Correcting Problems with Other Devices

The system stalls when accessing CD-ROM.

After you press CTRL+ALT+DEL to shut down and restart the computer, Windows 95 might be unable to find the CD-ROM or stall when trying to access the drive; sometimes, pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL will not reset the computer. This might occur if Windows 95 is relying on real-mode drivers for the Sound Blaster® or Media Vision™ Pro Audio proprietary CD-ROM drive. If this is the case, you cannot access anything on the CD-ROM because its drivers cannot load. If this happens, turn off and then restart the computer. Use the Add New Hardware option in Control Panel to install the protected-mode drivers provided with Windows 95 for the specific CD-ROM device.

CD-ROM performance problems when AutoPlay is enabled.

This problem sometimes occurs with both protected-mode and real-mode (MSCDEX) drivers. To fix it, turn off AutoPlay, which is enabled by default, and then turn it back on again.

.WAV files cannot be played.

If Windows 95 cannot recognize the sound card, you might not be able to play .WAV files.

To verify sound card settings

1. In Device Manager, click the Sound controller.
2. Double-click the specific sound card, and then in the card's properties, click the Drivers tab so you can verify the drivers.
3. Click the Resources tab, and verify IRQ settings.
4. Check the Conflicting Device List, and verify that no conflicts for the sound card settings appear in the list.

Ports for sound cards with multiple CD-ROM adapters are not detected.

If a sound card has multiple CD-ROM adapters, they often include a program that activates the port to be used. This program must run before Windows 95 runs. If it doesn't, Windows 95 won't detect the port.

An input device fails.

• Check the physical connection.
• In Device Manager, check the driver used for the device.
• Check for conflicts with the I/O and IRQ resources used.
• Check for conflicting drivers or applications.

The mouse moves erratically or keyboard input fails.

• In Device Manager, check the mouse and keyboard drivers, replacing them if necessary.
• In the Mouse option in Control Panel, check Motion configuration for pointer speed.
• Check the port used for the mouse.
• Check the physical connection of the mouse and keyboard.
• Make sure there are no entries for real-mode mouse drivers in CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, WIN.INI, and SYSTEM.INI.
• When the Starting Windows 95 message appears, press F8, and then choose the Logged option. Check the BOOTLOG.TXT file and verify that the mouse driver is loading.

Mouse reports GROWSTUB errors.

If you were using the Microsoft Mouse Manager with Windows 3.1, Windows 95 Setup automatically updates the POINTER.EXE and POINTER.DLL files in the Mouse directory. If these files are not updated correctly, the mouse might stall and report GROWSTUB as a running task in the Close Program dialog box. To fix this problem, remove all references to the mouse in the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, and make sure the correct POINTER files were copied to the Mouse directory and not just the Windows directory.

Advanced Power Management 1.0 (APM) is not available.

Windows 95 Setup installs APM support automatically if it was installed on the computer previously. You can enable APM support after Setup by using Device Manager.

To enable APM under Windows 95 if it was disabled during Setup.

1. In Device Manager, click System Devices, click the APM entry, and then click Properties.
2. In the APM properties, click Settings.
3. In the Settings dialog box, click Enable Power Management Support if this option is not checked.

   If no APM drivers were installed under previous versions of Windows, no check mark appears. Checking this box enables the drivers.

4. Click Force APM 1.0 Mode.

   This option forces Windows 95 to use an APM 1.1 BIOS in APM 1.0 mode. In some cases, a BIOS incorrectly handles the new functions provided by APM 1.1 but functions properly when used in 1.0 mode. On some computers, this is checked automatically during Setup.

5. Click Disable Intel SL Support to disable the SL check.

   In some cases, a BIOS incorrectly handles an unsupported call to the APM interfaces of some SL-type chipsets, causing the computer to stop responding. Disabling this option prevents the system from not responding.

6. Click Disable Power Status Polling to prevent Windows 95 from calling the APM interface to check current battery level.

   Windows 95 calls the APM interface for this purpose with greater frequency than earlier versions of Windows 3.x, causing some computers to shut down. Disabling this feature prevents this, but also disables the battery meter.