[comp.windows.ms] "System Error: Cannot write to device AUX"

dsb@Rational.COM (David S. Bakin) (02/12/89)

My Windows system started acting funny in the following way after installing
the debugging version from the SDK 2.1.  Now I'll try do do something, 
probably involving reading from the disk, and a System Error dialog will
pop up saying "Cannot write to device AUX".  Then clicking Retry or Cancel
has no effect -- there's no way to leave this state without rebooting the
machine.  This happens at random times in various applications, most 
frequently in the dialog editor.

Has anyone seen this?  What's the solution?  Thanks!  -- Dave

Particulars:  Windows/286 on a 640Kb machine w/ some LIM 4.0 memory, running
RAMDrive 2.10, SMARTDrive 2.10 and Himem 2.04.  Configured for 2 printers
on serial ports, one PCL, one Postscript, though in fact no printers are
attached.
----------------------------------------------------------
Dave Bakin				    (408) 496-3600
c/o Rational; 3320 Scott Blvd.; Santa Clara, CA 95054-3197
Internet:  dsb@rational.com	 Uucp:  ...!uunet!igor!dsb

roper@june.cs.washington.edu (Michael Roper) (02/12/89)

You know, Dave, you wouldn't have this problem if you 
wrote cleaner code.

Just kidding.  The appearance of the message box means
that Windows is executing a debugging function called
FatalExit().  The function wants to dump a stack trace
to AUX, but unless you're using a debugging terminal,
the write fails and you get the message box.  I use
a monochrome monitor for debugging and get around the
problem by installing a nifty driver that redirects AUX
to the monitor.  The driver is called ox.sys and I think
it comes with the SDK, although I'm not sure about that.
If you can't find it, send me mail.

By the way, the fatal exit codes are listed in the SDK.

Mike Roper