cannot open PDFs; format problem (win32 app)

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Hope someone may be able to help...

I've downloaded Adobe Reader 9 software (from a disk) to my 6 year old Compaq Presario 2100 laptop, but for certain PDFs I've downloaded, it throws up a red X message telling me it's not a valid win32 app. What does this mean? Something to do with what may be a 32 bit capacity of the computer? :confused:

On other PDF's I have (from the same download, of a well-respected member of the forum) I can right-click and opt for the open with Adobe Reader 9, I don't get the drop down with the other PDF's

There's quite a lot to navigate in the package, and most of it's zipped. Could it be something to do with the zip? - which I need to update anyway

thanks
#programming #app #format #open #pdfs #problem #win32
  • It sounds like that these files may not be actually in pdf format.

    Do these files have a pdf extension?

    Try opening one of these files with a text editor and look at the first line... if the file is actually a pdf you should see something like this:

    %PDF-1.4

    Let me know what it says?
  • Hi Ian

    Do you have access to another computer to try to read the PDF documents? I would try and determine if the issue is with the PDF document itself by seeing if it could be opened on another machine.

    As you get a WIN 32 error it could also be the Adobe installation itself. If the document in question opens correctly on another computer then you may have a corrupted Acrobat Reader installation.

    "WIN 32" refers to the Microsoft Windows "kernel", the engine that powers most versions of Windows since Windows 98. A WIN 32 error does not indicate that your computer has problems with handling 32 bit data, it simply is a generic Windows error that is telling you your executable program (Adobe Acrobat in this case) has a problem.

    Bill
    • [1] reply
    • Hi, thanks both, and yes they open on my PC, but not laptop, so maybe it's the disk - which only needed to be installed on the laptop. I got disc from Ebay, quite cheaply fortunately.

      Ron, I just tried opening the properties to change to text ed, but it won't let me - only gives "compressed item properties" box.

      I'm no techie - at least not when it come down to this sort of thing.
      • [1] reply
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    cannot open PDFs; format problem (win32 app)

    Hope someone may be able to help... I've downloaded Adobe Reader 9 software (from a disk) to my 6 year old Compaq Presario 2100 laptop, but for certain PDFs I've downloaded, it throws up a red X message telling me it's not a valid win32 app. What does this mean? Something to do with what may be a 32 bit capacity of the computer? :confused: