topic Re: Can we set the CPU speed? Win95 crashes with high speeds, and can't apply fixes in VMware Workstation Player Discussions

Can we set the CPU speed? Win95 crashes with high speeds, and can't apply fixes

Yossu — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 23:55:37 GMT

I created a VM and installed Win95 on it. All went well until the first reboot after install, when I got an error "While initializing device IOS: Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer"

It seems that this is because the CPU speed in modern PCs is too fast for Win95, and due to a bug, it crashes.

There are various fixes around, but as far as I can see, they all require you to be in Win95 to apply them. I found this post, which has a link to a zip with some .exe files that supposedly patch Windows to fix the issue, but they can't be run from DOS, and I can't stat Win95 to run them from there.

Is it possible to set the VM's CPU speed, which would allow me to get Win95 running? I can't see any options for this.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Re: Can we set the CPU speed? Win95 crashes with high speeds, and can't apply fixes

Yossu — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 23:21:16 GMT

Anyone able to help here?

Thanks

Re: Can we set the CPU speed? Win95 crashes with high speeds, and can't apply fixes

Technogeezer — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 23:30:16 GMT

AFAIK there is no way to “adjust the CPU speed”. Virtualization runs code on the host’s CPU’s cores at the clock speed that the hardware provides.

Re: Can we set the CPU speed? Win95 crashes with high speeds, and can't apply fixes

Yossu — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 14:20:58 GMT

Any idea how I'm supposed to get around this then? Seems like a catch-22, I can't run Win95 because the CPU is too fast, but I can't apply the fix because I can't run Win95.

Any suggestions? Thanks

Re: Can we set the CPU speed? Win95 crashes with high speeds, and can't apply fixes

Technogeezer — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 22:13:52 GMT

Windows 95 hasn't been a supported operating system for VMWare Workstation for quite some time now, so you're not going to get anything from VMware. From everything I've read, you're going to have to hack Windows 95 to get over its speed limit.

Have you seen https://github.com/JHRobotics/patcher9x

It insulates that you can install its hacks into the installer or patch an installed VM.

Re: Can we set the CPU speed? Win95 crashes with high speeds, and can't apply fixes

Yossu — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 22:37:34 GMT

Ooh, I haven't seen that one, thanks. Did a lot of searching but didn't come across that.

Will give it a go and see how I get on.

Thanks