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PHANTOM ERROR MESSAGE

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9 replies

by ken_mclane

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I have a Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop running NT4WS SP6A that has an error message that comes up after login. It states "Cannot find File 'E:\Program' or one of it's components...". We have searced all startup folders, all registry keys, Win.ini, System.ini, all to no avail. We are out of ideas. The system halts until you click on the ok button, but then it continues normally. No messages in the error logs either. We welcome all suggestions. Thank you.

9 replies

by pvp

I got one of these recently.

Apparently I had inadvertently clicked on a desktop shortcut during startup and the network connection hadn't been re-established.

Possibly a user error (ever see those "nervous mouse" people?) or the shortcut namerather than the program name is in all those places you looked.

by strakovsky

Seems to me, you have shortcut sitting in your startup folder or autorun section with
missing <"> at the beginning or end of field or .

Go to Start->Programs->Startup, check all of the shortcuts in there for missing character in these fields. Just right-click on the shortcut and select Properties.

BTW, to use in W32 filenames with spaces inside, you always have to place the path and filename inside <"">, because the space is a legal parameter separator e.g. "E:\Program Files\FAR\Far.exe".

It's not required if you have no spaces, e.g. E:\FAR\Far.exe

If you typed E:\Program Files\FAR\Far.exe" the system will always unsuccessfully try to find the file E:\Program, thinking that Files\FAR\Far.exe" is the parameter ;-)

by omahabob

There could be another file attempting a call operation on the E: drive. I'd also check the RunOnce and RunAs entries in the registry. There could be something in there it's attempting to run. This wouldn't by chance be something in a server logon script it's trying to execute would it? Sometimes administrators forget to take into account that laptops don't always have the same drive letters as desktops, and the logon scripts can end up causing problems.

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