DOS program "Error 2009 : Not enough space for environment"

[lurker]

I am trying to save data from an expired Windows 95 system. He was using an ancient DOS program called FIRST1. He has
some spread sheets that are needed.

I installed the hard drive as a slave on my dual boot Windows 2000 / Windows XP Home computer.
I was able to launch and run the FIRST1 program and see the spread sheets. That's true with both Windows 2000 PRO and
Windows XP Home.

The user bought a new eMachine with Windows XP Home, and it is producing the subject error and closes the window.

I have tried setting it to run compatibility mode for Windows 95, but behavior does not change.

I have compared the Properties setting for Memory, etc against the working machine and they are the same.

Any ideas appreciated.

Carl

 

[lurker]

I am trying to save data from an expired Windows 95 system. He was
using an ancient DOS program called FIRST1. He has some spread sheets
that are needed.

I installed the hard drive as a slave on my dual boot Windows 2000 /
Windows XP Home computer.
I was able to launch and run the FIRST1 program and see the spread
sheets. That's true with both Windows 2000 PRO and Windows XP Home.

The user bought a new eMachine with Windows XP Home, and it is producing
the subject error and closes the window.

I have tried setting it to run compatibility mode for Windows 95, but
behavior does not change.

I have compared the Properties setting for Memory, etc against the
working machine and they are the same.

Any ideas appreciated.

Carl

Continuing to investigate.

I have three machines in house.

Two are dual boot:

1. XP Home SP
2. Windows 2000 PRO

One is a clone.
One is a cheap Dell.

The Customer's machine:
eMachine with Windows XP and all updates.

The dos program "FIRST1" is fully contained on two floppys. I copied them int a folder on a USB 2.0 Memory stick.
Moving this constant state folder form machine to machine is the test environment.

The program works fine on the Dell in both XP and Win2000.
The program fails on the eMachine
The program fails on the Clone, both XP and Win2000.

How does this make sense?

Carl

 

[Malke]

Continuing to investigate.

I have three machines in house.

Two are dual boot:

1. XP Home SP
2. Windows 2000 PRO

One is a clone.
One is a cheap Dell.

The Customer's machine:
eMachine with Windows XP and all updates.

The dos program "FIRST1" is fully contained on two floppys. I copied them
int a folder on a USB 2.0 Memory stick. Moving this constant state folder
form machine to machine is the test environment.

The program works fine on the Dell in both XP and Win2000.
The program fails on the eMachine
The program fails on the Clone, both XP and Win2000.

How does this make sense?

It doesn't matter why it runs on some machines and not others. On one of the
machines where First1 will run, see if it will allow you to export the data
to a csv file. Then your client can open it in Excel. If he doesn't have
Excel, either suggest he get it or install OpenOffice for him.

Malke

 

[lurker]

It doesn't matter why it runs on some machines and not others. On one of the
machines where First1 will run, see if it will allow you to export the data
to a csv file. Then your client can open it in Excel. If he doesn't have
Excel, either suggest he get it or install OpenOffice for him.

Malke

Thanks for that.
This program is is old, the only export is for lotus WKS.

The user now tells me that the FIRST1 used to work. It worked for several months. Now it dowsn't

There is not much on this machine. Spy Sweeper was installed, so I removed that. Norton AV cam on the machine. This
user is very pc illiterate.

To simplify stating the problem, MY own personal XP Home machine seems to have the same problem as the Customer's XP
Home. I really need to find what it is causing the environment error. It feels like something has been set in the
registry or other configuration that is preventing allocation of DOS extended memory.

Oh, I just discovered FIRST1 will work in Virtual PC, too. I can't install Virtual PC on Windows XP Home.

Carl