THE LIST
A low-tech but ingeniously distributed E-letter by Mr. E
Vol. I, No. 12 — July 24, 2001
(Some outdated content removed 7 March 2004)
To read previous issues of The E-List, click here.
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Please see Legal Notice.

This newsletter tracks new information, and improvements in existing information, on The Windows Support Center, my website supporting Windows desktop systems and leading application software. I also include small, useful items that might not find a permanent place on the site, but that I would like to pass along, and anything else I feel like writing!

Click here to subscribe. If you subscribe, you will receive email notification when there is a new edition of the newsletter. (You will not receive the newsletter itself by email. That’s why I call it low-tech.) My intention is to provide a new and further way to serve the 50,000 people per month who visit my site. Previous newsletters are available online, and their content searchable through this site’s search engine. Enjoy! — Jim Eshelman


CONTENTS of this Issue

  1. NEWS & VIEWS
  2. WINDOWS SUPPORT SITES
  3. WINDOWS SUPPORT ARTICLES

    MS KNOWLEDGE BASE Articles:
  4. Commands, Utilities & Files
  5. Error Messages
  6. Fonts
  7. Hardware, Drivers & RAM
  8. Outlook Express
  9. Windows 2000

NEWS & VIEWS

FINALLY, THE SITE HAS A NAME!

This site began two years ago when my friend Ron Badour suggested that I pop up a web page to house my résumé, and maybe put a couple of other things on it. I grabbed some Xoom.com free hosting, installed Symantec’s Visual Page program that came free with one version of Norton Utilities, and started my own version of a personal web site. Besides my résumé, it was pretty evenly divided between computer tips and more personal things.

Since it was simply my version of the classic “This Is My Web Page,” the obvious name for it was my name. The site has never had any name except “James A. Eshelman.”

Over time, though, the site has evolved. Computer support became its central theme. (And I don’t use composing software anymore.) As online support needs changed, the site took its lead from these needs, and tried to rise up to meet them.

This week, while reorganizing all of the site’s diverse Windows shutdown information into a new “portal” format (see below), I sat back and looked at my masthead and thought, “Y’know, it’s about time you had a real name.” Thus was born, The Windows Support Center. It has the same type of information, and most of the same attitude — but it also now has its own name, which articulates its purpose.

The name change probably makes more of a difference in my own head than in anything you’ll actually see on these pages. For the first time in the site’s history, I’ve stopped thinking of it as “my little web page.” It has grown, on its own, to be an information center. Given the third-of-a-million visitations by about 50,000 people per month, perhaps it is not arrogant of me to consider it as such?

Therefore, let me welcome you anew to The Windows Support Center. (Hey, do you think we should have a party for the new Grand Opening? Who’s gonna bring the hats? If you look around, you’ll see I’ve already been redecorating and cleaning up a bit for the festivities.)


WHITHER THOU GOEST, PENTIUM 4...

I promised you a follow-up on the evolving Pentium 4 controversy. You can read my original article here, and MS-MVP Gary Woodruff’s cogent response here to get the background.

That topic has opened up the biggest flood of mail The E-List has ever gotten. Readers appear to be very interested in the current and forthcoming generations of chips. The most interesting extension of the discussion began when my EE friend Tony De Luce wrote to me in response to Gary’s piece. Tony knows computer chips, their market, and their trends as well as, or better than, any other person I know; so I’m going to back out of the way and let you eavesdrop on some of the virtual dialogue between Tony and Gary.

Back on July 8, partly in response to my reference to the “new architecture” of the P4 due out this fall, Tony De Luce wrote:

Intel will be doing a die-shrink this fall on the P4. When they do, they will be changing the package. Therefore, current P4 users will not be able to upgrade by simply buying the die-shrunk P4’s and replacing the processor. Intel is not changing the architecture — just simply moving to a smaller process geometry (which will increase the chip frequency and reduce the cost).

Simply upgrading the processor does not typically improve overall system performance (unless one is running CAD or computationally intensive software) since the front bus speed (which will still remain at 400 MHz ) governs overall through-put. I also believe the article neglect’s the advantage of the P4’s faster front bus for many applications.

