MSD Fails w/ Application Error After Clicking OS Version (155461)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.5
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51
- Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.5
- Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51
This article was previously published under Q155461 SYMPTOMS
A computer running Windows NT Diagnostics (Winmsd.exe) may fail after you
click the operating system version button. The following error message
appears:
An application error has occurred
and an application log is being generated.
WINMSD.EXE
Exception: access violation (0xC0000005, Address 0x021a9720)
In addition, if Drwtsn32.exe is set up to create a Drwtsn32.log, the
following text will appear in the header.
Application exception occurred:
App: winmsd.DBG (pid=113)
When: 8/15/1996 @ 16:14:44.592
Exception number: c0000005 (access violation)
NOTE: The address and pid you have may differ from those in the example.
CAUSE
When the computer was installed, the date and time of the computer were out
of the range supported by the ctime library function in the C language.
This function handles dates in the range January 1, 1970 to January 18,
2038 (inclusive). The registry contains an entry that has an invalid Hex
number that is out of range. In most instances this value was found to be
improperly set to REG_DWORD 0xFFFFFFFF. The following is the registry key
that causes the problem:
\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\InstallDate
WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, do the following:
WARNING: Using the Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-
wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them.
Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of the
Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.
- Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) and locate the following Registry
subkey in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree:
\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT - Select the InstallDate value and change it to a valid Hex Dword
representing an appropriate date and time.
- Sunday, January 01, 1995, 12:00:00 AM = 2f0636d0
- Monday, January 01, 1996, 12:00:00 AM = 30e76a50
- Use the registry entry value from another computer.
- Write a small C program using ctime to calculate the exact value.
- Quit the Registry Editor and run Windows NT Diagnostics.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.5x. We
are researching this problem and will post new information here in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.
Modification Type: | Major | Last Reviewed: | 12/16/2003 |
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Keywords: | KB155461 |
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