__ is not a valid win32 application

[Carol]

Recently my son's (not Eric) computer has been getting a bit weird. It's been having WinXP BSODs, all different error messages each time, sometimes not even letting the computer fully start up. We managed to get it back into working order a couple times, it's working right now but still having issues. Stuff like device manager and event viewer, etc. is giving the error that it's not a valid win32 application, I know that can't be right. We scanned for virus with the latest updates, none. It's found a bunch of messed up files on startup diskscan, and fixed most of them, different things each time. Eric thinks either the hard drive is bad or the file system is corrupt (It's a Fat32 file system.) This started happening after we installed the blaster worm patch, and then before restarting un-installed Norton's AntiVirus 2002 so we could put in Norton's 2003. We checked for overheating, not an issue.

Any ideas?  As usual thanks in advance.

Windows XP home
40GB 7200rpm

Carol

[Neon]

Yea, it sounds like it could be a bad hard drive. It would be good to check it with the manufacturer's drive utility. Also, you might just try the Windows System File Checker to make sure the system files are intact.

Note: URL edited by Scuzzy

[Carol]

Thank you Neon.  I had Eric try the fixes you suggested and it seems to have solved the problem.  I think he said it was the System File Checker that corrected the problems.

Again thanks, and have a great day,
Carol

[trav]

Eric, who created Poasters is your son??

[scuzzy]

Eric is her son, but he didn't create Poasters. Poasters was the brain child of myself along with two previous administrators - long story. Poasters officially opened for business in November 2000. Unfortunately, we had various issues with our previous hosts, as well as the forum software we chose.

In July 2002, we adopted YaBB SE (with Eric's help) at the same time we signed up with a new host. Since our old forum software was incompatible with the new host's software, Eric busted his rear end converting our old database to MySQL. This was an important move to prevent losing our previous information.

After our new forum software was up and running, Eric talked us into running the database in his YaPP portal, which he created. Although Eric didn't create Poasters, we are certainly here today thanks to his great efforts.