Windows 95 VM "Windows protection error"

[ericdaly]

Just "ghosted" a DELL Optiplex windows 95 pc into a VM (ESX 3.0.1). When we power on the VM it gives Windows 95 spalsh screen and seems to boot but stops with "Windows Protection Error".

Safe mode did boot ok once after this but VM now no longer boots.

Is there a proper documeted way to "convert" a Windows 95 VM into ESX 3.0.1?

Is it possible to have IDE controller in ESX 3.0.1 rather than LSI/Buslogic??

Any help greatly appreciated.

[agesen]

Windows 95 has a race in it, so it will crash in this manner

on fast CPUs. The same would happen natively. This O/S

simply doesn't run on most modern CPUs.

Howver, we work around the race in the VMM by artificially

slowing down certain instructions. Most of the time the

work-around is effective, but I can't guarantee you that it

will always work.

Please double-check that you have the guest OS type set

correctly in the config file. Unless it is set to windows95,

the work-around won't be activated and you are sure to see

this guest crash.

Thanks,

Ole

P.S. What are you using windows 95 for?

[ericdaly]

Windows 95 is not listed on the Opeating System drop down list of VI Client?? Is there something I need to do from cli?

95 pc is acting as an interface for an app that is no longer supported and being replaced over next 12 months (hopefully!)

[agesen]

The only way, unfortunately, is to edit the .vmx/.cfg file directly.

Not elegant, but it should hopefully get the job done. The reason

the guest OS doesn't show up in the VC client is that they prefer

to only list supported guests. Win95 isn't supported on ESX. But

it should still work.

Ole

[ittiandro]

Yes, but where is  the .vmx/.cfg file? . What should I do specifically to edit it?

I also hear that disabling Hardware virtualization could help. How do I disable it?

Thanks

Ittiandro

[admin]

You are using Workstation, right?  Under Workstation, it should suffice to set the guest OS type to Windows 95.  The default for Windows 95 is to use binary translation rather than hardware assisted virtualization.

[ittiandro]

Super! For some reasons I had put Windows 7  as guest OS. As soon as I  put  in Win 95, I was able to boot into the regular Win 95, no longer the Safe Mode.   This final stroke puts an end to more than a week of harrowing trial and error.  Now I need to improve the graphic display and the resolution.  How do I do it? In Control panel/Display there are only very basic settings.

Thanks

[admin]

From the 'VM' menu, select 'Install VMware Tools.'  This will install the SVGA driver.

[ittiandro]

I have gone  through the VM Tools installation until it tells me  to go into C.P. Display  and click the "Change Display " button. From here, I should see   a number of prompts leading  to the finalization of  the SVGA driver installation. Unfortunately, I can't see such a " Change Display" button and I am stuck.

I don't know if this has something to do with changing the guest system OS  for  Windows 95 instead of Windows 7,  as you had suggested earlier and which, indeed has solved my Windows protection error. In fact, right after correcting the OS guest system as Windows 95,  I was prompted to click O.K on a number of files  in rapid succession, ( to install them ?) . Some of them could not be found and I was given the option to SKIP, which I did.  May be some of the skipped files had something to do with the SVGA driver. If this is the case how do I backtrack, to fix the problem?

Thank you

[admin]

The "change display type" button is on the display properties dialog, which you can pull up by right-clicking on a blank area of the desktop and selecting "properties."  You'll find the "change display type" button under the "settings" tab.

[ittiandro]

I did as you said: right click on  VMWare Win95 Desktop, properties, settings. There is no "Change Display " button under the Settings tab. However if I click on Advanced Display Properties, I do see a CHANGE  button. By clicking this button, I access a Select Device window with two scroll down lists, one for the manufacturer, the other for the model. I don't know the manufacturer, but I do  see a Super VGA item. Below, I see a Have Disk button, but I don't know to which disk it refers to. If I proceed without clicking on HAve Disk, it asks me to insert Windows 95. Disk5(?). If I click O.K., I get a succession of " Copying files" prompts, for, among others a .dll, file saying that the file cannot be found. If I click SKIP, then I get a prompt to insert the next Windows 95 Disk, i.e. Disk 6. Is it the Windows 95 installation disk that I have to install? Why this split into Disk 5, 6 etc?

Thanks

[admin]

It sounds like your initial installation didn't go so well.  I would just start over.

[ittiandro]

I hope you mean the VM Tools installation not the OS installation, don't you?  But I'd still like to know what are  the Windows95.disks 5 and 6 they require me to insert. Is it simply the Windows 95 installation disk or something else? I may not be an expert on computers,( even though I have been working with computers for more than 20 years!) but sure VMWare is darn complicated!

I thought that with the insight I gained from  the 1st installation, I could now install it easily on another computer,  but I was wrong.

The other computer is an  older Dell with an AMD 64 processor, also on Windows 7, but I am back at square 1! I cannot get the Win 95  setup running  after the initial fdisk and format c:. It always baffles me which drive letter to choose: some are D;, some are R: . I do also get a " Non-system or disk error " message which I have never got before, And yet, I am following the same "hard-won" procedure as in the other  computer! I think if I keep running into problems like this , I'll take a look at another program like VM Box or others!

I do appreciate your help. May be If I can't get it right on the 2nd computer on my own, I will post to this Forum again, with more specific description of the problems I am encountering.

Thanks

Ittiandro, Montreal, Canada

[admin]

ittiandro wrote:

I did as you said: right click on  VMWare Win95 Desktop, properties, settings. There is no "Change Display " button under the Settings tab. However if I click on Advanced Display Properties, I do see a CHANGE  button. By clicking this button, I access a Select Device window with two scroll down lists, one for the manufacturer, the other for the model. I don't know the manufacturer, but I do  see a Super VGA item. Below, I see a Have Disk button, but I don't know to which disk it refers to.

Try clicking have disk and browsing to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\video.

[DarkestPrayer69]

With what? what do you edit the file to?