System freeze with ntvdm.exe

Question

Hi,As you can see in my signature below, I have one system with Home and a new system with Pro. Here's my problem; I cannot get 16 bit apps to load in Pro. I have the CD's of two apps that installed without problem on my Home system (although possibly pre-SP1 and certainly pre-SP2.) They will not load auto on the Pro system and when I manually click setup.exe, nothing happens and of course I clicked more than once -- I found out after a while, that each attempt to install opened an instance of ntvdm.exe with the result being one, two, or more, instances of this ntvdm.exe taxed the CPU usage to 100% every time. The only way I could free the CPU was to reboot, or use Task Manager to shut down all occurrances of ntvdm.exe. No error messages were presented. Is there any way I can get these applications to load without freezing my system?Your every consideration is greatly appreciated.Thank you, Bob

RoHe · Answer

Try this: http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/16bit_fix.htm Ron

rjmat · Answer

Hi Ron,
Sorry, the only thing that changed is now WOWEXE.EXE zaps the CPU to 100%, I guess the system isn't really frozen because I can still open Task Manager, and go to a normal restart. That process showed under IEXPLORE, and I didn't see any incidence of ntvdm.exe this time.
Bob

rjmat · Answer

Hi Ron,Thanks for your reply. I have d/l your recommended fix and will install it and see if it does the job. I will post back.Bob

RoHe · Answer

Bob,
Are you sure you want wowexe.exe? According to this link, it's nasty malware.
http://www.greatis.com/appdata/d/w/wowexe.exe_Removal.htm

Google it and you'll see other sites with complaints that it uses 100% CPU time, so I really have to wonder whether it's something you want/need on your PCs. Might explain why it's associating itself with IE, so it can 'phone home' or do other damage.

Ron

rjmat · Answer

Hi Ron,It obviously came as part of that d/l that was linked above. I did some googling before I posted here and I noticed that both the ntvdm.exe, and wowexe.exe were listed as needed to run 16 bit apps with WinNT and 2000.One of the apps I've been trying to install is the CD that comes with 'WinXP Inside and Out' which is a Micro$oft production (???). The ebook part of that will not run or install.Bob

RoHe · Answer

Not sure exactly what you mean by: 'It obviously came as part of that d/l that was linked above'. If you mean with the 16-bit fix download from Denny's site, I seriously doubt it. I've run that download and there's no wowexe.exe on my 8400 with XPpro SP2. I do have wowexe c.exe (notice the extra 'c') on my system. So don't confuse wowexe.exe trojan with wowexec.exe. You could try running a system file check to see if there's a corrupt XP file(s). Click start>run type in: sfc /scannow (space between sfc and /) click ok sfc will check all XP system files and replace any that are missing/damaged. It may ask for your XP CD. If this is from a Microsoft Press book about XP, I don't understand why it won't install on your system. Any new error messages? Are you using an account with Administrator rights that allow you to install software? Look in Add/Remove control panel and see if it's listed and try to uninstall and then reinstall. Otherwise, you may have to contact Microsoft Press. Ron

rjmat · Answer

Hi Ron,Sorry, call off the dogs; it is in fact wowexec.exe and I tried once again to load the genuine Micro$oft Press 'Windows XP Inside and Out' and the same thing continues to occur -- wowexec.exe process is running (under mscifapp.exe this time) at 98+ maxing out my CPU usage. After I read your message earlier, I ran a full system virus scan, d/l and ran AdAware, and MS Antispyware. The only thing out of the ordinary was AdAware found some cookies that I have since deleted. While I am typing this my CPU continues to be 100%. I'll either have to close wowexec.exe or re-boot to get it back to normal.I have yet to crack the seal on the WinXP CD pack.Thank you,Bob

Windows General

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