"Runtime Error 5" at startup

[John]

We recently purchased 3 identical Dell computers for our
home, all running Windows XP. This weekend my daughter's
computer popped up an error message: "Runtime error 5 at
XXXXXXX". We cancelled out of this message and after a
moment, two more "runtime error 5" messages appeared.

I rebooted the computer, got to the desktop, and
everything seemed fine for about fifteen seconds. Then
POP, up it came again. I found that with both error
messages on screen the computer is totally unusable. If I
cancel out of ONE of the messages then the computer works
fine running just about any application.

I've researched this problem on Google and other sites but
so far I've had no luck fixing this problem. Here's what
I've tried:

1. Ran Adaware, Search and Destroy, TrojanHunter,
CwShredder, and a couple of other spyware/virus checkers.
All have found and cleaned problems. TrojanHunter finds a
monster trojan, but it is apparently not fixing the
problem because when I check again an hour later the
trojan is still there. (I tried running all these
programs in Safe Mode, too.)

2. I use McAfee Online to scan for viruses but if the
error message is up the scanner won't run. The other day
I rebooted and immediately ran the online scanner. It
worked for about fifteen seconds, then the error message
popped up and killed Internet Explorer and the scan. (I
could still go into IE but the scan wouldn't work.)

3. I re-installed Windows XP and created a
new "profile". The new profile was error free!!!! (For
about a day. Then the error appeared again and is now on
both profiles.)

4. I ran "msconfig" and got rid of EVERYTHING that was
non-essential. Didn't change a thing.

5. Last night I tried something else, then rebooted the
computer and went downstairs to dinner. When I got back
to the computer it was on the "Choose a Profile" screen --
and the runtime error was already there. (This one REALLY
confused me.)

I know that I could reformat the hard drive and reinstall
XP, but there is software on that machine that we lost the
discs for -- and we've been playing "Dark Age of Camelot"
recently, which was almost impossible to get patched.

Help! This one is driving me nuts!!!

 

[Mary Sauer]

Some Programs Rely on Existence or Behavior of Earlier Versions of the Riched32.dll
File
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;286709&Product=winxp

--
Mary Sauer MS MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/
http://www.mvps.org/msauer/getting_started.htm
For better access to Microsoft Newsgroups
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp

 

[John Cutter]

I'll try what you suggest, but would this program be
running right after a fresh boot? (I've disabled pretty
much everything...)

 

[Cybert]

Okay, I finally fixed the problem. (Actually, Magnus, the
adminstrator of the TrojanHunter website, fixed the problem.)

There is a trojan called "Beast" that can cause that runtime error
message. I was instructed to search for the file: "dxdgns.dll", and
sure enough it was on my system. Magnus told me to reboot my system
into Safe Mode and delete the file. (There were actually three.)
Then he told me to search my C:\Windows folder for "ms*.com" files. I
renamed these by adding a space and rebooted my machine.

Voila! Problem solved.

Now I'm going to find some decent AntiVirus software (I'll probably
register a copy of TrojanHunter, too) and make sure that my firewall
is working. I don't want to have to go through this again.