Reinstall hangs at setting up hardware

[mcalevy]

I am reinstalling ME on a machine that continued to
freeze after a couple of minutes even with a clean
install.

I am replacing the operating system, but it stops at the
screen setting up the hardware and any plug and play
devices you may have.

It took more than 15 minutes for it to set up the
hardware information database.

It has been on this phase of the install more than an
hour when it says it will finish in 15 minutes

[Mike M]

Check your windows\inf folder (a hidden system folder and you will have to
enable the viewing of such files and folders in Explorer (Tools | Folder
Options | View and check "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck "Hide
protected operating system files") and look for large numbers of oem*.inf
files that are all 0 bytes in size. If you've got thousands of such files
this is the cause of your problem as you're probably at the limit of the
number of entries that can be entered in a FAT folder and therefore cannot add
any inf file associated with the update. Delete these 0 byte oem*.inf files.

Why has this happened? If you have Norton's System Doctor installed did you
perhaps forget to disable System Doctor before updating your system from the
Windows Update site? If you don't delete these files some software and most
hardware and driver installs will take a very long time to complete if they
complete at all.

For more details see the Symantec site:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nunt.nsf/docid/2000120915010309&src=n and
also MS KB 281967 - "Computer Stops Responding (Hangs) During Setup,
Installing Updates, or Adding New Hardware"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=281967). I would strongly recommend that
you contact Microsoft and mention 281967 and also 301540 and ask for a copy of
the new ifsmgr.vxd v4.90.3003. You will then either be sent the file or told
how and where to download a copy. There should be no charge for this call
other than for the cost of the phone call. Alternatively do yourself and your
PC a favour and dump System Doctor and any other crippleware you have
installed from the Symantec stable, none of which works well with Win Me.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



mcalevy > wrote:

> I am reinstalling ME on a machine that continued to
> freeze after a couple of minutes even with a clean
> install.
>
> I am replacing the operating system, but it stops at the
> screen setting up the hardware and any plug and play
> devices you may have.
>
> It took more than 15 minutes for it to set up the
> hardware information database.
>
> It has been on this phase of the install more than an
> hour when it says it will finish in 15 minutes

Yes, it definitely was the inf folder, I deleted 32k
files.

I just reinstalled MS word 2000 into works, it still
crashes. I got ERROR : 0E : 0197 : BFF8E64B

The inablility to open Word documents was the thing that
started this.

I also have an upgrade to IE 6.0 hanging out there that
will not complete. It says run IE6SETUP.exe to complete
it later, but it is lying, it doesn't work. Can this be
cleaned out? I can't download any other window updates
until this gets out of the way

b
>-----Original Message-----
>Check your windows\inf folder (a hidden system folder
and you will have to
>enable the viewing of such files and folders in Explorer
(Tools | Folder
>Options | View and check "Show hidden files and folders"
and uncheck "Hide
>protected operating system files") and look for large
numbers of oem*.inf
>files that are all 0 bytes in size. If you've got
thousands of such files
>this is the cause of your problem as you're probably at
the limit of the
>number of entries that can be entered in a FAT folder
and therefore cannot add
>any inf file associated with the update. Delete these 0
byte oem*.inf files.
>
>Why has this happened? If you have Norton's System
Doctor installed did you
>perhaps forget to disable System Doctor before updating
your system from the
>Windows Update site? If you don't delete these files
some software and most
>hardware and driver installs will take a very long time
to complete if they
>complete at all.
>
>For more details see the Symantec site:
>http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nunt.nsf/docid/20001
20915010309&src=n and
>also MS KB 281967 - "Computer Stops Responding (Hangs)
During Setup,
>Installing Updates, or Adding New Hardware"
>(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=281967). I would
strongly recommend that
>you contact Microsoft and mention 281967 and also 301540
and ask for a copy of
>the new ifsmgr.vxd v4.90.3003. You will then either be
sent the file or told
>how and where to download a copy. There should be no
charge for this call
>other than for the cost of the phone call.
Alternatively do yourself and your
>PC a favour and dump System Doctor and any other
crippleware you have
>installed from the Symantec stable, none of which works
well with Win Me.
>--
>Mike Maltby MS-MVP

>
>
>mcalevy > wrote:
>
>> I am reinstalling ME on a machine that continued to
>> freeze after a couple of minutes even with a clean
>> install.
>>
>> I am replacing the operating system, but it stops at
the
>> screen setting up the hardware and any plug and play
>> devices you may have.
>>
>> It took more than 15 minutes for it to set up the
>> hardware information database.
>>
>> It has been on this phase of the install more than an
>> hour when it says it will finish in 15 minutes
>
>
>.
>

[Noel Paton]

Reinstalling ME over itself (with IE6 previously installed) has caused
'Version Soup' in IE - look here for the cure
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/ReInIE.htm

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's
or
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2001/Mar01/Mar27pmvp.asp

> wrote in message
...
<snip>
> I also have an upgrade to IE 6.0 hanging out there that
> will not complete. It says run IE6SETUP.exe to complete
> it later, but it is lying, it doesn't work. Can this be
> cleaned out? I can't download any other window updates
> until this gets out of the way