Recently my PC (Quad Core Q9450 2.66 GHz, 4 GB, XP Pro SP2) has been
suddenly locking up. I often get a message
"The application or DLL
C:\WINDOWS\AppPatch\AcGenral.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please
check against your installation diskette."

BTW, the last sentence seems to date the message as written decades ago!

Can anyone shed any light on this please? And what I should do about it?

FWIW, I found another copy of AcGenral.dll and it was identical.

Also, I usually get another message when trying to display the Task
Manager, so that I can re-boot:
"Taskmgr.exe - Application Error
The application failed to initiate properly (0xc000012d)"

Not sure if this is a related or consequential issue, but it forces me to
power down or use the reset button.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

On 11/18/2010 02:52 PM, Terry Pinnell wrote:
> XP Pro SP2

Update to SP3.

--
Alias

"Terry Pinnell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> Recently my PC (Quad Core Q9450 2.66 GHz, 4 GB, XP Pro SP2) has been
> suddenly locking up. I often get a message
> "The application or DLL
> C:\WINDOWS\AppPatch\AcGenral.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please
> check against your installation diskette."
> BTW, the last sentence seems to date the message as written decades ago!
>
> Can anyone shed any light on this please? And what I should do about it?
>
> FWIW, I found another copy of AcGenral.dll and it was identical.
>
> Also, I usually get another message when trying to display the Task
> Manager, so that I can re-boot:
> "Taskmgr.exe - Application Error
> The application failed to initiate properly (0xc000012d)"
>
> Not sure if this is a related or consequential issue, but it forces me to
> power down or use the reset button.

Problem #2 might be cured by installing SP3. My TASKMGR.EXE
is 135,680 bytes, dated 4/14/2008.

Problem #1 may be that ACGENRAL antedates WinXP by "decades."
This is what WinXP "Compatibility" arrangements are for. Start / Help
presents the basic information. These old apps can be configured
to run as if under Win95 or Win98 (and perhaps Win3.1). One of
these configurations may make the app run as you want.

But it would be prudent first to instal SP3.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:52:00 +0000, Terry Pinnell
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Recently my PC (Quad Core Q9450 2.66 GHz, 4 GB, XP Pro SP2) has been
> suddenly locking up. I often get a message
> "The application or DLL
> C:\WINDOWS\AppPatch\AcGenral.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please
> check against your installation diskette."
>
> BTW, the last sentence seems to date the message as written decades ago!
>
> Can anyone shed any light on this please? And what I should do about it?
>
> FWIW, I found another copy of AcGenral.dll and it was identical.
>
> Also, I usually get another message when trying to display the Task
> Manager, so that I can re-boot:
> "Taskmgr.exe - Application Error
> The application failed to initiate properly (0xc000012d)"
>
> Not sure if this is a related or consequential issue, but it forces me to
> power down or use the reset button.

CAUTION: A reply suggest you update to SP3
If you do this, your WinXP Pro SP2 Setup CD cannot be used to run the
Repair Console. You will be asked to mount the WinXP Pro SP3 CD which
you do not have.

If you do want to update to SP3, and you have a CD Recorder, download
the ISO installer. You write the ISO to a CD, mount this CD from your
desktop and it runs the SP3 Installer just like any other app install
CD.

SP3 ISO here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/e...displaylang=en

NOTE - I use a text eMail client and the above link may word-wrap, is
should be a single line.



***** AS TO YOUR ERROR, troubleshooting *****

HIGHLY suggest you download Microsoft's Process Explorer (PE)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx

NOTE - What you download is a ZIP file that contains the entire
utility, NOT an installer. UnZIP and place in a folder of your choice
(like C:\Program Files\Process Explorer) then create a shortcut to run
it.

Just look at the screenshot and description on the MS page and you can
see it's a much better Task Manager.

It does NOT replace the Windows Task Manager, just provides enhanced
features like showing exactly which task is loading your system.

The biggest gain is Process Explorer's search. You know, those error
dialogs that popup saying "such-&-such DLL has caused an error and
....." Well using search in PE, with the error dialog open, it will
show you what task called that DLL so you have useful information.

