Windows Error Messages

"This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor."
You haven't broken the law. The program you're running has tried to access an instruction, a file, an area in memory, or a resource that is in use by another program, has become corrupted, or has been reserved or allocated for a different purpose.

When you click OK, the program will shut down and you can restart it, possibly without further problems. If you continue to see the error message when using a particular program, you may have to remove the program (using Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel or the program's own Uninstall utility), and re-install it. Don't just re-install over top of the previous installation.

"Error starting program. There is not enough memory. Quit some programs and try again." Your computer may need more memory (RAM). You may have too many programs running at one time and resources have been depleted. This includes TSRs that may be running in the background. Do you have a large array of icons in your system tray on the taskbar? Press CTRL-ALT-DEL and see how many programs are running. You may have to close some down to regain resources.

Remember also,that some programs not currently running may not have released memory and other resources properly at shut-down. In this case you may need to turn off your computer, wait 30 seconds or so, and restart it.

Also, check to see if your hard drive is getting full. Windows requires free space on your hard drive to use as a swap file, or virtual memory. I suggest leaving about 25% of your hard drive free (at least the drive that contains your operating system files). Some people consider this a little extravagant, but if you want to push the edge, then be prepared to deal with the consequences.

Delete unnecessary files from your hard drive. Empty your Recycle Bin and your Internet Browser's cache. Do a ScanDisk and defragment your hard drive.

"A:\ is not accessible. The device is not ready."
This is an easy one. It usually means you've tried to access the A:\ drive, and there isn't a floppy in it. You'll see the same message for any other type of drive that has removable media, such as a CD drive or Zip drive, etc...

"Error Reading Drive 'X'"
"Data Error Reading Drive 'X'"
"Serious Disk Error Writing Drive 'X'"
"Seek Error - Sector not found"
Of course, the 'X' would be replaced with the drive letter.

Although this is not always disasterous, it can indicate a damaged hard drive. If you get any of these messages and can't gain access to your hard drive, its time to kick yourself in the butt for not backing up regularly. If you can find a way to access your drive, make backups.

Sometimes, these messages are caused by corrupted data on the drive, or a disk that's been formatted with a different Operating System. In other cases, a different format may have been used when the disk was written to.

See if you can access the drive from another program. Try running ScanDisk (thorough), repairing any damaged data and watching for bad sectors. ScanDisk will mark bad sectors so that they are used for future storage. However, if the number of bad sectors continues to increase, or ScanDisk shows a large number of them, its time to back up your data and get a new hard drive (not always easy if you can't access the drive). Once the damaged data is repaired, try accessing the disk again.

Does the drive show up in My Computer? Could it be full? Turn your computer off, wait about 30 seconds, then turn it on and boot to the DOS prompt. Watch the computer as it boots up. Does it recognize the drive? Can you access the drive from the DOS prompt? Check the configuration in your CMOS setup. Check the data cables. Check the power connection.

If it's a hard drive, can you hear it spin up at startup? Sometimes, you can tell if its spinning by lightly touching the drive. Remember your ESD precautions! If it's a floppy drive, try another floppy disk that you know is good. Will it read that? Try another floppy drive.

"Missing Shortcut: Windows is searching for 'filename.xxx' . To locate the file yourself, click Browse." This usually means that you've clicked on a shortcut that points to an executable file that is no longer there. What's probably happened, is that you've removed a program from your computer, and didn't remove the shortcut. In most cases, the fix is to delete the shortcut.

In some instances, you may have just moved the program, or reinstalled it in a different place. Again, its easiest to just delete the shortcut, use Windows Explorer to navigate to the applications executable file, right-click on it and drag it to the desktop. When you release the button, choose 'Create Shortcut(s) Here' to make a new shorcut.

If you don't know which executable file the shortcut points to, right-click on it and choose 'Properties'. The 'Target' textbox will give you the name and path of the associated file.

When removing a program from your computer, always try to use the 'Add/Remove' utility in Control Panel, or the 'Uninstall' program that came with the application.

Even after using these utilities to remove an application, you may receive a message that says something like, "Windows was not able to remove some items associated with the program...", and then Windows will tell you that you must remove these items yourself. Check the Start Menu, and delete any shortcuts to the associated application. Then check the desktop, and delete the shortcut there. Next, if the program was in it's own directory, make sure the directory has been removed.

The thing to remember is that, if the installation program didn't make the shortcut, then the uninstallation program won't remove it.

Back | Next