It's ok to turn off your computer

[Rose Taylor]

I should've provided more information so here it goes...  I fdisk (wipe out existing partition) reboot, format hard drive, reinstall WIN95, minisoft, everybody's menu builder, ikiosk, and fortress all in that order.  When the problem occurs all the software is corrupt and unusable.  I know this because I have been able to in some instances run scandisk if I can get windows95 to start.  Other times I cant access win95 at all.  Communications software is using ns/vt network & tcp/ip.  We are on a WAN and connect to an HP server which is where our catalog is located.  Our NT server assigns the clients tcp/ip address using dhcp.  

I also think that somehow, the registry is becoming corrupt.  I'm not real sure which files are open during the time that minisoft is running.
CAB directory is not installed on any pc's.
There is likelihood that pc's are turned off or reset without shutting down, however, in using minisoft I have found that if the pc is hung, by disabling fortress, a pop up window for minisoft appears, the options are to retry the connection to host, exit, and 2 other options, I have staff exit to everybody's menu builder.  Then go back in and reconnect through minisoft.  But as you can tell this is a tedious process, and since fortress disables the start button there is no access to shutdown.  So in answer to your question, yes there is a possiblity of shutdown/reset without going through the win95 shutdown process, most likely by a customer.  The staff pc however did not have minisoft, fortress, or ikiosk.  It was upgraded to a Pentium100 just like the new machines...  It's happened 3 times to this machine, the infamous "Its ok to turn your computer off message".  So I am still in the process of collecting and analyzing until I can find the reason behind this.
With this information, any other ideas?

-----Original Message-----
From:	Michael Iorns [SMTP:m.iorns at waikato.ac.nz]
Sent:	Monday, July 07, 1997 8:59 PM
To:	Multiple recipients of list
Subject:	RE: It's ok to turn off your computer

Hi To Rosalind's question:

In the following I am just following a train of thought so please 
forgive me if I go over basic ground. It also may be way off. If 
you know DOS you know how to do this already.


If it is due to the Minisoft (and they all always say its not their 
software) what could it be affecting which makes that your start state? 

Perhaps it is damaging your registry/settings in this hang, or is 
hanging from encountering them damaged. 

A reinstall of win95 is very likely to preserve existing settings. I 
know network settings are largely preserved, as I've done it. If the 
minisoft communications software  ( is this network comms? tcp?) is 
causing an error perhaps it too is being retained. We see there's at 
least the possibility of this occuring, so can assume other things 
may do it too. We should be able to just remove the relevant settings 
file, but may not be spot on in identifying the cause. Lets use a hammer.

Try deleting the entire windows directory.
Can you boot from floppy? (I assume so) Use the Win95 bootup which we 
KNOW you have made at least one of :-)

Your CABS directory is probably retainable if it exists on your brand 
of pc. On my pc it is in c:\windows\options\cabs so I'd:
 
  mkdir c:\saved\options
  xcopy/s c:\windows\options c:\saved\options 
(maybe xcopy/s c:\windows\options\*.* c:\saved\options)
(I'm retaining the directory containing cabs because the 
 options directory contains setup.exe as well as the cabs)

Some of the files might be invisible or system writable only therefore 
not deletable so change that before deleting:

  attrib/s -h -r -a c:\windows\*.*

  deltree c:\windows


and then try running setup.exe from in options., or cabs, or the floppy 
if you have to. And copying options back into windows.

Doing this full deleting and reinstall of windows is one approach. 

Oh, by the way. Have all the machines been in service at all 
(you say out of the box) or rather, what is the likelihood of 
their having had any history of people switching them off without
going through shutdown? 

Cheers
Michael

 
At 07:09 7/07/97 -0700, you wrote:
>These pc's have been out of the box, using minisoft for communications =
>software, fortress and ikiosk.  Not used for internet, I have gone into =
>bios to prevent booting from floppies, put password on bios, set up =
>fortres so nothing can be run from floppies.  When this "Its ok to turn =
>your computer " occurs, no application is available. I have reinstalled =
>win95 from disks that are still enclosed in plastic because these were =
>all brand new machines.  It makes no difference.  Sometimes it will =
>occur to the same pc, other times I never have a problem with it again. =
>All pc's that this has occurred to with the exception of 1 have no =
>irreplaceable data.  The exception is a staff pc, it was upgraded to a =
>p100 and it's happened 3 times to that machine.  No downloading has =
>occurred, and again I have used only brand new disks to reinstall.  The =
>staff pc has win95, Office95, and an accquisitions system that runs from =
>the server.  This use to occur quite frequently early on when we =
>converted to a WAN, however now, its only occurring once every 3-4 =
>months.  One pattern I have noticed on the opac's is that this is most =
>likely to occur when minisoft is running,the pc's gets hung and the =
>machine is restarted.  Minisoft saids its not their software, IKIOSK =
>says same as well as fortress.Thanks...
>=20


               Michael Iorns|Private Bag 3105|iorns at waikato.ac.nz 
        Computing Consultant|    Hamilton    |Ph(64)7 838-4466x6737 
  Waikato University Library|  New Zealand   |Fx  " " 838-4017




               Michael Iorns|Private Bag 3105|iorns at waikato.ac.nz 
        Computing Consultant|    Hamilton    |Ph(64)7 838-4466x6737 
  Waikato University Library|  New Zealand   |Fx  " " 838-4017