Forum Discussion
Quartus did not start
Hi,
Since the switch to European Summer Time we cannot start Quartus Prime 2025 in Windows 11.
Error Message:
The application could not be started correctly (0xc0000142)
What could be the reason for that?
Jens
66 Replies
- billmax
Occasional Contributor
The attached log is from last week before trying any of the new steps. There are plenty of "NAME NOT FOUND" but for many if not all of those instances a DLL is eventually loaded. See the related list of loaded DLLs in my earlier post.
- Jens
Occasional Contributor
It seems Sophos isn't the problem. Our administrator has partially disabled Sophos's access and Quartus didn't start.
We have followed the debugging steps suggested by KennyT and the process monitor is showing numerous issues with “NAME NOT FOUND”.
- syoma
New Contributor
Hi Jens
We have just tested with Sophos Endpoint Agent settings and this is actually it. If you use Override Sophos Central Policy for up to 4 hours to troubleshoot and uncheck Malicious Behavior Detection ("Erkennung von schädlichem Verhalten") option in Runtime Protection - then Quartus is starting normally. So we are pretty sure it has something to do with it.
Could you please check on your side this again?
- Jens
Occasional Contributor
Hi syoma,
I asked our IT department to disable the Sophos “detect malicious behavior” feature.
After that, Quartus started up.
However, for security reasons, this isn't a long-term solution for us.Can Altera provide a bug fix for this?
Jens
- KennyT_altera
Super Contributor
We understand how disruptive the “The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)” error can be.
We have attempted to replicate the problem in our in-house environment, but so far we have been unable to duplicate the issue. As a result, your assistance with the following debugging steps is essential to help us narrow down the root cause and resolve this matter as efficiently as possible.
Debugging Steps:
Reregister All DLL Files
- Open Command Prompt as Administrator (search for cmd, right-click, select "Run as administrator").
- Run the following command and press Enter:for %i in (%windir%\system32\*.dll) do regsvr32.exe /s %i
- Then run:for %i in (%windir%\system32\*.ocx) do regsvr32.exe /s %i
- Close Command Prompt.
Set Correct System Locale
- Press Windows + R, enter intl.cpl, and click OK.
- In the Administrative tab, click Change system locale... and select the English region (e.g., English (United States)).
- Click OK and restart your computer.
Run Quartus as Administrator
- Right-click the Quartus icon, select Properties.
- Under the Compatibility tab, check Run this program as an administrator.
- Click Apply and OK.
Reset LoadAppInit_DLLs Registry Value
- Press Windows + R, type regedit, and press OK.
- Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows - Double-click LoadAppInit_DLLs and set the value to 0.
- Click OK and restart your PC.
Install Latest Microsoft C++, .NET Framework, and DirectX
- Download and install the latest versions:
- Restart your PC.
Use Process Monitor (Advanced)
- Download Process Monitor.
- Run Procmon.exe, start Quartus, and look for any “NAME NOT FOUND” or “PATH NOT FOUND” errors indicating missing DLLs.
Update Graphics Drivers
- Visit your graphics card vendor’s website (e.g., NVIDIA Driver Downloads), download and install the latest driver for your GPU, and restart your system.
Next Steps:
Please proceed through these steps, restarting your system after each major change. If the error persists after completing these steps, kindly let us know which steps you have tried and any observations or error messages you encounter. This will help us further isolate the issue and recommend the next course of action.
We greatly appreciate your cooperation and patience
- billmax
Occasional Contributor
is anyone else using Sophos Endpoint?
- syoma
New Contributor
I'm using Sophos too.
- Jens
Occasional Contributor
Hi billmax,
yes, we use Sophos. We will check the behavior without running Sophos when the admins allow us that.
- KennyT_altera
Super Contributor
Good to know that both of you using Sophos, do let us know the result after you disable/uninstall it.
Also, can you list down all the software that is running behind the machine, if the above does not solve.
- GBraj
New Contributor
Hi everybody,
I’m experiencing the same issue here. The machine is running multiple versions of Quartus Prime Pro (23.4, 24.1, 24.3, and 25.3), all patched in January due to the infamous date/time issue.
The system is running Windows 11 25H2, and no software or driver changes have been made in the last 30 days. Windows localization is set to Italian.
The Linux version of Quartus Pro works fine, fortunately.
About two years ago, I had a similar problem and opened a post here: https://community.altera.com/discussions/nios-system/niosv-shell-and-riscfree-dont-start---application-error/297403
At that time, however, I was able to solve the issue simply by rebooting the PC, also because the team was not able to reproduce the error. I've tried to reinstall Visual C++ redistributables but with no luck.
- KennyT_altera
Super Contributor
I have included all my screenshots here. Could you also include the relevant screenshots you have so that I can compare and provide internal feedback?
Please also include information about your antivirus and firewall.
- KennyT_altera
Super Contributor
We tried to swith to EU time zone, German languange on windows 11, but we do not see the problem. Attached the screenshot later, is there other suggestion that we can try to duplicate the issue?
We will try manually running qreg.exe also.
- billmax
Occasional Contributor
We don't know what happened to break it, and no updates we're aware of were made to any systems or protections during the interval it went from working to not.
Other than the developers taking a look at the list of modules loaded by qreg and seeing why it would exit with error 0x142 at that point, I'm not sure what to suggest.
- KennyT_altera
Super Contributor
Noted, I am in the progress to duplicating this case. stay tune.
- billmax
Occasional Contributor
Another observation is that manually running qreg.exe also fails in a similar manner, and may be easier to trace than full quartus.exe. I've attached the list of the modules loaded at the point in the qreg.exe process it calls the windows error handler C:\WINDOWS\system32\WerFault.exe
- KennyT_altera
Super Contributor
Please give us some time to investigate.
Billmax, Syoma, did your computers also switch to European Summer Time? I want to check if this issue is related to the computer clock settings.- billmax
Occasional Contributor
We are eastern U.S. on EDT for a few weeks.
We originally suspected (and haven't ruled out) an issue with corporate cyber security program(s). But we haven't figured out what might have changed to break working installations. In theory it's all still white-listed.
- syoma
New Contributor
Yes, they did. But this happened on Sunday 29.03.26, and I'm quite sure, the software was still working for a few days after that.
- syoma
New Contributor
Can it be somehow connected to german localization of Windows? Seen from screenshot - I have the error message also in german language.