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TNM won't start

King_Of_Old_SchoolPosted on 12/08/08 at 21:45:13

A guy emailed me today with the following problem. I'm not sure what to suggest; if any of you can help I'll be sure to pass it on.

I've had this particular computer for 4 years. When I first got it, I put TNM on it. Unfortunately, I didn't get it registered in time. Ever since then, I cant get TNM (trial version or anything else) to work. I'm perfectly willing to register again, but cant get the thing to even start normally. I always receive a message saying that it cannot work in MS-Dos mode and Windows application.

Cheers guys.


pszPosted on 12/09/08 at 02:15:30

I assume they've totally uninstalled and deleted everything? (After making a backup of the circuit directory of course?)

The only thing I could think of would be to try DosBox or a PC Emulator... Perhaps there's a lingering file somewhere causing issues...


Try to get an *EXACT* error log/message. THat will help a tonne.
King_Of_Old_SchoolPosted on 12/10/08 at 18:27:10

He just got back to me and writes:

Okay, Here is the exact message

C:\WINDOWS\TNM7SE~1\TNM7SE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

Now, also bear in mind, that whenever I would download it, I never get the Bat. file. I would extract/unzip everything and instead of getting the icon with the nut and bolt in the little screen, I would get nothing in that. No not or bolt.

I downloaded the program to a friends computer where it works okay enough (I have to redownload it everyday though). We tried saving that onto a CD-R and installing it but kept getting "ACCESS IS DENIED" for a few seconds before getting that message again
ROH, Indy, and Puro Mark69Posted on 12/10/08 at 19:48:38

On 12/10/08 at 18:27:10, King_Of_Old_School wrote:He just got back to me and writes:

Okay, Here is the exact message

C:\WINDOWS\TNM7SE~1\TNM7SE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

Now, also bear in mind, that whenever I would download it, I never get the Bat. file. I would extract/unzip everything and instead of getting the icon with the nut and bolt in the little screen, I would get nothing in that. No not or bolt.

I downloaded the program to a friends computer where it works okay enough (I have to redownload it everyday though). We tried saving that onto a CD-R and installing it but kept getting "ACCESS IS DENIED" for a few seconds before getting that message again
What version of Windows is he using? If Vista, did he try compatibility mode with XP? Did you try saving it to a different directory other than TNM7SE? Is there a problem with his hard drive itself?

PS: Did he or you e-mail Oliver?

Hold on: maybe this could help, not sure, but it might:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324767


I GOOGLED, that exact error message in your post and it led to the above link:

It's probably a Window's related problem and not so much a TNM problem, worst case scenario is that he would have to format his HD.
pszPosted on 12/11/08 at 01:33:07

On the surface, it looks like Windows isn't reading the .nt files used for DOS apps (2K/XP/Vista all use config.nt and autoexec.nt by default as replacements for config.sys and autoexec.bat from the Dos Dayz).

You CAN do a custom autoexec and config file, but it's generally overkill. Then again, if the .nt file got corrupted, it could also cause other problems with other Dos apps.

Try to open the file in Notepad (it's a plain text file, afterall). If there's any garbled text, or nothing in it, it may be just corrupted, and easilly replaced.

If notepad opens it fine, and everything looks correct, then you may have a bigger issue.


In the meantime: DosBox 4tw ;->
The TNM Members ChampPosted on 12/11/08 at 06:07:08

I'm using Vista64 so while I can use DosBox fine, I can't access any of my Windows XP 32 bit plugins. :-( I'm glad DosBox at least gets TNM to work for me.
pszPosted on 12/11/08 at 16:14:18

That's not a problem of Vista, it's a problem with all 64bit Windows: No 16bit app support (TNM is at least partly 16bit, last I checked), so you have to use DosBox on XP64. Server64, and Vista64... Since DosBox is JUST DOS, no Windows Plugin support.

If/when VMWare/VirtualPC/Wine/Whatever gets to the point of running Win9x at decent speed and compat., you'll be able to run TNM that way.


Or if TNM 7TE/TNM 8 ever comes out, maybe it'll be 32bit-pure ;->