not a valid win32 application error with 64 bit

[bishbashbosh]

Hi everybody i'm new on this forum, a alot of people on here seem to know what they're talking about after reading through some of the posts.

I have a problem at the moment which i'm sure will crop up more often as more people move on to 64-bit systems. i keep getting a 'd:/is not a valid win32 application' error message when i try and install games such as 'act of war' 'battlefield 2' and 'GTA San Andreas' amongst others, also when i right click on my dvd drive letter and 'explore' the contents to find the setup.exe file and run it i get another error messgage saying 'd:/setup.exe is not valid win32 application' . :angry:

I have however managed to install and run 'Half Life 2' and 'Quake 4' without any problem, my system has just been recently built and is all new components except the ATX case, PSU, sound card, graphics card and tv card, my spec is:

Windows XP professional 32bit SP2

AMD Athlon 64 4000 2.4ghz 1mb L2 cache s939

MSI K8N neo 2 mainboard

300GB Maxtor SATA 2 16mb cache hard drive (into 3 partitions)

1GB corsair 3200 DDR ram dual channel

256mb pny Ge force 6600 AGP graphics card

Creatvie SoundBlaster Audigy 2 zs platinum pro sound card

Haupaugel WinTV GO! TV tuner card

I have all the latest drivers for my hardware and my games are shop bought that worked great on my old 32-bit AMD XP2600 machine, but now only a few will install. I haven't got Windows XP64 because i am waiting for SP1 to be released before i get it. :rolleyes:

I am the administrator of my computer so there are no limitations, every other piece of software i have seems to work such as Cubase SX 2 and all my VST instruments and plug-ins, i know my DVD drive works coz it's brand new and was installed briefly on my old machine before i upgraded.

Do you think it has something to do with the fact i have 64 bit drivers for my graphics card and sound card on a 32 bit os and i need to roll them back to 32 bit drivers?

I have heard of similar problems with Windows XP64 from other forums ie: games do not run so i can't see much point in using XP64 untill the service pack is released, i have seen patches for some of the games i have but they seem to only update the installed version and only for Win XP64 nothing for Win XP 32, i need something that can fix the way Windows XP SP2 treats 32 bit applications in a 64 bit PC.

If any one has had a similar problem and fixed it or knows how to get my games installed and runnig on my current set up please let me know i need to frag! :D

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Wait - you're running 32-bit Windows? Then this has nothing to do with 64-bit at all, unless you're trying to run a 64-bit application, which will generate that message since your system isn't 64-bit.

Do you think it has something to do with the fact i have 64 bit drivers for my graphics card and sound card on a 32 bit os and i need to roll them back to 32 bit drivers?

There's no way you could possibly be using a 64-bit driver (or any other 64-bit code) on a 32-bit Windows installation.

And what do you mean by:

can't see much point in using XP64 until the service pack is released

There have been no announcements about future service packs for Windows 2003.

[Smit]

When trying to install? Isn't this when the installers are still using 16bit code which Windows x64 doesn't support?

You could try extracting the 16bit setups and running the proper 32bit setup thats usually inside.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

When trying to install? Isn't this when the installers are still using 16bit code which Windows x64 doesn't support?

You could try extracting the 16bit setups and running the proper 32bit setup thats usually inside.

He says he's runnig 32-bit Windows, which supports 16-bit code just fine.

[jamend]

Check your event log: right click my computer > manage > event viewer > system. Look for warnings or errors from a "cdrom" or "atapi" source. I'm guessing your optical drive isn't working properly (I think you have a bit too much faith in brand-new items). Try the drive from your old computer to see if that works. Less likely but still possible is that you have a bad IDE controller or cable. If you find any other warnings or errors, feel free to post them here (although ignore sources such as W32Time, DHCP, and DCOM). It's certainly not a 64/32-bit issue though. When the CPU is in 32-bit mode (which it would be with normal Windows XP), nothing that is 64-bit can run, and it will behave like any other 32-bit CPU. When you installed those 64-bit drivers for your sound and graphics card, they were probably just a driver pack and the installer correctly installed the 32-bit drivers.

[bishbashbosh]

those 64-bit drivers for your sound and graphics card, they were probably just a driver pack and the installer correctly installed the 32-bit drivers.

good point there, the drivers did say they were for both 64 and 32 bit so your right coz i'm running Xp pro then my computer is running in 32 bit mode so there for it has nothing to do with my processor being 64 bit.

i guess my best bet is probably to get winXP64 and have dual os on my system which would probably be more convenient, i've got plenty of space to add a free partition for XP64 and if there's no talk of a service pack for XP64 then i've just got to make sure my security is up to date and look for patches and fixes in the future.

as for running the 32-bit setup.exe, i have tried all the setup options on my games to no avail i even tried going to 'run' in the start menu and typing it in.

i don't have good faith in new equipment lol i've had stuff over the years that i've had to take back or get fixed nothing is perfect especially with computers but i can't see why my DVD drive is faulty as literrally everything else works , all formats CD DVD DVD-R DVD+R CD-R and all RW's and Dual layer DVDs work it's just certain games. i have my hard drive set to master on SATA 1 and is my first boot option then it's my DVD drive that is the second boot option but that's set to master as well, what if i changed my DVD drive to slave would that make a difference?

Also as for checking my error log in the event viewer there is nothing that ralates to either ATAPI or CDROM at least no errors anyway.

thanks for all your replies so far :)

[bishbashbosh]

Just thought i would let people know that i've sorted the problem out now :) i have now installed windowsXP64 so now i have dual os, all my games work on winXP64 but not WinXP32 but i don't care now coz they work woooo!