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re: Question about 'Resolving Hardware Conflicts' How To Fix the NTKERN.VXD Device Loader Bug
Friday, May 28, 2004 at 1:37 am
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by redabyss
(1 messages posted)
Nice one, but doesnt work always.
I have a 4-way USB card in my Pentium II, since that's the only way I can connect
a mouse and a host of other accessories these days. I opened up the machine to look
for something, sending dust in the power supply which immediately blew it and the
video card. After refitting for $200 I was loading drivers for the new card using
Windows 98, which asked the innocuous question "You have an earlier version of Windows
98, would you like to install now". After doing so the USB card didnt work, along
with several other drivers. Same NTKERN.VXD complaint as here. Now if you like tedious
tasks, you should try replacing 5 drivers and reloading NTKERN.VXD with sfc without
a mouse.
Unfortunately - USB and sound still doesnt work (and the Windows 98 CD still keeps
telling me I should upgrade). Grrrr.
On Monday, January 12, 2004 at 3:19 pm, rups wrote:
>
>http://www.donath.org/Rants/MSTechHorror/
>
>A Microsoft Tech Support Near-Horror Story
>or, How To Fix the NTKERN.VXD Device Loader Bug
>
>After fiddling about with installing and removing device drivers on a friend's computer
>(well, my computer didn't have a USB port and hers did, and my nifty new digital
>camera needed one), I was annoyed to find that the sound card had ceased working.
>While attempting to fix this by installing new drivers, uninstalling drivers, repeating,
>deleting devices, reinstalling, etc., I found this rather obnoxious message under
>the Device Status page:
>
>"The NTKERN.VXD device loader(s) for this device could not load the device driver.
>(Code 2.)
>To fix this, click Update Driver to update the device driver."
>Of course, clicking "Update Driver" was full of sound and fury and signified nothing.
>Nothing worked. An Internet search for a solution turned up many other people facing
>this problem, but nobody had a solution. Even Microsoft's Product Support Knowledge
>Base didn't turn up a solution.
>Eventually I bit the bullet and called Microsoft's Paid Personal support line. A
>half hour later of questions and hold, the reasonably polite service tech told me
>that something was wrong in the registry, and that the only solution was to format
>the hard drive and re-install everything. Say what? Sorry, but that's the only known
>solution to the known problem. I paid X dollars to be told to throw everything away
>and start over? Sorry, but that's the only known solution. Being an absurdly polite
>type, I sighed and hung up.
>
>No way was I going to totally trash a dear friend's computer in an attempt to fix
>what had to be a trivial (when known) problem. One does not kill a patient to cure
>his cold.
>
>Two days later, I again searched the Internet for a solution, using a different
search
>pattern. 148 page matches.
>
>One match provided the wand: sfc
>
>And one worked magic.
>
>Turns out that NTKERN.VXD is not normally installed in Windows 98. Wasn't on this
>machine, and wasn't on a couple others I checked (thanks for looking, Dad!). Somehow,
>during my fiddling, apparently this critical-to-some-device-drivers file was installed,
>some pointers to it set, and then it was removed (probably during my subsequent
uninstalls)...but
>the pointers remained, crippling both the sound card driver and the USB root hub
>driver. It's supposed to be in c:\windows\system and c:\windows\system\vmm32, but
>often isn't - invoking much confused dismay in the user.
>
>Solution? Run sfc to extract NTKERN.VXD from the Windows 98 Second Edition disc
into
>c:\windows\system and c:\windows\system\vmm32, and reboot. That's it.
>
>Discovering the solution, I sent this note to Microsoft via Microsoft Corporate
Services
>Feedback:
>
>I recently contacted Microsoft's paid support line (1-800-936-5700) to solve a problem
>with device drivers (case number SRX001021600898) which many other people have faced.
>After a half hour of Q&A, the support tech informed me that the problem was known,
>but as a solution was not, the only fix was to format the hard drive and re-install
>everything from scratch - imagine my horror!
>I write you folks now to point out, in a very annoyed tone, that with a little more
>personal research I discovered that the solution was in fact very simple and in
retrospect
>almost blindingly obvious: extract the file NTKERN.VXD, using the command "sfc",
>from the Win98 SED disc and copy it to c:\windows\system and c:\windows\system\vmm32.
>(Thanks to http://www.nj-web-hosting.com/win98troubles.html for the bulk of the
solution.)
>
>As the solution given by Microsoft's paid support line was to destroy and rebuild
>a couple gigabytes of programs and data, and the actual solution is little more
than
>a file copy, I hereby request a complete cancellation/refund of my bill pertaining
>to Technical Support Case # SRX001021600898. Keep in mind that not only was the
paid-for
>advice horribly wrong, the simple solution to the well-known problem is provided
>in the previous paragraph.
>
>We'll see if they refund my credit card in return for prescribing killing the patient
>when a bowl of chicken soup would do.
>
>
>
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 |  | |  | re: Question about 'Resolving Hardware Conflicts' How To Fix the NTKERN.VXD Device Loader Bug (redabyss: Fri, May 28, 2004, 1:37 am) |
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