Win 16 insufficient resources

Andrew Carrick · February 02, 2011, 03:23:17 AM

When logging into TAM, TAMhost doesn't load. One of our Dell XP machines keeps giving this error on a regular basis, it suggests restart, but that's not practical so many times a day. Anybody got any suggestions?

I tried killing ntvdm and wowexec processes and this sometimes works to allow log in but not always. PC has been fine for a couple of years.

Gene Foraker · February 02, 2011, 11:40:27 AM

Wow! You are really ahead of me. I'm just starting to get used to Win 7.

Andrew Carrick · February 02, 2011, 11:42:33 AM

Ouch there goes another rib as I ROFL.....

Ray Alvarez · February 02, 2011, 11:47:35 AM

We had this happen to 1 machine about a year ago and Applied logged in and made some changes to a file. I THINK it was the config.sys or something like that. Once they did that, we never had the problem again.

Andrew Carrick · February 02, 2011, 11:48:15 AM

Thanks I will refer it to them.

Orlando Alonzo · February 02, 2011, 12:00:33 PM

I think you need to make sure the following lines are in the config.sys
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FILES=150
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /P /E:2048

Bob · February 02, 2011, 12:20:02 PM

I agree this sets up 16bit environment. I thought config.sys was replaced with config.nt with XP and up. Use to be a buffer line as well but not sure if still applies. Heck it's been a very long time since I've even looked at these files.

Just curious why workstation worked for year or two and only now having problem. Did the file get deleted?

Problem could even be something else but in general most 16bit errors point to environment set in these files or the absence of them.

Jeff Zylstra · February 02, 2011, 12:47:54 PM

If I remember correctly, the environment space needs to be increased in order for TAM to store certain parameters and variables in that space. The /E:2048 on your command.com is the key parameter. Do that and reboot and you should be good, I think.

Bloody Jack Kidd · February 02, 2011, 02:22:49 PM

Bob is right - files should be config.nt and autoexec.nt - unless your on Win98 or something silly like that.

Andrew Carrick · February 24, 2011, 09:52:09 AM

i'm now getting "NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal operation (string fo numbers) Choose close to terminate". Any thoughts?

Andrew Carrick · February 24, 2011, 10:15:02 AM

I have restored config file to original state and this fixed the new issue. Wonder if I'll get the old issue now....

Mark · February 28, 2011, 02:00:15 PM

Whenever I've had this happen it was almost always related to the "path" environment variable being too long. This most often occurred after installing something on the workstation in question.

Editing the path variable and taking out whatever might have been added usually solves the problem. I suppose this may not be a permanent fix though..

Andrew Carrick · February 28, 2011, 02:37:14 PM

Thanks. I'll just keep an eye on it, no repeat since last posted.