WinFix - Tech Support and Solutions to Common Problems

Technical Support and Solutions to Common Problems (Windows ME/98/95 Only)

See below for support for WinFix 4.x for Windows ME/98/95 only. If you need support for WinFix 5.0 for Windows XP/2000 click here

If you are having problems installing or using WinFix, see below on this page.

If you are a paid user and you need to re-download WinFix, or if you have lost your WinFix serial number and need it emailed to you, contact Customer Service at info@winfix.com

WinFix 4.x prevents or fixes over 90% of new Windows problems that begin after WinFix is installed. It is not designed to fix pre-existing problems, and can fix only a small percentage of pre-existing problems. It's function is to make Windows more reliable by fixing most new problems that occur after WinFix is installed. To fix pre-existing problems, see the Best Practices for Windows Reliability page.

To use WinFix with Windows ME, you will need to upgrade to WinFix 4.9. If you upgrade to Windows ME and you have WinFix 4.3 or earlier, WinFix 4.3 or earlier will harmlessly stop working correctly. You should upgrade to WinFix 4.9, or uninstall WinFix 4.3 or earlier, before upgrading to Windows ME. To uninstall WinFix go to the WinFix folder in Start, Programs, and click the Uninstall WinFix icon. Or, You can put your WinFix install diskette in the a: drive, and then go to Start, Run, and enter

a:uninstal

If you upgrade to Windows ME before removing WinFix 4.3 or earlier, uninstall WinFix 4.3 or earlier by using the Windows Find function under the Start button, and find all files and folders with "winfix" in the name, and delete them.

Here are the solutions to common problems that can occur installing or using WinFix. If these simple steps don't solve your problem, see below to get Technical Support.

We suggest printing out this page to use as a guide.

1) To get WinFix 4.9 downloaded and installed , first exit as many running programs as you can. If you have problems installing WinFix, also try to close as many programs as you can that may be running in the "System Tray" (the System Tray is the little box usually located in the lower right hand corner of your screen) To close them, use the alternate (opposite) mouse button to click once on each of those System Tray icons, one at a time, and then try to find an exit choice from the menu(s) that will display.

If closing System tray icons does not solve your WinFix installation problem, try using the msconfig procedure on our Best Practices for Windows Reliability page. Msconfig will show you all the programs that start automatically every time Windows starts, and will let you temporarily prevent them from starting. In many cases, using msconfig to prevent the non-Microsoft utility software from starting will cure not only the WinFix installation problem, but also many current problems you may be having with Windows.

If you are using Ontrack's ZipMagic, you must uninstall it before you can make your WinFix Install diskette.

To uninstall ZipMagic, go to My Computer, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, then uninstall Ontrack's ZipMagic.

After you make your WinFix Install diskette, you can then re-install ZipMagic if you wish.

Or contact us at info@winfix.com and we will send you a WinFix Install diskette so you do not have to make one from the download file.

3) Most problems installing WinFix 4.9 for Windows 95, 98 and ME are caused by using defective floppy diskettes to create either the WinFix Install diskette or the WinFix Repair diskette, so please be sure to check this possibility.

Bad diskettes can cause a variety of different symptoms that at first appear to be unrelated to defective floppy diskettes, but in fact are caused by them.

Also, defective diskettes often appear to be OK, including passing the Microsoft ScanDisk testing. The only way to find out for sure if the diskettes that you are using to create both the Install and Repair disks are OK, is to do the following test on them.

This test deletes all data on the diskettes, so even if they pass the test, you will need to do your installation over again, starting with the file you downloaded from our Website.

To test each diskette, do the following 3 simple steps:

A) Put a 1.44 meg floppy disk in the A: drive. (All 1.44 megabyte 3.5 inch floppy diskettes have "HD" in large letters imprinted in the plastic right next to the metallic cover plate. If these letters are not present, the diskette will not be able to hold 1.44 megabytes.)

B) After verifying that the diskette in the drive is the 1.44 megabyte type, click the "My Computer" icon on your Windows desktop. Right-click (click the right-hand mouse button) on the icon for the A: drive, and then choose the Format option.

