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Windows 95 protection error

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First post, by Excelsior

Posted on 2023-10-11, 16:59

Excelsior Offline

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Hello all,

I have the following dilemma: I have a vintage Siemens Nixdorf PCD-5H/75 (Pentium 75, 16 MB RAM, Windows 95) which worked great until today.
Today when I pushed the power button , the system started normally, the Windows 95 logo appeared but after a few seconds a black screen appeared and the message “Windows Protection Error. You need to restart your computer. Press any key to restart” was displayed.
No matter if I press a key or don’t press any key the computer will power off in a few seconds.
When the computer is started again obviously before Windows logo screen appears, I am welcomed with the screen concerning the alternatives – Normal mode, Safe mode, Command prompt only etc.
In this case, if I choose anything else besides Command prompt only, the situation will continue in the way described above (the Safe mode acts the same).
If I choose Command prompt only or boot the system with a boot disk (also Windows 95) I am in DOS environment and I can in this way check the disk and its contents. Everything seemed fine with the exception of Config.sys (which is empty – 0 KB) and Autoexec.bat (which has only a line mentioning the keyboard but nothing else). The Config.sys can be modified without any problems but Autoexec.bat is not possible to edit, move or delete (is considered as a read only file).
Last time I used the computer I didn’t made any modifications in Autoexec.bat or Config.sys or in the Registry of Windows. Also I didn't deleted any files.
Is the problem generated only by Autoexec.bat or something else caused this problem?
If the problem is Autoexec.bat how can I change its attribute from read only?

Thanks in advance!

Reply 1 of 7, by Manjushri

Posted on 2023-10-11, 18:26

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Hi!
Does your hard disk made you any issues prior to this event? I think your files got corrupted somehow and it could be some hdd issue. Could you check it for errors and surface scan?

Reply 2 of 7, by Excelsior

Posted on 2023-10-12, 07:03

Excelsior Offline

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Manjushri wrote on 2023-10-11, 18:26:

Hi!
Does your hard disk made you any issues prior to this event? I think your files got corrupted somehow and it could be some hdd issue. Could you check it for errors and surface scan?

That's the first thing I did in Command Prompt only - Scandisk and surface scan. After about 15 minutes the results was "No problems found".
I also checked the HDD for missing files/directories or anything strange but everything seems normal.
I guess the HDD is ok.
Is it still possible that the problem is hardware rather than software?

Reply 3 of 7, by giantclam

Posted on 2023-10-12, 07:14

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Checked PSU voltage rails? No obvious signs of failed caps?

Reply 4 of 7, by Excelsior

Posted on 2023-10-12, 08:06

Excelsior Offline

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giantclam wrote on 2023-10-12, 07:14:

Checked PSU voltage rails? No obvious signs of failed caps?

The PSU looks ok and the caps also seem normal.
This is why my first thought was a software problem like Registry/files corruption etc.

Reply 5 of 7, by kixs

Posted on 2023-10-12, 09:32

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Also do the memory check and check the CPU for overheating.

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 6 of 7, by asdf53

Posted on 2023-10-12, 09:45

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Can you do a logged boot (press F8 for boot menu, choose "boot logged") and then examine C:\bootlog.txt?

Removing read-only is "attrib -r autoexec.bat". Might also need -h and -s if the hidden and system attribute is set for whatever reason.

You could also try to remove all detected hardware with something like "regedit /d HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum", then reboot. This will resolve some hardware conflicts, but I don't know if it helps if you already could not boot in safe mode.

Reply 7 of 7, by Gmlb256

Posted on 2023-10-14, 19:03

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Excelsior wrote on 2023-10-11, 16:59:

Is the problem generated only by Autoexec.bat or something else caused this problem?

Something else, Windows 9x can start without CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files just fine. It will load everything needed automatically by default.

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