"Replace and strike any key when ready"
 

1. Probable cause is starting your computer with a floppy disk in disk drive a: - Solution: remove the floppy disk and press any key on the key board
2. Make sure there is no floppy disk in any drive and while holding down both the Ctrl key and the Alt key press and release the Delete key.
3. It is possible (but not likely) that all your system files have been deleted from your hard disk. If you have a system disk you can use it to boot your computer, however you will probably not have the needed system files to login to a network, (unless you make backups). to create a boot floppy disk, put a disk in a drive, type sys a: and press enter and copy autoexec.bat & config.sys to it.

1. A needed system file has been deleted or corrupted. - You can boot your PC from a system disk, go to the C:\DOS> directory and type copy command.com c:\ and press enter
2. NOTE: IT IS ALWAYS BEST TO HAVE A FLOPPY DISK STORED AWAY THAT YOU CAN BOOT YOUR COMPUTER FROM. TO CREATE A SYSTEM DISK - EXIT WINDOWS TO YOUR C:\> PROMPT - PLACE A BLANK FLOPPY DISK IN DRIVE A: - AND TYPE SYS A: AT THE PROMPT. DO NOT KEEP YOUR DISK ON TOP OF YOUR COMPUTER - THE ELECTRICITY FROM YOUR COMPUTER CAN AND WILL DESTROY COMPUTER FLOPPY DISKS !!!
3. Reinstall DOS to your PC
4. If you copied sys.com and the autoexec.bat and config.sys files to your emergency, just use the sys c: command and copy files back.

or

"Error reading file " 

1. The file may have been saved in a different format other than the program you are trying to use to open the file - open the file in its original program.
2. The file may have cross-linked clusters - exit to DOS and type scandisk a: (if the file is on your floppy disk in drive a:) and press enter. This is a DOS program that attempts to find and fix errors on your floppy and hard-drives, if you are in doubt save the files under a new name, choose yes when scandisk asks if you want to save lost clusters, and yes to create an undo disk.
3. The file may have been deleted or moved from the location that the program is looking to - Solution: Copy the file back to its original location.

1. Your computer is starting with a different version of DOS (i.e. 5.0 vs. 6.2) than the files in your DOS directory - decide which version of DOS to run and install those files to your DOS directory. If you have DOS system disk, booting from disk 1 will start the installation proceedure.

1. Check the spelling of the command you typed
2. The file is not in a directory that is in the computers path - Change to the directory where the program is (ex: cd\windows press enter) and type the command again (ex: win) and press enter

1. It may be that the command you are trying to execute is a program located on a network drive and you have lost the network connection - If that is the case reboot your computer and log back in.
2. If a program has lost your default path - reboot
3. Change to the drive and / or directory where the program is and retype the command
4. Add the path to your autoexec.bat file using "Edit autoexec.bat"
5. go to the end of your path statement and type ;c:\yourpath
6. Save the autoexec.bat file and reboot.

When you try to start Lotus Notes 

1. Make sure that you are logged into the network !!
2. Check with one of the network administrators to ensure that you do have a mail box set up on the network. - If you have gotten Notes before you may need to reset the mailbox options.
3. Exit Windows and type set and press enter at the C:\> prompt - Look to see if there is a line saying S_Station=a111111 (where a111111 is your employee number). If there is no line saying this try typing set s_station=A###### and pressing the enter key
4. There may not be enough memory established in your operating environment. Try looking at your autoexec.bat file to see what the shell is: To do this exit Windows (or use the DOS prompt icon) and at the c:\> prompt - make sure you are on the C drive type c: and press enter, type cd\ and press enter, type type autoexec.bat | more and press enter. This will show you what your autoexec.bat (startup file) has. Look for a line that says something like :
5. shell=c:\command.com /p /e:640 The number at the end of the line should be at least 512 and no more than 1024: If it is not contact a systems administrator or sysop.

1. This means that the Server software is not available Very often a file server that is used for email will "Go Down" for a brief period of time so that the technicians can perform routine maintenance on it; like scanning it for viruses, creating drives, services, user profiles, etc. If you continue to have problems after say an hour or 2 and they occur frequently - contact the network supervisor.

1. From File manager find the directory that has your executable file and look for a file with the same first name but with the extension .reg
2. Double click on the *.reg file to update the Windows registration database

1. When Windows starts it looks to two (2) files (win.ini and system.ini) to control everything from the colors you see to what programs are available to you. If you get this message it means that windows was unable to find a file that it is expecting to see. Perhaps the file has been moved or deleted, If you know the cause simply copy the file back to its original location.
2. Often this message will tell you where the error occurred (i.e. win.ini) and it may not be a system crashing fault - simply press the enter key to continue (and that file will not be available during that session of Windows, ex. After Dark)
3. You can edit the ini file by placing a ; (semi-colon) before the offending line or deleting the line and saving the file.

when you try to start a Microsoft product

1. Some of the dynamic link library files are either, the wrong version , missing, or corrupted. We have experienced this problem with the following files
2. compobj.dll
3. ole2conv.dll
4. ole2displdll
5. ole2nls.dll
6. storeage.dll 
7. You can delete these files and do a MS Workstation re-install 
8. HOWEVER:
9. THIS SHOULD ONLY BE DONE BY EXPERIENCED SYSTEM OPERATORS - IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT AT ALL - 
10. CALL AN ADMINISTRATOR OR TECHNICIAN !!!
11. Reinstall MS Office to your hard disk

or 

"Missing Timer driver" 

1. The timer driver has been disconnected from your windows system configuration - From the group "Main" double-click on the control panel icon , double-click on your driver icon, (If the driver "Timer" is not listed) - click on the Add button, choose the timer option and click on all the ADD, SAVE, and CLOSE buttons needed.
2. If the timer driver has been deleted (or does not show in available driver) then Window disks are needed to reinstall drivers.

