Error - DosDevice failed. More data is available.

This error box comes up while Windows XPHE SP2 is loading -

Error - DosDevice failed. More data is available.

It comes up at the point after the rest of the systray icons show up and before the ZoneAlarm 6 and ATI Catalyst Control Center systray icons show up.

It doesn't happen on every boot, but most.

It didn't start happening until after I installed my N64 Gamepad with the Boom N64/PSX USB adapter. My previously installed gamepad is the Saitek P880 with the updated driver and software installed. Both pads and the Saitek software work properly.

I scanned with an updated Spybot S&D and McAfee VirusScan.

Nothing unusual shows up in Error Reporting.

I click "OK" and the error box goes away. Everything works fine.

What is that thing?

A Yahoo search came up with some stuff about errors on NT4. A KB search got no results.

What's with this weird box?

 

start->run->eventvwr.msc and locate related errors/warnings. Post details from a couple of them. Easiest is to open an event, click on the icon below the up/down arrows to send a text copy to your clipboard, and paste the results in a reply here.

 

Okay, here it goes.

There are a couple of things that have shown up.

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1517
Date: 8/19/2005
Time: 4:16:47 PM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: M5
Description:
Windows saved user M5\Dennis registry while an application or service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used by the user's registry has not been freed. The registry will be unloaded when it is no longer in use.

This is often caused by services running as a user account, try configuring the services to run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

And -

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1524
Date: 8/19/2005
Time: 4:16:47 PM
User: M5\Dennis
Computer: M5
Description:
Windows cannot unload your classes registry file - it is still in use by other applications or services. The file will be unloaded when it is no longer in use.



For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

That set keeps happening within the log. There were also some WMI errors from a few days ago (probably related to being before I made the fix of Creative's pfDETnt-set startup to demand, and pfmodnt-set startup to system to fix Creative's rotten driver design that causes DCOM errors), and a set of true vector errors that I know come from ZoneAlarm. I did a fresh install of XP here, and installed the latest version of ZoneAlarm that has been giving folks fits over at the ZoneLabs forums. However, no errors like that are there since this weird startup error box has begun happening. So, I think ZoneAlarm has settled in but I can't be sure it isn't now causing this new error.

From the descriptions, it looks like something is refusing to let go when I shutdown to restart the computer. Then, the second error occurs after rebooting and that weird error box comes up.

This could very well be a new ZoneAlarm bug thing, but like I said I have no idea.

When I just came home and powered on the computer a few minutes ago there was no error box at startup. Perhaps it's just when I restart? And, even then, it doesn't always happen.

But there are those logs for ya. What do you think?

 

So much for ZoneAlarm6 causing it. I just backtracked to ZoneAlarm5.5.094 and the same error box and the 2 error log entries occur.

I don't know. ATI Catalyst Control Center? McAfee VirusScan 10? My Saitek gamepad drivers? I know the Saitek drivers behave badly on Windows 9x machines, but never had a problem with them on XP before. GetRight? The latest Via Sata drivers? This could be anything.

Whatever could it mean in the error log properties info where is suggests I'm likely running a user service instead of network or system?

Interestingly though, in the few startups while I didn't have ZoneAlarm installed before I installed the older version, I received no errors.

Heh. Maybe ANY version of ZoneAlarm might cause it, depending on a system's configuration.

With the older version of ZoneAlarm now installed, Windows XP is taking a long time in the "Now shutting down Windows" screen before shutting down to restart. I had noticed this while working with some friend's computers that had ZoneAlarm installed through the years, but mine hadn't suffered from this. I've now joined the club.

I'm at a loss to figure this out. It doesn't seem to be keeping anything from working properly. Perhaps I'll have to just accept the error?

 

Those two errors are ones I treat as non-happenings unless I'm seeing some operational issue.

Most likely, something you installed added a service and that service is using the user credentials it saw at install time (your account) rather than one of the system services. Usually down to poorly written install code.

start->run->services.msc and the right hand column will be the logon in use by that service. If you see one using your name, go into properties, into logon, and try to change it to Local. If that works, you should be good to go. If not, try using Networking.

 

There's nothing with my name there. Just Local System, Local Service, and Network.

I'm still getting that Querry DosDevice failed box at startup. I wonder why it says More information available, but doesn't provide anything to click except OK.

There doesn't seem to be any "information available" forthcoming from this system.

It would be nice to remove this constant reminder that there's something wrong. I hate that. I don't like stuff to be wrong.

It all started after I had successfully installed the Saitek gamepad driver and proceeded to install the N64 pad, for which XP installs its own driver for. I had rebooted fine with the Saitek, but after rebooting with the N64 pad this error box started popping in right before the ZoneAlarm icon loads.

When I fully uninstalled the ZoneAlarm 6 to go back to the previous version, the errors stopped. After installing the 5.5.094 last 5.5 version of ZoneAlarm Free, the errors came back.

The gamepads (the Saitek and the N64) both test out perfectly and Dxdiag reports and tests of everything say nothing is wrong.

Device Manager, even when clicking to show hidden devices, shows nothing wrong.

The error reporting only shows those 2 errors we talked about.

Why does that stupid error box think something's wrong?

Maybe if I unplug the gamepads and reboot without them the errors won't happen. I suppose I could just plug them in after Windows loads and unplug them before shutting down.

I think ZoneAlarm doesn't like something that one of the pad's drivers are doing. The box always pops up when ZoneAlarm is trying to load.

I'll try that and see what happens.

I might just go with the XP firewall. ZoneAlarm is increasingly buggy.

 

Holy signed XP driver, Batman! Unplugging the stupid N64 Boom adapter stopped that error!

Now, that's just weird. XP has a signed driver that it installs for the thing, but when it's plugged in it somehow causes an error. And I still think it's firewall related because there's no error without ZoneAlarm running with the thing plugged in.

I left the Saitek pad plugged in and just unplugged the N64 and restarted. No error happened at startup, and I restarted again just to be sure. No error.

Now, that N64 thing needs to be calibrated in the Windows joystick control panel for it to work properly. I'd be concerned about needing to calibrate it every time I plugged it in if I run it this way, however I recall from unplugging it before that XP remembers the calibration as long as I don't actually remove the pad's driver from the joystick control panel while it's plugged in. I guess that actually uninstalls the driver's settings I made. If it's only just not connected and I plug the pad in, Windows remembers the calibration changes I made the last time it was plugged in. I hope. That's what I experienced before.

So I had no reason to backtrack ZoneAlarm. The old version behaves just as badly as the new one in this circumstance. I'll just leave it on as is for now, as Zonelabs doesn't even have the new version on its server when I check for updates. I guess they don't want to push it for now, as many users have reported upgrade problems to the 6 version.

Funny that this doesn't occur on Windows Me. Then again, there might have been some error in the background that Windows Me just doesn't report like XP does.

It'll be slightly annoying, as the best place to plug in the N64 is in back of my PC. That way the Boom adapter box can sit on the desk instead of hanging from the front of my PC, blocking my cdrw and dvd drives. I'll just have to reach back there everytime I want to use the controller.

Firewalls can be pesky, eh?