# an invalid argument was encountered



## Jon

when i turn on my new laptop it brings up an error box (in the blue bar it says eRagent) that says an invalid argument was encountered, i dont think its effecting anything buts its annoying, what should i do to stop it?

thanks

jon


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## Jet

Try Spybot Search & Destroy (a free spyware removal program)


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## Jon

i dont think it would be a virus would it?


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## Jet

Jon said:


> i dont think it would be a virus would it?



Have you tried Spybot? It probably will solve the problem. (Spyware isn't the same as a Virus)


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## IlluminatedSheep

It seems to be a backup application from Acer. I'd just uninstalled it if I were you. (If your laptop is new, it may have come pre-installed)


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## Jon

ive uninstalled all of the acer software but this error messege still comes up when i switch it on. please can somene help me as this is really annoying


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## IlluminatedSheep

Try doing a search for eragent, acer, anything likely, on your computer, and manually deleting it. Some pre-installed programs can be very hard to get rid of. Just be glad they didn't put AOL on there, it came on mine, and took me days to find it all! In the meantime, go into running processes and disable it.


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## Jon

i found out that it is the e Recovery program that came with my laptop and that it is bringing this error message up because i re-partitioned the hdd into a single c: and this program by default saves its backups to he d:.

anyone know how i can chnge it so it saves it to the c: i hav tried but couldnt do it.
or would it be better to have a bit of my hdd partitioned so i can use the recovery program? - as this should stop th error messages?

thanks

jon


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## IlluminatedSheep

You should be able to specify where to back up to. It may be that when you uninstalled the rest of the stuff, you lost something that this program needs, which could be why you are getting errors. If you want to keep it, try re-installing it.


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## gurra92

I think you should re-install that backup-program (like IlluminatedSheep said).


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## