Code failing on netbooks!

[hairylee]

Hi,
I have recently come across a big problem with running code on netbooks.
The netbooks I have tried are installed with Windows XP and Windows 7.
The code works fine on Windows running from a desktop PC.

The software fails with the message 'The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction'
I cant imagine why any of my code is using the 16 bit MS-DOS subsystem.

Google searches have turned up nothing useful yet.

Anyone any ideas?

[CommonTater]

Any idea where in the code this is happening?

One thing I keep having trouble with is function calls that behave differently on windows versions...
There's a ton of stuff in Win7 that will not work on XP and actually produces errors if you don't vet the calls carefully.

[Stefan Pendl]

Netbooks usually have the Starter Edition of Windows installed, which is quite stripped down.

Missing dependencies come to mind in the case of this problem.

[frankie]

Which sw are you trying? Maybe it installs some system or support libraries or executables older of the current version. You can check the service pack and fixes of the XP on the notebooks and the desktop that seems to work well (I.e. this link shows a similiar problem for XP SP1 & SP2 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888098/).
Similiar problem are known on VISTA, so I suppose that, as in the best M$ tradition, bugs has been included again in WIN7.
This link http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistaprograms/thread/0410db26-0ef4-4dd0-8f8c-2ff8623f52ee/ shows standard checks (that generally lead to no result!  ).
Last possibility is a malware problem, not very probable if you get the problem on more than one computer, but anyway it can be worth to give a check.
Hope it can be usefull.

[CommonTater]

One other thought comes to mind... (even though I figure you've already thought of this)

Most netbooks are on 32 bit OS because of memory limitations...
Is the code you're crunching 64 bit, by any chance?