(may add the line "In Enhanced Mode")

1. When Windows starts it looks to two (2) files (win.ini and system.ini) to control everything from the colors you see to what programs are available to you. If you get this message it means that windows was unable to find a file that it is expecting to see. Perhaps the file has been moved or deleted, If you know the cause simply copy the file back to its original location.
2. Often this message will tell you where the error occurred (i.e. win.ini) and it may not be a system crashing fault - simply press the enter key to continue (and that file will not be available during that session of Windows, ex. After Dark)
3. You can edit the ini file by placing a ; (semi-colon) before the offending line or deleting the line and saving the file.
4. If windows still will not load you can force a "standared win load" by typing win /s and pressing enter. (You will need to edit your win.ini files to load 386 enhanced in the future)

1. You will see this error message if the floppy disk you are saving, or copying a file to does not have enough room on it. - Save the file to a new disk, or if you are copying several files use a second disk.

1. vshare.386, and device=*vshare, can be loaded with system.ini (check your sofware documentation for details)
2. Share is a DOS file that allows some programs to load data files. It is usually loaded from autoexec.bat when your computer starts up, if your computer does not load share you can 
3. Exit to DOS
4. Change to your DOS directory (cd\dos)
5. Type share and press enter. Once you turn off your computer however this information will be lost. -- In order to automatically start the share program
6. Exit to DOS
7. Changed to your root directory (cd\, -- and press enter)
8. Type "edit autoexec.bat" and press enter
9. Add the line share or
10. device=c:\dos\share.exe
11. Save the file
12. Reboot your machine.

(A)bort, (R)etry, or (F)ail

1. This is because your disk is write protected (There is a little tab on top of the disk that slides up and down)(or a piece of tape over the slot on the 5 1/4 " disks.
2. Make sure the tab is pushed down (so that you can NOT see through the little hole in the disk.)
3. Type r to retry (or insert a new disk and type r)
4. Type a or f (to abort, fail or quit)

1. Check inside you windows directory for a win.* (or system.*) to try to find the newest backup of you ini files. (Note: win.com is the program)
2. Rename the win.ini (if it exists) winini.bak, and copy the newest file availabe to win.ini. Often there will be files with numbers win.001, win.002, etc., that are backups of the ini files.  (dir win.* /p will list the files and dates)

Abort, Fail, or Retry

1. This can mean one of three things
2. There is no disk in drive a and you tried to access that drive, in which case insert a disk into the drive and type r to retry.
3. The disk that is in drive a (or b) is not formatted and therefore can not be read
4. The disk in that drive is corrupted (usually invalid information in the FAT {File Allocation Table}, this is the first place a computer looks to see what is on the disk)
5. You can type F or A (to fail, abort (or quit) trying to read drive a: (see error message below)
6. You can run DOS's scandisk (or a third party disk repair utility like NDD) to try to recover the corrupted data.
7. You can go back to the c: drive and format the disk (you will lose all of the information on the disk if you do this)

1. If you have gotten to this error then the drive that you were trying to access is no longer recognized by your computer.
2. Type c: and press enter (to return to your hard drive)
3. Try another disk in the drive to see if you can access it.
4. If several formatted disks can NOT be read by the floppy drive then you probably have read / write heads inside your computer that are mis-aligned, and the drive will have to be replaced.
5. If you get this error when accessing a CD-ROM drive then try the following:
6. Exit Windows
7. Turn off the computer.
8. Check that all cables and power chords are connected firmly
9. Restart your PC
10. If you still have a problem reading your CD-ROM, then try re-installing the software to your computer

or 

Invalid Drive Specified in Path

1. You could have mis-typed the drive letter you are trying to access
2. If you are not logged into a network and try to access a network drive you will get this message.
3. Try logging back into the network.
4. If you have network drive specified in your path and are not logged in you will get this message
5. If you have disconnected a drive (such as a portable CD-ROM) you will get this message.

"Floppy Drive Failure"

1. Your computers processor does not see the drives - Remove the casing and check the following
2. Is the controller card seated firmly into the socket port
3. Are the connecting ribbon cables connected firmly to the controller card and drive connectors
4. Are the power cables connected to the extensions.

1. Either your network cable is not connected properly - or - The file server is off-line (or internet connection is not currently ‘On-Line’)

" No Application is associated with this file type" when you double click a file in file manager to view or run it.

1. This means that the "extension" (last 3 letters of filename after the period) is not listed in the associations sections of system.ini.
2. You can start the application you know it was created in and then open the file, or...
3. From the Menu ribbon of File Manager choose..
4. File, Associate. (This will open a box listing the type of programs registered in the Windows registration database and allow you to pick one. OR -- 
5. If you click on browse you can search for an executable file with either a com, pif, exe, or bat extension and associate the file with it.

1. Edit the autoexec.bat file to include the line:
2. share.exe (lh share.exe with no QEMM)
3. Add the line to your autoexec.bat then rerun the optimize option within QEMM if you are using that memory manager

file that may be needed to run Windows in 386 enhanced mode.

You may need to run the setup program again"
 

1. If windows can not find a driver (because it is either corrupted, or has been deleted or moved) you can get this error
2. Often windows will still start ... if it does not you can ...
3. open the system.ini (in C:\windows), and remark out the line that refers to the driver by using a semi-colon at the beginning of the line.