Now using PE you have a better method of seeing exactly what is
hogging your system. Especially if you enable the following:

Options
Hide When Minimized
Allow Only One Instance
Confirm Kill (default)
CPU History Tray Icon

View menu, check Show Lower Pane

View, Select columns, Process Performance tab, select only...
CPU History (graph)
Threads
Handle Count

Also use Save Column Set, which saves your choices AND dialog
position/size.


Suggest you place a PE shortcut in your Startup folder (run minimized
option) so it starts at boot.

**** NOW - When you get the error dialog again, LEAVE THE ERROR DIALOG
OPEN, then click PE icon your Taskbar Tray to open and use the PE
search for [AcGenral.DLL] and find out exactly which task called it
and caused the error.




"AcGenral.DLL file information

The process Windows Compatibility DLL belongs to the software
Microsoft Windows Operating System by Microsoft Corporation.

Description: File AcGenral.DLL is located in a subfolder of
C:\Windows. Known file sizes on Windows XP are 1,852,928 bytes (42% of
all occurrence), 1,852,416 bytes, 2,154,496 bytes, 2,144,256
bytes.http://www.file.net/process/acgenral.dll.html
A .dll file (Dynamic Link Library) is a special type of Windows
program containing functions that other programs can call. This .dll
file can be injected to all running processes and can change or
manipulate their behavior. The program has no visible window. The
service has no detailed description. It can change the behavior of
other programs or manipulate other programs. The file is not a Windows
system file. AcGenral.DLL is a trustworthy file from Microsoft."

See...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886716/en-us
....in case this is your problem.



--
======== Tecknomage ========
Computer Systems Specialist
IT Technician
San Diego, CA

Where is your Info link to the Microsoft WinXP Pro SP3 CD ISO installer
at, Mr. Tecknomage.

On Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:52:00 +0000, Terry Pinnell
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Recently my PC (Quad Core Q9450 2.66 GHz, 4 GB, XP Pro SP2) has been
>suddenly locking up. I often get a message
>"The application or DLL
>C:\WINDOWS\AppPatch\AcGenral.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please
>check against your installation diskette."
>
>BTW, the last sentence seems to date the message as written decades ago!
>
>Can anyone shed any light on this please? And what I should do about it?
>
>FWIW, I found another copy of AcGenral.dll and it was identical.
>
>Also, I usually get another message when trying to display the Task
>Manager, so that I can re-boot:
>"Taskmgr.exe - Application Error
>The application failed to initiate properly (0xc000012d)"
>
>Not sure if this is a related or consequential issue, but it forces me to
>power down or use the reset button.


A .dll is not an image .

On 11/18/2010 06:56 PM, Hot-Text wrote:
> Where is your Info link to the Microsoft WinXP Pro SP3 CD ISO installer
> at, Mr. Tecknomage.
>
>
>

Here ya go:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/e...0-fe22559d164e

--
Alias

Don Phillipson wrote:
> "Terry Pinnell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>> Recently my PC (Quad Core Q9450 2.66 GHz, 4 GB, XP Pro SP2) has been
>> suddenly locking up. I often get a message
>> "The application or DLL
>> C:\WINDOWS\AppPatch\AcGenral.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please
>> check against your installation diskette."
>> BTW, the last sentence seems to date the message as written decades ago!
>>
>> Can anyone shed any light on this please? And what I should do about it?
>>
>> FWIW, I found another copy of AcGenral.dll and it was identical.
>>
>> Also, I usually get another message when trying to display the Task
>> Manager, so that I can re-boot:
>> "Taskmgr.exe - Application Error
>> The application failed to initiate properly (0xc000012d)"
>>
>> Not sure if this is a related or consequential issue, but it forces me to
>> power down or use the reset button.
>
> Problem #2 might be cured by installing SP3. My TASKMGR.EXE
> is 135,680 bytes, dated 4/14/2008.
>
> Problem #1 may be that ACGENRAL antedates WinXP by "decades."
> This is what WinXP "Compatibility" arrangements are for. Start / Help
> presents the basic information. These old apps can be configured
> to run as if under Win95 or Win98 (and perhaps Win3.1). One of
> these configurations may make the app run as you want.
>
> But it would be prudent first to instal SP3.
>

A critical detail missing from Terry's description, is whether at
the time of the Acgenral error, an attempt was being made to launch a
brand new executable.

