no luck Jerry.

I went to the internet shop and downloaded Windows 95B from bootdisk.com onto a new 
floppy, put it into my laptop and turned the power on, but i still got the same messages.

Warning: Winows did not open properly ...

A device file that is specified in the SYSTEM.INI file is damaged.
It may be needed to run Windows.

You may need to run the Windows Setup program again.
If the file is included in another software package, you may need to reistall the 
software that uses the file.
C:\WINDOWS\system\VMM32\vwin32.VXD
Press a key to continue_

this message repeats with a slightly different file every time i press a key and 
eventually the computer shuts off the power to itself.

from a mechanical point of view it would appear that the  computer is not recognizing 
the floppy drive.

when i enter the setup the hard drive is always selected as the boot device.  if 
i select diskette drive, save and exit, i would expect that the diskette drive to 
be the indicated boot device for every attempted start after that, but the next time 
i try to start and enter setup, the hard drive is still indicated as the boot device.

later

I have just tried F9 Setup Defaults, Save and Exit, and Diskette Drive has appeared 
as the preferred boot device.  With Windows 95 Version B floppy i have gotten the 
message

Non-System disk or disk error
Replace and press any key when ready

This is a different message, and it might mean progress because this is the first 
time i've heard any noise from the floppy drive, but when i press any key the message 
repeats and repeats.

I tied another floppy, Windows 95 Startup Disk and got a message that there was no 
CD-ROM and eventually the computer turned itself off again.

The CD-ROM message is new, and therefore encouraging and i'm going to hookup the 
external CD-ROM device and try to startup with various floppies.  Maybe i'll hit 
the right combination.

Thanks for the help so far.  I'll keep you informed of my progress.  

Aloha
Tom

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