Dr. Watson Dialog Box Stops Responding

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0, Terminal Server Edition

SYMPTOMS

When an application fails, the Dr. Watson dialog box is displayed and waits, indicating that it is building a log file, but the OK and Cancel buttons remain unavailable. Also, the log file, %systemroot%\Drwtsn32.log, is never written to.

CAUSE

On RISC platforms, the exception record contains the address of the instruction that actually caused the exception. For OS/2 historical reasons, however, x86 exception records contain the address of the instruction that immediately follows the instruction that caused the exception. As a result, when Drwtsn32.exe attached to the failed process on a RISC platform, it retrieved the wrong address and the debugger process stopped responding.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.

Keywords : NT4SP4Fix kbbug4.00 kbfix4.00.sp4 nt32ap NTSrvWkst ntutil
Version : WinNT:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug