Windows 2000 16-bit Subsystem (NTVDM.EXE) Broken?!

[Vaelor 0]

Hey all.. just wondering if somebody could help me solve a huge puzzle with my Windows 2000 Pro box..

 

A little while ago, I came to notice that my 16-bit subsystem (NTVDM) had stopped functioning. The first clue was that none of my old DOS-based games worked at all anymore. At first I thought it was a problem with VDMsound, which I reinstalled a couple of time with no effect, but upon closer inspection I discovered that NTVDM wasn't staying loaded when I started up Windows. By watching the task manager during bootup, I saw that NTVDM.EXE was being loaded, but was exiting immediately. I tried running NTVDM.EXE manually also, with the exact same result.

 

At the moment, I can't run any DOS-based games or software that require the 16-bit subsystem to run under 32-bit Windows environments. I have about an intermediate to advanced level of skill with configuring and troubleshooting Windows, and I can't seem to find any way to reinstall/repair/troubleshoot NTVDM, nor any useful information about it online. I've also had a couple of expert level friends with MSCE's and the like take a look, they were stumped as well. In the end, I even paid a house-calling tech support guy to come over and take a look, and even he left stumped.

 

Can anybody please tell me how I can repair, or at least reinstall, the NTVDM 16-bit subsystem on my Windows 2000 box so I can play my old games again? I've managed to tide myself over for a while playing new games, but I've just bought a stack of classic vintage games and I'd really like to play them now!!

 

Any information or advice anybody can give me on this matter would be hugely appreciated!!

 

Thanks in advance! =)

[DosFreak 2]

Try "SFC /SCANNOW" from the command prompt.

[peterh 1]

Make sure that config.nt and autoexec.nt exist in your System32 folder and that they are readable as text files. There may be some copies of the originals in the Repair folder.

 

[Vaelor 0]

Uh, I know it's probably rude to have waited four months to say this, but thanks DosFreak - your solution fixed my problem, and I haven't had any problems with NTVDM since then.

 

Sorry if this seems like gravedigging here, I only just realized that I'd never followed up on this and didn't want it to go completely unthanked considering how grateful I was for the big fix!

[DosFreak 2]

Thanks for replying back!