From: Computerpilot on 06/19/2002
It has been awhile since I ran Win95 but I believe it offers a step by step confirmation on the same menu as the 'safe mode'? Perhaps this might indicate what is causing the failure. There are a million possibilities, so here I go...If you did a clean install, it is my guess that Win95 detected hardware that it thinks it has a driver for in cab but it is not current and does not work for your computer. Also, I bet that the older version driver that it did install was not a removable device (sound card, video card, network, etc.). It could be motherboard resources or other system drivers that are necessary. Otherwise it would have worked in safe mode. Of course, you could make sure this is true by doing the 'standard troubleshooting'; remove all hardware and reinstall. Add one device at a time until you get the error message.
Usually, you should get what program/system file is causing the problem in the error message. For example, 'Rundll32.dll or kernel32.dll has caused an invalid page fault...'. This would also help identify what is causing the problem.
Are you running a multiple boot system? Perhaps you did not delete the partition on the old system (fdisk) and it is possible that you are installing over a previous install of another operating system than win95. This would give a similar error message. Microsoft KBA Q217210 article covers this issue.
Remember, it is always wise to start fresh, delete that partition and format your hard drive. This will alleviate the possibility that a nasty virus is still hanging out on the hard drive (well, at least 95% of viruses anyway). It also insures that you are starting without any existing directories.
Also keep in mind that you do need a separate partition/hard drive for each OS you have installed. Do you have a FAT16 or FAT32 partition? If you were running a newer version of windows previously and did not fdisk (delete and create new partition), then you may be looking at an incompatible partition for windows 95. It will only run on FAT16 (ok, I might be wrong, but I have never been able to run Windows 95 on a FAT16).
Well, this should keep you pondering for awhile. I hope I was of some help. If you are a little more specific about your situation in another post, I might offer a few more suggestions.
computerpilot@hotmail.com
