I seem to have a problem running certain .exe files...

A few days ago I went to run QBasic and though it loaded fine, all of a sudden my CPU usage would jump to 100%. I checked Task Manager and found ntvdm (can't remember whether it was dll or exe) to be the culprit, and ending that task killed QBasic.

I had a brief look on the internet, but didn't find anything that helped, so I deleted the file in system32 and let Windows restore it from the dllcache, which it did. Only now however, every time i go to run QBasic, I get

"C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\Desktop\qbasic>qbasic
The system cannot find the file C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\Desktop\qbasic\QBASIC.EXE."

This also happens on a couple of Setup.exe files I've tried (very old setup files, so I'm assuming maybe its something to do with that) - when I double click them in windows explorer I get

"Windows cannot find 'D:\SETUP.EXE'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search."

Anyone have any ideas what's gone wrong and if there is any way I can sort it?

Using XP Pro and all updates applied.

Any help appreciated

NTVDM.exe is the Windows NT Virtual DOS Machine!! If you have deleted it, how you can now load DOS programs??

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Originally posted by AngelDevil
NTVDM.exe is the Windows NT Virtual DOS Machine!! If you have deleted it, how you can now load DOS programs??

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Originally posted by fatfreechicken
I deleted the file in system32 and let Windows restore it from the dllcache, which it did.

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Yes I have read it after posting, and I was going to edit but i was searching anything about this problem in italian forums before edit..

I found this page.. read if it can help you: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en;314106

OK, I just copied the NTVDM files from my laptop onto my PC and thats seems to have solved it. Windows appears to have restored the wrong version of the files after I deleted them, and now the "cannot find file" error is solved.

However, I'm still getting 100% cpu usage in NTVDM.exe when I use QBasic, an ideas why anyone?

It's a feature of the WOW (Windows On Windows, the environment for Windows 16 bit applications).. the cpu usage when it is running is always at 100%... if you use QBasic and others DOS programs, you need to have it...

It never did it before. I can't use my computer at all when running QBasic now, it just slows to a crawl and takes about a minute to move the mouse from one side of the screen to the other. It definitely did not do that last time I used it, nor does it do that at the computers at College...

re-download qbasic and if that doesnt help write all your code in notepad save a *.bas and complile in qbasic

I would have said, if it hadn't been doing this before, that it's QBasic was written for DOS, and likely didn't use the idle-loop, ie it just ran inside a FOR ... break; or WHILE (user doesn't chose exit) loop - because this would use 100% CPU usage. (DOS didn't care/know about ACPI/APM, etc. without drivers).

However, it is very curious that this behaviour has just started happening...

IIWM, I would just set the ntvdm.exe process to less than normal in task manager. Or try running QBasic in DOSBOX.