe fonts back in the DOS era. If any kind soul has a copy, please let me know. Not a mention of it on their site now, they retired it in 1995.

I had tried "Run" with both cmd and command, with emm in the default config.nt. Neither had any EMS (as reported by "mem"). This says: This only works if you select a DOS exe, then it creates a pif (which uses the default .nt files) . If you choose a batch file you get a standard shortcut, with no "program" tab. You can create a pif to a DOS file and then change the "cmd line" to any other file though, and thus also have the "Memory" tab to set EMS max. Anyway, all educational, but the PIF is still required if you need EMS.

Thanks. I didn't mean the whole thread, I said "the posts about these updates", which had drifted off the original topic. I saw and replied to Jaclaz's post, but you seem to have deleted it. it was something like this: I thought that was what the system files were, the names as in previous versions of Windows and DOS, as opposed to the "PIF" versions with "nt". Just my guess, but apparently wrong as neither will be read by XP. Yes, that was basically my question. DOS environment strings like "PATH" can be set universally, so I was wondering/hoping there was a way to run emm universally as well. And added this today: Looking around I found there is a default config.nt and autopexec.nt in WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 with some useful comments in them. config.nt REM Windows MS-DOS Startup File REM REM CONFIG.SYS vs CONFIG.NT REM CONFIG.SYS is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment. REM CONFIG.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF. REM REM ECHOCONFIG REM By default, no information is displayed when the MS-DOS environment REM is initialized. To display CONFIG.NT/AUTOEXEC.NT information, add REM the command echoconfig to CONFIG.NT or other startup file. REM REM NTCMDPROMPT REM When you return to the command prompt from a TSR or while running an REM MS-DOS-based application, Windows runs COMMAND.COM. This allows the REM TSR to remain active. To run CMD.EXE, the Windows command prompt, REM rather than COMMAND.COM, add the command ntcmdprompt to CONFIG.NT or REM other startup file. REM REM DOSONLY REM By default, you can start any type of application when running REM COMMAND.COM. If you start an application other than an MS-DOS-based REM application, any running TSR may be disrupted. To ensure that only REM MS-DOS-based applications can be started, add the command dosonly to REM CONFIG.NT or other startup file. REM REM EMM REM You can use EMM command line to configure EMM(Expanded Memory Manager). REM The syntax is: REM REM EMM = [A=AltRegSets] [B=BaseSegment] [RAM] REM REM AltRegSets REM specifies the total Alternative Mapping Register Sets you REM want the system to support. 1 <= AltRegSets <= 255. The REM default value is 8. REM BaseSegment REM specifies the starting segment address in the Dos conventional REM memory you want the system to allocate for EMM page frames. REM The value must be given in Hexdecimal. REM 0x1000 <= BaseSegment <= 0x4000. The value is rounded down to REM 16KB boundary. The default value is 0x4000 REM RAM REM specifies that the system should only allocate 64Kb address REM space from the Upper Memory Block(UMB) area for EMM page frames REM and leave the rests(if available) to be used by DOS to support REM loadhigh and devicehigh commands. The system, by default, would REM allocate all possible and available UMB for page frames. REM REM The EMM size is determined by pif file(either the one associated REM with your application or _default.pif). If the size from PIF file REM is zero, EMM will be disabled and the EMM line will be ignored. REM dos=high, umb device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys files=40 So, I can add "emm=ram" to this to activate EMS. But just launching a DOS program from Start/Run doesn't do it. It still needs a PIF, the file C:\Windows\_default.pif references these locations.

Maybe a mod can split all the posts about these updates to a separate thread. I was notified there were a dozen responses to my question on EMS, but none are relevant.

Thanks.

I just installed and activated Office 2003. I got it second hand and it supposedly has never have been installed before, (with the product key on the CD case) but no way to tell. So I would like to be sure I can reinstall it if necessary and not be told it's been installed too many times, if I reinstall or buy a new hard disk. Is there a specific file or registry setting I can archive so I don't have to contact MS to activate?

So, running these commands via a PIF is the only way to make EMS available in XP? If it is, well, I can deal with it but I'd just prefer not to have to mess with PIFs if I can avoid it by enabling EMS once for all programs. After all, the DOS boxes use the system environment variables, so they are configurable in some ways.

