Converting Error Codes to Meaningful Information

March 06, 2007

So you try to install a software package in SMS, it does go as you planned and then when you look in the ExecMgr.log you see something like this

A failure exit code of -1073741790 was returned.

This of course means nothing to you, how could you get a negative number as an exit code?

Here is how to convert that long negative integer into a meaningful exit code that will give a real error message.

Open up Calculator form Accessories, change it into scientific mode (view/Scientific) in Dec/Degrees mode. Now input that long integer, and make sure you click the +/- button to make it a negative number, then select Hex and Word, it should then display a positive number in the range of 0 - 15,999, in this case 22. Now look up that number here or here. And here is our end result...

22 The device does not recognize the command.

Thanks to Ken Lutz for this information!

Regards,

Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Senior Technical Consultant | Microsoft Practices | Dimension Data