Recycle your Computers & Technology with us.

How do I correct the WOWEXEC caused a general protection fault in module MMSYSTEM.DLL error?

Posted By : Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on September 16, 2003

Follow us on Facebook   Follow us on Twitter   Follow us on LinkedIn

Let Data Doctors be your personal IT department today

I have a few software programs on cd that when I try to load and install them I get a application error that says WOWEXEC caused a general protection fault in module MMSYSTEM.DLL at 000A:0032. AND will not allow me to install program any help you can give my would help a lot thanks

This question was answered on September 16, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


Wowexec.exe is actually a program used to allow windows to run 16bit apps Dont delete it.

The mmsystem.dll file controls the XP subsystem that lets you read old 16Bit DOS programs This error is caused by trying to install or run an old program that overwrites one or both copies of this file

Usually, one copy is still intact (68kb) and the other one is larger You can use the correct copy to replace the bad one (This will save having to find another XP system.) Just follow the instructions below.

Click on Start and choose Run Type explorer and click OK This opens Windows Explorer which basically shows a map of your drive In the left window are the folders and the right window are your files

Go down the left side and click on the arrow by the Windows folder (This will expand it to show the subfolders under it.)

Find and Click on the 'System' folder then in the right window locate the 'mmsystem.dll' file If it's the right size (68kb), right-click on it and choose copy If not, right-click and choose delete

Go back to the left side and click on the 'system32' folder On the right side again find the mmsystem.dll file If this is the larger one, right-click and delete if not, right-click and copy

Now go back to the left window to whichever folder you deleted the file from (system or system32), right-click and choose paste

If you find that both copies are the wrong size, you can follow the procedures above to open Windows explorer on another XP machine and copy the file to disk.

You can also extract the correct file from your XP CD if needed You can find instructions on extracting files in Windows Help.

About the author

Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on September 16, 2003

Need Help with this Issue?

We help people with technology! It's what we do.
Contact or Schedule an Appointment with a location for help!