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Windows Startup Problem

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by rorystephenson

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Basically my Laptop has been running a bit roughly lately and now at startup it comes up with an error message:

"application failed to initialise properly (0xc00000005)..."

It then moves on and just shows my desktop background and nothing else, I can open task manager but don't know how to rectify the problem from there... I would fresh install but there are a few files on there I want.

EDIT:
By going file->new task in the task manager and then entering a program name I can open msconfig and dxdiag but when i tried cmd it did the "application failed to initialise properly...".

6 replies

by nepenthe0

At this point, I recommend that you run the installation/recovery CD in [i]repair[/i] mode. Be sure to back up all personal data to an external hard drive or USB flash drive.

I have owned a couple of Sony notebook computers. Why the Windows OS should become corrupted on notebook/laptop computers remains a mystery to me, because this never happens to my desktop computer, but the phenomenon is widely observed.

I use Symantec's [i]Norton Ghost[/i] to create periodic [i]image[/i] files of the notebook hard drive:

http://tinyurl.com/5s7gw8

That way, when the notebook starts to misbehave, I can recover the archived [i]image[/i] file in ~10 minutes.

Rick/Portland, OR

by older mycroft

Interesting that you have run systems for years without anti-virus software (because it slows your machines down) YET you seem to have developed the practice of periodic Ghost images for when your systems [i]misbehave[/i].

I'm not sure that is the lesser of two evils, but it certainly disproves your 'eight-year virus-free' theory, don't you think?

by Former member

SYMPTOMS
An application runs as expected outside of the debugger but causes an application error like this when run in the debugger:
System Process - Application Error
The Application failed to initialize properly (0xc00000005)
Another symptom appears if the reserve value specified for the HEAP linker option is smaller than the commit value: The reserve value is silently increased to the commit value.

CAUSE
The heap reserve size is smaller than the commit size. This means that applications that rely on these values (such as the debugger) are not able to load the binary image.

RESOLUTION
The heap reserve size should always be greater than or equal to the commit size. The linker provided in Service Pack 3 checks these values. If the reserve value is less than the commit value, the linker generates a fatal error. For example, linking with the option /HEAP:0x400,0x1000 causes this error:
LNK1229: Commit size greater than the reserve size in "/HEAP"

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.This bug was corrected in Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
194022 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/194022/) Visual Studio 6.0 service packs, what, where, why
194295 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/194295/) How to tell that Visual Studio 6.0 service packs are installed

MORE INFORMATION
To view the reserve and commit values for an executable, use the dumpbin utility:
dumpbin /headers filename.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/217168

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

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