In a second letter, he added a clarification on some terminology used in the prior article, saying that it confused DDR with Rambus:

P4 motherboards are only designed with Rambus. AMD motherboards use DDR, which is an entirely different technology which uses the rising and falling edge of the clock to double performance, i.e., a 167 MHz DDR RAM will actually transfer 334 Mbs on each pin. QDR uses two pins and the same technology to achieve four times the data rate. But this is still below the 800 MHz performance available from Rambus.

Apparently this was a response to Gary Woodruff’s use of the phrase “DDR RAMBUS,” a more casual, umbrella term that some are beginning to use to describe the next generation of RAM. This propelled Gary to write about the advances that are soon to be available:

Anyone who thinks RDRAM is standing still is mistaken. Here is a link to a PDF publication with some information on 64-bit RDRAM features: www.rambus.com./developer/downloads/RIMM3264_06.12.pdf.

And here is a tidbit of what it will do: “The Rambus 64-bit RIMM module is the next step in the evolution of the RDRAM memory roadmap. [It] achieves a greater than 4x increase in module bandwidth. This is accomplished primarily by increasing the data width to 64 bits — a departure from the 16-bit width of today’s commodity RIMM modules. The 64-bit RIMM module fulfills many of the future high-bandwidth memory system needs:

Thanks, Gary and Tony!

Finally, for now: Intel certainly isn’t standing still. They still have lots of surprises for us. Intel is ready to push the Pentium 4 into the market at full speed. This means that we are going to see some major price reductions in Intel processors in the near future. And, with all of this talk of RDRAM, I also just heard that Intel is preparing to let the P4 mate with SDRAM as well. We haven’t seen the end of the shuffle.

I still think, unless the prices get simply way too good to resist, that most people should wait until Christmas or after to move to the P4. I can, however, see Gary Woodruff’s point that this may not be so necessary for the general consumer. To complicate things further, Intel just released the 900 Mhz Celeron for desktops, and an 850 Mhz Celeron for notebooks. One thing is for sure: We are about to see some remarkable hardware at some incredible prices.

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WINDOWS SUPPORT SITES

SITE OF THE WEEK:
TOMSTERDAM by Tom Koch

Are you singing the “Outlook Express Blues”? If so, you definitely need a vacation in Tomsterdam!Tom Koch’s Tomsterdam site is absolutely the best source of information about Outlook Express on the entire World Wide Web. I leave no room for exception in that statement. If you have an Outlook Express problem or curiosity, here is the place to go.

In recommending this site to your devoted attention, my biggest problem is in telling you what you’ll find there. The scope is so vast that I’m afraid mentioning an interesting thing or two (or ten) will give you too narrow a view. Go check it out for yourself. Plan to take some casual reading time. (For a quick overview, glance through Tom’s site map.) I’ve never made it all the way through the site myself, but use it in an instant when I need to look up an OE answer I don’t have somewhere else. Some of Tom’s most useful content is his detailed instruction on backing up and restoring OE mail and news folders. But that significant contribution is just the beginning. His OE FAQ is loaded with the Whats, Wheres, Hows, and Whys (or is that Whies?) of Outlook Express. For example: What is “Catch Up”? Where are my message files, accounts, address book, and settings stored? How to I import, export, move, save, customize, view, block, and fix? Why does OE act this way or that, and What can I do about it?

Besides that, the site is gorgeous, and the explanations and instructions are written with painstaking clarity.

So, when Outlook Express has your brain spinning like windmills in a gale, don’t just stick your finger in the dike — head straight for Tomsterdam.

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WINDOWS SUPPORT ARTICLES

NEW “PORTAL” APPROACH: THE WINDOWS SHUTDOWN & RESTART CENTER

About half of all visits to this site are to one of the several Windows shutdown troubleshooting pages. What began as a single shutdown troubleshooting page has grown, over the last two years, to include specialty pages for Windows 98 SE and Windows ME, and now a special page for the Beta version of Windows XP. There is another page on MS Knowledge Base articles addressing shutdown problems, and still another on how to create desktop shortcuts for Windows shutdown or restart with a single click. I have seen people answer shutdown questions on newsgroups by giving URLS to five different pages on my site — and I’ve done the same myself.

