Odd Start Up Problem

Hey I was here a few months ago with a problem with my computer. Thanks to you guys it was fixed and I really appreaciate that. Here I am back with another problem, hopefully you guys can fix it.

If run into an error when I start up the computer it goes through its normal routine and gets to mostly running windows 98 but then it will start going to a blue screen stating system registry checker and says backing up system files. It will stall there for a minute then it will tell me that Error while initializing VKD. Windows protection error. Windows was unable to start. Then it forces me to reboot.

I've tried getting ot save mode, but it wont let me do that, it gives me the same exact problem. I've also tried step by step confirmation. No matter what I choose I still retain the same errror. The only thing I can do is get to command prompt. From there I tried reinstalling windows. I've also tried scan disk, and scan disk fix. All end up making my computer crash. I've also tried windows 98 emergency disk, which ends up crashing as well. When I try to reinstall Windows 98 it tells me it cant because it had an Error writting to drive C and then crashes. Then only option left to me seems to be to reformat, but I cant do that because I have to many irreplacable files.

If there is anything you can tell about this problem and how to fix it I'll be greatly appreciative.

Thanks for your time.

Mike

 

How many mega RAM has the PC ? Who is the manufacturer ?
What is the ID of the operating system ?
How many programs are started at Windows start ?
regards

 

Pentium MMX
Windows 98 SE
256 RAM
60 GIG
233 mhz

Manufacturer=Western Digital

3 programs Windows start=AVGS Virus checker, Multimedia keyboard enhancer,Quicktime Taskmanager

 

Pardon interuption Merlin

but VKD is your keyboard virtual driver. Any problems with the keyboard that you noticed? You got a differeent keyboard you could try?

I hope this isn't a typo and you meant VXD, as in vmm32.vxd.

=======
Back again...I just found this andthought I'd pass it along:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263318

Which say's this:
SYMPTOMS
When you start your computer, you may receive the following error message:

While initializing device vkd -- Windows Protection Error -- You need to restart your computer.
After you receive this error message, you may receive the following options after your computer completes the Power On Self Test (POST):
Press F1 (or equivalent key) for Setup

Press F2 (or equivalent key) to load defaults and continue

CAUSE
This behavior can occur if the keyboard that you have attached to your computer is not working correctly. When your keyboard does not work correctly, the keyboard cannot be initialized.
RESOLUTION
With the computer turned off, disconnect and then reconnect the keyboard.

If that does not work try using another keyboard to determine if your keyboard is malfunctioning. If it is, replace the keyboard.
MORE INFORMATION
VKD is the acronym for Virtual Keyboard Device Driver.

A multi-function keyboard is a keyboard that includes additional features such as a sound volume control, a mute option, and special shortcut keys so that you can sign on to your Internet service provider (ISP) and perform functions such as "search. "

 

That's exactly what the problem is. I recently installed a multimedia keyboard thing for my computer just a month or so ago, that came with the keyboard for controlling sound, desktop, etc.

Though, I'm not sure why it'd start acting up all of the sudden. But, I'll try disconnecting it when I get home.


If you have any further suggestions in case it doesn't work, I'm all ears. Thanks though, I really appreciate your help.


Sincerely,

Mike

 

Thanks IkariWarriorKH,

Your most welcome. Remember to come back to the board and share the final outcome.

==========
Sorry Merlin

I have seen an addressed this issue a few times in the past. I recognized it (VKD error) immediately. I just thought I'd cut right to the chase or what I hope is the root cause.

Here's hoping....

 

Goddez1

I maybe stating the obvious here ....but what you just did is the very reason people flock to places like this BBS ...countless others derive the benefit of net citizens sharing their knowledge and experience ....it's a win win situation....I would have been glad for something like this when I was learning my way around my first Atari 8 bit computer years ago .....LOL

Cheers
Jake

 

Ann, Nothing to be sorry for !!
I would have followed up the keyboard lead and probably taken a while to
find out what you already knew. Had a coffee instead. I do not think any
board member should be offended if another steps in with a better
response.
Wait 'til I catch you out next time ...
regards

 

Thanks for all your help, but it doesnt seem to be entirely working, unplugging the keyboard and reconnecting it doesnt seem to help. And I dont have another keyboard to try. The keyboard works fine in DOS. I've tried deleting the VKD drivers through DOS but usually returns the error 'Cannot Write to C'.

