Oddly enough I'm in a similar boat. Different specs but I can't get past where it sets up the start menu items.

It has to be hardware related (and by that I mean it could also be a driver issue related to the hardware not liking it). Have you tried sub'ing in a generic PCI vid card?

If hardware is good, I'd try different versions of Win95. Or even better, use Windows 98SE or Me.
Win95 being crashy is absolutely normal, after all. Let's remember, Windows 95 introduced all the awesome computer jokes. 😉

In most cases, the blue screen contains a name of crashed VxD or app. Does the BSoD containing something about faulty VxD? If it is not a ESDI_506 or VMM32, you may try to remove listed device (whose driver is crashing) and contiune installation. Else it's looks like a resource conflict or a bus error (Win95 is very captious to hardware unlike Win3.11).

Yes I assume it his hardware related since I tried all the Win95 version I have.
The bluescreen however is never the same. Sometimes it says something about VxD, sometimes not. I tried with simply installing the standard VGA drivers and deselecting all the other drivers like audio etc. But I still get the bluescreen. Next thing I am gonna try is Win98SE. Let's see if at least this is going to run through...

What FSB are you using and which CPU? What are your BIOS settings, in particular for the memory and cache timings, and using the Synchronise or Transparent option? What graphics card? How much RAM and how much cache? Single-banked cache or double-banked cache? Are you using an AMD X5-133 and trying to get write-back L1 cache working? The board requires a BIOS update for this. Depending on the graphics card and FSB, you might need to use Synchronise. Are you trying to use more than 64 MB of RAM? 64 MB is the max you can use on this board. Fastest cache timings might not work if you are using single-banked cache. Any of these can cause the issues you describe. But this is only a brief sample of scenarios for which there are dozens.

I have attached pictures with the bios settings. The bios is the latest revision.
I have installed 1mb L2 cache, 64 MB Ram, FSB is 33MHZ.

Galaxian wrote:

Oddly enough I'm in a similar boat. Different specs but I can't get past where it sets up the start menu items.

So I managed to figure out what caused the problem. It seems my memory was bad. I took out all the modules and just left one 16 MB module inside and now windows boots up without an error.

But now I have the exact same problem you do: The setup process is trying to setup the start menu and does not go any further. I can still move the mouse though.

Did you manage to get passed the setup of the start menu items?

edit:
A restart helped get passed that setup step. So far Windows seems to work properly.

Congrats! Glad it works now! 😁

skel2raw wrote:

So I managed to figure out what caused the problem. It seems my memory was bad.

Hi, in case you encounter trouble again (hopefully not!), try other RAM settings. Insert more waitstates, for example.

Have you tried running memtest86 to see if your ram is actually bad?

Or Checkit in dos

I just tested a couple of things:
Windows 95 only boots with 1 of the 16MB ram modules. If I plugin any of the other 3 16MB modules I have it does not boot and I get a VXD error.
Also I have tried running memtest86. With just the one 16MB module memtest86 runs from the floppy and does its tests. If I plugin any of the other modules the program just starts for 1 second or so and the PC immediately reboots.

Now I assume the modules are probably not really bad but rather for some reason not fully compatible with the motherboard. I guess I'll have to find other RAM modules.

Did you ensure that they all are FPM and not EDO? Sometimes the part numbers are nearly identical (only a digit different), and often eBay sellers mix them up.

I did not to be honest, never considered this possibility since they came with the motherboard. Just checked the part numbers and they indeed are EDO rams. I'll try to source some FPM modules.

So bottomline is that I simply had the wrong ram modules in my setup.

Thank you guys for your help!

windows 9x can be quite picky with RAM! always ensure you have the proper modules installed for your system