Last week, I redesigned all of those pages. They are now part of a coordinated set, joined (except for the XP pages, for reasons evident when you visit it) by a common navigation bar. Collectively, they form The Windows Shutdown & Restart Center. You can use a single URL, www.aumha.org/a/shutdown.htm, and have one-click access to all related pages. (I’ve also added a couple of extra items to sweeten the pot a bit.)

Please let me know what you think about it. The purpose of this redesign is to make things easier, and to give visitors the widest access to the site’s shutdown troubleshooting resources in the most convenient way.

There is one other very significant addition to the main Windows Shutdown Troubleshooter. My friend and fellow MS-MVP, Ron Martell, pointed out a glaring omission on that page: I’d never added information on what, this year, has become the largest group of shutdown problems, i.e., fatal exception error messages (and other error conditions) occurring at shutdown. (I had addressed this in a previous issue of The E-List, but not anywhere else on the site.) So, at Ron’s prompting, I’ve added that section. I encourage you to read this if you are having this sort of difficulty.


NEW SBLive DRIVERS FOR WINDOWS XP

One of the most popular of all sound cards is Creative Labs’ SoundBlaster Live. Unfortunately, in the past it has been one of the last to have adequate drivers for a new version of the Windows operating system. However, for Windows XP, it looks like this may not be a problem.

The immediate relevance of this is on the issue of Windows XP shutdown. As mentioned in an earlier issue, and on the Windows XP Shutdown & Restart Troubleshooting page, the SBLive has been one of the biggest shutdown culprits to date. But, as Chuck Bramsen wrote me this week, Microsoft has just posted new Win XP drivers for the SBLive on the Windows Update site. These drivers not only solved the shutdown problem Chuck was experiencing on XP, they also let the SBLive strut it’s stuff — something the available work-arounds would not do.

I recommend you go to Windows Update and download the new driver if you have an SBLive card and are running any version of Windows XP.

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KB ARTICLES: Specific Commands

How to Use FDISK & FORMAT to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk Win95, Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME, Win 2000
This is a lengthy, helpful FAQ about, well, how to use FDisk and FORMAT to partition your hard drive. It discusses how to use the FDisk and FORMAT utilities, important things to think about before you try this (which is a good and necessary thing, since these programs could each single-handedly wipe out the entire contents of your computer if used incorrectly), and how to partition hard drives for different purposes and circumstances. Overall, a great information piece to have handy when you need it.

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KB ARTICLES: Error Messages

MSVCIRT.DLL file is linked to missing export MSVCRT.DLL Win98, WinME
There are two slightly different versions of the above error message. These may occur during Windows startup or when you try to launch a program if either MSVCIRT.DLL or MSVCRT.DLL is damaged, missing, or the wrong version. Replace them with fresh copies from your Windows CD.

IEXPLORE or MSIMN caused an Invalid Page Fault in module MLANG.DLL IE/OE 5.5
You have a damaged TrueType font, or the MLANG.DLL (the Multi-Language Support DLL) isn’t registered properly. Detailed instructions are given for fixing it.

DSSAgent caused an Invalid Page Fault in module unknown Win ME
This error message may appear during startup, shutdown, or Internet access if... you have DSSAgent installed and running on your computer. It’s as simple as that. (You do not get the error message if DSSAgent is not installed on your computer.) Solution: Disable it, then contact Mattel Interactive/Broderbund for information on how to remove it.

CTSURMIX caused an Invalid Page Fault in KERNEL32.DLL or MFC42.DLL Win98 SE, Win ME
CTSURMIX.EXE is the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Surround Sound Mixer. The KB article implies, but doesn’t actually say, that CTSURMIX is, itself, the cause. The apparent solution, though, is to remove duplicate copies of MFC42.DLL scattered around your computer.

