What we Know so Far

1. Everyone with the problem so far is using Promise disk controllers. According to Promise tech-support, the source of the problem is the Promise Ultra 100 or Ultra66 disk controller. The Promise tech-support folks say it can also happen with the FastTrack66 and FastTrack100 RAID controllers. [The problem was traced to the Tag Command Queuing code in the Promise Ultra driver.]
2. Everyone with the problem so far is using Windows98.
3. The bug often appears after installing a new piece of software or hardware. Probably by changing the timing of events at startup.
4. The hang can be greatly reduced in frequency by eliminating some Startup Items. This supports the idea that the bug is due to a timing problem or race condition during startup, or a resource conflict.
5. For some people, reformatting and repartitioning your drive with FDISK and reinstalling the OS works, but for some others it does not work. it probably just changes the startup timing.
6. The bug can be eliminated by using a different IDE controller.
7. The text of the message can be found at offset 0xC428 in the file "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32\IFSMGR.VXD".

Various Other Solutions

There are four possible solutions so far. The first two simply change the timing of events at startup and mask the bug but do not really fix anything. The third involves removing the offending device which is probably the best choice. The fourth involves reformatting your drives which a major pain and doesn't seem to work.

So far, noone has offered an explanation of why these first two steps work. But I think they simply change the timing of events at startup. This somehow prevents two or more critical events from happening at the same time and the problem is somehow avoided.

Defragment Your C: Drive

1. Right click on the Desktop screen and select properties. Turn off all ScreenSavers and PowerSavers because they interrupt DeFragmentation process and cause it to never finish.
2. Select "Disk Defragmenter" from your Start menu, "Programs\Accessories\System Tools".
3. Defragment C: drive and any others you want to clean up.
4. Go read a good book while you wait an hour or more to defrag.
5. Reenable ScreenSavers or PowerSavers

Disable Some Startup Items

Special thanks to Ron Boyer, and Loren Sanders, and others who suggested these tricks. Note that I do not believe these "fix" the problem. But they can reduce the frequency of occurence to a level you can live with.

1. Select "Run..." from Windows Start Menu.
2. Enter "msconfig" and hit OK button.
3. Select "StartUp" tab.
4. Now you can choose which of three StartUps to disable. Scroll through the list of entries.

If you have two entries for "LoadPowerProfile" uncheck the second one. (Recommended) Note: that Jim reports that LoadPowerProfile may need to run twice. Microsoft says: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q187/6/11.asp
Or, if you don't have two entries for "LoadPowerProfile", then uncheck "Disc Detector" from Creative.
Or, if you don't have "Disc Detector", then uncheck "Still Image Monitor" (stimon.exe). (This may interfere with your HP scanner operation and could cause blue screens of death..) Also Jim says "I found that I had to disable both the "HPSCANMonitor" and the "StillImageMonitor" files to fix it.
5. Restart your computer. Did you get a blue screen? Hopefully not.
6. Because STIMON.EXE is required for proper scanner operation, Jim Swadling found that he can schedule it to start at a different time so that his scanner works AND he doesn't crash at startup.

If You Can't Boot, Restore Registry

"...after a number of  unsuccessful tries at booting, only way I can boot successfully is to go into DOS and do a registry rollback - this works 99.9% of the time, till next time...  when you have to do it again.  It does get you going again though when you need it."

1. To reboot in DOS mode, hold down CTRL key while rebooting. (Check to see how your computer boots into Safe mode, you may need to hold down an F key on some systems.)When offered a choice of DOS (or "Command Prompt"), SafeMode, or Normal, select DOS (or "Command Prompt").
2. In DOS, enter with no spaces:      scanreg/restore
3. Pick a STARTED date off the list previous to today's date when the computer was ok, and let it restore the registry.  Then reboot.

Reinstall and Repartition

Spot the Pattern

Links

• Gateway Horror Story
• Mention on Bianca
• Mention on Windows98Annoyances (discusses stimon)
• http://www2.whidbey.com/djdenham/Uncheck.htm - Good Info on Startup Items
• How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows
• http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum2/HTML/026688.html
• http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum2/HTML/030302.html
• http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum2/HTML/031110.html
• http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum2/HTML/032165.html
• http://www.computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/48426.html (same message but related to adding a second drive)
• http://www.nocrash.com/bb/messages/717.shtml
• http://www.computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/48426.html
• http://forums.winmecentral.com/printthread.php?threadid=35 (bug suddenly appeared after adding an ATA/100 controller!)
• Promise Technologies
• http://networknews.vnunet.com/ReadersToTheRescue/13610
• Sounds familiar!? http://www.sptimes.com/News/022601/news_pf/Technology/Disk_controller_confl.shtml

Particularly useful or important letters in the archive. Please suggest others which have been helpful to you.

• Paolo Conte's ASUS links.
• Bob's Suggests switching from Promise ATA100 to reliable ATA66 controller.
• Bob's How-To switch from Promise ATA100 to reliable ATA66 on Dell XPS.