A four year old crashed my system, it will load up to windows Safe Mode, but when 
safe mode is selected a blue DOS box comes up with this message:
While Initializing device IOS: an I/O subsystem driver failed to load, either a file 
in the .\iosubsys subdirectory is corrupt, or the system is low on memory.
Hopefully someone has been here and done this, I'm lost. Any help would be appreciated 
greatly. Virgil

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Boot to a DOS command prompt. At the C:\> prompt type: cd:\windows\options\cabs and hit enter. Then type: setup and hit enter. Windows should reinstall/repair itself.


On Friday, August 9, 2002 at 3:41 pm, V.G.Tedder wrote:

>A four year old crashed my system, it will load up to windows Safe Mode, but when 
>safe mode is selected a blue DOS box comes up with this message:
>While Initializing device IOS: an I/O subsystem driver failed to load, either a 
file 
>in the .\iosubsys subdirectory is corrupt, or the system is low on memory.
>Hopefully someone has been here and done this, I'm lost. Any help would be appreciated 
>greatly. Virgil
>
>

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To resolve this issue, rename the IOSubsys folder, and then reinstall Windows 98. To do this, follow these steps: Insert a Windows 98 Startup disk, and then restart the computer to a command prompt. At the command prompt, type c:, and then press ENTER. Type cd\Windows\system, and then press ENTER. Type ren iosubsys iosubold, and then press ENTER. Reinstall Microsoft Windows 98. For additional information about installing Windows 98, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 311108 Regards -- Virtual Tech

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i find this on microsoft, i hope that this works. .... This article was previously published under Q225497 SYMPTOMS Under some circumstances Windows 95 may fail to boot, and will display the following error message: Error: An I/O subsystem driver failed to load Either a file in the .\iosubsys subdirectory is corrupt or the system is low on memory. CAUSE This problem may occur when all memory below 1MB is allocated prior to initialization of Ios.vxd. Ios.vxd must allocate memory below 1MB for use as real-mode buffers. If Ios.vxd can't allocate this memory, it fails to load, which in turn causes Windows 95 to fail to boot. Memory below 1MB is typically reserved for components that specifically request it. However, it is possible that Windows 95 will allocate all memory between 1MB and 16MB during initialization, forcing system DMA buffers (which must lie below 16MB) below 1MB, and therefore preventing Ios.vxd from being able to allocate memory below 1MB. RESOLUTION This problem can be worked around by adjusting the maximum cache size allocated by Vcache.vxd. Vcache.vxd allocates an initial cache size that is no larger than 9MB. Setting the maximum cache size to less than 9MB also reduces the initial cache size, freeing up memory below 16MB and allowing Windows 95 to boot properly. The maximum cache size is set by adding a "maxfilecache" line to the vcache section of System.ini. The following example shows what an entry in System.ini would look like to set the maximum cache size to 6MB: [vcache] maxfilecache=6144 STATUS This is a known problem in Windows 95. It has been fixed for Windows 98. it works for me =)

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