For the past 2 years I've been running BOINC on my PC.
P4 dual processor 3GHz 2G Ram Windows XP.

Two weeks ago, not around any Microsoft patchs or virus software upgrades I started getting this message:

C:\windows\system32\ntvdm.exe
Error while setting up environment for application.

I saw that there was a 'bad' upgrade last month so I uninstalled BOINC and reinstalled an earlier version without success. After 3 weeks off I came back this evening and reinstalled, but keep getting the same error.

Suggestions?

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BOINC is not 16bit, but a full fledged 32bit application, as are the applications running under it (provided by the projects).

What did you mean with I saw that there was a 'bad' upgrade last month so I uninstalled BOINC and reinstalled an earlier version without success ??

BOINC won't auto-update itself, due to security reasons.
Applications under BOINC can auto-update themselves, but what you saw was the new Astropulse_v5 5.03 roll-out going bad due to Seti being at their ceiling of bandwidth. We were all affected by that problem, with little to no downloads or uploads. The forums were bristling with threads on that. You never peeked in?

And so you returned to BOINC 5.10.30, which is a quite old Beta, if I am not mistaken. What were you using before that? You can easily go back to that version, although considering your system's speed you may want to disable Astropulse and Astropulse_v5 from getting onto your system. I also run a P4 3.0GHz (which has Hyper Threading, not a dual CPU!!), but I refuse to run Astropulse as it would take many moons... See running Seti Enhanced only for what to set where.

As for the actual error, you do know already that it is due to "the process that belongs to the Windows 16-bit Virtual Machine. Ntvdm.exe provides an environment for a 16-bit process to execute on a 32-bit platform."

But since BOINC isn't a 16bit program, nor Seti, nor any other project's executables, it's really of no consequence to BOINC or Seti.

Are you running something else that needs 16bit?

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I cannot find the link but recall reading that there was an error with the latest Seti upgrade, obviously the Astropulse as you point out. I don't peek at the forums, just run Boinc.

I hadn't upgraded, I had been using the same version for a year perhaps. The error only occurs with Boinc running. Currently have version 6.4.5 installed.

I'll disable the Astropulse and see what happens. Thank you.

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Disabled the Astropulse and the problem went away.

Thank y'all.

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