Windows 95 2.1GHz CPU Limit BROKEN!

[betaluva2010]

nice tutorial , now i have a question, cant you share your modified windows 95,it should be legal so long as you don't supply a product key?

[Kelsenellenelvian]

nice tutorial , now i have a question, cant you share your modified windows 95,it should be legal so long as you don't supply a product key?

No he cannot it is still illegal actually.

[LoneCrusader]

nice tutorial , now i have a question, cant you share your modified windows 95,it should be legal so long as you don't supply a product key?

Sorry, I can't. While it's OK to distribute patched files, one still cannot distribute the whole OS.

The modifications aren't difficult to do, don't be afraid to try for yourself. If you have any problems, post here for help.

Edited December 26, 2010 by LoneCrusader

[nyvicky]

Hi, i slepstream CPUFiX in both windows 95 b and c in english wthout and with internet explorer 3 for default and all go good. but when install unofficial sp1.05 an restart just before desktop shows windows says que vxd is corrupt or missing and windows must be reinstalled.

i try this: http://www.easydesksoftware.com/news/news10.htm

and this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/194679

but the problem still remains.

I make a clean install on vmware 7.13, the software installed before restart was 7zip 9.20 and IE5.5SP2 with active deskptop and unfficial SP1.05 FULL. or nothing, just SP1.05

my pc espec: 521 mb ram ( 2x256) hard disc 20 gb ide, video intel 8215. 1gb hard virtual disc + 128 mb ram

the file is in the folder system so i supose is broken.

:-l

my other virtual pc no present this problem.

Maybe i should test it in a real machine...

Edited February 18, 2011 by nyvicky

[LoneCrusader]

...but when install unofficial sp1.05 an restart just before desktop shows windows says que vxd is corrupt or missing and windows must be reinstalled...

I have also had problems with the Windows 95 Unofficial Service Pack. I do not recommend it, and it appears, from my experience and yours, to be incompatible with FIX95CPU.

My advice would be to manually install any Updates and/or HotFixes that you need, and do not rely on the USP.

[dencorso]

My guess is the unofficial sp1.05 rolls back (or overwrites with an inadequate file, even if newer) some/all the critical files that underlie FIX95CPU. But some heavy sleuthing may be needed to pinpoint exactly what goes on, when sp1.05 is applied.

[LoneCrusader]

My guess is the unofficial sp1.05 rolls back (or overwrites with an inadequate file, even if newer) some/all the critical files that underlie FIX95CPU. But some heavy sleuthing may be needed to pinpoint exactly what goes on, when sp1.05 is applied.

Well, to expand a bit more on the issue since someone else has encountered it...

When I experimented with the USP on one of my test machines, it rendered it unbootable, but I don't remember the exact circumstances or error. Judging by the links that nyvicky posted, I assume he is having errors related to VMM32.VXD.

Now, there are several potential VMM32.VXD issues with Windows 95 here, because:

• VFBACKUP.VXD from AMDK6UPD (included in FIX95CPU) will crash WININIT.EXE when it tries to combine VXD's unless the modifications specified in the Slipstreaming instructions are followed exactly.
  
• The USBSUPP.EXE update (alone, and included inside the USP) makes several changes to VMM32.VXD and rebuilds it when installed.
  

The failure of either one of these, or a combination of errors resulting from some "conflict" between the two could theoretically result in the error at hand.

If anyone experiments with this issue, please post your results here. I am personally not a fan of Unofficial Service Packs, but I welcome any input from and/or to help those who want to use it.

[tsampikos]

I have a Virtual Windows 95 System, which I use in Virtualbox. I don't know if anyone has experience with Virtualbox, but Windows 95 runs great through it (after the correct set up of course).

My host system has a built in USB internal multi card reader with 4-5 slots and a Floppy Drive. The Floppy Drive and each card reader slot can be mounted separatly as Floppy drives in Virtualbox but there is also a generic usb device in the USB connection optons (I suppose it indicates the whole device which is attachet to the usb motherboard port).

So far so good? OK.

When I add a Floppy Controller and a floppy Drive to my WIndows 95 Virtual Machine through the Virtualbox settings, even though it is empty (no Floppy Image mounted or actual floppy to my Floppy A:/) in "my computer" in Windows 95 I see the A:/ Floppy as usual.

After I installed the Win95 CPU Fix Patch my system instead of seeing an "A:/ Floppy Drive" sees as Floppy Drives the seperate card reader slots (!). In the device manager they are listed as "Nec Floppy Drives" in a "Disk Drives" section while in the normall "floppy drive" section is only the Floppy controller listed and not any A:/ floppy Drive as it should be.

I know that this question can be answered from someone who has experience with Virtualbox, but I thought I would give it a try here too, since it is a Windows 95+ CPU fix issue.

SO my question is as follows: Why does Windows 95 makes this change after the installation of the cpu fix patch?

(By the way the patch did the trick and now Windows 95 runs great as if it were my host system and it is possible to use the Virtualisation features and CPU extentions of Virtualbox).

