Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 85562 2007-12-14 08:41:00 *.exe is not a valid win32 application Agent_24 (57) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
621155 2007-12-14 08:41:00 So I just restarted my computer after connecting up an old hard drive that I wanted to format, then when windows loaded I get nothing just desktop wallpaper and upon trying to load explorer.exe from task manager, just "explorer.exe is not a valid win32 application".

I couldn't load my antivirus, calc or mspaint, same error everytime, but in the file browser all programs had their correct icons and did not appear to be corrupted

also, all startup programs were running fine in task manager... (and task manager itself runs OK)

Virus? old hard drive stuffed something (doubt it)?

:stare: *cries* I have not been having fun with that computer recently :annoyed:
Agent_24 (57)
621156 2007-12-14 08:58:00 Sometimes a Non Distructive reinstall will fix that - sometimes not , I have had 50/50 success rate. wainuitech (129)
621157 2007-12-14 09:02:00 Seems that removing said hard drive also fixes the problem.

You got any ideas how that makes sense? I know that sounds like complete BS but it's true

:badpc:
Agent_24 (57)
621158 2007-12-14 09:31:00 Just tried again and it does exactly the same thing.

Weird huh? anyone want a video as evidence of windows being completely idiotic?
Agent_24 (57)
621159 2007-12-14 09:57:00 Got an idiotic problem myself thats got me thinking, any app you open or any item in the start up menu as the PC starts and pops up with invalid .bmp at the end of the app name - eg: "Nod32 -invalid.bmp" you click Cancel and the app works perfectly. ANYTHING regedit, msconfig, any program all the same?

Have seen your problem before - cant remember the fix right at the moment.
wainuitech (129)
621160 2007-12-14 20:58:00 Hey, not a reader of these forums, but searched on Google and this was the only thing relevant which seemed to come up.

Just today the same problem seemed to begin occurring on one of my office computers. I didn't add any hard drive or make any hardware changes (except unplugging a USB keyboard and mouse). Also, I was experiencing trouble shutting down from any user account (including administrator). A message saying the user did not have sufficient permissions to shut down the computer; did you experience this as well?

Lastly, upon running CWShredder, I found a obscure form of CWS (called CWS.MSConfig) which could only be removed in safe mode.

I have yet to find out if fixing this has any effect, still running more scans.
tsterling (13154)
621161 2007-12-14 23:00:00 No, I am pretty sure this is not a malware problem, as it only occurs when that hard drive is plugged in.

If that hard drive is disconnected windows works fine, with no errors at all.

All very strange

I'm gonna try it in a different computer, which will probably work, then I can be done with it.
Agent_24 (57)
621162 2007-12-14 23:26:00 Are you connecting the problem HDD alongside your usual HDD? If you are, check the jumper settings. You may find your computer is booting from the problem HDD rather than your usual HDD. Set it as slave, rather than master, and please accept my apologies if this is too simple and you've already thought of it.

Joe Davies
Joe_Davies (7849)
621163 2007-12-15 00:54:00 I've got my system drive connected to SATA 1, and the drive that confuses windows is on secondary IDE as slave. there's a master on that channel also, and the primary IDE has 2 optical drives.

The BIOS detects all 5 drives perfectly fine.

I can only boot from the SATA drive because the 2 IDE drives just have files stored on them, nothing bootable
Agent_24 (57)
621164 2007-12-15 02:06:00 Maybe the system doesnt like hdd's on Secondary IDE.

And prefers the IDE hdd's to be on Primary IDE.

This hdd isnt detected as a removable drive in device manager is it? When it is connected?
Speedy Gonzales (78)
1 2