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NTVDM running wild

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7 replies

by toreador 1 view

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I have an NT4.0 box that has a problem with the VDM process running away. Whenever I try to install or uninstall a program on this box the VDM process takes off and consumes 99% of the processor and nothing else can start. Task Manager will not stop the process; I have to reboot to stop it. I have had this problem in the past and have been able to fix it with a few tweaks. So far I have shortened the path statement to SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot% and installed SP6a with no luck.

7 replies

by slora

According to MS KB Article q169171:
"This problem has also been seen when security on the files in the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder has been made too restrictive. Specifically, the users running 16-bit programs must have at least Read (RX) access to all files in the folder and all subfolders. This is the configuration by default."

by gicu artistu'

NTVDM is DOS. This being said you do what you do in DOS. In most cases you have paths too long or your system directories are not in that path. Look also in the PATHEXT var.Check also http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q156/6/87.asp for you config.nt and autoexec.nt entries.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q220/1/55.ASP
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/winresource/dnwinnt/S84D4.HTM
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q196/4/53.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q169/1/71.ASP

Luck

by toreador

I had already done most of the suggestion from these articles. What I didn't try was replacing each file one by one. I went ahead and done this to no avail. Thanks for the suggestions.

by steve.weber

The NTVDM does not have enough environment room. Try adding the following line to the CONFIG.NT file:

shell=%SystemRoot%\System32\Command.com /e:4096

by toreador

I tried this answer at the same time that I shortened the path statement. It had no affect. I had to format the drive and reinstall NT to eliminate the problem. Thanks everyone for the suggestions, but sometimes a format is the only way to go.

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