With all appropriate cautions, (backup the registry, etc, etc), make the following registry change to keep wowexec.exe from loading:
1) Start Regedit and locate registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WOW.
2) Right Click on "wowcmdline" and choose "Modify"
3) Add a character, (I chose a ?), to the beginning of the string. This will keep wowexec.exe from loading but leaves the old value intact so you can easily revert back to the previous setting.

-Dan

If you are seeing wowexec.exe when Vegas 5 or DVDA 2 is launching, please help us track this down by listing the following info:

OS (exact version including service pack #)
Video card (model, driver version)
Sound card (model, driver version)
XP themes enabled yes/no? (app preferrences)
Net notify enabled yes no (app preferences)
Auotomatically load last project... enable (app preferences)
Quicktime version
DX version (start>run>dxdiag)
I have the following 3rd party video plug-ins: (List)


So far we have no in-house repro and but we definitely want to figure this out. Thanks-

Just my $0.02 - if I were you guys, I would turn off Norton Anything (Antivirus, SpamKiller, what-not) and remove it from my computer. Norton Antivirus is notorious for causing a lot of the problems mentioned here, and is equally notorious for being next to impossible to remove. It is equally troublesome in the Mac world, as I have a friend with FCP that ran into the same issues. I will never left Norton anything run on my computer. (Nor McAfee, for that matter.)

Of course, your mileage may vary, but for these kind of issues, you need to try disabling antivirus software as a first step...

come some kind helpful soul show me the path to deciphering system specs? A quick crash course in "computer component surgery: the road to enlightenment"...There must be an easy way to get all this listed somehow right?
(I can cope with the settings in the app: not bad hey ¿!?)
Thanks in advance...
P.

PS. Yes I am ignorant...*grin*...

New Theory: Scanner or other twain device. Does everyone having this problem have a scanner or some twain device (still camera etc) plugged in? If so, try pulling the plug on the twain device, typically this will be connected via a usb or 1394 cable. Still happening?

1) Disconnected scanner: wowexec still launches
2) disconnected card reader: wowexec still launches..

all I have left (connected is Shuttle Pro and printer (latter on off mode)...

Anything else worth a try?

Thanks,

Paul.

I hate to mention this but it sounds just like a worm. I had one and after removing it everything worked fine.

JJK

Just to confirm, run a little test.

rename:
TWAIN_32.DLL (likely in your c:\windows directory)
to:
TWAIN_32.DLL.BAK

Then start Vegas and watch to see if you still take a long time to start up or start up ntvdm/wowexec.

Don't forget to change TWAIN_32.DLL.BAK back to TWAIN_32.DLL when you're done.

Just tried renaming twain_32.dll to a fake name, and started Vegas 5.

wowexec still kicks-in.

Problem remains.

My system: WinXP Pro, 1.2Gig processor, 2 internal HDs and 3 external USB-2 drives. Have a scanner, but it's not turned on -- and anyway twain_32.dll is hidden under another name.

Ernie

Well, this is interesting...

When I rename twain_32.dll to a fake name to hide it, a brand-new instance of twain_32.dll appears immediately as if by magic. Renaming that one to hide it causes yet a 3rd instance to be created, and so forth...

Is that a clue to anything...?

Ernie

JJKizak, would that get rid of a potential worm? I have MCafee supposedly up to date (its supposed to everytime I connect to the net and actually scanned it a few days ago and had the roblem before and still do...*puzzled*
Just checking if I'm missing the obvious..

thanks,

Paul.

If you are running Win XP, I believe it "heals" itself when system DLLs are missing or corrupted. It keeps track and puts them back. Run the Event Viewer (Start Menu - Run and type in eventvwr.exe and then look in the Application or System logs to see if there is an event there about the system restoring a missing file.

You might also find other interesting in the Event Viewer that could help trouble-shoot your problem.

OS: WindowsXP Pro Version 2002 Service Pack 1
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460 - driver version 56.72 (1.1.1.0)
Sound Card: Terratec DMX 6fire - driver version - 5.40.03.130
XP Themes: Yes
Net Notify: Yes
Auto Load Last Project: No
Quicktime: 6.5.1
DX Version: 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)
3rd Party Plugins:
Magic Bullet
Pixelan SpiceMaster 2 Demo
WinMorph

Unplugged scanner and same wowexec.exe behavior persists.

Is there a way to get notifications when threads are replied to?

This is an interesting topic and I am interested in following it through it's conclusion and don't want to accidently miss the climax?

