rloew

I believe he wants a DOS Library Module that can manipulate the Registry and can be linked to Code that he writes.

Possibly. You still would not be able to see your BIOS screens though.

Old pictures are misleading and not helpful.

Exactly how did you install the PCI Bus Driver? Did it display any warnings or errors? Does the PCI Bus Driver show up in Device Manager while in Safe Mode? Try the PATCHOPT Program to fix the CONFIGMG error.

PCI Bus Driver is not installed. Install it manually.

If you are having data corruption issues then you will have to do a clean install as anything you have can no longer be trusted. The only way to find out is to run your System twice, once without ONE of my Patches, and once with that Patch added back, everything else being the same. You can combine my RAM Limitation Patch with any other RAM workaround. It would actually be a better comparison since the amount of RAM would not increase when you add my Patch. SPLIT8MB can be used separately. You can reflash your Video Card BIOS as an alternative to using the PATCHNVC Program. You probably will still need the PATCHOPT Program.

ASPI2HLP.SYS is not part of a basic setup. Try removing it.

Uninstall my RAM Patch, disable the NIC Driver and try your Safe Mode Patch (it is not an IO.SYS Patch). See if it makes a difference. Reinstall my RAM Patch, and nothing else, and see if the problems return. I called the other Patch PATCHOPT because it Patches a problem with Video Card "Option ROMS". That name is part of the PCI standard. I have seen a problem with SSD Drives having timing problems on my MA785 Computer. This is a hardware issue, You didn't mention any Disk Error messages. Removing the second GPU is what gave you back all of that 32-Bit RAM. The NIC uses relatively little MMIO space and is still present even if disabled in Software. If your Disk Controller is not in AHCI Mode, you MUST have SATA.INF Installed. If you had, you would have seen both SATA and ATA0106 Drivers in Safe Mode. You can't tell what is being recognized in Safe Mode. It tells you what Drivers are installed, not what is recognized. Only in Normal Mode do you see what is recognized. You will have to Install SATA.INF, run PURGEHDC P A and reboot to redetect. Later you can switch to AHCI Mode and reboot will redetect the ATA0106 Driver. DISKBIOS does the same thing as AHCIBIOS but is always active, even if no AHCI Mode Drivers are detected. It is intended as a BIOS replacement in DOS and can improve performance. It is part of the same Package.

Without a Driver Patch, accesses above 137GB from the beginning of the Disk Drive can cause corruption of data below the threshold. The FAT32 Data Partition extends above the 137GB limit. Disk corruption can cause all kinds of unpredictable errors. Your attempt with the 40GB Hard Drive was before you used PATCHOPT so you cannot compare results. Of all the Patches you purchased, the RAM Patch is the most thoroughly tested Patch and is my best seller. No one has reported RUNDLL errors or Registry reversions with any of my Patches. Both the Windows Installer and the nVidia Installer can cause RUNDLL errors randomly. Generally repeating the Installation solves the problem. Since your AMD970 cannot run Windows 9x without my Patches, you can't claim that my Patches are the cause. You would have to run the same system with and without my Patches to prove a bug. I have two AMD970 systems. The M5A97 and MSI SLI Krait. Both work with my Patches. PATCHOPT is not an optimization Program. It is a Patch that is necessary in some Systems but not in others. I do not know how to test for the cause of the problem. so my Instructions tell you to use it if your System still does not Boot after using PATCHNVC. Since it affects MMIO Configuration it is probably related to the CONFIGMG Errors you were seeing.

You can contact me with questions about SATA via E-Mail. It is on my Website.

The non-UEFI BIOS and DOS use IBM Mode which is 70Hz. My ex-girlfriends TV did not support it so she could not see the BIOS or DOS during Boot. I added an Overlay to her Multi-Boot Profile to switch to an usable Mode Setting before booting DOS.

How is your Hard Disk Partitioned?

I haven't used the nVidia Patches in a while. The instructions were incomplete. You didn't mention the bad syntax messages that these two program would have printed. The user's Manual has the correct instructions. Go to your WINDOWS\SYSTEM Folder. Rename NVCORE.VXD to NVCORE.BAK run: PATCHNVC NVCORE.BAK NVCORE.VXD Rename PCI.VXD to PCI.BAK run: PATCHOPT PCI.BAK PCI.VXD reboot I have corrected the Instructions in my original post.

That two Partition configuration is safe. If you are happy with Hard Disk compatibility mode and 640x480 resolution you can work indefinitely.

