************************************************************************ Windows NT FAQ List for Forum WINNT (August 1, 92) ************************************************************************ IBM MOST Not Supported with NT Flexboot As per the release notes, NT is not compatible with IBM's MOST utility. We do not intend to support IBM's MOST boot scheme with Windows NT's Flexboot, and have no plans to support installation on a drive with MOST installed on it. See Also: NT Boots, Looking for the Wrong Directory ************************************************************************ SoundBlaster/AudioPro Continually Repeats the Wav File. Question: My SoundBlaster/AudioPro card is constantly repeating the wav file with no end. What is wrong? Answer: The SoundBlaster/AudioPro cards are known to have compatibility problems with some fast 486 systems and some system chip sets. You may be unable to run such a device on such a system. Before surrendering this as solely a hardware problem, you may in fact have an IRQ or DMA channel conflict with another device. Either move these setting on the other device or on the sound card. The recommended settings for the sound card is DMA 1, IRQ 7 and port 220h (note however that LPT1 also often uses this IRQ). If you are unable to resolve the conflict you can disable one of the devices in the Registry. The utility REGEDIT can be used to alter the Registry Database. Note: in many cases you must be logged on as 'Administrator' to alter some of the Registry settings. Hardware configuration settings can be altered under the Registry branch 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SYSTEM- >ControlSet001->Services'. The SoundBlaster can be disabled/enables by changing the entry for the sub-branch Sndblst->Start to 0x4/0x1. Warning: REGEDIT is a very powerful utility which will allow you to directly change your Registry: USE THIS TOOL AT YOUR OWN RISK. The preferred work around to this problem is to reinstall with the correct configuration. Using REGEDIT incorrectly can put your machine in a state in which you will have to reinstall to correct. We do not support REGEDIT, nor the changes you make with it. We simply offer it as a faster, but unsupported, fix to this problem. ************************************************************************ Cannot Print to LPT1 Question: Help! I cannot print to LPT1:! If I issue MODE LPT1: is claims the device is not found. What is wrong? Answer: Typically LPT1: uses interrupt 7 with is also the default setting of the SoundBlaster sound card. You may be experiencing a IRQ conflict with this or another device. If you are unable to resolve the conflict you can disable one of the devices in the Registry. The utility REGEDIT is provided to alter the Registry Database. Note: in many cases you must be logged on as 'Administrator' to alter some of the Registry settings. Hardware configuration settings can be altered under the Registry branch 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SYSTEM- >ControlSet001->Services'. The SoundBlaster can be disabled/enables by changing the entry for the sub-branch Sndblst->Start to 0x4/0x1. Similarly, the parallel driver can be disabled/enables by changing the entry for the sub-branch Parallel->Start to 0x4/0x1. Warning: REGEDIT is a very powerful utility which will allow you to directly change your Registry: USE THIS TOOL AT YOUR OWN RISK. The preferred work around to this problem is to reinstall with the correct configuration. Using REGEDIT incorrectly can put your machine in a state in which you will have to reinstall to correct. We do not support REGEDIT, nor the changes you make with it. We simply offer it as a faster, but unsupported, fix to this problem. ************************************************************************ Trap 0x0000000E Question: When using the preferred graphical install method I get a Trap 0xE. What is wrong? Answer: This is a known problem which has several work-arounds available depending on the hardware configuration. The most common problem is due to a bug in the 3.5 inch BOOT DISK. If you are using this disk to install the kit and observe this problem, simply make a disk copy of the working 5.25 inch disk. You must make an exact duplicate of this disk onto a new 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppy disk. Assuming you have the 3.5 inch disk as your A: drive and the 5.25 inch disk as your B: drive, follow these steps: * Boot into your systems CMOS program. * Change the setting for the 3.5 inch disk to a 1.2 MB 5.25 inch disk. * Boot MS-DOS. * Make a copy of the 1.2 MB disk by inserting a blank disk in A: and the 5.25 BOOT DISK in B: drive. Run 'DISKCOPY B: A:'. * Boot back into your systems CMOS program. * Change the setting for the 3.5 inch disk back to a 1.44 MB disk. * Insert the new 3.5 inch 1.2 MB format BOOT DISK into A: and reboot. Note: you may need to remove any existing \winnt directory found on your hard disk first before running the install. Another common work around is to disable one or more of the following: * All BIOS shadowing. * All video shadowing. * All external CPU caches. * The Turbo switch (i.e. run the system at the slowest speed). ************************************************************************ Device Driver Requests: Our standard means of releasing drivers is with our CD releases. Although we are not committing ourselves to continue this practice, currently all fixed, updated, or new device drivers are being posted on Forum: WinNT, Lib 2. We are currently making every attempt to keep this library updated with drivers as they become available. If you have hardware that is not currently supported , or does not have a driver posted in WinNT, Lib 2; please make a device driver request by filling out the hwfeed.txt form and mail it to us at >internet:winnthw@microsoft.com. Please be aware that because of our support demands right now, this is a one way alias; we are not likely to respond directly to you to confirm that we have received your request. The hardware compatibility list can be found in MSWIN32, Lib 17. 