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At some point or other in our PC using lives there come certain errors for which there seems to be just no explanation. You don't want to wait on hold for hours with tech-support, and the "convenient" online troubleshooting guides either give you an ambiguous explanation of the cause of the problem, or no mention at all. You're then forced to type as much as you know about the problem into Google and search through thousands of pages (most not even in English) for answers. That is why I have compiled many examples of this breed of error here. I will continue to add more errors to this list as I run into them. If you have an error you can't seem to understand, or a fix to such an error, please e-mail me. And don't feel bad about not being able to fix it; most of these errors are the fault of the programmers. |
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PATCH Utility Aborts Without Cause - Error Number 32771 This error occurs while attempting to install the v4.03 product upgrade patch for McAfee Internet Security (MIS) 4.00, 4.01, or 4.02 on a computer where MIS is not installed on the primary boot (C:) partition. McAfee uses a program called PATCH v5.21 - RTPatch(R) Professional to install its upgrades -- this is the gray box displaying the installation progress. For no apparent reason, however, this program will abort before it even begins for users with MIS installed on a drive other than C: (I have it installed on my H: partition): 
After clicking OK the following error message appears: 
This is caused by the fact that MIS installs its Shared Components -- such as Quick Clean Lite, Instant Updater, and Guardian -- on the primary boot partition regardless of where the actual program is installed. The patch wants to upgrade these components first before upgrading MIS, and when it can't find them it just quits. Thus, when this screen pops up during installation . . . 
. . . users naturally direct the patch to the pre-selected folder specified in the dialogue box (don't feel bad, this is due to shoddy programming on McAfee's part). Instead, click Browse and direct the patch toward the McAfee folder on the primary boot partition: 
It will then be able to redirect to the drive on which MIS is installed (my guess and to why it can't do the reverse is that it was programmed at 4:30 PM on a Friday). This little glitch aside, McAfee Internet Security is a great program that offers you real security (along with McAfee Firewall and Virus Scan). The 4.03 upgrade patch may be downloading using either McAfee Instant Updater, or by going to http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/MIS/patches/MIS403AU.EXE. Remember, this is only a product upgrade and you must already own MIS. |
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Program Encounters a Program and Must Close Before Fully Loading This inexplicable error baffled and irritated me for a long time. I became even more irritated when I discovered the solution and found that all those weeks of pulling my hair out could have been solved in minutes if the lazy Adobe software programmers had only put in a pop-up error box explaining the problem! If you're running Windows XP and start up Acrobat or Photoshop you may get an error report window saying "Adobe Acrobat has encountered a problem and needs to close" and then shuts down. A look at details tells us that the problem relates to "cooltype.dll". Other versions of Windows will give a different message and also close. This error turns out to be caused by either too many fonts installed on your computer, or a type of font Adobe can't handle. This is simply solved by deleting fonts. Go to your Control Panel, open Fonts, and delete a few at a time until it opens once again. This error should only occur for those who installed mass additional fonts aside from those that come with Windows. Adobe's website gives only a vague description that really explains nothing and doesn't tell the customer why this is happening. Now, my question is why couldn't Adobe have programmed in a simple message saying "You have too many fonts installed to start Acrobat/Photoshop. Please uninstall fonts and continue."?! |