Computer Error Message Advice

[Eaglesfan27]

My newer high end computer has been giving some error messages lately like the one I got tonight when attempting to backup files and it froze so I tried to go to task manager to end the process. The error message said "taskmgr.exe. The application failed to initialize properly. Click on ok to terminate. Oxc0000142" Any idea what that last number/letter combo refers to? Is it bad ram? Bad sectors on the hard drive?

I then ran a disk scan that said at the beginning that my C: Volume was "dirty" but it found no bad sectors in the final report (which flashes much too quickly on my screen.)

Any ideas? I'm already re-attempting to backup all of my important files to a hard drive in case I need a new harddrive or a reformat of the current drive. Thanks for any thoughts.

[cartman]

A full virus scan and spyware checks should also be done.

That number at the end is either an error code, or a location in memory. Not necessarily bad RAM, but the program got back something from memory that was unexpected and caused the program to crash.

Also it wouldn't hurt to check and see if your device drivers (video, audio, motherboard, etc.) are up to date.

[gstelmack]

According to my trusty Visual Studio, C0000142 is "DLL Initialization Failed", which is pretty much what the original message said.

What OS? My guess is you'll want to do a full virus / spyware scan (as cartman said), update drivers (as cartman said), and if you're still having fits it's time for a clean Windows re-install.

[Eaglesfan27]

Windows XP. I've done the full virus scan. Nothing came up except one or two adware files that were removed. Same for spyware scan. I'm planning on updating drivers this evening or tomorrow at the latest. My wife is re-attempting to backup important files today while I'm at work. As annoying as it will be, I'm going to go with a clean Windows re-install if I keep seeing these types of errors after the drivers are all updated.

Edit: I've been debating on upgrading to Vista. Now might be the time to do that too, if I end up needing a clean install anyway.

[Surtt]

You might want to Google the error. If you got it, chances are someone else did too and posted it to a help forum somewhere. Even if it you can't find a solution it unusually point you in thew right direction.

[MizzouRah]

If the volume is dirty and your HD is good, choose start -> run -> type cmd and then type chkdsk /r in the window that opens up. Select y, then reboot your pc. That will fix any windows errors and mark your installation as clean once again.

[Eaglesfan27]

If the volume is dirty and your HD is good, choose start -> run -> type cmd and then type chkdsk /r in the window that opens up. Select y, then reboot your pc. That will fix any windows errors and mark your installation as clean once again.


Thanks! I'll do that when I get home tonight.

[MizzouRah]

Thanks! I'll do that when I get home tonight.

No problem.

The box that opens up is what I call a dos box. After you type that command, it will tell you it can't unlock the drive and do you want to run it after a restart, there is when you select Y.

That command works great if your pc is not booting into Windows, but you can boot into the recovery console. It will mark bad sectors and usually allows you to at least get it to boot to save your data.

[Eaglesfan27]

My computer continues to sporadically give errors messages and it actually went to the blue screen of death last night.

So, I've finished backing up all of my documents, my favorite game saves, etc to my external harddrive. Now, I'm debating upon reformating and a fresh install of Windows XP vs upgrading to Vista this weekend. If I decide to go the Vista route, should I reformat my hard drive first or will it give me an option to go with a "clean" install?

[gstelmack]

Vista is pretty cool on this: it will let you do a "clean" install with XP already there. What it will do is move everything to "Windows.old", including your Program Files, etc, so it does a true clean without needing a reformat. Then all your documents, old program data, etc are under that Windows.old directory for you to copy and then remove at your leisure. If you've got the disk space, it's a nice way to do a truly clean install without the reformat, losing data, etc.

[Eaglesfan27]

Vista is pretty cool on this: it will let you do a "clean" install with XP already there. What it will do is move everything to "Windows.old", including your Program Files, etc, so it does a true clean without needing a reformat. Then all your documents, old program data, etc are under that Windows.old directory for you to copy and then remove at your leisure. If you've got the disk space, it's a nice way to do a truly clean install without the reformat, losing data, etc.


That sounds awesome. I imagine that is the route I'll go. Other than the previously mentioned difficulties with FOF and needing to jump through a few hoops, has anyone seen any problems with any games while using Vista?

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

If I do the "clean" install option of Vista, will I need to relicense games that use eLicense? For some reason, my eLicense is among those that will not unlicense a game, even after I downloaded the eLicense patch.

[MizzouRah]

MAKE SURE your HD is not going bad.

Get whatever diag your pc manufacturer has or if you built it, get one from the maker of the HD and run the HD test just to be 100% positive before going through all that work.

