Stupid things on Windows ME
| SYMPTOMS | POSSIBLE CAUSE | POSSIBLE SOLUTION |
| After (erroneously) typing "B:" in the DOS prompt, the system asks to place a disk in drive B, and to press a key to continue. However, there is no B drive so this is an impossible suggestion. After pressing a key, the system hangs. Even pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL does not help: either a blue screen appears that the task does not respond, and that you should type CTRL-ALT-DEL again to reboot (does not work) or a key to continue (nothing happens), or the window turns black and after some seconds a dead task manager appears in a furthermore black screen. Pressing C-A-D immediately at the request for a disk also locks the system, but in that case pressing C-A-D again will reboot the system. | Apparently Windows thinks that there is some B: device and straightly starts to access non-existing hardware. | In case of error, press C-A-D immediately when the silly request appears. Reboot via C-A-D seems to close the system nicer than using the power switch. |
| The True-flite helicopter simulator crashes after a few minutes, when the power adapter is not connected. | The system turns off the screen when the keyboard and mouse are not used for about 5 minutes. Maybe this triggers some interrupt, or maybe they turn off the graphics chips entirely. This must be a BIOS problem, but Compaq's BIOS has no settings ...... | Either touch the mouse immediately when the screen dims or earlier, or use the power adapter. |
| The system ignores all energy settings, such as 'never turn off monitor', 'enable sleep mode support' (seems always on), etc. Installing "Compaq power management 32" does not help. | No idea whether this is a Windows or a Compaq-bios problem. | Don't use sleep mode. Coming out of sleep mode takes as long as a reboot anyway. |
| Microsoft Embedded Visual C++ 3.0 keeps scratching on the harddisc, and locks up all other processes. This happens after every small edit action such as typing a few characters or scrolling. Changing 3 lines of code can take 10 minutes. | It seems the editor is entertaining itself with checking for changes in function calls (so that it can show you the parameters to put in when you type a function name) | Turn off statement completement options in the Tools/Options menu. |
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Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 program crashes at return of a function. Also it compiles functions without at least a warning while this should be so. For example try: int bla() { goto exit; exit:; } | Seems just a bug to me. | No ideas yet. The compiler will give a warning if you don't end the program with just a label. |
| binary data written to file is slightly off the expected size | Windows has a special 'binary file' option when opening files. If you don't use it, it will 'smartly' convert linefeeds into carriage returns etc. | Use fopen("..","wb+") when you open the handle. |
| Scolling slowly shows garbage and repeating patterns, instead of the expected text. | Part of the window is occluded by something, such as the task bar or winamp. This part is not properly refreshed by the application. | Often applications are refreshing the full screen if the scrolling jumps with larger steps, when resizing the screen, when bringing the screen to front, etc. So for instance try clicking on PgDn to scroll down instead. |
| This fantastic message comes from Windows XP: "config.nt. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application." | No idea? It's quite common for people behind a windows XP machine to try to run MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications so this message is beyond me. | No solution |