Why the hell does the file exist then? No update of Windows XP provides EMS unless you have run the commands I mentioned in the config.nt. Open a command prompt and run "mem". You have no EMS unless you have those in the pif. Just running "cmd": Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp. C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>mem 655360 bytes total conventional memory 655360 bytes available to MS-DOS 598992 largest executable program size 1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory 0 bytes available contiguous extended memory 941056 bytes available XMS memory MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area There is 940 kB of XMS, no EMS. Running from a pif with the config.nt set: D:\>mem 655360 bytes total conventional memory 655360 bytes available to MS-DOS 614768 largest executable program size 16777216 bytes total EMS memory 16777216 bytes free EMS memory 16775168 bytes total contiguous extended memory 0 bytes available contiguous extended memory 67041280 bytes available XMS memory MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area 16 MB EMS, 64 MB XMS

I've got a DOS app I run frequently that likes EMS memory. I installed EMSMagic, an interesting free app that provides EMS. I noticed that on my system that it didn't actually need to run its own app, but used Windows components. Specifically, it made a pif file and that had a config.nt and autoexec.nt: autoexec.nt @echo off lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe set BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3 config.nt dos=high, umb emm=ram device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys files=40 So I wondered if I could just make these my system files and have EMS available to all programs. (Was this a bad idea? Any reason not to do this? I have 3.6 GB RAM available, so the maximum 16MB EMS uses seems affordable even if I don't need it all the time.) So I replaced my system config.sys with the text of this config.nt. (I skipped the autoexec, it doesn't seem relevant, having CDROM and audio drivers which I don't need.) But on rebooting, there didn't seem to be any EMS available. Running the pifs though did produce it as before. Is my new config.sys being run at all, if so, why doesn't it work?

I found that too but didn't understand what it was all about. How does "no execute" relate to this?

I tried to install vcredist_x86.exe, for WinXP, (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5555) and that also failed because "Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable is not supported on this operating system." They don't even bother to say what they think I have. WTF? -- PS: found a work around for this. vcredist_x86.exe creates a folder with a bunch of files including vc_red.msi, which does run This folder is deleted after you dismiss the error message, but fortunately I noticed it. I saw in ProcessMonitor that under "environment" there is __COMPAT_LAYER set to EnableNXShowUI Win2000 Is this the smoking gun? If so, where is is set? -- PS2 So I searched for "Win2000" in the registry and found it: Key Name: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers Class Name: <NO CLASS> Last Write Time: 5/30/2013 - 9:25 PM Value 0 Name: C:\Program Files\Far\Far.exe Type: REG_SZ Data: WIN2000 Value 1 Name: C:\UTILITY\vp.bat Type: REG_SZ Data: WIN2000 256COLOR 640X480 Value 2 Name: D:\Install\PDFapps\Acrobat5\English\Acrobat 5\Setup.exe Type: REG_SZ Data: WIN2000 "Far" is the command shell I do a lot of work in, and launch many programs with. (See http://farmanager.com/). So obviously any programs it launches inherit this setting. Including Everest and the installers mentioned. If I run Everest from Windows Explorer, it now says : "Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional" Not sure why Far is set this compatibility, or if it really needs it. But now I can work around it if it does.

Here's an extract from the registry; Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion Class Name: <NO CLASS> Last Write Time: 6/14/2013 - 10:10 AM Value 0 Name: SubVersionNumber Type: REG_SZ Data: Value 1 Name: CurrentBuild Type: REG_SZ Data: 1.511.1 () (Obsolete data - do not use) Value 2 Name: InstallDate Type: REG_DWORD Data: 0x4c49232c Value 3 Name: ProductName Type: REG_SZ Data: Microsoft Windows XP Value 4 Name: RegDone Type: REG_SZ Data: Value 7 Name: SoftwareType Type: REG_SZ Data: SYSTEM Value 8 Name: CurrentVersion Type: REG_SZ Data: 5.1 Value 9 Name: CurrentBuildNumber Type: REG_SZ Data: 2600 Value 10 Name: BuildLab Type: REG_SZ Data: 2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.100427-1636 Value 11 Name: CurrentType Type: REG_SZ Data: Uniprocessor Free Value 12 Name: CSDVersion Type: REG_SZ Data: Service Pack 3 Value 13 Name: SystemRoot Type: REG_SZ Data: C:\WINDOWS Value 14 Name: SourcePath Type: REG_SZ Data: E:\I386 Value 15 Name: PathName Type: REG_SZ Data: C:\WINDOWS Just "5.1". and "XP" It's just a small number of programs that ID it as Win2k. They're probably looking at some more obscure setting that someone thought was a shortcut, but actually isnt reliable.

