Troubleshooting NTVDM and WOW Startup Errors

ID: Q196453

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SUMMARY

This is a step-by-step troubleshooter for troubleshooting NTVDM or WOW startup issues. Please note that Sysedit.exe is a 16-bit program available in Windows NT available for troubleshooting these issues. If it starts up, both the WOW and NTVDM DLLs and executables are okay and you need to concentrate on the environmental steps below. If SYSEDIT does not start up, try to run only the MS-DOS shell "command.com" from the command prompt. Please note that, if SYSEDIT does not run, all of the steps below apply.

MORE INFORMATION

Check the Autoexec.nt and Config.nt for anything unusual or anything that can be commented out.

Rename Autoexec.bat.

Check for changes in Win.ini or System.ini, or replace by expanding the original files off of the installation media.

Rename all other *.ini files if possible

In the Config.nt file, allow only:
```
      dos=high, umb
      device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys
      files=60
      shell=%SystemRoot%\system32\command.com /e:4096 
```
NOTE:
- The default entries off of the installation disk will allow SYSEDIT to run, but other entries as outlined above may be needed for other applications to run.
- Files has a valid range of: files = 5 to 254.

Verify the environment variables by doing either of the following:
- Click Start, click Settings, click Control Panel, double-click System, and then click the Environment tab. In Windows 2000, click Settings, click Control Panel, double-click System, click the Advanced tab, and then click Environment Variables.
  
  -or-
- Run the SET command at the command prompt and check all environmental variables for nulls, blanks, double equal sign (==) marks, or other unknown entries.

Ensure that the path is the same as the default path off of the CD; that is, that there are no entries prepended to the path; if a nonstandard entry is there, remove it.

Check path length for lengths after expansion that are near 200 characters. Path is a combination of path in Autoexec.nt and on the Environment tab in the System tool of Control Panel. If the path is over 100 characters, change it for testing.

Check the following registry entries. The easiest way is to check them out is to see if they are populated first. (There are some cases where keys or subkeys just disappear.) Then, if the keys are fully populated, do not try to determine the correct values, just download them and load on a test system to see if the problem can be reproduced.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\WOW: Parameters for WOW startup
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WOW: System.ini settings
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFile\Mapping: Mappings for Win.ini, System.ini, Winfile.ini,Progman.ini, and Control.ini
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment: Environment Settings
- Other INI settings that can be found in the registry: see pages 905 through 908 of the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Resource Kit.

If this does not work, you have missing or corrupted files. (More likely, the files will be corrupted rather than missing; try to replace these first.)
- Ntio.sys
- Ntdos.sys
- Ntvdm.exe
- Ntvdm.dll (3.1 only)
- Redir.exe
- Wowexec.exe
- Vdmredir.dll
- Krnl386.exe
- Krnl286.exe (Windows NT 3.1 only)
- Gdi.exe
- User.exe
- Wow32.dll (not in Windows 3.1)
- Commdlg.dll
- Version.dll
- Shell32.dll
- Gdi32.dll
- User32.dll
- Advapi32.dll
- Compobj.dll
- Ddeml.dll
- Ole2.dll
- Ole2dist.dll
- Storage.dll
- Rpcrt4.dll
Under system look for:
- Avicap.dll
- Avifile.dll
- Commdlg.dll
- Keyboard.drv
- Lzexpand.dll
- Mciavi.drv
- Mciseq.drv
- Mciwave.drv
- Mmsystem.dll
- Mmtask.tsk
- Mouse.drv
- Msvideo.dll
- Olecli.dll
- Olesvr.dll
- Setup.inf
- Shell.dll
- Sound.drv
- System.drv
- Tapi.dll
- Timer.drv
- Ver.dll
- Vga.drv
- Wfwnet.drv
- Winspool.drv
Missing or corrupted DLLs second step:

If it was not one of those, you can try the DLLs under the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\WOW

Value: Known DLLs; here is the list of the DLLs, but most are in the list above.

At this point, you may want to try the brute force method: do a parallel installation with all updates and just copy over %SystemRoot%\System and %SystemRoot%\System32 from the parallel installation to the new system.
- Comm.drv
- Commdlg.dll
- Ctl3dv2.dll
- Ddeml.dll
- Keyboard.drv
- Lanman.drv
- Mapi.dll
- Mmsystem.dll
- Mouse.drv
- Netapi.dll
- Olecli.dll
- Olesvr.dll
- Pmspl.dll
- Shell.dll
- Sound.drv
- System.drv
- Toolhelp.dll
- Vga.drv
- Wfwnet.drv
- Win87em.dll
- Winoldap.mod
- Winsock.dll
- Winspool.exe
- Wowdeb.exe
- Timer.drv
- Rasapi16.dll
- Compobj.dll
- Storage.dll
- Ole2.dll
- Ole2disp.dll
- Ole2nls.dll
- Typelib.dll
- Msvideo.dll
- Avifile.dll
- Msacm.dll
- Mciavi.drv
- Mciseq.drv
- Mciwave.drv
- Progman.exe
- Avicap.dll

A different approach which works well if the customer has the patience to try it; is to use the following third-party tools from www.sysinternals.com by Mark Russinovich. Please note that we cannot send these utilities to customers, but we may direct them there to download the utilities themselves.

Try running NTfilemon.exe. Just kill any existing NTVDMs and start NTFILEMON and then see which files it has problem opening. By replacing files at one per interaction you will eventually get the system back up.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbtshoot
Version : WINDOWS:2000; winnt:4.0
Platform : WINDOWS winnt
Issue type : kbinfo