Invalid VxD Dynamic Link Call from VSDATA95(01)...
Fatal Exception 0E 06 at 0028: xxxxxxxx
Win95, Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
If you get either of these error messages while browsing, soon after uninstalling ZoneAlarm, it means ZoneAlarm wasn’t fully uninstalled. A link is provided to the Zone Labs page here, explaining how to fully uninstall it correctly.

Invalid VxD Dynamic Link Call from VNBT(01) 0000F4aa... called from VTDI, service E Win95, Win98, Win ME
If you are on a TCP/IP-based network, and the VTDI.386 file is in a folder other than WINDOWS\SYSTEM, you’ll see this error message.

Invalid VxD Dynamic Link Call from TRIVXD... Win95 OSR2.x, Win98
Reinstalling Windows may not help in this case, even though the error message will tell you otherwise. This is a problem on a Compaq 4700 series computer when you press the Sleep button. Sleep doesn’t work on these computers for these operating systems. The solution is to disable power management in the BIOS.

Error 0E: 0028:C000EC99 Win ME or 0028:C0006EB2 in VXD VMM(01) Win 98
If a VIA Busmaster controller and video adapter, based on the nVidia chip set, is installed on your computer, you can get one of these error messages when trying to play many popular Microsoft games, including Age of Empires II and Motocross Madness 2. Solution: install the latest VIA 4-in-1 driver. See the article for details.

Various Error Messages Caused By MTX or Matrix Virus Win95, Win98, Win98 SE
This is not Matrix, the Movie. This is not Matrix, the ever-popular screensaver. This is Matrix, the Virus, also called W95.MTX, W95.Oisdbo, W95.MTX.dr, or W32/Apology-B. The solution is to get rid of the virus. NOTE: There is a real Matrix Virus (or family of viruses). There is also a Matrix Virus Hoax. Symantec has identified the hoax here. The following are error messages that can result from the Matrix virus being active:

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KB ARTICLES: Fonts

How to Change the Size of the Font in Windows Help Win95, Win98, Win98 SE
Are the fonts too small for you in Windows Help? Well, there’s a way to change that — not a very satisfactory way, in my humble opinion, because it affects so much else that you may want to do, but at least there’s a way. You need to go into Internet Options (in Control Panel, or in IE itself) and tell it to ignore the font sizes that a web page specifies. This will, of course, cause it to ignore specified font sizes on every web page you view, not just those in Windows Help!

I suppose this is one reason they changed the entire approach to Windows Help in Windows Millennium Edition and later. Personally, I like the older (Win95/98) style a lot better — but articles like this one point out some of the problems some users were having with the old HTML approach. (Now, does anyone know how to change the too-small font sizes in Windows Millennium?)


Help & Support Font Size Too Small Win ME
Ah, ask and ye shall receive! This article covers the same ground, but for the newer “Help & Support” feature of Windows Millennium.

Again, the answer involves font size settings in Internet Explorer. However, you don’t have to disable all the automatic font sizing. Instead, the problem in this case is that the IE text sizing has been changed from Small to Smallest. The article walks you through how to change it back.

Or, of course, you can go into Internet Options and tell it to ignore the font sizes that a web page specifies, as with earlier versions of Windows.

I recommend the first approach.


Marlett TrueType Font: Description & Troubleshooting Win95
You use the Marlett font more often than any other in your Fonts folder. What, you say? You’ve never used it at all? Well, you don’t have to use it in your word processor to bring it into play. Marlett is the font that, for example, displays the maximize, minimize, and close buttons in the upper right corner of almost every Windows window. It isn’t visible in Windows Explorer (meaning also that it isn’t visible in the Control Panel | Fonts window). This is to keep people from doing such things as deleting it because they have no idea what it might be for.

But people do manage to delete it anyway — not knowing what it’s for. That’s one of several reasons that this KB article is important. It gives basic information on one of the more obscure, but constantly used, parts of Windows. Read it to supplement your general Windows knowledge.


Missing TrueType Fonts in Fonts Folder or Programs Win95, Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME, NT4
If the Registry key listing TrueType fonts is damaged or missing, all sorts of font problems might occur. Some fonts may not appear in the Fonts folder. When trying to install a font, you may get an error message that it is already installed, and that you have to remove the old version first. Your applications, such as your word processor, may not list any fonts (which has a really bad effect on previously created documents that suddenly can’t find the fonts they’re supposed to be using). And so forth. This article carefully walks you through the repair steps.

