On Mnemosyne's memorable day known as Tue, 27 Jul 2004 19:54:34 GMT Calliope   
   probably had an epic bad hair day to prompt her sister Thalia in mockingly   
   inspiring Alfred J Peasmold-Gruntbuttock  to write   
   in his/her epistle <4r8dg05bu1tdl4mr4iok1bakm0n05g549n@4ax.com> thus:   
      
   > my old laptop will not boot anymore, just as it gets to win95 boot, it   
   > comes up with this error, saying a file is corrupted or missing from   
   > the io subsystem folder or i have very low memory.   
   >   
   > can only boot in safe mode, but does not show much.   
   >   
   > any ideas   
      
   Some.   
      
   [I presume that everything 'worked' at one point, way back then.]   
      
   - First, run an Anti-Virus scan  from a bootable floppy after updating it   
   with the most recent virus definitions available.   
      
   - Now, try (first from a Win95 startup diskette to prevent memory errors,   
   then in Safe mode from the hard drive if memory holds out) SCANDISK.EXE.   
   After the scan try DEFRAG.EXE in Safe mode   
      
   - Then try booting different Safe Mode(s) [Windows 95 Resource Kit General   
   Troubleshooting |Windows 95 Troubleshooting Aids for Startup |Using WIN.COM   
   Switches]:   
      
   "The following switches are available to start Windows 95 from the command   
   prompt when you need to isolate an error condition:   
      
   win [/d:[f] [m] [n] [s] [v] [x]]   
      
   The /d: switch is used for troubleshooting when Windows 95 does not start   
   correctly. The switches in the following table can be used with the /d:   
   switch.   
      
   Switch	Description   
   f 	Turn off 32-bit disk access. Try this if the computer appears to   
   have disk problems, or if Windows 95 stalls. This is equivalent to   
   32BitDiskAccess=FALSE in SYSTEM.INI.   
   m 	Starts Windows 95 in Safe Mode.   
   n 	Starts Windows 95 in Safe Mode with Networking.   
   s 	Specifies that Windows 95 not use ROM address space between   
   F000:0000 and 1 MB for a break point. Try this if Windows 95 stalls during   
   system startup. This is equivalent to SystemROMBreakPoint=FALSE in   
   SYSTEM.INI.   
   v 	Specifies that the ROM routine should handle interrupts from the   
   hard disk controller. Try this if Windows 95 stalls during system startup or   
   disk operations. This is equivalent to VirtualHDIRQ=FALSE in SYSTEM.INI.   
   x	Excludes all of the adapter area from the memory that Windows 95   
   scans to find unused space. This is equivalent to EMMExclude=A000-FFFF in   
   SYSTEM.INI."   
      
   Here is how the Resource Kit advises to go about (memory) errors at startup   
   [General Troubleshooting |Troubleshooting Procedures |Checking for Conflicts   
   at System Startup]:   
      
   If a computer fails to start Windows 95, try the following tasks:   
      
   ·	Check for upper memory area conflicts. If you suspect an upper   
   memory conflict, use win /d:x to start Windows 95.   
   ·	Check whether Safe Mode resolves the problem. To verify whether   
   loading minimal drivers will resolve the problem, use F5 or win /d:m to   
   start Windows 95.   
   ·	Check for conflict with 32-bit disk access. If you don’t want to   
   load 32-bit disk access, use win /d:f to start Windows 95.   
   ·	Check for hard disk I/O conflicts. If you want to force   
   VirtualHDIRQ=Off, use win /d:v to start Windows 95. For more information,   
   see Using WIN.COM Switches.   
      
   ·	Check for and remove unnecessary drivers and TSRs, and retry.   
   ·	Check for device conflicts by using Device Manager in the System   
   option in Control Panel.   
   ·	Check for an outdated or damaged VxD by examining the BOOTLOG.TXT [   
   see more on this further along in my post] and then do the following:   
      
   ·	If it is in the Windows SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS directory, rename it.   
   ·	If it has a .386 filename extension, examine the [386Enh] section of   
   SYSTEM.INI and remark out its lines. When renaming VxDs, be sure to change   
   the .VXD extension. Windows 95 loads all files in the IOSUBSYS subdirectory   
   that have a .VXD extension.   
   ·	If it is in VMM32.VXD, check the Windows SYSTEM\VMM32 directory for   
   a VMM32 file, and rename or move it."   
      
   - Try to boot up with Step-By-Step Confirmation. This starts Windows,   
   confirming startup files line by line. You can also start this option by   
   pressing F8 when the Startup menu is displayed/flashes by.   
   When you get to that last question "Load all Windows drivers?" without   
   encountering any errors and you answer with 'yes' and Windows shell still   
   fails to load properly, it is probably a more specific hardware/driver   
   problem.   
      
   - Now reboot & go check out C:\BOOTLOG.TXT (try "EDIT C:\BOOTLOG.TXT" in   
   DOS)   
   Here is how Windows 95 Resource Kit describes it [Setup Technical Discussion   
   | System Startup Files | BOOTLOG.TXT: The Startup Process Log]:   
      
   "The BOOTLOG.TXT file contains a record of the current startup process for   
   starting Windows 95. This file is created during Setup when the Windows 95   
   operating system is first started from Windows 95 Setup. This file shows the   
   Windows 95 components and drivers loaded and initialized, and the status of   
   each.   
   When you use the F8 option for interactive system startup, you can choose to   
   create a boot log during system startup. You can also use the /b switch to   
   create a boot log when running WIN.COM from the command line to isolate   
   configuration problems. For information, see General Troubleshooting.   
      
   The information in BOOTLOG.TXT is written in sequence during startup, in   
   roughly five major sections. Depending upon a specific error condition, you   
   might need to examine multiple sections. Notice, however, that a loadfailed=   
   entry means only that the related VxD refused to load. For example,   
   loadfailed=ebios indicates that the EBIOS driver did not detect EBIOS in the   
   computer and so reported that it should not be loaded. The following table   
   shows the sections to examine, and describes the possible errors and methods   
   for correcting those errors.   
      
   BOOTLOG.TXT Sections for Determining Errors   
      
   Section and errors	Corrective action   
   Loading real-mode drivers:	   
   No XMS memory	Verify that the section contains this   
   entry:loadsuccess=c:\windows\himem.sysIf not, verify the file and entry in   
   CONFIG.SYS   
   Incorrect MS-DOS version (message appears when driver loads) 	If this   
   error appears when loading drivers or programs that worked before, verify   
   that the section contains this entry:loadsuccess=c:\windows\setver.exe.   
   Windows 95 doesn’t start on a SCSI hard drive	Verify that the section   
   contains this entry:loadsuccess=c:\windows\dblbuff.sys   
   IFSHLP.SYS message occurs	Verify that the section contains this   
   entry:loadsuccess=c:\windows\ifshlp.sys   
   Loading VxDs:	   
   Verify the loading, system, and device initialization of all VxDs by   
   checking the section for these entries:loading vxd = ios   
   loadsuccess = ios   
   Cannot access D??SPACE drives	Verify that the section contains this   
   entry:loadsuccess = c:\dblspace.bin   
   Sharing violations occur	Might be due to failure of the Vshare VxD to   
   load. The section might contain an entry such as:loadfailed  = vshare   
   System-critical initialization of VxDs:	   
   System-critical initialization error occurs	Verify that this section   
   contains entries such as:syscritinit=ios   
   syscritinitsuccess=ios   
   Device initialization of VxDs:	   
   Verify that the section contains entries such as:deviceinit=ios   
   deviceinitsuccess=ios   
   Successful VxD initialization:	   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)