If some executable was being corrupted when read off disk, and Windows
responded by believing that the application needed compatibility
support, perhaps at that point, it tries to load Acgenral from disk.
And if Acgenral suffered the same kind of header corruption, then the
error results. (Pretty strange, if it happened that way.)

If no new programs are being launched, at that point in time when
the error is being reported, that would be more suspicious.

There is an article here, with a list of files near the bottom, that
shows what files handle application compatibility. Whether they stay
loaded in RAM, or are loaded on demand, would be a good question.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319580

It's still very suspicious, and could either be some kind of
malware, or something like bad RAM or a bad disk or bad SATA cable.
Plenty of testing, remains to go.

Version 25.11 of Prime95 is available here, for both Windows
and Linux. If you boot a Linux LiveCD and run the Prime95 stress
test, and it passes, while running the Windows version is failing,
it could be more than a hardware problem. A clean Linux run, tells
you the hardware is fine. Prime95 is like running a memory test,
only with more stressful test conditions. It can only test memory
which the OS isn't currently using.

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

And an offline virus scanner is available here. As long as a DHCP
capable networking solution is available when this CD boots, then it
can get up to date virus definitions to run a scan with. The
"drive letters" shown in the control panel of this application,
don't correspond to Windows drive letters. And then, you need to
use the Terminal application from the menu, navigate to the
individual disks, and sort out which partition is which in there.
Or, tick all the partitions as needing scanning, and head off to
bed while it completes. It takes about 2 hours to scan 40GB
of files on C:.

http://devbuilds.kaspersky-labs.com/.../RescueDisk10/

That tool is built on top of a Gentoo Linux distro.

On the jewel box my RescueDisk10 is in, I've written...

At boot
1) Press "e"
2) Wait for "configfile" line to appear. Don't change
anything. Press control-x to allow the boot process to continue.
3) Press "e" again.
4) The Linux boot command will be exposed.
Remove "quiet" from the end of the line.
Add "docache" to the end of the line.
Press control-x to continue the boot process, with the modified line.
5) The OS will now read the 200MB CDROM image into RAM.
The CD can then be unmounted from a Terminal window.
And only at that point, can the CD be popped out of the tray.
*Quickly* remove the CD, because the OS will close the tray
automatically in a matter of seconds, once the tray is open.
(I haven't pinched the CD yet, but it's bound to happen
one of these days.) The tray closing interval is variable.

The above procedure, is so the Kaspersky scanner can be run,
without leaving the CD spinning in the drive for hours on end.
"Docache" means the entire CD is stored in RAM.

The Kaspersky tool has the following side effects. It plays
with the pagefile (uses it for its own pagefile). This isn't
an issue. It's still a good idea to shutdown Windows completely,
before running a scan. The Kaspersky tool may also choose to store
the virus definitions on some partition on the computer as well,
which may help reduce the download time for virus definitions
at some future date. For some reason, it chose to store them on
my G: partition.

G:\Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10.0
5477 files, 51 folders, 129,077,914 bytes

HTH,
Paul

Thank you Alias you the Man with a plan!

"Alias" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:ic3rmp$vsj$(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 11/18/2010 06:56 PM, Hot-Text wrote:
>> Where is your Info link to the Microsoft WinXP Pro SP3 CD ISO installer
>> at, Mr. Tecknomage.
>>
>>
>>
>
> Here ya go:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/e...0-fe22559d164e
>
> --
> Alias

On 11/19/2010 03:28 AM, Hot-Text wrote:
> Thank you Alias you the Man with a plan!
>
> "Alias" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:ic3rmp$vsj$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> On 11/18/2010 06:56 PM, Hot-Text wrote:
>>> Where is your Info link to the Microsoft WinXP Pro SP3 CD ISO installer
>>> at, Mr. Tecknomage.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Here ya go:
>>
>> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/e...0-fe22559d164e
>>
>>
>> --
>> Alias
>

You're welcome.

--
Alias