Hi,

Hopefully the dongle is XP-compliant, many older ones that rely on direct
hardware access are not.

As to the error message, close all running programs. Locate ntvdm.exe in the
\Windows\System32 folder and delete it (it's probably corrupt). Reboot the
system. See if the problem goes away, as the file will be replaced by one
from the system cache (System File Protection at work). You may also want to
do this with wowexec.exe, as this is another file that supports the 16-bit
subsystem.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Martin Hughes" <martin@designersounds.co.uk> wrote in message
news:%23Mj88yi6FHA.632@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> I have just installed a fresh copy of SP2 on my new Pentium dual core PC,
> and when I try to run regedit I get a window titled something like: 16-bit
> MSDos subsystem with an error "NTDRV CPU illegal operation" (or close to
> that).
>
> Also, some of my exe's won't run at all. There seems to be no logic to
> which will and won't.
>
> I also use a dongle protected music program which has some of the same
> errors in the installation of it, and then runs, but immediately causes an
> error and closes.
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Martin

Hi,

I have just installed a fresh copy of SP2 on my new Pentium dual core
PC, and when I try to run regedit I get a window titled something like:
16-bit MSDos subsystem with an error "NTDRV CPU illegal operation" (or
close to that).

Also, some of my exe's won't run at all. There seems to be no logic to
which will and won't.

I also use a dongle protected music program which has some of the same
errors in the installation of it, and then runs, but immediately causes
an error and closes.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Martin

Thanks Rick. Will try that.

AFAIK the dongle is XP compliant - I was using it on my old machine
which was SP1 and I know of hundreds of users on SP2 who haven't got
problems (it's a SynchroSoft dongle for Cubase)

Will report back soon,

M


Rick "Nutcase" Rogers wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Hopefully the dongle is XP-compliant, many older ones that rely on direct
> hardware access are not.
>
> As to the error message, close all running programs. Locate ntvdm.exe in the
> \Windows\System32 folder and delete it (it's probably corrupt). Reboot the
> system. See if the problem goes away, as the file will be replaced by one
> from the system cache (System File Protection at work). You may also want to
> do this with wowexec.exe, as this is another file that supports the 16-bit
> subsystem.
>

No joy. I'm trying a clean install (in case my clean install was
corrupted! :-) )

M




Martin Hughes wrote:

> Rick "Nutcase" Rogers wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Hopefully the dongle is XP-compliant, many older ones that rely on
>> direct hardware access are not.
>>
>> As to the error message, close all running programs. Locate ntvdm.exe
>> in the \Windows\System32 folder and delete it (it's probably corrupt).
>> Reboot the system. See if the problem goes away, as the file will be
>> replaced by one from the system cache (System File Protection at
>> work). You may also want to do this with wowexec.exe, as this is
>> another file that supports the 16-bit subsystem.
>>

Nope. Even the clean install would not run regedit - it was the first
thing I tried before I changed or installed anything...

It will be hard to take the disk back to the shop because it's in
England and I'm in France. I can do it in a couple of weeks, but I need
a working system until then. Can I replace any files with the SP2 update
downloadable from MS, even though I have uinstalled sp2...?

M



Martin Hughes wrote:
> No joy. I'm trying a clean install (in case my clean install was
> corrupted! :-) )
>
> M
>
>
>
>
> Martin Hughes wrote:
>
>> Rick "Nutcase" Rogers wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Hopefully the dongle is XP-compliant, many older ones that rely on
>>> direct hardware access are not.
>>>
>>> As to the error message, close all running programs. Locate ntvdm.exe
>>> in the \Windows\System32 folder and delete it (it's probably
>>> corrupt). Reboot the system. See if the problem goes away, as the
>>> file will be replaced by one from the system cache (System File
>>> Protection at work). You may also want to do this with wowexec.exe,
>>> as this is another file that supports the 16-bit subsystem.
>>>

Hi Martin,

If a clean install still produces problems, you may have damaged hardware.
Are you sure you just didn't do an "over the top" installation?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Martin Hughes" <martin@designersounds.co.uk> wrote in message
news:OGhavxp6FHA.4012@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Nope. Even the clean install would not run regedit - it was the first
> thing I tried before I changed or installed anything...
>
> It will be hard to take the disk back to the shop because it's in England
> and I'm in France. I can do it in a couple of weeks, but I need a working
> system until then. Can I replace any files with the SP2 update
> downloadable from MS, even though I have uinstalled sp2...?
>
> M
>
>
>
> Martin Hughes wrote:
>> No joy. I'm trying a clean install (in case my clean install was
>> corrupted! :-) )
>>
>> M
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Martin Hughes wrote:
>>
>>> Rick "Nutcase" Rogers wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Hopefully the dongle is XP-compliant, many older ones that rely on
>>>> direct hardware access are not.
>>>>
>>>> As to the error message, close all running programs. Locate ntvdm.exe
>>>> in the \Windows\System32 folder and delete it (it's probably corrupt).
>>>> Reboot the system. See if the problem goes away, as the file will be
>>>> replaced by one from the system cache (System File Protection at work).
>>>> You may also want to do this with wowexec.exe, as this is another file
>>>> that supports the 16-bit subsystem.
>>>>

Sorted - my system disk was damaged (in transit I assume). Installed a
new one and all working perfectly (apart from the BSOD
"IRQL_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS" or something like that, but I think that was my
old USB hard drive... I've had it on another PC when that was running :-)

Thanks!

M



Rick "Nutcase" Rogers wrote:
> Hi Martin,
>
> If a clean install still produces problems, you may have damaged hardware.
> Are you sure you just didn't do an "over the top" installation?
>