Version 5.1(Build 2600xpsp_sp3.... MIcrosoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 I don't see any commands or executables there. There are probably thousands of "5.0" in the registry. Thanks anyway.

Says XP: ProductName: Microsoft Windows XP CSDVersion: Service Pack 3 I searched the entire registry for "Windows 2000" and found a few mentions, only this none that look like a name. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{CD000000-8B95-11D1-82DB-00C04FB1625D}\1.0 Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000 Library

My laptop has WinXP SP3. However, some software I try to install fails with the message: Example: MiniTool Partition Wizard http://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition/3000-2094_4-10962200.html?part=dl-6285158&subj=dl&tag=button So, how do I work out what it really needs? -- PS. This is very odd. I did a report from Everest and it also thinks I have Win 2k: --------[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. Version EVEREST v2.20.405 Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/ Report Type Report Wizard Computer DELLD600 (Dell D600) Generator Alan Operating System Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional 5.0.2600 (WinXP Retail) Date 2013-06-14 Time 14:11 --------[ Summary ]--------------------------------------------------------------- Computer: Operating System Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional OS Service Pack Service Pack 3 DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c) Computer Name DELLD600 (Dell D600) User Name Alan Motherboard: CPU Type Mobile Intel Pentium M 745, 1800 MHz (18 x 100) Motherboard Name Dell Latitude D600 Motherboard Chipset Intel Odem i855PM System Memory 1536 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM) BIOS Type Phoenix (06/29/05) Communication Port Communications Port (COM1) Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1) Display: Video Adapter MOBILITY RADEON 9000 (32 MB) Video Adapter MOBILITY RADEON 9000 (32 MB) 3D Accelerator ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (M9) Monitor Digital Flat Panel (1024x768) Monitor Generic Television Multimedia: Audio Adapter Intel 82801DBM ICH4-M - AC'97 Audio Controller [A-1] Storage: IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801DBM Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CA Disk Drive IC25N030ATMR04-0 (30 GB, 4200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100) Optical Drive TEAC DVD-ROM DV28EV (8x/24x DVD-ROM) SMART Hard Disks Status OK Partitions: C: (NTFS) 10236 MB (2382 MB free) D: (NTFS) 18371 MB (8135 MB free) Total Size 27.9 GB (10.3 GB free) Input: Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse Network: Network Adapter Broadcom 570x Gigabit Integrated Controller Network Adapter Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (192.168.11.3) Modem Conexant D480 MDC V.92 Modem Note the first section: "Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional 5.0.2600 (WinXP Retail)" but the summary says: "Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional OS Service Pack: Service Pack 3" No idea how this happened, it came with XP installed and I've upgraded it but never installed 2k. It had a few virus infections a while ago that I cleaned out. I guess this is a relic of that. How do I make it report the correct OS? Preferably without nuking and reinstalling.

Yeah, that was what the builder told me, but good to confirm. Anyway, seems I need to slipstream the SATA drivers to do it right. Thanks.

I'm getting a whitebox PC. it won't include any OS. I want to get XP 32 bit running on it. specs: Note that there is an SSD drive, which will be the boot drive, and onboard video. I'll probably add a SATA disk drive as well, for backup and storage. Will a standard XPSP3 CD install on this? I guess I'll need drivers from Intel (for the mobo), but will it install with generic drivers? I know XP won't see all the RAM, I can live with that. Any other gotchas?

I was hoping there was a single option somewhere that wouldn't require me to do any work. Oh well. Maybe I will try again to get the docx format working in 2k It's been a while since I did that last. I'm setting up a new PC and finally jumped from Win2k to XP, so maybe that will make a difference. Also Libre Office looks very much like Office 2000 and seems quite compatible.