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KB ARTICLES: Hardware, Drivers & RAM

Ongoing remodeling has been proceeding at the Hardware, Drives & RAM KB Articles page. As mentioned last issue, I’ve consolidated the Memory KB Articles page with the hardware page. Now, I’ve also folded in the page on MS-DOS Compatibility Mode articles. These are, after all, hardware issues, so it makes more sense to have them all in one place — especially now that the information on the hardware page is a lot easier to access.

Or, at least, I think so. If you disagree, feel free to let me know. Design changes I’ve recently implemented are mostly at the encouragement of visitor feedback on what is easier to read and easier to use. For example, everyone who has expressed an opinion has insisted that much smaller type in left-side navigation bars does not contribute to their visual frustration the way I thought it might, and is, in fact, much preferable to forcing the navbar to be wider (especially on small screens). So I redesigned things a bit. I doubt I can please everyone all the time, but the door is open for your feedback.

Here are a couple of hardware-related MSKB links that were added to the page this week:

Win98 Display Error Messages and Win98 Printing Error Messages
Each of these links takes you to a catalogue of MSKB articles on their respective titles. We’ve been seeing more of these “omnibus” support pages from Microsoft in recent months, and I love’em!

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KB ARTICLES: Outlook Express

In addition to the new-to-the-site MSKB articles listed below, don’t miss this issue’s Site of the Week, Tom Koch’s Tomsterdam. If you’re interested in reading about Outlook Express KB articles, you most certainly will be interested in what Tom features as well!

Error When You Import an Address Book to Outlook Express IE 5.x
When you try to import a Windows Address Book (WAB) to Outlook Express, you may receive the error message, “An error occurred during the import process. The import process could not be completed.” Probably, the files you are trying to import are read-only files (which may mean that they are on a write-protected medium, such as a protected diskette or a CD-ROM). Fix this situation, and you fix the problem.

E-Mail Messages Are Missing from Your Inbox OE 5.x
This one is simple, but still may catch some users here and there. Outlook Express has an option on the View | Current View menu to Hide Read Messages. When this is on, read messages are (as you might expect) hidden. This makes it look like they’re missing. Change the View and they come back.

“Message could not be retrieved.” Error Message When You Attempt to Open E-Mail Message OE 4 for Win95
I don’t know how relevant this Outlook Express version 4 article is anymore, but it did just get updated by Microsoft, so it’s probably worth including. It describes a situation where your ISP has sent one or more messages several times (and others may not have been sent at all). When you try to click one of the sent messages, you get an error message something like this example:

Message #message number could not be retrieved.Account:’MSN Mail’,Server: ’pop3,email.msn.com’,Protocol:POP 3,Server Response:’March 19-21-Baton Rouge #193-First Book of the Play’, Port:110,Secure(SSL); No,Server Error: 0x800CCC90, Error Number: 0x800420CD

Just what you wanted to read first thing in the morning, right? <bg>

Ultimately, the solution is to call your ISP and ask them nicely to fix it. However, the KB article above gives a temporary work-around involving setting a message rule that will handle the problem for the time being.

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KB ARTICLES: Windows 2000

Microsoft Support Policy on Hardware Not on Windows NT Hardware Compatibility List NT 4, Win 2000
I actually put this one on the KB Hardware page, but I’m mentioning it here, in the Windows 2000 section, because it has possible relevance for Windows XP users. I say “possible relevance,” because, as far as I know, the hardware support policies for Windows XP haven’t been released yet.

Microsoft’s Hardware Compatibility List is a critical component to the reputation for stability that Windows NT has enjoyed for many years. Separate from Microsoft’s formal policy on the matter, the street-smart rule of thumb on hardware and the NT family of operating systems is: If you only use hardware from the HCL, it will work. If you don’t, you’re taking a big chance. Now, a lot of hardware not on the HCL works perfectly well — you just can’t count on it. When you have to make hardware purchasing decisions for your company, it rarely makes sense to pick hardware that might work when you have the choice of picking hardware that will work. That’s common sense.