[Atocep]

That sounds awesome. I imagine that is the route I'll go. Other than the previously mentioned difficulties with FOF and needing to jump through a few hoops, has anyone seen any problems with any games while using Vista?


Any games that use VB6 aren't going to run very well because Microsoft stopped supporting it with Vista. There are a few things you can do to improve performance, but in most cases anything using VB6 is going to be rather frustrating to run.

I've had some issues at gametap that's kept me from playing a few games also. Nvidia has been rather slow getting good Vista drivers out, so I think Nvidia is more to blame for that then Vista.

[Mr. Wednesday]

I wouldn't expect that VB would be particularly slower in Vista than in any other system. The thing that would potentially be tricky would be if there are incompatibilities with the runtime libraries (keeping in mind that of those, only one or two are VB6-specific).

[Atocep]

I wouldn't expect that VB would be particularly slower in Vista than in any other system. The thing that would potentially be tricky would be if there are incompatibilities with the runtime libraries (keeping in mind that of those, only one or two are VB6-specific).

Most VB games/operations will run painfully slow unless you switch to windows classic theme. There's a few more minor tweaks you can make to get it to run better, but VB will never really run as well on Vista.

[Mr. Wednesday]

That's very interesting. If it's not a general API issue (in which case, some programs in C and C++ would be affected as well), then VB must have been doing something interesting under the hood.

[Eaglesfan27]

MAKE SURE your HD is not going bad.

Get whatever diag your pc manufacturer has or if you built it, get one from the maker of the HD and run the HD test just to be 100% positive before going through all that work.


I ran an extensive test this evening that took over 2 hours to scan everything. The stupid screen flashes by VERY quickly at the end (I don't know why it doesn't wait for me to press a key like it should) but it didn't seem to find any bad sectors from what I could see, so I doubt it is the hard drive going bad. I was thinking about upgrading to Vista before all of this trouble happened, so I think I'm going to take the plunge this weekend and hope that fixes these error messages (it wouldn't surprise me to discover I did something idiotic and deleted some dll's or something that are causing these errors to occur in the first place.)

[Skolleck]

Drop to that CMD prompt

Start > Run > CMD - ok

SFC /scannow

That will scan all your windows system files and replace them if they are corrupted or missing.

I have some other tips:
run this scan
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-US/default.htm

Thanks,
Scott Kolleck

[Skolleck]

DOLA

Please don't upgrade to Vista.

It needs some work. Like several hundred patches or a SR-1.

[Eaglesfan27]

Drop to that CMD prompt

Start > Run > CMD - ok

SFC /scannow

That will scan all your windows system files and replace them if they are corrupted or missing.

I have some other tips:
run this scan
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-US/default.htm

Thanks,
Scott Kolleck


Thanks Scott. I'll try these too. I'm all for fixing this without upgrading or reformatting if I can do so. I just want to stop the error messages.

[Surtt]

I doubt this is a hardware problem.

Doing a quick google on. "taskmgr.exe. The application failed to initialize properly"

I got:
"This can be caused by a number of application issues. I would try starting your system with the SAFE BOOT option and looking at the EVENT LOG for details of which applications might be causing this issue. Typically, if this problem occurred immediately after installing a new program, uninstalling that piece is of software may resolve the issue."

[MizzouRah]

I have Vista and I wish I would have stayed with XP Media Center. I agree, it needs some work and I'm F'N tired of all the pop ups asking me if it's ok to do this or that.. .sheeesh!!!!!!!

It was a free upgrade for me and I need to mess with it for work purposes, but I miss XP big time. :(

[MizzouRah]

Looks like there is a way to rollback to Windows XP after installing Vista per this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933168

Has anyone tried this yet? I might have to try this.

[Eaglesfan27]

Got a new message today about unable to read memory at a location. I wonder if my RAM is the problem?

[Eaglesfan27]

So, I'm still having problems so I planned on using the Windows XP Recovery console to restore files. However, now I'm hitting a new problem. My computer doesn't recognize my CD or DVD drives until AFTER it is finished rebooting and loading the OS. Both drives seem to work fine after that, but this issue is preventing me from using the DVD recovery disk to fix Windows problems. Any ideas on this issue?

[johnnyshaka]

Double check the boot device order in the BIOS and make sure that your optical drives are ahead of your hard disks.

[MizzouRah]

Yep, check your boot menu and make sure CD Rom is first. Some pc's (like Dell), you can hit F12 when the BIOS screen comes up and select a boot device that way as well.

[Eaglesfan27]

I've gone into the bios setup utility already while it is booting using F2 (I haven't tried F12 yet) and in the Bios setup, it doesn't list my DVD drive. It does list the CD drive I have, but my Windows XP setup disk is a DVD.

