Dave-H

@Dietmar You still haven't said whether you got anywhere with debugging the restart problem on your Flex 10. As it seems I can't debug my machine, I'd be interested to know if you did get anywhere with finding the cause of why it will shut down but not restart. Cheers, Dave.

Just an update on my freezing problem with K-Meleon 74. Perhaps to nobody's surprise, the problem goes away if I disable javascript. The Trend Micro download page (and others) then complete loading, and I can download the pattern file. Other sites then don't work because javascript is disabled of course! I've tried using the exceptions dialogue to disable javascript just on the Trend site, but this doesn't seem to work, it still hangs. It only seems to load if javascript is disabled completely everywhere. This may be because the javascript that's causing the hang is not actually on the Trend site, but I don't know.

Well it was great while it lasted, but the videos have now failed again. They aren't collapsed this time, the size of the posts is correct, but where the video should be is just white. I wondered if the HTML5 player had failed, but YouTube videos still seem to be fine. Any ideas anyone?

@Dietmar Did you ever manage to debug the restart failure on your Flex 10?

@Dietmar Oh dear, I had a nasty feeling that would be the answer! So debugging with recent machines with no Ethernet ports is only possible via direct USB connection with a special lead by the sound of it. I do remember now that you said before that you used a connection via the PCIe miniport where the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card goes. I don't think I'll be doing that, but at least I tried! Your Flex 10 also had the restart freezing problem if I remember rightly, did you ever manage to debug that? Cheers, Dave.

Ah thanks, that explains it! Reading that section of the thread it looks like the only way of connecting the computers for debugging is with a direct Ethernet connection, which I can't do on the Flex 10 as it doesn't have an Ethernet port. That would surely be the case with most modern computers though, very few if any seem to have Ethernet ports now. Reading between the lines, it looks as if wi-fi connection isn't an option either, so is a direct USB connection the only option? The USB debugging lead linked to in the thread is USB 3.0 only as far as I can see, and it says it isn't backwards compatible. As my main desktop doesn't have USB 3.0 hardware, that's a non-starter too. So, is there actually no way that I can do this debugging?

That's what I've been doing, it says it's waiting, but there is no connection. What about the '/BREAK' switch in boot.ini? How important is it?

I'm making progress, but not there yet! I sorted out the dual boot problem, I just had to create another boot menu entry in EasyBCD using the legacy XP bootloader system. If I select that, I now get a further menu with the entries from boot.ini. However, if I select either of the debug entries, the machine just reboots instead of going to XP. By process of elimination, I narrowed the cause of this down to the '/BREAK' entry in boot.ini. If I remove that, it boots into XP fine, but not when it's there. Any idea why that might be? I'm not getting a connection to the host machine when it does boot into XP, I suspect the addresses are wrong. This presumably will work with just a wi-fi connection via a router? There is a direct cable connection between the machines as well (using a USB-Ethernet converter on the netbook as it has no onboard Ethernet connection). Should I remove that, or is it better to connect that way instead of by wi-fi?

Thanks, I'll try that. I already made a full ISO backup of the whole system, so I can easily restore it. I will see if I can get the Windows 10 installation ignored. The EasyBCD documentation has a lot of information about this, I just need to get my head around it!

Thanks, I'm using the 8.1 version and it seems to be working OK. The next problem is that although I've added the extra entries to boot.ini on the target machine, it's not displaying them because it's a dual boot machine. I've tried using the F8 options on startup after selecting Windows XP without success, but it's presumably just not using the normal boot.ini file. I used EasyBCD to setup the dual boot system, but I can't see anything there to edit the Windows XP boot options. Any ideas? Boot.ini is in the root of drive C: which is the Windows 10 drive. Windows XP is on drive D: I edited it using the Windows XP interface, but it's apparently not being used.

Ah, I've got the machines the wrong way around! D'oh! So the debugger needs to go on my main desktop, which I can run Windows 10 on. Does it still have to be the Windows 8.1 version?

Next problem! The debugger won't install on the host machine. It's trying to install .NET 4.5, which AFAIK doesn't work on XP.

Thanks!

OK I'm giving this a try, and I've already run into a problem. I've downloaded the Windows 8.1 SDK online setup file from the second link quoted above. Is the first link just for reference? It's not clear why it's there. Should I be downloading something else from it? The main problem is the last link. It now says the file has expired for free downloading, and I will have to take out a paid subscription to now get it. Is it available anywhere else?

Here in the UK we use dd-mm-yyyy, as do the majority of other countries I think. That has always seemed logical to me, with the number which changes most often first, and the one which changes least often last. You say the Chinese do it the other way around, which also has some logic to it. The big exception is the Americans of course, who always use mm-dd-yyyy, which I have never understood. That has no logic to it at all as far as I can see!

I felt very privileged to be asked to be a moderator here, after being a member for many years and having hopefully made a useful contribution to the forum in that time. I'm sorry, but joining a forum and immediately asking to be made a moderator is just not realistic.

Thanks, I'll be back if I need help (which I will!)

I'm afraid I would need specific instructions on how to to that. I do have another XP installation on my main desktop machine.

Am I right in assuming that the work on acpi.sys has now ended? All the recent conversation has been about USB 3.0 problems. I have to say that I'm very grateful for the progress that was made, my Flex 10 is much better on XP now than it was before. If the freezing on restart could be fixed it would be pretty perfect, as I have a workaround for the sound driver problem. I'm still puzzled by the restart problem, as it shuts down fine. I would have thought that the mechanism would be the same for the shutdown phase of restart as it is for shutdown, so I can't see why it would hang on one and not the other.

I second your opinion of Registry Workshop. I've been using it for many years, and it's great. I even use an old version (2.7.1) on Windows 98!

I thought Firefox 31.8 ESR was supposed to just work though, as long as KernelEx was installed and configured correctly for it? Maybe I'm expecting too much here.

Not that old no! This is the one I still have in Windows 98 which is from 2009-11. Windows Update.log

You'll need to wait until the program thinks it need optimisation. It usually pops up for me when I'm playing a YouTube HD video or browsing my Facebook feed.

I thought that the hardware acceleration option didn't do anything on XP anyway?

I'm now trying Firefox Portable 31.8 ESR, as that seems to be the version which can be used with the least trouble. I've set the KernelEx options as specified, and it does run, but is quite unstable. Crashes with 'FIREFOX.EXE caused fault #c0000005 in XUL.DLL'. The GUI isn't displaying well either, with a lot of black holes left when things change. It also seems to have the same problem as K-Meleon 74 with the Trend Micro page, it freezes instead of completing loading.