C) On the Format dialog, be sure that only the "Full" option and the "Display summary when finished" option are checked. After the format is finished, check the summary to see that the diskette has the full 1,457,664 bytes available, and shows 0 bytes in bad sectors.

If it has less than the full 1,457,664 bytes, you should use another diskette. Follow this procedure for both the WinFix Install and WinFix Repair diskettes to insure that you are using defect-free floppy diskettes.

Sometimes the 1.44 meg floppy drive itself needs to be replaced. If the format summary reports finding bad sectors on several floppy disks that you think are really ok, the drive is probably defective.

If you have found any problems with your floppy disks or floppy drive, and corrected them, begin your WinFix installation again, starting with the file you downloaded from the Internet.

4) Sometimes problems installing or using WinFix are caused by programs running in the "System Tray", which is the little group of icons in the corner of the Taskbar.

Shut down or exit as many as you can of these System Tray programs. One icon at a time, point the mouse to the icon, then click the right-side mouse button (not the regular, left-side mouse button) on each icon in the Tray, one at a time, and try to shut down or exit each running program in the Tray. After WinFix is installed, restart your computer.

5) If you still have a problem installing WinFix, please try installing WinFix from Windows Safe Mode.

To get to Windows Safe Mode, do this:

Restart the PC. When the PC begins starting up, and while you can still see the black and white text (before the screen changes to the colored Windows graphics), tap once every few seconds on the F8 key at the top of your keyboard.

The PC should then present you with a menu where you can choose to start Windows in Safe Mode. Select the Safe Mode option. After Windows starts in Safe Mode, try to do your WinFix installation again.

6) Sometimes problems installing or using WinFix are caused by running anti-virus software, and this also can cause a variety of different symptoms.

Turn off virus protection before you download WinFix, because we have had reports of problems caused by virus software damaging the download file. Keep it off until after your WinFix installation is finished.

If virus protection was on while you were downloading WinFix, you may need to re-download WinFix. Contact WinFix Tech support (see below) for instructions on how to re-download.

In the case of McAfee anti-virus, we have had several cases where it was necessary to entirely uninstall the anti-virus software, not just temporarily disable virus protection.

7) If you are running anti-virus software, you may need to turn off virus protection while you are using WinFix to fix Windows. (You do not need to turn off virus protection to do a routine save of your Windows setup with WinFix.)

Turn it back on after you finish using WinFix to fix Windows.

8) If you have trouble making the WinFix Install diskette, it may be because you have old legacy DOS statements in your config.sys file. You can edit the file c:\config.sys

If you see lines that say

device=c:\windows\himem.sys

and/or

device=c:\windows\emm386.exe

you can insert the letters rem at the beginning of those lines, so they will look like this:

rem device=c:\windows\himem.sys

and/or

rem device=c:\windows\emm386.exe

Then save the config.sys file to save the changes, then reboot your PC. You should then be able to make the install diskette.

9) Sometimes problems installing or using WinFix are caused by not having enough DOS RAM under Windows, and this also can cause a variety of different symptoms. If you are sure that the floppy diskettes you are using for WinFix are error-free, and your floppy drive is working ok, as explained above, and you are also sure that you had virus protection completely turned off during your download and installation of WinFix, then click here for instructions on how to check your available DOS RAM, and increase it if necessary.

10) For Windows problems that WinFix cannot fix, including both pre-existing problems and problems that occur after WinFix is installed, we cannot provide tech support for Windows, but we can offer you some very useful, field proven advice; please see our Best Practices for Windows Reliability page.

After your system is fixed, WinFix is the safest, most effective way to keep it that way.

If you still have problems with Windows after all of the above, contact your system administrator if you have one, or Microsoft, or your computer's manufacturer.

Microsoft's excellent online support site is at:

microsoft.com/support

where they have extensive free resources, plus immediate access to paid support when necessary. Windows 95 is no longer supported, and Windows 98 and ME may have limited or no support from Microsoft by the time you read this. We recommend upgrading to Windows XP as soon as possible, and upgrading WinFix to version 5 for Windows XP and Windows 2000.

After your system is fixed, WinFix is the safest, most effective way to keep it that way.

To ask WinFix Tech Support for help via email, for installing or using WinFix, send your request to:

info@winfix.com