Q&A STOPS RUNNING WITH A WINDOWS ERROR (WINXP or 2000)
If you have been running Q&A 4.0 or 5.0 or even Q&A for Windows successfully in Windows XP or 2000 and all of a sudden it will no longer run, read on. If you run Q&A and get a Windows error message that looks something like this:
| 16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem C:\Documen~1\UserName\Desktop\Q&A40p~1.PIF 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. |
You are seeing a problem caused by a recent Update to Windows. We don't know what update it was and can get no confirmation but ...
The issue is that Windows has deleted one or two critical files from your %SystemRoot%\System32 (usually C:\Windows\System32) folder. Without these files, Q&A and other DOS programs will NOT run. The two files in question are:
AUTOEXEC.NT
CONFIG.NT
Both of these files have to be replaced in the %SystemRoot%\System32 Folder.
You can find copies of these files in the %SystemRoot%\REPAIR folder. Just copy them (DO NOT MOVE THEM) back into the System32 folder.
This issue may recur when you reboot your computer. And, then again, it may not. We can't pin it down, but we do know that it causes the error.