Edited August 30, 2011 by tsampikos

[LoneCrusader]

I've never seen this occur... this behavior is not present in VMware Workstation or VirtualPC. Of course I don't have a similar USB-Floppy drive setup though. Maybe VirtualBox is mapping the entire USB device to 95 instead of the floppy by itself, and 95 is trying to compensate...

Which version of 95 are you running? My tests were all performed with 95 B/C setups, RLoew did the testing on 95/95A setups. He did identify a bug wherein the floppy drive was sometimes not recognized properly with these earlier versions. I scripted FIX95CPU to not update the file that causes this in 95\95A... Maybe RLoew can elaborate a bit on the floppy error he encountered.

Windows 95's USB support is badly lacking... (although I am beginning to believe part of this was by design or due to outright laziness, the INF file has an unresolved bug actually LABELED in it! ). Unless VirtualBox is able to "translate" the USB floppy into a standard floppy there are bound to be problems.

[tsampikos]

Thank you for the interest!

It's very nice to talk about old Windows software. I have tha same version of Windows like you! That's right, Virtual PC and VMWare do not show the same behavior. I searched in Virtualbox and found a solution workaround.

Renaming the hsflop.pdr updated driver or disabling the floppy controller through save mode does somehow the trick. The A: Floppy reappears, the 4 additional floppys go away and just the Floppy Drive in Device manager appears with exclamation mark. Which means that it works and according to the Virtualbox forums it "can read, cannot write, VM does not crash". I did it (renamed the updated hsflpo.pdr) and it's indeed like that It's OK for the time being I guess. Here is the quotation of the Virtualbox Forum.

3)The Fast CPU Fix Amdk6upd.exe updates the Floppy Disk Controller driver HSFLOP.PDR which can read the floppy.

4) but HSFLOP.PDR v4.00.1113 doesn't enumerate the FDD in the VM properly and creates 4 Floppy Disk Drives in My Compurter.

And even more so for the floppy ! My experiences: up to step 3 fine, getting 4 floppy drives, usable. Next, to make it nice (single A: instead of quad E: or whatever I got) is trickier (result: VM complains about unformatted floppy in A:) , but I got it somewhat going. Note: typo in filename: it is hsflop.pdr (not .vxd) that I renamed... When rebooting: have an empty (unmounted) floppy drive; with it mounted I got a boot error. Note: all this using a rather old VB version (1.5.6).... but my PC is older :-)

Edit 20100103: this seems even to allow a read-only floppy image file, at last !!! A few checks worked out well: can read, cannot write, VM does not crash.

Note:The Fast Processor fix Amdk6upd.exe can break PCI enumeration (ie. the Intel Inf Update Utility for 400 Series doesn't find the chipset) Edit: More testing has shown this to be incorrect (2010-01-09). A fix is to rename pcinogat.vxd (from the original 95 CD) to pci.vxd or find pccardupd.exe which has version 4.00.1120, 28/8/97.

The uninstall inf for Amdk6upd.exe can be found in C:\Windows\Inf\Qfe\Amdk6_un.inf. This will reinstall the old files from the original Windows installation CD or Directory.

If you don't need the fast processor fix and can access the floppy drive from Safe Mode just disable the FD Controller to force MS-DOS compatability mode (the key variable was the 16MB Base Memory).

Not bad I guess... B)

[tsampikos]

It is amazing how good this Patch is. If you use a CPU with latest Virtualization technologies and enable them on a virtual Windows 95 system (Virtualbox and VMware) the system just rocks! It runs so smoothly and good, it blows your mind away. B) Really exciting! It's so solid you can't even recognise that this is a virtual system!

[tsampikos]

How did you Manage to get windows 95 with 4 GB RAM installed working (page 3 of thread)? In my Virtual Machines I can get maximal 920 MB (both VIrtualbox and VMWare) with latest patch version applied.

[jaclaz]

How did you Manage to get windows 95 with 4 GB RAM installed working (page 3 of thread)? In my Virtual Machines I can get maximal 920 MB (both VIrtualbox and VMWare) with latest patch version applied.

See:

jaclaz

[LoneCrusader]

How did you Manage to get windows 95 with 4 GB RAM installed working (page 3 of thread)? In my Virtual Machines I can get maximal 920 MB (both VIrtualbox and VMWare) with latest patch version applied.

Using RLoew's RAM Limitation Patch 7.0.

The thread jaclaz linked contains all of the relevant info for running 9x with more than 512MB of RAM.

[peter777]

Have moved Win95b HDD to another computer, and then got a message "Insufficient memory to initialize Windows" message.

Then I changed the appropriate line in system.ini as

Add the following line in the [386Enh] section of the file

      MaxPhysPage=30000

and that got rid of the error message. But now it has an error message "Windows protection error" when I try to boot to Win95b

Here is CONFIG.SYS

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE

[COMMON]
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:4096 /P
files=125
LASTDRIVE=Z

and here is AUTOEXEC.BAT

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\doskey
set path=c:\windows;c:\windows\command
win

The computer has 2 Gb RAM. What causes the "Windows protection error" message ?

Peter