RESOLVED Help please - 16 bit program woes under XP Pro Sp-2

[Darwin]

Hi all,

I use an antiquated 16 bit package to analyse 3D morphometric data on Neanderthal, early anatomically modern and modern human crania. All good fun... For some reason, the software (Morpheus - not to be confused with the old P2P client) will no longer run on my computer (running the 32bit version of XP Pro). I can copy the program directory onto a USB  thumbdrive and run it without problem from other computers running Win2k, XP Home and XP Pro but on my computer, running either from the stick or from the directory on my harddrive, opening the application and then clicking anywhere on the toolbar causes it to crash with the following error (note that I had to record the process with Blueberry Flashback Recorder in order to be able to read the error message it flashes by in a millisecond:

RESOLVED Help please - 16 bit program woes under XP Pro Sp-2

I've tried a number of things - reexpanding autoexec.inf, config.inf., and command.com from the OS installation disks, searching for any duplicate dlls elsewhere on the harddrive (there weren't any) in case of a versino conflict, and throwing my cookies at the computer. None of it has helped in the slightest...

Any thoughts? This used to run on this computer no problem... so I am assuming I have a conflict somewhere.

[cranioscopical]

Any new context-menu entries that you can  turn off temporarily?  That trod on one of my applications and drove me nuts until I woke up to it.
Does your Morpheus run in safe mode?

[scancode]

That looks like an ASPack/ASProtect error, got a lot of those when 'debugging' those apps... Maybe that app is ASP*d or you're running an ASP*d app?

[Darwin]

Hmm... the context menus might be a good place to start - mine are way out of control. This will force me to rein them in, even if this doesn't prove to have been the problem!

As far as I know the neither this app nor any other that I run is ASP*d. I've certainly never packed its exe or any other exe and I don't *think* the author has done this, either. Do  you know of any way to check my other packages?

Thanks for the suggestions!

[tabletguy]

Have you tried setting compatibility mode to Windows 98SE, etc?

Just create a PIF shortcut (should happen automatically for 16 bit apps anyways), then check properties, and change the compatibility mode.

That always works for me on programs or old games.

[Darwin]

Hi tabletguy. Thanks for the post - I *should* have mentioned that in the original post. Yes, I have tried all of the various compatibility modes and sadly none of them seem to make a speck of difference...

[tabletguy]

I once had a Bengali keyboard popping up whenever I started up my Tablet Computer. Problem is that I didn't have Bengali installed, and the keyboard was all blank characters. This meant that I could not sign into my Tablet for 3 days, until I figured out how to shift keyboard modes...

About a year later, I happened to uninstall ALL languages (except original English), and then reinstall the one extra one that I currently use (Chinese). From that day on, my Bengali keyboard disappeared.

So, that's my last suggestion to try. Need to reboot between, of course. You could do a system restore point before any of this, if you need. Also, I assume you'll have your Installation CD handy if you need to reinstall any languages. (I thought you mentioned you had Korean support).

I know IE has extra language support, but I don't have a clue as to whether or not that would apply here...

[Darwin]

Chris - you beauty! I hadn't done a thing until about a minute and a half ago WRT your suggestion about the context menu. I just turned to that suggestion now and though "Hmm... I wonder if MMM+ might have something to do with this and exited it. Boom! Morpheus works as advertised. Start MMM+ again and it crashes.

Thank you, thank you, thank you 

[cranioscopical]

Chris - you beauty! I hadn't done a thing until about a minute and a half ago WRT your suggestion about the context menu. I just turned to that suggestion now and though "Hmm... I wonder if MMM+ might have something to do with this and exited it. Boom! Morpheus works as advertised. Start MMM+ again and it crashes.

Thank you, thank you, thank you 

-Darwin (September 25, 2007, 08:53 AM)

  Glad I was lucky with the suggestion!

[rjbull]

Blueberry Flashback Recorder in order to be able to read the error message it flashes by in a millisecond:

-Darwin (September 22, 2007, 04:25 PM)

Darwin,

Do you have a link for Blueberry Flashback Recorder?

TIA...

[Darwin]

Blueberry Flashback Recorder in order to be able to read the error message it flashes by in a millisecond:

-Darwin (September 22, 2007, 04:25 PM)

Darwin,

Do you have a link for Blueberry Flashback Recorder?

TIA...

-rjbull (September 26, 2007, 09:31 AM)

Maybe... who's asking? Oh alright - here it is... BB Flashback website. It was featured in the Screencasting tool review here on Donationcoder and is also subject to a donationcoder discount (50%). I intitally bought the lite version but upgraded that (still discounted) to the full version a couple of days later.

[rjbull]

Do you have a link for Blueberry Flashback Recorder?

-rjbull (September 26, 2007, 09:31 AM)

Maybe... who's asking? Oh alright - here it is... BB Flashback website. It was featured in the Screencasting tool review here on Donationcoder and is also subject to a donationcoder discount (50%). I intitally bought the lite version but upgraded that (still discounted) to the full version a couple of days later.

-Darwin (September 26, 2007, 03:13 PM)

Thanks, Darwin.  I tried Googling Blueberry Flashback Recorder and didn't get any useful hits, so had to ask.  At those prices, I'm not surprised I didn't remember it from earlier DC posts! 

[scancode]

That looks like an ASPack/ASProtect error, got a lot of those when 'debugging' those apps... Maybe that app is ASP*d or you're running an ASP*d app?

-scancode (September 22, 2007, 05:36 PM)

This goes for bitchyness' sake. IT WAS Aspack!

[Darwin]

Thanks scanycode - never thought of checking Mmm+ for that. The developer is now aware of the problem and has suggested that a new feature to be added in the future (unspecified timeline) should address this. I'll point him to this thread and the Aspack link - should help him avoid this in the future!

[scancode]

You don't have to thank me, I had those issues for quite a bit 'till I figured that ASP* dislikes almost-everything...