[johnnyshaka]

I've gone into the bios setup utility already while it is booting using F2 (I haven't tried F12 yet) and in the Bios setup, it doesn't list my DVD drive. It does list the CD drive I have, but my Windows XP setup disk is a DVD.

What is the entire list?

[Eaglesfan27]

What is the entire list?


I'll have to look again to be sure. Doing so now.

[Eaglesfan27]

1. Intel ARRAY
2. Onboard or USB Floppy Drive
3. Onboard or USB CD-Rom Drive
4. Onboard SATA Hard Drive (not present)
5. Onboard IDE Hard Drive (not present)
6. Onboard Network Controller (not present)
7. USB Device (not present.)


I know that my SATA Hard Drives are present as well as a network controller. The hard drives work just fine after the system has finished booting up, but aren't detectable at that stage. Also, I can't find any listing for my DVD drive.

[johnnyshaka]

Couple of things...try moving CD-Rom to number one then reboot...see if your DVD drive will boot then. If not, disconnect the CD-Rom drive and reboot...I've seen where having both a CD and DVD drive, typically on the same IDE cable, can cause issues.

[MizzouRah]

I've gone into the bios setup utility already while it is booting using F2 (I haven't tried F12 yet) and in the Bios setup, it doesn't list my DVD drive. It does list the CD drive I have, but my Windows XP setup disk is a DVD.

Since when did Windows XP come on a DVD? Never have seen a copy of Windows anything on a DVD yet.

Have you tried the Windows CD in your CD drive?

[MizzouRah]

1. Intel ARRAY
2. Onboard or USB Floppy Drive
3. Onboard or USB CD-Rom Drive
4. Onboard SATA Hard Drive (not present)
5. Onboard IDE Hard Drive (not present)
6. Onboard Network Controller (not present)
7. USB Device (not present.)


I know that my SATA Hard Drives are present as well as a network controller. The hard drives work just fine after the system has finished booting up, but aren't detectable at that stage. Also, I can't find any listing for my DVD drive.

What brand system do you have? This is NOT normal for the drives to show up as "not present" even if they do boot fine.

[cartman]

Since when did Windows XP come on a DVD? Never have seen a copy of Windows anything on a DVD yet.

Have you tried the Windows CD in your CD drive?

Unless it is not a setup disk, and it is the recovery DVD that came with the new computer. If that is the case, instead of the install files, more than likely there is a "clean" image that will set your computer back to the way it came from the factory, which isn't what you want.

[Eaglesfan27]

Since when did Windows XP come on a DVD? Never have seen a copy of Windows anything on a DVD yet.

Have you tried the Windows CD in your CD drive?

The disk is labeled:

Operating System (already installed on your computer) Reinstallation DVD Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 05. It won't read at all in my CD drive.

[Eaglesfan27]

What brand system do you have? This is NOT normal for the drives to show up as "not present" even if they do boot fine.

Dell Dimension XPS Gen 4. I just finished a 90 minute phone call with Dell's "Premium Customer Service." I'm not really convinced that the guy fixed the problems or could even pin point them (he said it is too rarely occuring to fix everything) but the Hard Drive is "controlled by the ARRAY listed in number 1 since it is a RAID configuration" according to him.

Edit: He did have me download a few files, a debugger, and a few Windows updates. One of the problems I was having with IE7 and my email access is fixed. Not sure if anything else is fixed yet.

[cartman]

The disk is labeled:

Operating System (already installed on your computer) Reinstallation DVD Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 05. It won't read at all in my CD drive.

Unless it is not a setup disk, and it is the recovery DVD that came with the new computer. If that is the case, instead of the install files, more than likely there is a "clean" image that will set your computer back to the way it came from the factory, which isn't what you want.

I'm 99% sure that the install files AREN'T on that disc, and that DVD is just to restore your system back to factory settings. It'll wipe your drive clean, and set things back to the way they were when you opened the box it came in.

[MizzouRah]

Dell Dimension XPS Gen 4. I just finished a 90 minute phone call with Dell's "Premium Customer Service." I'm not really convinced that the guy fixed the problems or could even pin point them (he said it is too rarely occuring to fix everything) but the Hard Drive is "controlled by the ARRAY listed in number 1 since it is a RAID configuration" according to him.

Edit: He did have me download a few files, a debugger, and a few Windows updates. One of the problems I was having with IE7 and my email access is fixed. Not sure if anything else is fixed yet.

Ok then, sorry didn't know you had such a high end pc. :) That explains it.

I assume the DVD might have Windows XP media center and all the other files you need to restore your pc. I have media center and Vista and neither of them are DVD's. (I also have a Dell pc)