Did you run the PATCHOPT Program? NVCHECK should have printed two reports. One for each Card. I thought I had fixed it, but Step #8 instructions should have specified the /M Option for PATCHMEM. I won't know what logs to ask for until you tell me what errors you got and on what step. I never looked to see what errors people posted on the Internet. They obviously weren't using my Patches. I haven't seen that error, nor have any of my Customers, who have my Patches installed. As far as Option Patches are concerned, I do not know exactly what conditions trigger the need for them, so trying to anticipate them is not feasible. Also people add things that might make an Option necessary long after the original Installation. Your approach might work for Computers that are tightly controlled by the manufacturer and have very few options. 1. I already said I used HIMEM with the nVidia Patches. I used HIMEM.SYS 3.95 which comes with Windows 98SE. 3.32 is obsolete. 2. I don't use NTFS with Win9x. I already have Patches to support 2TiB Partitions. 3. I haven't seen 15 Second Periodic microfreezes in any System.

Are you referring to running command.com from Windows in Safe Mode or running command.com from "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only" in the Boot Menu?

It is in the Windows Folder. You could have checked the major Folders. My Patches have nothing to do with this. If anything the /M Option lets you have a bigger Registry than without it. The RAM, nVidia and SATA Patches are essential Boot Patches. If you fail to Install them, your computer won't boot.

I've seen errors like the one you photographed. They seem to appear at random during Installation. I think there is some bug in the Windows CD. When it happens, I start over and the problem doesn't reoccur. A clean installation would be as follows: 1. Partition and Format a Hard Drive with at least one Partition. 2. Place the PATCHMEM, PTCHSATA, SPLIT8MB, PATCHNVC, PATCHOPT and PURGEHDC Programs and the SATA.INF File on the Hard Drive. 3. Boot from the Windows Installer CD and Install using the SETUP /p i Option. 4. Do not Partition or Format from the CD. 5. Run the Installer until the first crash. 6. Press RESET. 7. Select Command Prompt Only from the Boot Menu. 8. Run: PATCHMEM /M 9. Run the PTCHSATA Program. 10. Add a line to run the SPLIT8MB Program to your AUTOEXEC.BAT File. 11. Copy the SATA.INF File to the WINDOWS\INF Folder. 12. Reboot and complete the Installation. 13. If you get a BSOD relating to the Disk Drives, run PURGEHDC P and reboot. 14. Install the nVidia 82.69 Driver but do not reboot. 15. Go to the WINDOWS\SYSTEM Folder 16. Rename NVCORE.VXD to NVCORE.BAK 17. Run: PATCHNVC NVCORE.BAK NVCORE.VXD 18. Rename PCI.VXD to PCI.BAK 19. Run: PATCHOPT PCI.BAK PCI.VXD 20. Reboot You may not like clean Installs, but it is the only way to diagnose problems. I have been generally successful porting over existing Setups, but not always. There can be one or more programs that have incompatibilites. How are you going to find the problem ones when you throw a whole pile of them together. These Patches have nothing to do with NTFS. They run on anything accessible from DOS. If necessary, they can be run from Safe Mode. The Patching Program you linked to appears to alter other files rather than IO.SYS. It appears to automate the well known workarounds. The Phelum Patch is for a Partition discovery bug in IO.SYS that has nothing to do with the issues at hand. I posted a better fix years ago. Your Computer would not even boot without my Patches so how can you say the Icon wasn't broken without my Patch. My Patches don't care if U98SESP3 was installed before. The problem is if you run U98SESP3 after. To catch that a Diagnostic would have to be run continuously, as sfc does, creating undesired overhead. One of the objections to Windows ME is sfc. There has been a trend away from manuals, but that doesn't mean the program is easy to use. They just want to sell you a book or sign up for product support later. It is a lot easier for someone to follow a series of steps in a Manual, then expect a Program to keep track, even over reboots in this case, of where it is in a sequence. The Windows Installer, tries to do this during Device Detection, but a problem just results in something being left out. Actually the RAM Patch Code for Windows 98SE has not changed in 8 years. The updates were mainly problems with the Installer itself or the documentation. I am still waiting for an actionable "Bug" from you. Of course I tested the RAM Patch, 512MB Card and 82.69 Driver together. All of my development Machines have the RAM Patch. I would not have been able to develop the nVidia Patch without creating this combination. As I already said, the vast majority of my Customers have no problem installing my Patches, so my Patches and any diagnostics are already easy enough for them. Even a stereotypical "housewife" can follow a sequence of instructions in a recipe book. I am not going to buy or otherwise obtain every piece of Hardware and every version of Software to create a diagnostic that can cover every possibility. I would like to see how far you get trying to convince Microsoft to follow your suggestions. Blanket removal of all Devices is problematical. Audio Codecs are not Hardware Devices so they should not be removed. Same with the ENUM\ROOT Key in the Registry which contains the Initial Enumerator and Network Stack Devices.

The system detected a corrupt Registry or INI File and restored the last known good set. You could remove SCANREG.EXE to prevent this at your own risk.

If you empty the ENUM Key, leave the ROOT Subkey intact otherwise you will have a hard time restoring Networking. You would also have to manually install either ACPI or PCI Bus to redetect most Hardware.

