Annoying Error Messages at Startup

[billmanhart]

A friend has come into possession of an old notebook PC, an NEC brand "Versa V" circa 1993. It has Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on it. The 3 problems are these: First. When it boots, before Windows, it says a backpack CD-ROM was not found, and I have to press the ESC key to move on. Second. When I type "win" (w/o the quotes) after the C:\> prompt and press Enter and Windows starts to load, it complains a backpack sound device was not found and I have to press OK to move on. Third. It complains that no domain server was found and I have to press Enter to move on. Can somebody please tell me how to get rid of these messages if possible? And what exactly is a backpack device? I started with desktop PCs on Win98 SE in 1999 and know zilch about notebooks or Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. However, I do have a set of installation floppy disks for Win 3.1. Please help me out here.

[Vernon Frazee]

Information on one of Micro Solutions' Backpack CD-ROM can be found on this page.

If you'll post the contents of the C:\CONFIG.SYS and C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT files from the laptop, we'll see if we can help you locate the line(s) that are trying to load the driver(s) so it|they can be REM'd out.

Once we've gotten rid of that first error, we'll start working on the second and third. (The CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files may contain some clues).

[billmanhart]

Thx Vernon,


**********Here is the config.sys************

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=D000-DFFF X=E800-EFFF
BUFFERS=16,0
FILES=30
DOS=UMB
LASTDRIVE=E
FCBS=4,0
[COMMON]
DOS=HIGH
STACKS=9,256
REM DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS

rem ============ PCMCIA3 Device Drivers ==============================
rem == If PCMCIA Cards are not used in your system, these drivers
rem == can be remarked to save system memory area.
rem ==================================================================
DEVICE=C:\CARDSOFT\SSCIRRUS.EXE
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,52464 =C:\CARDSOFT\CS.EXE
DEVICE=C:\CARDSOFT\CSALLOC.EXE C:\CARDSOFT\CSALLOC.INI

rem == The next line is only needed for PCMCIA Hard drives
rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDSOFT\ATADRV.EXE

rem == The next line is only needed for SRAM cards
rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDSOFT\SRAMDRV.EXE

DEVICE=C:\CARDSOFT\CARDID.EXE
INSTALL=C:\CARDSOFT\CS_APM.EXE

SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /P

[MENU]
rem =====================================================================
rem The following is a menu which will allow you to choose separate
rem configurations for Mobile or Docked.
rem =====================================================================
MENUITEM=MOBILE, Mobile Configuration
MENUITEM=DOCKED, Docked Configuration
rem =====================================================================
rem Change the following default value to reflect the most appropriate
rem setting. The default timer is set to 0, modify this parameter to the
rem appropriate value for your usage. i.e. 5 = 5 second delay
rem =====================================================================
MENUDEFAULT=MOBILE,0
MENUCOLOR=1,3

[DOCKED]
rem =====================================================================
rem Add any drivers, etc. to this section which are unique to the Docked
rem Configuration.
rem =====================================================================

[MOBILE]
rem =====================================================================
rem Add any drivers, etc. to this section which are unique to the Mobile
rem Configuration.
rem =====================================================================
DEVICEHIGH /L:0;1,8112 /S =C:\DOS\POWER.EXE

[COMMON]
rem =====================================================================
rem Add any drivers, etc. to this section which are common to both
rem configurations.
rem =====================================================================

[Common]
DEVICE=C:\BPCDROM\BPCDDRV.SYS /D:BPCDDRV$

********Here is the autoexec.bat***********

if exist bpcddrv$ C:\bpcdrom\mscdex /D:bpcddrv$
C:\WINDOWS\net start
@ECHO OFF
rem Scandisk c: /custom
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\RBFILES;C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\NECUTILS
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP

SET MOUSE=C:\MOUSE
LH C:\MOUSE\NECMOUSE

rem ===========================MENU======================================
rem The following statement will obtain values from the CONFIG.SYS file
rem for Mobile or Docked configurations.
rem =====================================================================
goto %CONFIG%

OCKED
rem =====================================================================
rem Add any drivers, etc to this section which are unique to the Docked
rem Configuration.
rem =====================================================================
\necutils\BACKLITE FULL
echo .
goto END

:MOBILE
rem =====================================================================
rem Add any drivers, etc to this section which are unique to the Mobile
rem Configuration.
rem =====================================================================

:END

[billmanhart]

I see my response came out with a big green grin in the autoexec.bat file. Haha. That was supposed to be a colon and a cap letter D, of course.

