STIMON.EXE FIX Program Version 1.0 Solution for Window's BLUE SCREEN problems that are associated with STIMON.EXE TABLE OF CONTENTS Problem: Solution: How You Can Fix Problem Manually: How STIMON FIX Works: How To Install The Fix: Un-Installing the fix: Files included in this program: Files CREATED by this program: Files/Folders MODIFIED by this program: Contacting Software Matters: ================================================================== Problem: STIMON.EXE on Windows 98 seems to cause BLUE SCREENS OF DEATH for Windows depending on certain timings of how things are loaded during your Windows boot-up process. It's not exactly known why this is, but certain hardware like "Promise ATA-100" disk controllers and other software can "conflict" with the STIMON.EXE. It's not the problem of the hardware manufacturers, but merely a "poorly" written STIMON. Imagine building a car that had poor tires that exploded when speeds over 55 are attained. And let's say the car was built with an engine that topped out at 55. They sell millions of cars with no problems and then some people go out and buy a bigger engine that can top out at 100mph. Well all those poor saps will end up with cars that don't drive anymore :) And they all complain to the engine maker saying "HEY, this car worked before and now it doesn't after I put in YOUR engine!" Well, the REAL problem isn't with the car, or the engine, it's with the tires (STIMON). ================================================================== Solution: What this program will do is to fix the problem that STIMON.EXE can cause you. This Program will allow your system to run smoothly by getting rid of the blue screens caused by the STIMON.EXE program. ================================================================== How You Can Fix Problem Manually: Typically you would go into MSCONFIG and remove the STIMON.EXE from your STARTUP. Then you would boot and everything is fine. Then you go to use your scanner or camera and then it's possible the device won't be found because the STIMON wasn't loaded :) So, then you load STIMON manually. This is a PAIN and NOT FOOL-PROOF because on a later date you could install some software, maybe a new camera or new photo editing stuff and then POOF, blue screen errors again. This is because some installers will put STIMON back into your startup :( So this method is a pain and not 100%. OR, you could rename your STIMON.EXE in your system folder to something else like STIMON_TEST.EXE and then you don't have to mess with removing it from your STARTUP because when the STARTUP tries to load the STIMON it won't because it's not there :) Well this seems all well and good, but again it's not 100% because let's say that you decide to re-install Windows to refresh some files or you install some update that puts STIMON.EXE back into your system folder. Then once again you have BLUE SCREENS OF DEATH from Windows. Ok, you can endure the pain and suffering from the above 2 solutions, OR you can install this STIMON FIX program. ================================================================== How STIMON FIX Works: When you install the FIX program all of the above problems that make the solutions NOT 100% are taken into account. So now you have a 100% solution. This fix program will rename your STIMON.EXE to STIMON.EXE.FIX.EXE. This way, your startup will not load STIMON.EXE. It also updates your AUTOEXEC.BAT by adding a single line at the top of it. It sticks in C:\STIMON.DIR\STI_LOOK.EXE This checks to see if somehow STIMON.EXE was put back into your system folder and if it detects this it renames it back to STIMON.EXE.FIX.EXE thus making it unloadable by your Windows boot up sequence. This is good because you don't want Windows loading STIMON automatically during startup. NOTE: Actually this occurs in a couple of steps. Since STI_LOOK.EXE is a DOS program, it can't actually rename using multiple "." periods in a filename, so what ACTUALLY happens is that it renames the newly found STIMON.EXE to STIMON.FIX in the window's system folder. THEN WHEN the STIMON loader program runs, it looks to see if there is a STIMON.FIX in the system folder and if so, it deletes the current STIMON.EXE.FIX.EXE and then renames the STIMON.FIX to STIMON.EXE.FIX.EXE, thus making sure that the latest version of STIMON is actually used. Oh, and in case you didn't notice a new folder called C:\STIMON.DIR is created to store some of the fix programs and needed files. So, now you have an automated way of making sure that