Introduction

Supernova, Hal and Lunar will work successfully with any video card that is on the Windows NT 4.0 Hardware Compatibility List and has a Microsoft-supplied driver for it. (i.e. A driver for the video card is supplied on the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 CD-ROM or is available from Microsoft's web site).

The Windows NT 4.0 Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) is a list of computers and peripherals that have passed compatibility testing with Windows NT 4.0.

If you have an NT workstation that has a third-party NT video driver that hasn't been certified by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL), then Supernova, Hal and Lunar, may, or may not, work with it.

If your workstation has an NT video driver that isn't 100% NT-compliant then you might experience a "Blue Screen of Death" when NT re-boots after installing Supernova, Lunar or Hal.

Don't be too worried, this only occurs on a very few occasions with NT video drivers that haven't come directly from Microsoft. i.e. not from the NT CD itself, or Microsoft's web site.  However, if you create a Windows NT Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) before installing Supernova, Hal, or Lunar, you'll easily be able to recover from the "Blue Screen of Death" in a matter of minutes, rather than having to re-install Windows NT from scratch.

Besides, maintaining an up to date Windows NT ERD is as important as making regular backups of your system and should be added to your regular computer maintenance procedures.  Your Windows NT ERD can repair and restore partition boot sectors, system and environment files and also Windows registry information. 

Creating an Emergency Repair Disk

To create an Emergency Repair Disk, do the following:

1. From the Windows NT Start menu select the option "Run".
2. Insert a floppy disk in drive A.
3. Type RDISK /S and then press ENTER
4. Follow the on-screen prompts.
5. Finally, once the ERD has been created, label and date it.

The RDISK utility formats the disk and copies nine files to it: DEFAULT._, NTUSER.DA_, SAM._, SECURITY._, SYSTEM._, SOFTWARE._, AUTOEXEC.NT, CONFIG.NT and SETUP.LOG.   (These are the Registry keys, Initialization files and a log of installed system files).

Repairing your workstation after a "Blue Screen of Death"

To repair your workstation after a Blue Screen of Death you'll need your original NT boot disks.  If you can't find your original boot disks they can be created using the command winnt /ox on a working Windows NT system.

Once you have your 3 original NT boot disks boot from "NT Setup disk 1".   Insert disks 2 and 3 when prompted.  At the "Welcome to Setup" screen press R to begin the repair process.  You will then be presented with a list of options:

[X] Inspect Registry files

[X] Inspect startup environment

[X] Verify Windows NT system files

[X] Inspect Boot sector

Clear the X check marks next to all of the options except for "Inspect Registry files" by highlighting each option in turn using the cursor keys and then pressing ENTER.  Finally, use the cursor keys to highlight the option "Continue" and then press ENTER.

"Inspect Registry files" will replace your current registry settings with the copy from the Emergency Repair Disk.

After you've selected the "Inspect Registry files" option and chosen "Continue", you'll be offered a sub-menu that lists the registry hives to repair:

SYSTEM (System Key)
SOFTWARE (Software Key)
DEFAULT (Default User Profiles)
NTUSER.DAT (New User Profiles)
SECURITY (Security Key)
SAM (SAM Database)

Set X check marks next to the "SYSTEM" and "SOFTWARE" options and then select "Continue" and press ENTER.

Once the repair process has finished re-boot your PC and you'll have NT back working again. 

Tips

Before re-installing Supernova, Hal, or Lunar, try using a Microsoft-certified video driver, or a different compatible video driver for your video card.  For instance, if your video card has an S3 chipset, try using the Microsoft supplied generic S3 video driver from the Windows NT CD, or search Microsoft's web site for a later version of your video card's drivers.

Visit the Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs web site for the latest compatibility information.

List of downloadable Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 video drivers

For a list of video cards tested with Dolphin's products select this link.