Recently I started using Sim City 4 - yeah I went to their site, nothing on this though -

During the game Windows Calculator starts opening up calculator after calculator, hundreds at a time!!!

They are not running any calculations, all blank, just opening one after another.

Has anyone heard of this?

Is there anything I can do short of uninstalling sim City 4 (a pricey game) and forgetting about playing it?

Thanks

David

I've never heard of this, but here is a thought about a possible troubleshooting step.

Do a search for the file

CALC.EXE

*This is the windows calculator and should be found in

C:\WINDOWS\CALC.EXE

Since this is a system file, you will have to allow the search to include hidden system files.

When you find the file, right click on it and rename it to something like:

CALC1.EXE

Then start your Sim City game. You may see an error, like "Can't find C:\WINDOWS\CALC.EXE".

The error message may then give you some clues about what is calling for the CALC.EXE file.

When finished troubleshooting, go back and rename your CALC1.EXE file to

CALC.EXE

If you don't see any error while the Sim City game is running, then I would guess the Calculator open command is coming from somewhere else.

Dwight
*I don't know what version of Windows you're running, so it is possible the Calculator filename may be slightly different. If you can't find the file, right click on the Calculator shortcut in The Programs/Accessory menu and choose "Properties". Then click on "Find Target" and it will open the folder where the calculator executable (.exe) file is located.

Hmm, Well I figured out other stuff about this thing, I reposted with more information. I doubt it's SC4.

Thanks

David

Did you try renaming the calc.exe file? Doing that will stop the file from opening and the error message it should generate should offer some clues about what is calling for this program to run.

You can rename the file back to calc.exe to restore its function.

Dwight

Ya know Dwight, I'm kind of leary about doing things like renaming .exe files. My knowledge of computers is usually just enough to get me into trouble.

Can I wait until my computer does it again and then change it? This is a new System, and it is Windows XP (BTW) which is in many cases way different from the Windows 98 we had. I would really hate to mess it up.

cheers

David

WinXP is more difficult to rename system files. There is built in protection of system files that complicates matters. Once the problem reoccurs, you probably won't be able to modify the file name because it will likely to be running, and you can't modify a file name while that file is running. I think it more likely they problem is due to a keyboard problem or perhaps a script. But you may prefer to just remove the calculator utility program.

One thing you can safely and easily do is uninstall the calculator utility program. With it uninstalled you shouldn't have this problem.

Click Start/Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs

When Add-Remove Programs opens click the "Add-Remove Windows Components" button. Click the "Accessories and Utilities" option, then the "Details" button. Highlight "Accessories" and click the "Details" button.

Uncheck the "Calculator" option and click OK on each window until you get back to the Windows Components Wizard. Then click on "Next". Windows will uninstall the Calculator utility. Click "Finish" when it is complete.

You can reinstall the Calculator utility by following the same steps, except put a check in the Calculator option.

It may be a good idea to remove and reinstall the calculator utility just in case the problem is with the program file itself, although I would not think this is likely.

I hope this helps!

Dwight