Zoom Search Engine FAQ - Errors

Q. "Error: Access violation at ..." on a computer with IE 5.5 or earlier installed.

We've had some reports of access violation crashes (at addresses around 0x63188BAB) on computers with Internet Explorer 5.5 or earlier installed. This is due to a bug in a component of Windows which Zoom uses (wininet.dll).

Microsoft Knowledge Base article regarding this bug is available here: KB article 315466.

If you are experiencing this bug and you do not have at least Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 installed, Microsoft recommends making this upgrade as they issue important system component fixes with the latest versions of Internet Explorer.

Download IE 6.0 SP1 to fix this problem.

Note that you only need to install the latest Internet Explorer for this fix to apply, you do not need to change your default browser - you can still use Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, etc.

If you already have the latest version of IE installed, and you are still experiencing this error, then please contact us at Click to send mail (JavaScript required) with the access violation address, version of Zoom Indexer (from the Help menu, select 'About'), and information on your OS.

Q. I am getting a "Error: Could not open file: ....zoom_plugin.out" error message when I am scanning a plugin supported file - what's wrong?

The plugin is failing to read from (or write to) the temporary buffer file that is used to handle the binary file format. Check the following for possible causes of the problem:

  • Check that there is adequate free space on the drive which Zoom Indexer is running from, for the temporary plugin file to be created.
  • Check that the folder in which Zoom Indexer is installed has read and write access by the current logged in user.
  • If you are scanning a PDF file, check whether it was created with Acrobat Security settings enabled, which prevents content from being extracted or copied. You can do this by opening the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat, and clicking on File -> Document Security -> Display Settings. If so, you will have to disable this protection from the Document Security window in Adobe Acrobat (the password used to enable this setting will be required to do so). This setting can also be found in the Security tab of Adobe Distiller Preferences.

Q. I get a crash message with "word2txt.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows" - what's wrong?

There was a time related bug in the early versions of the word2txt plugin, this has been fixed in the latest version which is available here. We apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused.

Q. Indexer crashes after the splash screen when running in Virtual PC for Mac

There are known issues with running Version 4.0 or later of the ZoomIndexer application in Virtual PC for Macs. Note that the server-side search scripts and CGI do not need Virtual PC to run on a Mac web server. This section is only in regards to running the Indexer software on a Mac computer using VirtualPC.

NOTE: We do not formally support running Zoom in Virtual PC for Mac. However, we have tested the following setup to have worked successfully for us, and it is documented here for your information only. We do not recommend nor guarantee that Zoom will run successfully on your Mac computer with Virtual PC for Mac. The nature of running software which emulates a PC (and running an OS within another OS) is prone to many technical issues, and we can not ensure that Zoom will run without problem in this environment.

We have archived a special version of Zoom (Version 4.2) which has been tested to work with the following setups. You can download this here.

This version of Zoom was tested to work with compatibility mode enabled (see details below) on a Mac running OS X 10.4 with Virtual PC for Mac 7.0 (running either Windows XP or Windows 2000 SP4).

Please note that this is not the latest version of Zoom currently available. We have tested the latest Version 5.0 of Zoom with Virtual PC for Mac 7.0 and have found that it does not currently work with this setup.

To enable "Compatibility mode" in Virtual PC for Mac (only available in Virtual PC for Mac 6.1 or later), follow these instructions:

  • Start the Virtual PC session as normal.
  • In the Mac Finder, navigate to the "Scripts" folder located inside your "Library" folder, and open the "Virtual PC Scripts" folder. (Alternatively, look in the 'Documents' folder in your 'Home' folder and open the 'Virtual PC Scripts' folder there).
  • Double click the 'Toggle Compatibility Mode' script. The script will now open in Script Editor.
  • Click the 'Run' button at the top of the script window.
  • Click 'OK' in the following information window.
  • Click 'Enable'.
  • Return to the Virtual PC session, which should now be running in compatibility mode.
  • You can now run Zoom Indexer.
  • When you are done with the Indexer, you can return Virtual PC to normal mode (which is slightly faster) by re-running the script above and selecting "Disable" instead.

If you continue to have problems, you can contact us via e-mail at Click to send mail (JavaScript required) for more information.

Q. Spider mode indexing stops responding at a particular URL and CPU utilization is at 100%
Q. "Error: Windows Internet API is not responding."

This is caused by a bug in a component of Microsoft Windows (WinInet) which causes applications to stop responding and the Task Manager to show a CPU utilization of 100% (or 50% on Dual Core processors).

This is documented on the Microsoft website here: Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q263754.

You can bring up the Task Manager to check your CPU utilization, by right-clicking on the system tray (bottom right corner of the Start bar) and selecting "Task Manager".

As explained in the above article, this problem only occurs when a web server uses "chunk encoding" and abruptly closes a connection.

The solution to this bug is to disable HTTP 1.1 in WinInet, which you can do in Internet Explorer. Click on Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced. Locate "Use HTTP 1.1", and "Use HTTP 1.1 through proxy connections" and uncheck both of these options. You should now be able to index that URL and the CPU utilization should not be stuck on 100%.

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