STIMON.EXE never exists at the time your Windows startup is running. The only problem left is to make sure that AFTER your system is up, that the STIMON is loaded so that you can use your scanners and or cameras etc... that may need STIMON.EXE. So, the FIX program puts a new program in your STARTUP folder. This program is STIMON_LOAD.EXE. Now the trick is that if you load STIMON while the startup is running, you still can end up with the BLUE SCREEN, so the STIMON_LOAD.EXE program actually waits about 30 seconds and THEN loads the STIMON.EXE.FIX.EXE program. By this time (30 seconds later) your system should be able to load the program and not cause a conflict. This "30 seconds" delay is user configurable from 15 seconds to 2 minutes. So basically you get the best of all worlds by using this FIX program. ================================================================== How To Install The Fix: In order to install the fix, you need to have Windows up and running. The one problem is that you may not be able to have Windows up and running in NORMAL MODE, SO you may need to boot-up into SAFE-MODE. In this mode, Windows is up in a limited fashion, BUT the fix program will still run fine. Once it has run, you can re-boot into normal mode. See the section on "How STIMON FIX Works:" to see what goes on behind the scenes to make it work. 1. Download this STIMON FIX program located at: www.smatters.com/stimon/stimon_fix.html NOTE: Extract the contents of this zip file into a folder that you will keep. For example: C:\STIMON_FIX That way you can run it to install or uninstall as many times as you wish. If you put it into a temp folder that you delete, then of course in order to run it again, you would have to download it again :) 2. Run the STI_FIX.EXE program and click the "Install STIMON Fix" button. NOTE: Pick a delay that is appropriate. If you have a fast machine, 15 seconds may be good enough. Most PCs, 30 seconds is fine. On slow systems, you may want 1 minute, and for super slow systems, you may want 2 minute delay. 3. If you had "un-checked" the STIMON.EXE in your MSCONFIG program, then you can go ahead and "re-check" the STIMON.EXE in MSCONFIG. 4. Re-boot in normal mode. 5. Smile and be happy 6. Done. HINT: This program is SMART enough to DETECT if your delay time is too small. When it tries to load STIMON upon boot-up it sets a flag. Then after STIMON loads it resets the flag. If STIMON crashes, then the flag is NOT RESET. Then upon the next boot-up in NORMAL mode the STIMON loader detects the flag and pauses and allows you to pick a longer delay time. NOTE: If the loader can't detect the crash upon the next boot-up, re-boot into SAFE-MODE and re-run this program and pick a larger delay and do steps 1 - 5 again. ================================================================== Un-Installing the fix: If you decide you want to un-install the fix, just click on the "Un-Install Fix" button in the fix program and all the changes made to your AUTOEXEC.BAT and STARTUP are removed. Also the C:\STIMON.DIR folder and contents are removed as well. And then lastly, your STIMON.EXE.FIX.EXE is renamed back to STIMON.EXE. This way your system is back to the way it was before installing the fix. ================================================================== Files included in this program: 1. STI_FIX.EXE Program that installs/un-installs the fix 2. STIMON_LOAD.EXE Program that loads the STIMON.EXE.FIX.EXE 3. STI_LOOK.EXE Program that looks for STIMON.EXE in the Window's system folder and renames it. 4. README.TXT This text file you are reading ================================================================== Files CREATED by this program: 1. Install_Log.txt Shows what the STI_FIX.EXE program did 2. C:\STIMON.DIR Folder to hold the following files 3. C:\STIMON.DIR\STI_LOOK.EXE Copy of STI_LOOK.EXE 4. C:\STIMON.DIR\STI_LOOK.INI Program settings used ================================================================== Files/Folders MODIFIED by this program: 1. C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT Adds/Removes STI_LOOK.EXE program 2. Window's StartUp folder Adds STIMON_LOAD.EXE to load STIMON ================================================================== Contacting Software Matters: www.smatters.com main web site home page smatters@smatters.com email address www.smatters.com/turboview/info.html web site for cool imaging software www.smatters.com/stimon/stimon_fix.html Web site for this FIX ==================================================================