Compatibility Mode

TIP:

Install TweakUI and set a 5 second delay in it's Boot Tab to show the dos startup menu.This will stop you having to keep pressing the F8 key on bootup whilst you diagnose and fix problems.Links for Powertoys/TweakUI on my other pages.

Warning:Dos compatibility mode can be caused by certain viruses,if you think you have one go here and get an up-to-date virus checker.Bootdisk/Anti-virus page

Backup the registry(use the free WRP program at my site for this)and find and use the program regedit.exewhich is in the Windows Folder.

Edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys files and put REM in front of any lines you find for any dos drivers and re-boot.Or if you wish just rename the files for now or move them to a holding folder.

NOTE:If you are using a pre-win95b version of windows then download the later version of Regedit.exe as the old version was dangerously flawed.

Use Regedit's it's find option for a registry entry NOIDE or noide and if found then delete it and then re-boot to Safemode/F8 bootup choose safemode and delete ALL the drivers for the hard drives and ALL the drivers for the hard disc controllers and then shutdown and switch off for a few seconds and then re-boot.Windows should now correctly install the needed drivers and you should be out of compatibility mode.

If the standard 32 bit windows drivers have failed to load then windows will go into compatibility mode and may put the NOIDE call into the registry and use the dos real mode drivers until you do this.Once you have cleared this in windows you can then re-install your dos drivers into the autoexec.bat/config.sys files if you wish and you should not get any compatibility mode problems with the drives. You can load the lines for the dos drivers into a file called dosstart.bat if you want the Cdrom in MSdos and not in real dos.If you don't have this file you can make one with notepad and just rename it from dosstart.txt to dosstart.bat and place it in the windows folder the. If you still have compatibility mode problems with your hard drives then this is another matter and you may have hardware problems and or another device like the floppy drive could be causing them.If this is the case then find the fileHsflop.pdr and rename it to Hsflop.pdx whilst you sort out the problem and you may then be able to rename it back at a later date if needed.

Recap

Back the registry and use Regedit.exe and if found delete the NOIDE call .

Rem out or remove any lines for dos drivers in the autoexec.bat/config.sys files

Boot to Safemode and delete all drivers and drive controllers for the drives and re-boot.

You may need to get updated drivers for your motherboard/Drives so here are a couple of useful linksWinfilesOR hereWindrivers

To see what may be causing a loadup problem there is an excellent freeware program called"BLA" (Boot Log Analyser) BLA Empty your bootlog.txt on your Root drive and then re-boot and either press the F2 key as it boots or the F8 key and choose logged bootup to make a new fresh one and the run BLA.This will show delays and you can go from there.

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