I'm also having another problem with my second harddrive. I'ts a Western Digital WD400, 40 Gig and it requires easy BIOS to boot. Know when I turn on the computer with only this harddrive and not the VKD error written one, It refuses to recognize the harddrive. Easy BIOS says I need to wait until after verifying DMI pool data. And it should say hold down Ctrl to initialize Easy BIOS though this never comes up. I simply get Disk boot error, insert system disk, compress enter. Easy BIOS thing does come up with the other harddrive though. Any Ideas or suggestions on this would be helpfull as well. If I can get this harddrive working I may be able to fix the other one through it by using the other one as a slave drive instead of master.

Thanks for your time and as always appreciate the help.

Sincerely

Mike

 

Pointing to hardware faults somewhere - and I still supect the keyboard.
An ERU boot still expects a keyboard connection.
I would invest the 5 dollars and try a new keyboard just to see what
happens when you reboot with it connected. If still the same - check the
other end of the keyboard connection.
regards

 

Back again, and I've tried everything mentioned to remedy the problem, yet it still remains. I also tried hooking my harddrive up as a slave drive to my friends computer this mornng. He's running Windows XP, while mine is Win98SE. In any event, We were able to access the drive through his comp, but it stated there was an error reading it, and all the folders when highlighted stated they were empty even though they were not.

It also made the computer run very slow, and nothing on the computer could really be accessed other than seeing the folders themselves through my computer.

I'm unsure exactly what the problem is right now. It could be that xp couldn't read it due to it being win98se files and all, but I doubt that. But, right now, it's my only other guess.

We also tried hooking up my other formatted drive, a Western Digitial 400 40gb. But, that resulted in the computer lagging really badly and not being able to access my computer without it freezing.

So I'm really out of ideas on what to do to fix this matter right now. I really can't afford to format the one drive as it has 4 years of work on it I can't afford to lose. I've tried copying the files from the drive to the WD400 drive through dos, but it results in write errors and refuses to let me.

If anyone has any other ideas, I'm open to anything at this point. Thanks again for your time, I really do appreciate it, and love this board for the friendly, fast response I always get.

Sincerely,

Mike


Edit: I noticed on my earlier post on my hardware specs, that I wrote 60gb. That's incorrect, the drive with the VKD error is a 6gb drive. Not that that helps anyone really to know that. But, I figured I'd mention it anyway just in case. Once again, thanks for your time and to anyone who can help.

 

Hello once again,
I demoted myself to spectator once I got the distinct impression that this problem was going to go lot deeper than a multimedia keyboard. Harddrive read write problems, missing data, Easy Bios...... Oh My!!

Hardware is still my weakest area, darn it! I'm learning... but I still fall into the "Mad Scientist" category. I am willing to gamble on my own systems and "takes my chances ". I'm not willing to do this on another's. Especially when (what is considered) irreplaceable data is on at least one of the drives.

May I suggest you take this up in the Hardware Forum. Possibly do an "Archive search" designating the Hardware forum as the forum to search and using the keyword filter of western. I did this myself and came up with pages of past links with lots of sage advice along with helpful sublinks to diagnostic tools and various ways to work around just about anything.

I hope your problem is temporary and can be fixed. Good luck and I'll peek in at your progress from time to time with interest.

=========
To triger and merlin
I gave it shot! Looks like the (root cause) target has changed.

 

Thanks, appreciate the help. I looked at the hardware forum earlier, but didn't notice anything directly relating to my problem though I did see a few things of similiar reference. I'll check again now if I can. If anyone else has any ideas in the meantime, again, I'm open to anything.

Thanks yet again.

Regards,

Mike

 

Suggestion??

Mike..
you may have hit the nail on the head ....'Easy Bios'

What that does is rewrite navram (bios ram) everytime you boot to facilitate access to larger IDE drives ...something got clobbered ....if you know your way around the inside of that computer....their is usually a jumper to erase navram .....or check with tech support ....if the easy bios installation is clobbered they may be able to tell you how to repair it without losing everything....

Cheers
Jake

 

Ikari,
On the old PC, have you looked in the BIOS and tried to disable the multimedia of the keyboard? Since you have an older PC, there may not be anything there relating to these functions. If there isn't, then they can't be the source of the probelm. If these is something along those lines, try disabling it.

However, since you say you have probelms accessing the drives from another PC, they are most likely the source of the probelm. Have you run a surface scan on the HDDs? And a virus scan? If your friend's PC has any antivirus software on it, try to scan your HDD while connected to that PC.

More ideas - have you tried scanreg /restore on the first drive? As for the 40GB HDD, try setting the jumpers to limit access to 32GB. If you notice an imporvement, then your friends PC needs a BIOS upgrade. However, since it is running XP, I am not expecting any change. But it is a possibility.

