Win95 crashes while browsing certain network folders

[Icepop]

Hi folks, haven't been here in a while. I usually find a way to solve my own problems but feel like I would be leading anybody I try to help down the garden path with conjecture instead of solid fact-based approach.

That aside, here's my problem:

I have a Win95 machine that I want to be able to access default Shared Docs folder on my other WinXP Home computer.
Connection doesn't seem to be a problem, I can map the drive.

However, when I browse certain sub-folders with file contents (not just other directories), I consistently crash to black. My monitor goes to Energy Star Compliant and I lose networking at least. Apparently, all the case hardware stays on. (psu, fans, drives).

This doesn't happen with all directories with file contents, but consistently with the "bad" ones. I have also tried experimenting with moving all files from a "bad" to a "good" directory to see if I can turn them "bad", but it seems that my computer made up its own mind from the first connection as to which would be "good" or "bad".
Ok enuf baby talk lol.

I have tried 3 of these model network cards. File associations seem to be in order.
Also my other XP Pro machine is mapped to, and has no problem with, the Shared Docs folder on the XP Home box. They run fine as does the Win95 apart from this. It doesn't seem to suffer any ill effects from this behavior, except I'll lose the hard drive if I have to keep shutting down this way while I troubleshoot alone.

Any help or input would be appreciated.

You know deep thoughts, links, jeers

Cheers,

Zach

BTW will post machine specs (its running 95 cryin out loud)
if anyone thinks they are important to solving this issue.

For now: Netgear pci FA311 rev1 nic bound to TCP/IP
MS Win95 build 950 DirectX7
Pentium MMX 200MHz 64 MB EDO RAM
Dial-up Networking Upgrade 1.3 is installed

 

[Lemon13]

no clue, just a guess, maybe a path-length issue?

 

[Icepop]

Win95 4.0.0.950
FAT16

Thanks for responding Lemon13

Ruled out hardware. Found another brand nic, changed slots, etc. I did have an issue with an FA311 in the past on another comp. Under heavy torrenting load, it would spontaneously reboot. This didn't seem a similar situation, but have to rule it out for the folks trying to help!

Two folders in the root of Shared Docs, when accessed, caused the crash. One of them was very shallow, leading me to believe that it was not a pathname length issue. The other was quite long, possibly approaching a 255 char limit. I read your post and decided to pursue that line of investigation.

Hours later, some observations I come up with are:

There was corruption in file system information for those folders because they were first accessed with foldernames that were too long (for the root of Shared Docs only). Although I could access the folders without crashing when I shortened the folder names, the symptoms reappeared when I changed the names back. I know about limitations for the root of a drive partition, but this doesn't make sense to me.

This would seem to indicate a folder name or path name length limitation, but my testing hasn't supported that.
Testing included creating longer paths and folder names and accessing them without incident. I also nested the problem folders within new folders with long names with no problem accessing the higher folders, but crashing when accessing the folders in question.

Quirkiness due to reading files from a network accessed NTFS partition with a FAT16 OS. I can copy the offending folders to the local hard drive , with original names and do not crash when opening them from the new location.

further...

Some WinXP background process or IEexplorer applet had a hook into those folders when they were copied. The reason I say that is one folder had been accessed by Craigs List for uploading pics and the other is a printer driver folder which resides permanently in Shared Docs so the XP Pro computer (which was off at the time) can use a shared printer on the XP Home comp.

I built this computer for my sis so her kids can do their homework, play lousy games, and get on the internet. They won't use file sharing anyway, but this was an issue I couldn't ignore. 95 was on the drive I used to test the hardware. I'll upgrade to 98.

This is probably not enlightening but if the ramblings helped one person approach a similar problem, I'll be happy.

Cheers,

Zach