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From: pasquale@sgl (Pasquale Leone)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.apps,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Meaning of "Packed File Is Corrupt" Message??
Keywords: packed file
Message-ID: <16069@ists.ists.ca>
Date: 7 Dec 90 19:30:38 GMT
References: <4e61a969.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM> <1068@idcapd.idca.tds.philips.nl>
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Reply-To: pasquale@sgl.ists.ca (Pasquale Leone)
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Organization: Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science
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In article <1068@idcapd.idca.tds.philips.nl> robl@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (R. Luursema) writes:
>>I get the following error message on a 286 clone when I try to
>>run several programs: Packed File Is Corrupt
>>
>>The programs (games and apps) run fine on another 286 system, so
>>I know the software is OK. 
>>
>>Any ideas on what might cause this message??
>
>Packed files are created by the Microsoft linker when using the 
>exepack option. 
>At load time the executable is unpacked.
>
>In my case, the 'Packed file corrupt' message was only given under certain
>circumstances.
>
>The mystery was that it only occurred from the first command.com shell;
>starting a second command.com, or starting from NortonCommander, or
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Bingo!!

The problem goes away when you lad another command.com or the Norton Commander.
It will also go away if load more device drivers or TSR's. The reason is
that the code in dos that unpacks the file has a bug in it. It doesn't
work if the program is loaded into an area of memory that starts
in the first 64k. If you load more device drivers, TSR's another command.com
etc you will have occupied the first 64k and the problem goes away.
I got this answer from the DesqView manual for DesqView 2.26 (or maybe it was
from the qram or qemm manual). The reason it is of interest to them is
that Qram for example can load all TSR's etc into high ram thus giving
you lots of lower memory; too much in fact.

I hope this was enlightening(sp?).

pasquale@sgl.ists.ca