IOS System Windows Protection Error

IOS System Windows Protection Error

Introduction

This technical bulletin outlines an error message produced by Windows 95 after re-booting following installation of a program or making configuration changes.

The information is provided in the form of an MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) technical article.

Err Msg.: "IOS Failed to Initialize" on Boot

Last reviewed: September 25, 1998
Article ID: Q157924

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release versions 1, 2, 2.1

Symptoms

When you restart Windows 95 after installing a program or making a configuration change to your computer, you may receive one of the following error messages:

Windows initializing device IOS: Windows protection error. IOS failed to Initialize, Please restart.
While initializing IOS: Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.
Windows initializing device IOS: Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.

After the error message is displayed, you may not be able to start Windows 95 normally. However, you should be able to start Windows 95 in Safe mode.

Resolution

It may also be possible to start Windows 95 normally after using the following procedure:

Boot Windows 95 in Safe mode or to a command prompt.
Perform one of the following two steps:

Edit the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files and disable any references to Smartdrv.exe and real mode disk drivers.

To disable a line, type "rem" (without quotation marks) at the beginning of the line.

Rename Smartdrv.exe to another name.

Restart your computer normally.

Status

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95 and OEM Service Releases. An update to address this problem is now available, but should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft does not recommend implementing this update at this time. Contact Microsoft Technical Support for additional information about the availability of this update.

More information

The problem occurs only on certain system configurations, and does not occur if Internet Explorer 4.0 is installed on your computer. These system configurations have a minimum of 32 MB of RAM and a large number of device drivers.

The problem is rare and can occur only at start-up. Users whose systems are starting successfully today are not impacted.

Installation patches for Windows 95

Install the operating system to the hard disk drive.

Below applies to Win95 version 2 and above! Win 95 version 1.0 (Classic) will not support USB and AGP (make sure USB is disabled in BIOS if using Classic version).

AMD VIA VP3+ Chipset

A. Add VIA drivers – on motherboard CD ROM in VIA subdirectory or VIA Drivers in autorun menu.

IRQ Routing – may actually only be needed for Win98 and AGP
AGP driver
PCI bridge
IDE bus master

B. Add USB supplementary drivers on Win 95 CD ROM in- Other\Updates\USB

Usbsup.exe
Usbupd2.exe

Need to reboot after each one of the above drivers is installed and remove USB “question mark” device from Device Manager.

C. Add multimedia devices. Check Device Manager for “question mark” devices and remove before installing drivers.

D. Add graphics card drivers.

Above instructions are general as different graphics and sound devices are specified.

Intel P2/Pentium TX/BX Chipset

A. Check Device Manager. Note any “question mark” devices.

Add Intel IDE drivers- on motherboard CD ROM under Intel.

P11X4- setup.exe

B. Add USB supplementary drivers on Win95 CD ROM- in Other\Updates\USB

Usbsup.exe
Usbupd.exe

Need to reboot after each one of the above drivers is installed and remove USB “question mark” device from Device Manger.

C. Add multimedia devices. Check Device Manager for “question mark” devices and remove before installing drivers.

D. Add graphics card drivers.

Above instructions are general as different graphics and sound devices are specified.

P11X4/BMIDE and USB supplements replace TX patch which does not give true USB compatibility for both TX and BX chipset boards.

Note

With regard to the introduction of BX chipset motherboards for Pentium II processors, the motherboard manufacturers have included a patch to install a new set of IDE controllers. The IDE controllers consist of a primary, secondary and the Intel Bus Master IDE Controller. Under certain circumstances such as Windows loading a real mode driver e.g. ATAPI CD-ROM.SYS, for either of the primary or secondary controllers, the Intel driver will conflict and cause the IOS error to occur.

This has been documented by Intel and further information is included in the readme file on the motherboard disk.

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