Win 3.11 freezes just after booting \ VOGONS

Win 3.11 freezes just after booting

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by DzikiWonsz

Posted on 2020-07-04, 23:06

DzikiWonsz Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: 2020-07-04, 22:36

Hello,
I have Compaq Contura 420C, it had bad HDD that i've replaced and installed MSDOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 in top of that. Issue is that it's freezing just after the boot - no reaction to trackball or keyboard. Setup itself is running correctly, no issues during installation but it won't run. Games are running great directly from DOS, but user experience without some 90's wallpaper on that grainy STN screen suffers a lot. 😉

I've ran win with /b option and not much here - it fails with loading netapi.dll (i have no network devices on that machine so it doesn't matter i think).

Any ideas? I've tried to search for that, but in 2020 other threads (on different forums) are mainly about issues with virtualizating that OS, so nothing helped so far. Didn't try Win95 so far since i have no USB -> IDE interface or anything similar to copy data without floppies.

Reply 1 of 7, by jakethompson1

Posted on 2020-07-05, 00:34

jakethompson1 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1317
Joined: 2015-11-17, 04:16

Remember that Win 3.11 setup is kind of like NT-XP where there is both a blue-screen text-mode portion, as well as a GUI portion.
Are you saying setup finished both the blue-screen and GUI portions, and only then it began failing to start?

Try win /n ?

There are also a few other testing flags like /d:t and /d:c

Reply 2 of 7, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2020-07-05, 03:34

Caluser2000 Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 3672
Joined: 2014-10-21, 05:34
Location: NOO ZEELUND

Windows 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11?

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 3 of 7, by DzikiWonsz

Posted on 2020-07-05, 07:05

DzikiWonsz Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: 2020-07-04, 22:36

Sorry, i've forgot to add that info in first post- both parts of installation (DOS bluescreen and GUI) are completing without issues, and yes, it's Windows for Workgroups.

Win /n did nothing, but /d:t seems to work, so that would point into VxD issue - could You please give me more hints, what to look for? I am not very familiar with 3.11 troubleshooting.

Reply 4 of 7, by Errius

Posted on 2020-07-05, 07:14

Errius Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2753
Joined: 2015-12-16, 19:16
Location: Lave Station

I encountered a similar problem a few years ago. This is from my notes:

If WFW 3.11 hangs on launch but still runs with the /D:V parameter , there is an issue with a non-standard hard drive or controller. Open SYSTEM.INI and add the following line to the [386 Enh] section:

VirtualHDIRQ=off

This page had information about the problem but is no longer online and does not appear to be on the wayback machine either:

http://windowsfaq-wiki.com/Hard_Drives_That_R … SYSTEM_INI.html

ETA: here is the thread I started about the problem: Re: Windows for Workgroups 3.11 issues

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 5 of 7, by DzikiWonsz

Posted on 2020-07-05, 07:30

DzikiWonsz Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: 2020-07-04, 22:36

Funny thing is that i found your thread (that you've linked) trough google and that's why i decided to join this forum. 😀

https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/068/Q68725/ <- seems like it might be mirror of that page you mentioned.
I turned off VirtualHDIrq in system.ini but it didn't helped in my case - but in my case system freezes not in splash screen but after desktop is loaded.

Also, after /d:t i turned on screensaver to check if it's freezing - after 3 minutes screen saver started, so it's not case of OS freezing but keyboard/mouse being unresponsive.

Reply 6 of 7, by DzikiWonsz

Posted on 2020-07-05, 20:44

DzikiWonsz Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: 2020-07-04, 22:36

OK, i've installed 3.11 OEM (not For Workgroups) and it's running ok. Thanks for help. 😀

Reply 7 of 7, by Jo22

Posted on 2020-07-06, 11:35

Jo22 Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 9627
Joined: 2009-12-13, 07:06
Location: Europe

DzikiWonsz wrote on 2020-07-05, 07:30:
Also, after /d:t i turned on screensaver to check if it's freezing - after 3 minutes screen saver started, so it's not case of OS freezing but keyboard/mouse being unresponsive.

Hi. Some useful Compaq laptop drivers can be found at:
https://remember.the-aero.org/

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Software

Main menu

Common searches