0692hw.txt. Hwfeed.txt can be found in MSWIN32, Lib 17; or WINNT, Lib 1. In order to send mail to the address mentioned via CompuServe, you have to: * Leave the forum. * At any "!" prompt, enter GO MAIL. * Mail your request to: ">internet:winnthw@microsoft.com" ************************************************************************ NT Boots, Looking for the Wrong Boot Directory: This can happen for a number of reasons. One being that there has been an installation of the PDC release over an earlier release of Windows NT. The boot.ini file is not updated correctly. Make sure that the boot.ini file contains references to the winnt directory rather than the nt directory i.e. c:\winnt\ rather than c:\nt\ Another cause of this problem can be when the IBM MOST utility for OS/2 2.0 is installed on the hard drive. Windows NT uses logical partitioning. The MOST partition is an unknown partition type. When an unknow partition type sits between the base partition and the Windows NT partition, it can set the logical partitions off by one. MOST is not supported with Windows NT. You should install Windows NT on a machiene that does not have the MOST utility on it. See Also: IBM MOST Not Supported with NT Flexboot ************************************************************************ MIPS Installation Summary: The July Preliminary release of Windows NT requires an upgrade to your MIPs machine. All manufacturers are aware of this upgrade. If they have not contacted you already, please contact them regarding it. The machine's CPU must also have an R4000 revision 2.0 or greater. More Info: After the MIPS machine has been updated (contact your manufacturer for details), the machine has to be reset before installing the July release of NT. To reset the machine: 1. Select the "Run a program" menu at the PROM prompt. 2. Enter the path for the jzsetup. The new jzsetup is in the root of the CD. So, enter the following path scsi()cdrom(X)fdisk()\jzsetup.exe where X is the scsi ID for the cdrom. 3. Select the "Load default configuration" and enter the correct configuration for your machine. 4. Select the "Load default environment" and again enter the correct value for the variables. Note, Autoboot should be set to NO. The machine is now ready for installing Windows NT. To start GUI install from the CD: 1. Select the "Run a program" menu. 2. Enter the following scsi()cdrom(X)fdisk()\setupldr where X is the scsi ID for the cdrom. After the installation, the environment variables for the new boot partition will be set up automatically and ready for booting NT. ************************************************************************ Error 0x00000069 This is a phase one initialization error, which happens when Windows NT tries to talk with the HD controller. It can be caused by any number of things. Things to try: * If the card allows, slow down the DMA transfer rate. * Make sure both ends of the SCSI bus are terminated. * Make sure there are no IRQ, or memory address conflicts. * Make sure you're aren't using a faulty or un-supported driver i.e. the FD 1680 SCSI controller is supported, but there is a problem with that driver which will be fixed and posted on WinNT, Lib 2. ************************************************************************ How to Get the NT Preliminary Release The Win32 SDK is orderable today, and will be shipping by July 17. The cost of the Win32 SDK with printed documentation is $399. A CD-only version is also available for $69. It contains the documentation on the CD in PostScript files that you may print provided you have a PostScript printer. (If you later decide that you want the hard-copy documentation from Microsoft, there is a coupon in the box for you to order it for $359 plus freight.) To place an order from within the U.S, please call Microsoft Developer Services at (800) 227-4679, extension 11771. In Canada, call (800) 563-9048. In all other countries, contact your local Microsoft representative For more details, please refer to: MSWIN32: messages #7161 & 7162, and WINNT: messages #400 & 401. ************************************************************************ DELL Machine Only Recognize 16 MB of Memory Summary: The ISA Dell 486D/50 25/50Mhz has a bios problem which prevents it from seeing greater than 16MB of RAM under NT. More Information: The ISA Dell 486D/50 25/50Mhz machine does not see greater than 16Mb of RAM under Windows NT. This is a known problem with the bios of the Dell machine. Dell is producing a upgrade to the bios which should be available August 92. If your machine demonstrates this problem, please contact Dell after July 92 to receive their A08 bios upgrade. ************************************************************************ Requests for DDK or DDK Support At present a Windows NT DDK is not available. Several people at Microsoft are currently working very hard to get the Windows NT DDK ready for distribution. If you would like to be placed on the mailing list for information about this kit please send mail to: winntddk@microsoft.com (prepend '>INTERNET:' to this string if you are mailing from Compuserve). Please be aware that this is a one way alias, and that there will be no email response/confirmation to your request. Thank you for your interest. ************************************************************************ TCP/IP Support: TCP/IP including ftp and some other tcp utilities is included in the July preliminary Win32 development kit for NT Source routing are not included in the July version of TCP/IP, which implies TCP/IP isn't supported on token ring cards for this release, and LM2.1 clients aren't able to access NT servers across TCP/IP, regardless of the net card in the NT server. Source routing will be in later version of NT TCP/IP. Source routing is in the July version of NETBEUI, so some token ring cards are supported (see 0692HW.TXT in lib 17), and LM2.1 clients can access NT servers running the July version of NETBEUI ************************************************************************ Windows NT is a Preliminary Release, not a Beta: Windows NT is not yet in Beta. The Win32 SDK for Windows NT is a "Preliminary" release, intended for development of 32-bit applications for Windows. Our focus has been on the Windows NT Kernel and Win32 API. The SDK does not include POSIX support and we have not yet had an opportunity to complete testing of our support of 16-bit Windows and MS-DOS applications. Therefore, the SDK is not appropriate for Beta test and evaluation. There will be a very broad Beta program in the early fall that is intended for end-users. This release will include full support for MS-DOS, 16-bit Windows and POSIX applications. For our non-developer customers who wish to obtain a beta release of Windows NT, please stay tuned to the forum for availability and further details. ************************************************************************ Hareware Compatibility List: There is a hardware compatibility list which came with your release of Windows NT. It has also been posted on CompuServe, forum MSWin32, Lib 17, filename: 0692HW.TXT. Hardware listed in this file has been preliminarily tested on the July 92 release of Windows NT, and is supported. We do not claim that hardware not on this list will not run; however, it has not been tested and it is not supported at this time. ************************************************************************ System Requirements: Windows NT operating system: The first preliminary release of the Windows NT operating system requires an Intel 80386 system or higher, or ACE/ARC compatible R4000 systems with at least 8MB of RAM and 55MB available hard disk space (includes 20MB for a swap file). This does not include disk space for applications. See the Hardware Compatibility List 0692HW.TXT for a list of systems on which preliminary testing has been done. Win32 SDK development environment: For Win32 SDK development, an 80386 33 MHz CPU (or higher) and 12MB total of RAM is strongly recommended. A total of 100MB available hard disk space (includes 20MB for a swap file) is required for complete installation of the operating system, SDK tools, and C/C++ compiler. The Win32 SDK is only available on CD-ROM and requires a CD-ROM drive and SCSI adapter. For a list of computer systems, CDROM drives, SCSI cards and other peripherals on which preliminary testing has been done, see 0692HW.TXT in Lib 17 ************************************************************************ B0 and B1 Stepping Machines: NT will not run on 386 chips that are the B0 or B1 versions (called the B0 or B1 "stepping"). This is true for all releases of NT, so if you're now running the December 91 or another release of NT on a particular 386, that PC is OK You can check whether a particular 386-based PC is at the B0 or B1 stepping by downloading isbste.zip from Lib 17. This is a very small zip file (6 sec 9600 download), and the time to unzip it and run the test is quite small. Isbstep.exe also shipped on the December NT CD. ************************************************************************ Bernoulli and Removeable Media Not Supported: Bernoulli boxes and removable SCSI drives were not tested with this release of Windows NT, and do not appear on the hardware compatibility list. Since the release we have seen evidence that Windows NT has some problems with these devices. We are aggresively pursuing this matter in hopes of having it resolved by the next release. ************************************************************************ Adaptec AHA 1542B Driver Can Cause Fatal System Error: Summary: There is a known problem with the Adaptec AHA-1542B driver which causes fatal system errors under some circumstances. More Info: The problem is triggered by simultaneous I/O with the floppy and the hard disk. This will be corrected in the next release. To avoid this you may want to use an alternative floppy controller and disable he one on the Adaptec. ************************************************************************ Zenith 386/33E Locks Up During GUI Install. This machine sometimes locks up when doing the GUI install with the CPU cache enabled. Disable the CPU cache and the problem will be resolved. ************************************************************************ The System Uses About 70 Threads: With this release of Windows NT, Pview will show that the system running without any active applications will use about 70 threads. This is normal for this release. The majority of theses threads are system threads. ************************************************************************ No Support for Dual SCSI Controllers: This release of Windows NT was not tested with 2 or more SCSI cards in the same machine. If you have this in your configuration, and you are experiencing any kinds of problems with your SCSI devices; try an installation with a single card. We do not support multiple SCSI cards at this time. ************************************************************************