Hello to PC Forum; ?(I wasn't certain of attachment protocol, so letter is long!)

I have inherited a computer** from a neighbor [condition unknown]. ?I recieve the following message whenever I attempt to run it without having a boot disk or startup disk in the floppy drive:

"While initializing device IOS:
ERROR: ?I/O subsystem driver failed to load. ?Either the file is corrupt in the
.\iosubsystem subdirectory, or system is low on memory."

This happens every time, despite the fact that I reset the BIOS to default settings, and ?have tried setting the computer back to its previous REGISTRY (with succesful startup claimed on the Log) from last August. ?

**The unit is a: ?DELL Dimension XPS B800r, with basic specs (acc. to Dell site):
Processor Type: ?Imtel (R) - Pentium III;
Processor Speed: 800 MHz;
System Bus frequency: 133 Mhz;
Cache RAM 256K;
Total memory 256 MB;
Memory bank: 256 MB

What is I/O and IO subsystem? ?Can I do any kind of replacement of these files or directory in order to rid myself of this problem? ?I am assuming that it is something critical, such as a faulty motherboard, and requires replacement. ?I also tried near the beginning of my attempts to normalize things by running scandisk. ?This elicited the message that the following files may be corrupted: ?user.exe and setup.dll; but subsequent scans have detected no errors on the Hard Drive files or surface.

Also during the scandisk (non-surface) in MS-DOS mode, the unit once stated that:

"There is not enough free conventional memory to perform a surface scan. ?It may be necessary to remark [REM] some device drivers from config.SYS file, or:
in your config.SYS, may need to load EMM386.EXE driver to load other device drivers into upper memory Blocks using DEVICEHIGH = statements."

I do get the message that the "Diagnostic Tools were loaded succesfully onto the D Drive", which I understand is probably the temporary 2 MB hard drive that the startup disk creates, but help only comes up in SAFE MODE, not in MS-DOS. ?Also, the CD-ROM drivers apparently do load properly each time. ?I have tried to install WINDOWS 98 SE on four occasions. ?At the very end of these thirty minute installations, I recieve the following message:

"WINDOWS found an error in your system files and restored a recent backup of the files to fix the problem. ?Press ENTER to restart."

I suppose this means that the new WINDOWS installation did not 'take', because it seems I am left with what I started with before the re-installation attempts. ?I have tried varying the BIOS setup a few times, with no success; even tried making my CD-Rom drive the startup drive with the WINDOWS 98 SE installation disk in the drive upon powering on, and still the same message at the end of the lengthy installation. ?

Also, the computer did not automatically run the WINDOWS 98 SE setup disk, as I had hoped it would. ?I even tried changing the other large disk drive (DVD) to the first drive that the computer would access within the BIOS settings, and putting the disk in either drive before restarting (in case I was misreading and/or mismatching up the drive names with the drive itself). ?Still, the computer did not start WINDOWS off of this disk automatically, as I understand it should.

Upon shifting to SAFE MODE after the last installation attempt [of the older O/S, WINDOWS 98], the following message appeared on the screen:

"SYSTEM ?FILE ?ERROR
The following system files have been replaces with older versions by a program you recently ran. ?These files are currently in use and cannot be automatically repaired.

Windows may not run correctly until you exit and restart WINDOWS so that these files can be automatically repaired.

C: WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DDEML.DLL
C: WINDOWS\SYSTEM\gchand.dll
C: WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHELL.DLL"

Upon booting up this morning, I recieve the identical message, except for the files listed:

"SYSTEM ?FILE ?ERROR
The following system files have been replaces with older versions by a program you recently ran. ?These files are currently in use and cannot be automatically repaired.

Windows may not run correctly until you exit and restart WINDOWS so that these files can be automatically repaired.

C: WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DDEML.DLL"

Is it possible to use the CD-Rom drives to copy off the larger directories and programs onto CD-R disks beforehand, if it proves necessary to reformat the hard drive? ?Or do these CD-ROM and DVD drives really only read while in MS-DOS mode?

I am prepared to reformat the hard drive, if necessary, but would like to copy some of the programs off before I do this. ?Is it necessary to uninstall WINDOWS 98SE before loading the other version? ? (I do not have the previous startup & WINDOWS installation disks.) ? Is it standard for my computer to reserve 340 MB's of storage for the WINDOWS uninstall information? ?I see this listed when I run Disk Cleanup for Drive C.

Thank you for any light that you can shed onto this interesting debacle.

Jeff
Dadafix@aol.com

Hi Jeff...and wow :shock: - prolly the longest post yet!

Sorry my answer is gonna be really, really short.

Click:
Your Solution

:-) Gonna assume the problem was fixed

Marked as such