The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Kit2]

Just wanted to let you know that I have spent the last 3 days on the phone with Microsoft support trying to sort out why installing Sudoku killed my machine. (Booting up lead only to the blue screen of death.) I run Windows ME w/ Norton Internet Security, and we tried uninstalling Norton, reinstalling ME, disabling every device attached to the machine, and finally had to remove info from the IOSubsys folder to get it started again.

Any suggestions as to what may have been the problem?? And is it safe to try to run the program???

[Pappocom]

I have no idea, I'm afraid. That's probably because it has never happened before. No, wait, I did get one report of someone getting the blue screen of death, but that was when he launched the program, I think... Anyway, it was due to some conflict with his anti-virus software.

... finally had to remove info from the IOSubsys folder to get it started again.

Any idea what was removed? Or why? Are you saying that removing the material fixed the problem? It would certainly be interesting to know what was removed.

As to whether it is safe to run the program, I would say it was, but it's your call. The experience you have had so far is unprecedented.

- Wayne

[Kit2]

We removed all the files that didn't have a 6/8/2000 date. They were: apix.vxd, intelata.mdp, intelvsd.vxd, iomega.vxd, mxlstack.vxd, mxlw9x.vxd. Once they were removed, everything was fine.

Did you write anything into this folder as part of installation?

[It is also probably worth mentioning that I have Murphy blood and believe that my branch of the family produced the progenitor of the infamous law that bears our name, which explains why this has never happened to anyone else before....]

[Pappocom]

I don't recognize any of those files, and Sudoku doesn't write anything into that directory. I can't speak for the 3rd party installation program I use (InstallAware from MimarSinan), but I have never seen those files or that directory mentioned in their documentation.

Is that date June 8 or August 6 (2000)? The date means nothing to me. Does it mean anything to you?

How on earth did you or Microsoft track down what needed to be done? What gave these files away as the culprits?

All very curious. It would be fascinating if it weren't so irritating (for you).

- Wayne

[Kit2]

I don't know if the date is June or August, but I believe the subfolder should only hold files put there when ME was created. As for tracking it down, it was many hours of effort over those 3 days and lots of trial and error, but the key probably lay in the error codes that came up on the blue screen of death.

In any event, it's possible that this was just a weird anomaly on my machine that was triggered by the install process and you just happened to be the unlucky winner of that lottery. In other words, it may not have had anything to do specifically with your software and may have happened regardless of whose software was being installed.

Indeed very curious.

Best,

Kit

P.S. I took the plunge & tried the program, which seems to work just fine.
Curiouser and curiouser.