Error on Startup

[Stephen R. Diamond]

Can anyone provide some trouble shooting hints for the following problem:

At the completion of the whole startup process, I get this
error--C\DOCUME~1\OWNER\APPLIC~1\MICROS~1\INSTALL~1\_47286~1.exe
encountered an illegal instruction and had to quit. This error bears the
title 16 bit DOS system. I gather that some part of DOS quit, but I detect
no bad effects other than the messages.

The event log says that a service quit abnormally but the system recovered
sucessfully. Occasionally this message is followed by a message that the
NTVDM CPU (what does VDM mean) has encountered an illegal instruction,
involving the Earthlink Total Access Upgrade Manager.

I tried to find the referenced file by Search, but nothing turned up. I've
gathered that the ~1 denotes a temp file. Is it so temporary that it is no
longer present when I search?

srdiamond

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

The ~ is used in place of "replaced" characters in a long file name. 16 bit programs cannot read long filenames, so they use the 8.3 filename convention.

You should be able to click Start, Run and then paste in:

C:\DOCUME~1\OWNER\APPLIC~1\MICROS~1\INSTALL~1

This will take you to the location referenced. You should be able to find the file there.

Additionally, right click the Start button and select Explore and Explore All Users. In each of these folders, drill down to:

Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Look for any item here (right click and select Properties) that references this file.

Also, click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT Go to the following Keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\oftware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Look in the right pane for any value that references this file. If found, right click the particular value and select Delete.

 

[Michael D. Alligood]

The NT Virtual DOS Machine (a.k.a WOW, or Windows on Windows), is a Win16 subsystem that runs under Windows NT, which allows 16-bit applications to run as if they were being executed on a DOS machine, with that machine's multitasking and segmented memory model.

(1) Click START to RUN and type: msconfig
(2) Select the STARTUP tab
(3) Uncheck the file that pertained to the startup error message you received
(4) Click APPLY and OK
(5) Reboot your system

If this fails to fix the startup error message after reboot, there are still options:

(1) Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
(2) Delete the icon that pertained to the startup error message you received
(3) Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
(4) Delete the icon that pertained to the startup error message you received
(5) Reboot your system

--
Best of luck!

Michael D. Alligood
MCSA, MCP, CCNA, A+,
Network+, i-Net+, CIW A, CIW CI

 

[Stephen R. Diamond]

The ~ is used in place of "replaced" characters in a long file name. 16
bit programs cannot read long filenames, so they use the 8.3 filename
convention.

You should be able to click Start, Run and then paste in:

C:\DOCUME~1\OWNER\APPLIC~1\MICROS~1\INSTALL~1

When I insert this expression, I receive the message that Windows can't
find it. Now I'm thinking that the "document" referenced is simply the
screen that appears bearing the message.

Is this a problem that actually requires attention, or do Windows users
usually just not worry about such seemingly harmless errors?

srdiamond

 

[Stephen R. Diamond]

This recent error message seems more diagnostic. "This application has
requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way." The referenced
application seems to be the Earthlink Upgrade Manager. I'd ask Earthlink
tech support, except I have never gotten any real information there.

How about this guess. One of Earthlink's upgrades failed to deactivate the
upgrade manager. Does that make sense, and if so, what's the remedy?

srdiamond

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to:

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application Data\Microsoft\Installer

It's the same thing as >>>>

C:\DOCUME~1\OWNER\APPLIC~1\MICROS~1\INSTALL~1
----------------

DOCUME~1 = Documents and Settings
OWNER = Your Account (XP Home??)
APPLIC~1 = Application Data
MICROS~1 = Microsoft
INSTALL~1 = Probably Installer
_47286~1.exe =

See what you can find there. Prabably Earthlink Upgrade Manager

 

[Stephen R. Diamond]

Thanks, Wesley. I trashed the items in the Install Folder and the problem
disappeared.

The items were called Applications under Properties, and they had numeric
titles like "_7447554d." They were only one or two kilobytes each. Two
bore the icons of a non-Microsoft program I had recently upgraded, the
other two had the question mark symbol denoting a help file. I have no
idea how they got there or what the Earthlink installer has to do with it.

srdiamond

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Stephen,

Glad you got it worked out!