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Boot problem

By Jennifer.Gardner ·
Hi, everyone!

I have an old Win98 machine that's showing this error during the boot process:
Cannot find a device file that me be needed to run Windows or a Windows application. The Windows registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists. If you deleted this file on purpose, try installing the associated application using its uninstall or setup program. If you still want to use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling that application to replace the missing file. CNSMINKP.VXD

The problem is, there's no mention of this file in system.ini. And I have no idea what program the user uninstalled. On-line searches for this file name bring up Chinese (?) websites. Does anyone know of a utility I can use to correct this problem?

Thanks!

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by john.keddy In reply to Boot problem

Go into sysedit: rem it out. This should work.

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by Jennifer.Gardner In reply to

Nope, there is no mention of it in the system.ini. Not when viewing it through sysedit, not when looking through msconfig.

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by john.keddy In reply to Boot problem

did you look in the win.ini file?

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by Jennifer.Gardner In reply to

Yep, I wasn't able to find any mention of this file anywhere under sysedit. I even ran the "Find" command, just in case I was somehow missing it. :-)

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by Lizzy In reply to Boot problem

Hi,
You can search the registry for the file mentioned, but i would use the results to find out what it could possibly be associated with.

Check the System Applet for devices that are disabled(red X) or have problems (yellow bang).

Check all cards and connections in the PC to make sure everything is seated properly.

Norton System Works can run the Utilities from the CD and will find stuff that wants to load that isn't installed any longer. I always choose to fix the problem(s) myself, though, so i can see what was actually found and done.

Worst (best) case scenario would be that the user would need to have windows re-installed after backing up all data.
Hope this helps!

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by Jennifer.Gardner In reply to

The file was found during a search of the registry - thanks!

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by sgt_shultz In reply to Boot problem

well, you can see if msconfig has entry for it and uncheck it. or, look in registry Run, RunOnce locations:
Start/Run/regedit <enter>
Hkey local machine/software/microsoft/windows/current version/run
backup registry first!

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by Jennifer.Gardner In reply to

Poster rated this answer.

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by wcp In reply to Boot problem

This kind of problem usually happens when uninstallation of application or driver did not go well.

You need Registry editing (Regedit) to resolve the problem.

Note: Editing the registry is risky. Before making any changes, back up the registry so you can restore it if something goes wrong.

Please do the following.

Start | Run and type ?regedit? without the quotes and press Enter key. Registry Editor Window will appear.
Highlight My Computer.
Navigate to Edit | Find
Type ?CNSMINKP.VXD? without the quotes in the Find What box. Make sure the boxes of Keys, Values, and Data are all check marked.
Press Find and Find Next (or F3 key) button thereafter, and delete every single entry.

When finished, close all open Windows and reboot.

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by wcp In reply to

I did check the file from google.com and got list of links related to all Chinese websites.

Microsoft Knowledge Base does not list the file.

You can safely remove the file.

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