I use mainly FAT32 in XP. I created a couple of NTFS Partitions to download files larger then 4GiB, but I no longer need them since I ported my 64-Bit FAT32 Patches to XP. Window 7 and later require NTFS Root Partitions. Everything else is FAT32. I have never obtained a copy of the modified IO.SYS you mentioned. As far as I know, it is used to enter Safe Mode without my Patch. With my RAM Patch there is no need for a modified IO.SYS, SYSTEM.INI or SYSTEM.CB. I have not seen Explorer issues with my RAM Patch. You have a lot of programs running at startup that might be an issue. Many nVidia Errors are related to leftovers from earlier installations that are not cleaned up properly by the uninstaller. You cannot sell your AMD970 with any of my Patches installed. They would need their own licenses. I have already replied with comments about your Registry. AUTOEXEC.BAT: The PATCHMEM Program is run once during installation. It should not be rerun by AUTOEXEC.BAT LETASSIG has a bug that might cause issues with some Partition managers. The broken Icon has nothing to do with me. The RAM Patch has been around for 10 years. The vast majority buy my Patch and I either get an "it works" message or never hear from them. There is a free demo so people can test it for themselves. The nVidia Patch has a Diagnostic tool to assess the need for the Patch and the Patcher Program verifies whether the Version of the Driver can be Patched. The SATA Patch is not a polished Package as I already stated. A Diagnostic Utility needs something to diagnose for. Also there is no way a Diagnostic Utility can know that someone is going to drop U98SESP3 on top of the Patch at a later date, like you did. And it cannot anticipate issues related to systems that become prevalent after the software is written, or as in your case, where there is a pile of unanticipated Software already installed. Personal service is the best solution when problems are rare and generally unexpected. If there were a pattern to issues, I would release an update, either to the code or the documentation. Intelligent Installers are of limited use with these Packages since the Options are determined by trial and error rather than the User knowing what he needs. They also would have to be written in DOS as they are applied before Windows can even be booted. They are basically the lazy way out for people who won't RTFM.

I use Hard Disks up to 6TB with 98SE. I never said I used NTFS with 9x. I never installed Paragon or any other Driver. If you don't know what FIXEOI is, then you don't have it installed and shouldn't worry about it. 15 Seconds is the timeout period for IOS. Something buggy may be timing out and then causing a momentary hang when it retries. I use a modified IO.SYS to deal with various other issues but it is not modified to affect RAM usage. I use an unmodified HIMEM.SYS. I have seen reports of problems in a couple of Computers using HIMEM. Try the /MACHINE:1 option. As far as the new problems are concerned. Are they all associated with game playing or do any occur without games. Some games, especially DOS based ones have problems with more than 2GiB of RAM. You can try adding MaxPhysPage=7FFFC to the [386Enh] Section of SYSTEM.INI to reduce your RAM to just below 2GiB.

Try renaming the ASPI2HLP.SYS File in the WINDOWS Folder. If Windows complains, just ignore it. If it still hangs, post another Bootlog.

I don't know enough about Paragon. Try setting Windows 2000. If not, click Cancel. If you are using FIXEOI, you might see these type of freezes. If not, then I have no idea what the problem is. I lowered the minimum estimate to 2.5GiB in the Readme but didn't in the Manual. As I said, only a few Computers have less than 3GiB available. Even the Motherboard manual cannot tell you how much 32-Bit RAM is available as it varies with the Cards used. The minimum number of Handles needed by HIMEM.SYS depends upon the available 32-Bit RAM. Below 2.75GB, the default 48 Handles are enough. HIMEMX is a third part alternative for HIMEM. HIMEMEX is my Non-XMS 32/64-Bit Manager for my RAMDisks and MEMORY64 Packages. It does not replace HIMEM. I have never looked at the modified IO.SYS. It may limit RAM on it's own. Do not use it with my Patch.

RFDISK or my MBR will not help with NTFS under DOS or Windows 9x. Paragon is not complaining. It is asking. Tell it you want LBA access. I don't see these microfreezes. You might see one once in a while if you used FIXEOI. The maximum amount of 32-Bit RAM depends upon the BIOS and PCi/PCI-E Hardware. I did note that at the beginning of both the Readme and Manual. When I wrote the Manual I had not seen a system with less than 3GiB of available RAM. If you want more RAM, you will have to use smaller Video Cards. Since you have less than 3GiB, you don't need to specify Numhandles for HIMEM.SYS HIMEMX is OK but the Patched IO.SYS probably is not. The documentation refers to HIMEMEX, not HIMEMX with respect to PROHOOK. This is used for the RAMDisks and the 64-Bit Memory API Package. You can use generic RAMDisks up to a few hundred Megabytes total. For larger, you need mine.