OS (Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack #1)
Video card 1 (AGP Nvidia GeForce2 MX 400, driver version 53.03 [5.2.1.6])
Video card 2 (Nvidia GeForce4 MX 420, driver version 53.03 [5.2.1.6])
Sound card (SoundMAX Integrated Audio, driver version 5.12.1.3620)
XP themes enabled yes/no? (yes)
Net notify enabled yes no (yes)
Automatically load last project... enable (no)
Quicktime version (6.5.1)
DX version (9.0b [4.09.0000.0902])
I have the following 3rd party video plug-ins: (Warp - Winmorph, Wax Plugin, PluginPac 3D LE, PluginPac Adapter, PluginPac PixelStretch, PluginPac Shatter3D, Smart Smoother)

I have 3 computers, 2 with XP Pro and 1 with Win2k. The Win2k has 12 "wow" files but none come up in the task manager. The Other two have 9 "wow" files and none come up in the task manager. One of the XP computers has two scanners, the other has V5 with a bunch of stuff.

JJK

Just a thought since my C: drive (where apps are kept ) is formatted as FAT32. D: drive (second internal) is FAT32 too
Two external firewire drives are both NTFS...
Running XP home as OS.
A blind shot maybe but who kows...

Here's to hoping for a solution...

Paul.

My drives are both NTFS.

Paul (and others),

I used to do quite a bit of Windows programming. If you are willing, I would be willing to take a look at what's going on with your system. (Can't promise anything, but...)

There are three utilities that I used quite often for this kind of thing. They are all available from the www.sysinternals.com website. They are all very small and will not harm your computer, and do not install themselves.

The utilities are: Process Explorer, Handle, and ListDlls. Process Explorer is a GUI tool that shows you what processes are running and what they are and how they are related. You might want to use this one yourself to watch what is running before starting Vegas and after starting Vegas - it might give you a clue.

Handle and ListDLLs are command-line utilities. You could use these to send me the information that Process Explorer provides by running them in a command prompt window before and after starting Vegas, saving the output in a file.

Start from a fresh boot, with no other programs running, before starting Vegas, open a command prompte window to where you downloaded the tools, and run:

handle > beforeHandle.txt
listdlls > beforeDlls.txt

Then start Vegas, and do it again, saving to different files:

handle > afterHandle.txt
listdlls > afterDlls.txt

You could zip up the text files and send them to: steve AT bitcorner DOT com.

Here are the links:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/handle.shtml

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/listdlls.shtml (Make sure you get the x86 version - it will work on XP)

Totally up to you - maybe you'd rather Sony take a look at this instead...

Steve

It would appear that I have just solved this problem for my own system. I discovered that I had a different version of the twain_32.dll in my WINDOWS/SYSTEM32 folder than in my Windows protected DLL cache and WINDOWS folders. The first one was 76K bytes and was listed as "TWAIN_32.DLL" ( all caps). The other 2 files were 46K bytes, listed as "twain_32.dll" (small letters), and have a more recent date associated.

I have a Cannon scanner and found the 76KB "TWAIN_32.DLL" in the CanoScan folder. I replaced the 76KB TWAIN_32.DLL in the WINDOWS/SYSTEM32 folder with the 46KB twain_32.dll. You will probably need administrator rights if you try this yourself.

Though I have not THOUROGHLY tested everything related to TWAIN or WIA, this has solved my Vegas 5 startup problems and my scanner still works in Photoshop.

Hope this helps someone,
Blues_Jam

Yep, that works for me! When you wrote CanoScan my eyes lit up since I have a Canon scanner too. I copied the newer, smaller twain_32.dll file into the WINDOWS/SYSTEM32 folder and all is well. Vegas starts right up without launching wowexec.exe and scanner still functions. Thanks!

First of all, thanks to smhontz for offering help and guidance as to ways to try to pinpoint the problem(s). I haven't had a chance yet to test the methods but will surely do so if all else fails (as in, the Twain dll thingy doesn't solve it on my system).

Now, Blues_Jam, if it works for you, and it works for Rique, then surely it must work for me!! Especially given that I too have a Canon Scanner...

Just a quick question though..How do you get over the problem of this Twain dll file autotragically re-appearing when you rename it? I tried what Chaboud from Sony suggested and sure enough, the moment I re-named it a brand new Twain dll thingy reappeared in the directory.? I take it if I copy and paste the smaller file I'll get the "this file already exists" message pop up...Sounds a bit like Catch 22 to me...
Any clues?

Thanks,

Paul.