hollen@megatek.UUCP (Dion Hollenbeck) (03/05/91)
I just upgraded from a 286 clone to a 386-33 clone. Norton 5.0 Unerase
and Pathminder both now give me the error "Packed File Corrupt" when
I attempt to execute them. I have DOS 4.01. These programs still
run fine on my wife's 286. Does anyone know what is going on? I
have throttled back to 16Mhz and turned off cacheing, all to no avail.
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Dion Hollenbeck (619) 455-5590 x2814
Megatek Corporation, 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA 92121
uunet!megatek!hollen or hollen@megatek.uucpraster@itsgw.rpi.edu (Jerry D Bain) (03/05/91)
hollen@megatek.UUCP (Dion Hollenbeck) writes: >I just upgraded from a 286 clone to a 386-33 clone. Norton 5.0 Unerase >and Pathminder both now give me the error "Packed File Corrupt" when >I attempt to execute them. I have DOS 4.01. These programs still >run fine on my wife's 286. Does anyone know what is going on? I >have throttled back to 16Mhz and turned off cacheing, all to no avail. This is most likely related to a known problem with Microsoft's EXEPACK utility. Whenever a program that's been packed is loaded below 1000h, this very error message is generated. Needless to say, this is incorrect. This problem has been fixed in DOS 5.0 but all previous version suffer from this bug (in EXEPACK)... Until you upgrade (assuming you do), start running a TSR (or something to that effect) to use up the memory all the way to the 1000h boundry. This will force your programs in questions to get loaded without error. Another solution (less elegant) is to use an un-packing utility (like the one included with LHexe) to remove the EXEPACK code all-together (thus making the executables take up much more disk space). I dislike the latter solution as it tends to trip off virus detectors on my system (modifying executables).
schuster@cup.portal.com (Michael Alan Schuster) (03/05/91)
>I just upgraded from a 286 clone to a 386-33 clone. Norton 5.0 Unerase >and Pathminder both now give me the error "Packed File Corrupt" when >I attempt to execute them. I have DOS 4.01. These programs still >run fine on my wife's 286. Does anyone know what is going on? I >have throttled back to 16Mhz and turned off cacheing, all to no avail. The error message is generated by the decompression routine of EXEPACK, an executable file compressor that is used as a linker option in various Microsoft development packages/ Apparently the Norton files are linked using EXEPACK. The message does NOT mean the files are corrupted (at least not necessarily). It is caused by a bug in EXEPACK which manifests itself when A20 gating is enabled (i.e. either a high memory driver is accessing the upper RAM or, more commonly, due to failure of the ROM BIOS to disable A20 upon bootup). A BIOS upgrade may be in order. Failing that, there are floating around some utilities to turn off A20 so that RAM addressing wraps around from FFFF to 0000 the way EXEPACK expects it to.
ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) (03/05/91)
>I just upgraded from a 286 clone to a 386-33 clone. Norton 5.0 Unerase >and Pathminder both now give me the error "Packed File Corrupt" when >I attempt to execute them. I have DOS 4.01. These programs still >run fine on my wife's 286. Does anyone know what is going on? I >have throttled back to 16Mhz and turned off cacheing, all to no avail. I came across this error message two years ago with WordPerfect 5.0 and a (extensively added to) IBM XT. It turned out to be massive memory chip failure. The "packed file" is a file created in RAM as the program loads. It is this file which actually executes. As the RAM had bad spots in it, the file created was corrupt. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Iskandar Taib | The only thing worse than Peach ala Internet: NTAIB@AQUA.UCS.INDIANA.EDU | Frog is Frog ala Peach Bitnet: NTAIB@IUBACS ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
phil@brahms.amd.com (Phil Ngai) (03/06/91)
In article <HOLLEN.91Mar4125347@valhalla.megatek.UUCP> hollen@megatek.UUCP (Dion Hollenbeck) writes: |I just upgraded from a 286 clone to a 386-33 clone. Norton 5.0 Unerase |and Pathminder both now give me the error "Packed File Corrupt" when Go into your CMOS setup and see if you can turn the A20 gate off. Some software likes to assume you wrap around at the 1 meg limit. Some vendors assume you don't need this and setup their system to not wrap around. -- Combat global warming! Use disposable diapers and lock up that nasty carbon so it can't become a deadly greenhouse gas.