What is ifsmgr.vxd?

[BFlurie]

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q175/2/11.ASP http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q248/8/86.asp http://www.windows-help.net/windows98/troub-344.shtml

[Jonty]

A couple of times now in the past few days I have had a fatal exception happen in IFSMGR.VXD.

The first time I was opening Outlook Express 5 but never got there as this error came up. Today, I was closing Windows Media Player 7 and this error happened again. I had to press the reset button each time as everything was frozen.

What does this file do (it lives in C:\Windows\System\vmm32) and why is this error happening?!

Thanks!

Oh yes, Windows 98 original I'm using.

[Mntsnow]

What was the complete error message?

[Jonty]

Sorry, I should have said!

The first time it was:

Fatal Exception 0E at 0028:C0036C79 in VXD IFSMGR (01) +0000460D

Then the usual press ctrl alt del to restart but it didn't work!

It was a similar message the second time (I think!)

[Jonty]

Thanks for the links BFlurie. I'll check them out and see if I can find anything else out at Microsoft.

[Jonty]

Well, the first time it happened I was trying to get into Outlook, next time it was closing Windows Media Player, and tonight, before I downloaded the patch, I was opening Internet Explorer. All these are web related so maybe it makes sense?

[Jonty]

I've been doing a bit of a search on Microsofts site and came across this:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q256/0/15.ASP

This is what Microsoft has to say:
Fatal Exception 0E with Multiple MS-DOS Device Names in Path
CAUSE
MS-DOS device names are reserved words and cannot be used as folder or file names. When parsing a reference to a file or folder, Windows correctly checks for the case in which a single MS-DOS device name is used in the path, and treats it as invalid. However, Windows does not check for the case in which the path includes multiple MS-DOS device names. When Windows attempts to interpret the device name as a file resource, it performs an illegal resource access operation that usually results in the computer becoming unresponsive.
Because you cannot create files or folders that contain MS-DOS device names, it is unusual for a user to try to gain access to one under normal circumstances. The chief threat posed by this vulnerability is that a malicious user can entice a user to attempt such an access. For example, if a Web site operator hosts a hyperlink that references such a path, when the user clicks the link, the computer may hang. Likewise, a Web page or HTML e-mail message that specifies a local file as the source of rendering information can cause the user’s computer to hang when it is displayed. If this happens, you can put the computer back into normal service by restarting it.

The symptoms which are described in the link are exactly what I experienced although I'm not sure what the above cause means! Anyway, I've downloaded and installed the patch and so far everything seems to be working OK!

[BFlurie]

Hmm. The article seems to say that particular error occurs from "bad" web pages or html files. Some apps use disk-resident html files when offline, but you wouldn't think those would be "bad". I dunno.

[Jonty]

Ooops, the problem has re-emerged today whilst I was checking my Secondchance logs. All I was doing was viewing the history steps on this. Seems like the patch didn't work, what can I do now?

[BFlurie]

I thought that might not fix it -- that fix is for a problem that would actually be extremely rare. All I can say is go over the links I gave & also coutinue to search for:

ifsmgr.vxd error fault OutLook Express w98

-- you get the picture. www.google.com (http://www.google.com) is a good search site. Personally, I've never seen this particular error (I've seen alot), so I have no hunch. You might try running DrWatson.exe in the background & see if it might trap the error & give some description.