[Vernon Frazee]

I'd rename the existing C:\CONFIG.SYS and C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT files and then replace them with those listed below.

The DOS command to rename the existing C:\CONFIG.SYS to C:\CONFIG.ORG (original) is:

   ren c:\config.sys config.org

The DOS command to rename the existing C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT to C:\AUTOEXEC.ORG is:

   ren c:\autoexec.bat autoexec.org

Here are the replacement files:

C:\CONFIG.SYS:

   device=c:\dos\himem.sys
   device=c:\dos\emm386.exe noems x=d000-dfff x=e800-efff
   dos=high,umb
   buffers=16,0
   stacks=9,256
   files=30
   fcbs=4,0
   lastdrive=e
   rem device=c:\dos\setver.exe
   device=c:\windows\ifshlp.sys
   devicehigh /l:0;1,8112 /s =c:\dos\power.exe
   shell=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos /p

C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT

   @echo off
   set mouse=c:\mouse
   lh c:\mouse\necmouse
   c:\necutils\backlite full
   if not exist c:\temp\nul md c:\temp
   set temp=c:\temp
   set path=c:\dos;c:\windows;c:\necutils
   prompt $p$g
   win

(Note: Delete that last "win" line if you don't want the system to automatically load Windows when it boots up).

Let us know what happens ...

[This message has been edited by Vernon Frazee (edited 04-06-2002).]

[billmanhart]

Thanks Vernon, but I'm unsure about the characters in the next to last line in the new config.sys file. After "devicehigh /" and before the colon, is that a lower case L, an upper case I, or a number one? And after the the colon, is that a zero or a letter O?

[AlaricD]

 devicehigh /l:0;1,8112 /s =c:\dos\power.exe

The part in question is (read it aloud) "forward-slash ELL colon zero semi-colon 1 comma eight one one two space forward slash ess"

If you copy/paste the suspected line into Wordpad and change the font to "Courier" or "Terminal", it makes it much easier to tell a 0 from an O, or an I from an l or 1. Alternately, posters choose to use the CODE tags, but it sometimes makes it much harder to read...
------------------
Am386DX-40 + Cx387DX-40
32MB, 128KB cache
(2) 540MB HD's
8x CD
2MB Video
SB16 PnP
DR-DOS 7.04
Win3.11 w/ Win32s
--
Just because it's unusual doesn't make it a virus!
Ping is NOT an acronym!



[This message has been edited by AlaricD (edited 04-06-2002).]

[billmanhart]

I pasted your file versions into files on a floppy and did the substitution. The change did stop the error on the backpack cd-rom and did start loading windows (thx for showing me to put that at the end of autoexec.bat, I didn't know how to do that). Unfortunately, the errors for a backpack sound device and network log-on still came up, and there were no longer any programs inside the Program Manager window. They were gone. I put back the original files and then removed the last "device=" line from the config.sys file. That took care of the cd-rom error message. I added the win command at the end of the autoexec.bat file like you showed me, causing windows to load automatically, which was wanted. Then I went to the folder named BACKPACK in the Program Manager window, and used the uninstall utility I found there. Next time I rebooted, there was no error message about a missing Backpack sound device. However, I was still getting that log-on error message about no server being found. When I finally thought to look in the system.ini file in the Windows, I found a line that said AutoLogOn=Yes. Taking a guess, I changed that last part to a No, saved the file and rebooted. All A-OK. From "power on" to arrival at the Windows desktop and Program Manager, all smooth now. Thanks again.