WHAT THE? MSGSRV32 caused a general protection fault in SETUPX.DLL

Computer Hardware
#1

A friend of mine is having problems installing installing new drive onto his computer. here is a message from him:

for some reason, whenever i attach new drives, i get the error “MSGSRV32 caused a general protection fault in SETUPX.DLL”

note that this error message is completely unheard of. Microsoft has no database on this exact error, and nowhere on the internet* does this error exist

he is running window 98 on a 500MHz with 256MB RAM, 10GB HD computer.

He has checked the error and it is correct, also all the jumpers are set right etc…

Just what could be causing this? any help would be great…

#2

This is one of those errors that is raised upon many incidents. Often faulty hardware or corrupted software is the cause of problems like these.

As you are saying you are attaching new drives, the first thing that comes to my mind is the lack of capacity your powersupply might be having.

Can you please post the specs of your system and your PSU here?

#3

Here is the information he sent to me after I requested it…

Motherboard - ?
Processor (speed, type) - Intel Celeron 500MHz
Video Card - ?
Hard Drive(s) (capacity, type[brand], speed, cashe) - “10.2” GB(rest i don’t know), i added a second drive with my original working CD drive installed, the new drive is a Western Digital 40GB 7200RPM (giving the error)
Other Drives (CD-Rom, CDRW, type[brand], speed) - 40x CD (old drive), the new drive is a CDRW 52x24x52x (write-rewrite-read) KHypermedia brand and was installed in-place of my old one, giving the error
Power Supply - CyberPower 320SL: 320VA(185W)
Ram (type[brand], speed, capacity) 256MB (upgraded from 64MB)
OS (Win98/se, Win95, etc…) Win98
other Compaq IJ200 Printer, Backpack CDRW external drive (no power supplied to the drive when errors occured), Dazzle Digital Video Capture Device USB (no power to this either)

i also tried installing a Gamepro USB PlugNPlay Gamepad and it generated the error.

the system starts to “Build driver information database” and when it reaches 20%, it gives me a white error box saying “MSGSRV32.EXE” caused an error, then it brings up the “MSGSRV32 caused a GPF in SETUPX.DLL” and after i close that, there are no other applications running (not even explorer) and i must shut down. the system works OK in safe mode, because the hardware wizard is disabled in safemode, of crs

#4

185W power supply doesn’t seem sufficient to me, would suggest at least 250W…but that is just my humble opinion

(on a sidenote, for AMD based PCs I would recommend at least a 300 W)

#5

Originally posted by Da_Taxman
[B]185W power supply doesn’t seem sufficient to me, would suggest at least 250W…but that is just my humble opinion

(on a sidenote, for AMD based PCs I would recommend at least a 300 W) [/B]

Well 185W can be enough (my system at work is a lot heavier, but only has a 150W PSU), but you sure need a good PSU.

If your mainboard can measure the voltages of the PSU, you should try a program like MotherboardMonitor (MBM) or Hardware sensors monitor. If the 3.3, 5 and 12V lines aren’t doing the requested voltages (but much lower), there’s a good chance your PSU can’t take the load. If not, the chance on a underrated PSU gets a lot smaller.

So I’d say: fire up Google.com, Download.com or Tucows.com, download one (or more) of these programs, run them and post your results here!

#6

I have run into this error just this week with a modem. The modem was initially working in this computer than it just up and quit.

Upon reinstall, the message appeared with the setupx.dll file and, as you have already found, there is nothing in the microsoft knowledge base for this error though other errors relating to the setupx.dll and msgsrv32 files indicate that there might acuatlly be a corruption of the data, as opposed to a hardware issue.

I had attempted to install the modem into another similar system and had no issues with it.

To resolve my problem, we re-installed Win98se to repair the damaged files. We have since had no problems with the modem.

#7

Check the version of Windows you are installing. It it is an OEM try removing the OEM*.* related files from the install directory. The OEM version will be looking for different hardware that you phisically have, so the setupx shows up and everything freezes and you have to reboot. You’ll find that safe mode works ok… just remove those OEM files or use a original retail install boot CD.