# Windows Protection Error Stack Overflow



## himsmyboy (Jul 21, 2002)

Hey guys, I am working on an IBM pl300 pent. II 400mhz and have just fdisked and formatted and installed win 98 and after it loads all the stuff and then trys to run the first time it comes up with this::

An internal stack overflow has caused this session to be halted,
change the STACK setting sin the CONFIG.SYS and try again.

I don't know what to do, I have put in another hard drive, cleared the cmos. I NEED HELP!!!
Thanks

Blair

[email protected]


----------



## Mariusz (Mar 16, 2003)

for some reason the 'stack' line in your config.sys is either too small or incorrect

here is a link on how to set stacks properly:

http://2dos.homepage.dk/batutil/help/STACKS_S.HTM

if u cant acces config.sys through windows, prss f8 when booting up and select 'command prompt'
then edit config.sys

if u remove the line completely, a default setting for stacks will be loaded

what program did u install after setting up windows? because only old programs require 'stacks' setting

otherwise u may have problems with system files and such and reformatting might be needed, preferably with a bootdisk


----------



## himsmyboy (Jul 21, 2002)

Hello and thanks for your reply, I went inot safe mode and went into sys tools sys info, tools sys config utility and clicked the config.sys tab and added a new string for the STACK=n,s ,
AND NOTHING!! I wonder what this could be or does this need to be done through dos, if so how do i do this?
thanks


----------



## Mariusz (Mar 16, 2003)

no, it does not matter, just make sure the changes are really there

in safemode, select start>programs>accessories>msdos prompt
if there are any messages just click 'ok'

in 'c:\' type 

edit config.sys
see if there is 'stacks' 

also try to tatally disable the config.sys and autoexec.bat files from loading 

start>run>msconfig

and in 'startup' deselect autoexec.bat and config.sys

im still not sure why windows gives u that error, did u install an old program?


----------



## NiteHawk (Mar 9, 2003)

I don't think STACKS=n,s is going to do anything for you.  The n and s are parameters, n specifies the numver of stacks and s specifies the size of each stack. Numbers are in the range of 8 to 64 and size is in the range of 32 to 512 bytes.

I would either delete the stacks line all together (this is a hold over from DOS days and Win3.1) OR have the entry read STACKS= (nothing) let the system adjust the stacks.


----------



## himsmyboy (Jul 21, 2002)

NItehawk, How would I go about doing what you say? Please elaborate as I am not good at dos...
thanks

[email protected]


----------



## IMM (Feb 1, 2002)

The line should look something like
*stacks=12,512* in the case of config.sys
or for the system.ini method the line would look like
*MinSPs=12*
in the *[386Enh]* section of the c:\windows\system.ini file.


----------



## Mariusz (Mar 16, 2003)

i think nitehawk says exactly the same thing i said 

if u changed the line in config.sys and increased the stack value, and nothing, delete teh file completely and try again

u didnt answer: did u install some old program? because windows does not need stack setting

ps. the 'n' stands for a number, did u put "stacks=n,s" in config.sys ?!


----------



## NiteHawk (Mar 9, 2003)

Good to know we're on the same page, Mariusz


----------



## himsmyboy (Jul 21, 2002)

Yes, I went into safe mode and into the system config utility and entered that string into the config.sys tab window. It gives me the same error. No I have just formatted this drive and was installing win 98, so I can get XP on it and it will not run the first time after it loads all the win98 stuff...

thanks


----------



## Mariusz (Mar 16, 2003)

u installed win98 in order to install winxp?

what string exactly did u enter?


----------



## NiteHawk (Mar 9, 2003)

Maybe I'm missing something, but why would you need the STACKS= in either config.sys or system.ini? To the best of my knowledge STACKS was used back in the DOS days (and maybe Win 3.1). I have not seen it in either Win95 or Win98


----------



## Mariusz (Mar 16, 2003)

i agree, thats why i asked abt any old programs that might have been installed

if u read his first post u'll see that it was windows message that mentioned 'stacks' and 'config.sys' 
so for now that is what i was working with 

in win95/8 u dont need stacks setting, but then u dont need config.sys nor autoexec.bat

but u might need them and the stack setting if u install an old program that needs them


----------



## NiteHawk (Mar 9, 2003)

Since you don't feel comfortable in DOS let me give you step by step instructions that will work from windows.

Open Windows Explorer and in the root directory (folder) scroll down and find CONFIG.SYS
Right click on the file and then click on properties
If READ-ONLY, HIDDEN or SYSTEM are checked, uncheck them. Remember what is checked because at the end we will restore those checks. Click APPLY and then OK
Open NOTEPAD..NOT word or wordpad
Click on FILE then on OPEN in the LOOK IN box select the C: drive and in the FILES of TYPE select ALL FILES (*.*)
Now find CONFIG.SYS and open it
Look for a line that says STACKS=
Edit that line to read REM STACKS= (note the space) REM stands for "REMARK" any line that starts with REM will be ignored when the system boots up. This way if later we find we need it we just remove the REM and make adjustments.
MAKE NO OTHER CHANGES!!
Click FILE then SAVE and then close Notepad
**IF** READ-ONLY, HIDDEN or SYSTEM were checked above, recheck them.
Reboot

That should do it.


----------



## NiteHawk (Mar 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by himsmyboy:_
> *Hey guys, I am working on an IBM pl300 pent. II 400mhz and have just fdisked and formatted and installed win 98 and after it loads all the stuff and then trys to run the first time it comes up with this::
> 
> An internal stack overflow has caused this session to be halted,
> ...


This makes it even more confusing since it's a clean install.


----------



## himsmyboy (Jul 21, 2002)

I think ya'll may be confused as to what I am doing,

I have a pc that I bought, and I just formatted the drive, there is nothing on it, I THEN installed win 98 and it was going ok until it tried to run win98 the first time! It comes up with the windows protection error stakc overflow.

Now, if you say it doesn't use stacks, then why would this happen? Is this a problem in DOS, but if I have formatted the drive unconditionally and have put in another drive, replaced the first one and it KEEPS HAPPENING, I EVEN CLEARED THE CMOS, 
What would cause this??

Please help. 

Thanks


----------



## himsmyboy (Jul 21, 2002)

NOW, it is saying something slightly different ,, or maybe it just didn't show me earlier, but is says::

WHILE INITIALIZING IFS.MGR, windows protection error, you need to restart your computer.

An internal stack overflow has casued this session to be halted,
Change the STACKS setting in your CONFIG.SYS file and try again.

See,, It will show the WIN98 logo screen, you know at startup, and then flashes back to the dos screen with the above error string..

Hopefully this will help solve!!

THANKS GUYS!!
[email protected]

I welcome any direct emails to me!!


----------

