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When I start Explorer I get a Dr Watson error, what can I do?
John Savill
July 29, 1999
2 Min Read
A. If when you start Explorer yet receive the error:
The handle is invalid
or
Dr. Watson Services.exe
Exception: Access Violation (0xc0000005), Address: 0x76e073d4
This may be caused by a corrupt event file, a .evt file. Clicking OK to theerror may also display the error:
Event Viewer
Remote Procedure Call failed
The Event Viewer Log files (Sysevent.evt, Appevent.evt, Secevent.evt) arealways in use by the system thus preventing the files from being deleted orrenamed. The EventLog service (which has the files open) cannot be stoppedbecause it is required by other services, thus the files are always open.
In order to fix there are two methods depending on if your boot partition isNTFS or FAT
NTFS Partition
Click the Services control panel applet (Start - Settings - Control Panel - Services)
Select the EventLog service and click Startup. Change the Startup Type to Disabled, and then click OK. If you are unable to log on to the computer but can access the registry remotely, you can change the Startup value in the following registry key to 0x4:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesEventlogRestart Windows NT.
NOTE: When the system starts up, several services may fail; a message informing the user to use Event Viewer to review errors may appear.Rename or move the corrupt *.evt file from the following location:
%SystemRoot%system32configIn Control Panel Services tool, reenable the EventLog service by setting it back to the default of Automatic startup, or change the registry Startup value back to 0x2.
If you had another copy of NT installed on the computer you could boot tothat installation and directly delete the .evt files from the %systemroot%system32configdirectory.
FAT Partition
Boot to a MS-DOS prompt using a DOS bootable disk or an alternate operating system installed on the computer.
Rename or move the corrupt *.evt file from the following location:
%SystemRoot%system32configRemove the disk and restart Windows NT.
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