Then there is laplink. This is a program that will conenct two PCs via their serial ports. You can get the program at here . Instructions on making a cable are avaiable here for connecting via printer ports, and here for making one via the serial port. If you don't understand the diagram, a good IT Support place should be able to understand them and make what you need, for less than $10 I would think as well.

If all else fails, and you can't reformat the drive, try the following command from the C prompt: deltree c:\windows . This will delete windows. Note that it will also delete all your drivers, etc - everything related to windows. All your data will be secure, but you will have to re-install the associated programs as well. Note that the process also takes a VERY long time (4/5 hours) so the best thing to do would be enter the command just before going to work, or just before going to bed, or at some other time when you will have something to do for the next 6 hours or so.

Thta's about all I can think of for now, but if I do think of anything else, I'll be sure to post back.

 

I found some advice that made sense to me.

Prior to doing this and from within the easy bios overlay app:
make a note of the exact sector/heads and cylinder settings Easy Bios uses or reports is correct for the hard drive.

It was suggested that when slaving this to another operating system such as you did when you tried to use the XP, first enter the Bios and rather than allowing the bios to "Auto" detect the harddrive, use the "User" option and manually enter the settings noted in "Easy Bios" drive nfo readout. If this is done correctly and acceptable the drive size will be reflected correctly.

Theory being that if Bios is allowed to Autodetect hard drive, it may still be using incorrect values. This can result in access, read write, invisible/inaccessible data errors.

==Oh..wise and helpful fellow members, please answer these at your leisure===
Can't remember...
Does Xp even allow or support drives with "Overlay "? Is it possible that the "Easy Bios" overlay could be the monkey wrench in XP's read/writes of the slaved WD. If this user was to uninstall the "Easy Bios" would he risk or lose existing data on the hard drive (if he hasn't already)?

What was the big fat no-no you should never do if a drive has an overlay such as "Easy Bios "? Was it "fix /mbr" or "fixboot" or am I way off base and confusing this with something else such as compressed drive?

=========
Just out of curiousity, how old is your bios and do you actually need "Easy Bios "? You can disable this for the harddrive from with "Easy Bios ". (At least this is what I have done in the past using Maxtor/Maxblast. When moving harddrive from older biosed machine to a newer bios supported one. I assume the two can't be that different. The overlay display delay drove me crazy.)

 

Don't know how wise I am but I'll throw in my two cents worth here. I used Easy Bios on a puter a few years back and to be honest I wouldn't think it would matter what the OS is. Easy Bios is a program that's loaded long before the OS starts and I really doubt the OS (regardless of what it is) even knows it exists. You install Easy Bios (or any other drive overlay) because the bios on your motherboard won't support a hard drive you've installed. In short, it sort of takes place of the bios to enable the OS to use the entire drive rather than just that part which the bios supports. My take on it is, the OS doesn't support the drive overlay, rather, the drive overlay supports the OS (so to speak). I've been watching this thread and have been hesitant to jump in because I'm not really sure what's happening here. Now that I'm in though, I'm wondering if the boot sector (or at least the Easy Bios portion) may have been trashed and if so, if this couldn't be the problem. I really don't know but I have to wonder.

IkariWarriorKH
It may not help but if it were me, I'd try booting from the Easy Bios boot disk and see if you can reinstall Easy Bios from there. Don't know if this will work or not because I remember having to wait for "verifying DMI pool" and then having to press ctrl>a or some such thing to boot from a boot disk. I do know though that you can boot from a floppy before this, you just don't get the support of the drive overlay when you do this. It may not make any difference when booting from the Easy Bios boot disk though. After all, when you first installed the drive and you booted from the EB boot disk, it made no difference. If nothing else, when you boot from the disk you may get some sort of error message that might give another clue. The only reason I'm wondering about this is you said you don't get the prompt to boot from a floppy after verifying DMI pool. This is what makes me to wonder if maybe somethings messed up in the boot sector and Easy Bios.

 

Hi again IkariwarriorKH,

How ya' coming along on this? It's been a few days since your last update. I'd sure like to know if you found a way to get your data and if so how? This is one of those posts that always leaves the curious peeking in just to see if you found the fix that worked for you.

 

Well, right now DOS does not seem to be working. Nothing seems to be working, but I am still trying everything that all of you have told me to try. I'll keep trying and get back to you shortly. I'm having my friend Download DOS so I can reinstall it. I'll have news for you soon. Again thanks for all the ideas.

Sincerely,

Mike