It’s also pretty close to Microsoft’s official policy:

A hardware device is unsupported if it is not listed on the HCL. In order for a computer to be considered an HCL-compliant system, the computer must be listed on the HCL. If a computer is not listed on the HCL, but is comprised of hardware from the HCL (for example: motherboard from a reference system, SCSI controller, video adapter, and network card) it is not considered an HCL computer. Any computer that contains a device that is not on the HCL is not considered compliant. If a particular computer is on the HCL, it can contain any combination of devices listed on the HCL and still qualify for support even though the system as a whole was not tested.

Pretty strict, eh? But that’s part of its elegance — in fact, of its real power. In contrast to Microsoft’s approach, Apple has always exercised total control over the hardware of its computers. (Apple sells computers. Microsoft sells operating systems.) So a Mac won’t run into many kinds of problems that a Windows computer will encounter. A primary reason for this is that Windows generally doesn’t require that you use only the hardware Microsoft picks for it, and more problems will occur when a seemingly unlimited range of hardware components and combinations are used. Normally, this isn’t a huge deal, and consumers are more than willing to trade a little instability for this hardware freedom. But in a mission critical professional environment, things are entirely different! You can’t afford the “acceptable instability” that a home user might take in stride. The solution — Windows’ closest pass to the Mac’s total control of hardware — is HCL compliance.

As Microsoft’s flagship consumer operating system moves onto the NT kernel with the release of Windows XP in October, this raises questions about what Microsoft’s policies may be concerning Windows XP on non-HCL hardware, since home users simply don’t buy hardware based on an approved hardware list (well, most of the time). It seems likely, Microsoft’s policies in this regard, for home users, will continue in the direction of their Windows 9.x policy — that is, support is not dependent on the hardware you use. While we are waiting to have this confirmed, the above article is an interesting read, particularly in its discussion of how to troubleshoot non-HCL equipment.


Windows 2000 Hangs at “Setup Is Starting Windows 2000” Message
If Win 2K’s text mode Setup hangs with the above message, consult this article. It recommends several areas to troubleshoot, including peripheral, BIOS, and power management considerations.


How to Manually Remove Windows 2000 & Restore Windows 95/98
Hey, I previously gave you instructions on how to install it — so I thought I should include these instructions on how to make it go away, as well. This article includes all the steps necessary to remove Windows 2000 and reinstall Windows 95 or 98.


The following articles were excavated by Randy Nieland, and included in a recent issue of his LockerGnome Tech Specialist e-letter. They discuss how to address various IRQ problems in Windows 2000.

General Description of IRQ Sharing in Windows 2000
An information article. It doesn’t solve any problems per se, but does explain how IRQ sharing on Win 2K works.

Cannot Disable IRQ Steering on ACPI-Enabled Computer
You discover that you don’t have the option to disable IRQ steering in Device Manager on a Windows 2000 computer with Advanced Configuration & Power Interface (ACPI) support installed. The reason for this (think back to the Hardware Compatibility List mentioned above) is that fully compliant ACPI computers with ACPI support installed in Windows 2000 don’t require this option because of the nature of the ACPI specification. Contact your motherboard manufacturer or OEM for a BIOS upgrade.

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Happy computing, everyone!

Jim Eshelman


THE NECESSARY LEGAL STUFF
DISCLAIMER: Any information given in this newsletter, or on any other part of The Windows Support Center website, is researched by me and believed to be accurate. However, I cannot guarantee, and do not guarantee, that all the information provided will work on all computer systems, for all users, all the time. Also, I sometimes make mistakes (that’s life!), and it is possible I made one or more of them here. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. In other words, I rely on the best information sources I can, and do my best to get it to you accurately; and, thereafter, you take your life in your own hands if you trust me on it. Neither James Eshelman, this site, outside contributors to this site, people quoted on this site, nor my cat is/are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from application of any information presented here.

The E-List. Copyright © 2001 by James A. Eshelman. All Rights Reserved.

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