How to Check If Unsupported Hardware Allows Windows NT Install

Article ID: Q143244
Creation Date: 29-JAN-1996
Revision Date: 26-MAR-1997

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.51 and 4.0

Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51 and 4.0

SUMMARY
This article is designed to help users resolve the most common issues that keep their machines from installing or functioning properly under Windows NT.

If your computer is not listed on the Windows NT Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) the following steps will allow you to determine whether or not your computer is compatible enough to allow the installation and use of Windows NT.

This is done by taking the machine and running it at its most basic level of operation using the below steps.

Note:

The steps below require a running Windows 95 or MS-DOS configuration which has CD-ROM access and approx. 160 MB of free space on a hard drive.

No warranty is made that Windows NT functions correctly after successful installation.

TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS:

To Start:
Enter your computer's CMOS: Please refer to your computer's documentation on how to gain access. This is done while the system is in POST mode: (counting memory, finding devices, etc, and preparing to boot)

Some examples are: Del, F1, Cntl+Alt+Enter, Cntl+Alt+F1, and Cntl+Alt+S.

Once you are in CMOS try these settings: - Setting CMOS to the factory default settings.

-or-

- Disabling the CPU cache and L2 cache, all system/video shadowing, PCI

  streaming, bursting, and caching.

If your computer's disk subsystem is IDE based: If the primary boot device is an IDE device, be sure to disable any IDE performance features in CMOS such as IDE Prefetch Buffers, 32-bit or Block Mode transfers.

If your computer's disk subsystem is SCSI based:
Go into your SCSI controller's BIOS and slow down all devices transfer speeds to 5.0 Mb/s or the slowest it will go. Disable Ultra speeds if you have an Ultra capable SCSI controller.

Remove all SCSI devices except the hard drive you plan to install to, and the SCSI CDROM unit that has the NT CD in it. Ensure that you have your SCSI chains properly terminated on both ends if you have removed SCSI devices.

      NOTE: If you have a hard drive controller that supports caching,
      disable the cache completely. If you cannot turn it off, set the
      cache for Write Through rather than Write Back.

Configure your computer to contain only the most necessary hardware, such as a video card, a mouse, primary hard drive, and hard drive controller. All other equipment such as network interface cards (NICs), sound cards, Modems or extra SCSI controllers should be removed from the computer.

Also remove extra devices on either the IDE or SCSI controller to which your primary hard drive is connected. However, leave your CD-ROM drive installed until step 3 has been accomplished. After completing step 3, you should remove the CD-ROM drive as well if it is suspect.

   NOTE: If you are removing IDE devices be sure to reboot after you have
   deleted the removed devices from CMOS. If removing SCSI devices, make
   sure the chain of devices is still terminated by the last device on the
   SCSI chain.

Boot NT Setup from the 3 NT boot disk supplied with the product. If you Suspect these disks are bad, you may access the X86 directory of the CDROM and run WINNT /OX at a command prompt. This will create duplicates of the NT boot floppies that came with your product.

-OR-

Boot to MS-DOS or Windows 95. If you do not already have MS-DOS or Windows 95 installed, you will need to load or install the necessary drivers to access the Windows NT compact disc in your CDROM unit from a Dos prompt, then from the Windows NT compact disc, copy the \I386 directory to an \I386 directory on your hard drive. Finally use the following command to copy the \DRVLIB directory from the compact disc to your hard drive:
```
      xcopy <CD-ROM_drive>:\DRVLIB\*.*  <drive>:\DRVLIB\*.* /s
```
From the \I386 directory on your hard drive, run WINNT.EXE
NOTE: Your computer runs much slower at this point because the cache features have been disabled in previous steps.

If Setup fails to successfully install Windows NT in this basic configuration, your installed hardware or BIOS are incompatible with Windows NT. In this case a BIOS replacement or upgrade might allow Windows NT to install, however, there is no guarantee that this will work, and the only solution may be purchasing a supported system.

If you added more physical memory to the machine or changed memory SIMM configuration from factory defaults, you may want to re-install the factory memory and start the Installation process again. Many times miss-matched memory modules will cause NT to fail even if the machine runs fine under other operating system due differences in NTs’ memory mapping model.

If you now have a successful installation of Windows NT, you may add back in the disabled CMOS features one at a time, followed by the removed hardware. If at some point the computer locks, usually the last feature/device you enabled will be the cause of the problem. Remove or disable the last feature/device you enabled to correct the problem.

At this point you have the following options:

If it was a piece of hardware that failed, replace the hardware with supported hardware.
-or-
Call the Microsoft Consulting Line, at (800) 936-1565. Although there is still no warranty of a solution, further assistance can be provided beyond that available on a standard support call. Pricing can change, but as of 1/15/96, the price is $190.00/hour. In this case it is possible for Microsoft to more completely test the system including the using of the Windows NT Hardware Compatibility Test, failure reproductions in the lab, etc. should the user wish to ship the system to Microsoft.
-or-
Consult a Microsoft Solution Provider.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q139733
   TITLE     : Windows NT Setup Troubleshooting Guide

To obtain latest copy of the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL), please see the following Microsoft World Wide Web (WWW) site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/hcl/hclintro.htm

Additional query words: prodnt
Keywords : kbhw nthw
Version : 3.51 4.0
Platform : WinNT

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