There's a good chance this question has been answered many times before, so please bear with me as I was not able to find my problem in this Forum.
Ok, here's the story...
For quite some time I've been running DOSBox 0.63 without any hassles. Been working extremely well for more than a year.
Just last week I decided to install CorelDraw X3 on my machine, all went well. That is until I wanted to use DOSBox.
It keeps coming up with the error, "dosbox.exe is not a valid Win32 application".
The stupid thing here is: If I reinstall DOSBox, it works ok with no error message. If I stop using it for 10 minutes or more, the error message comes up again, so I have to reinstall again. I've since deleted CorelDraw, but I still get the same error.
A further note here: If I use DOSBox continually, or partially close the DOSBox window (and not shut it down entirely), it will continue to work with no problems. Its only when I close it off entirely is when it starts its shenanigans.
Has anyone come across the above problem and know of a fix???
Any help with the above would be most appreciated. Thanx in advance.
Regards,
DarkMatter

Hmm, that's a weird problem. Sounds as if the DosBox executable would change / damage itself after you exit DosBox. Did you try to scan your harddrive for errors with Scandisk? Especially scan for defective sectors, too.
Maybe there's also a virus in work, so you might want to scan the entire drive for them.

See if changing to DosBox v0.70 changes anything. 0.63 is outdated for over a year.

Yes try 0.70. Also if you don't really want CorelDraw, rather than unstalling it do a full system restore to before the installation. I've thought of something that could cause your problem but it's too wild a guess, just look for a way around.

Try this.

Sorry for the delay in replying fellas. I've been without the internet for some tiime.

@Scatty: Does XP Home edition have Scandisk??? I can't find it. :unsure:

@the_fifth_horseman: Yes, DOSBox version 0.70 works with no errors. V0.63 still baulks in the same way.
There are two drawbacks with using V0.70:
(1) It won't load Starflight 2, but works ok with Starflight 1. But since SF2 uses a TSR that has a crack for the copy protection, I'm assuming its that that's causing it to not load.
(2) I can't seem to get the resolution right. No matter what res I use, it never gives me a full screen when I use Alt+Enter. V0.63 never had this problem.

@Japofran: Unfortunately I never read your replys to my query until today (no internet), so I don't think I can go back far enough to the right time to do the restore.

@Eagle of Fire: Tried Micro$oft's fix, step by step, but it still errors.

Thanks all for all your help, but I guess I'm resigned to using V0.70, even though I don't like it. Due to the resolution problems, as well as Starflight 2 not responding.
Thanx once again.
Regards,
DarkMatter

you might want to visit the dosbox forum to report your finding on the starflight 2 lost compatiility

You should be able to set up the resolution right editing dosbox.conf. Can't tell you exactly how now that I'm at work, but someone will.

XP Home does have Scandisk, right click on your hard disk, choose Properties, go to Tools. But I don't think that's the problem. The only explanation I find is that Corel updated some DLL files or stuff DOSBox was using. And everytime you reinstall replacing the Corel ones with the DOSBox 0.63 ones, Windows takes it as an attack on your sistem and replaces them. Don't know if this makes sense?

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/comp_list.php?showID=9

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DarkMatter @ Jun 4 2007, 04:54 AM) [snapback]292815[/snapback]</div>You're probably using an old config file on a new DOSBox.

See if changing the sound hardware settings (and reconfiguring the game setup to them) and disabling MPU-401 emulation helps.
What is the result? A small display in the middle of black screen, perhaps?
Change output to Overlay or DDraw. Enable aspect correction. Change scaler to a 3x one.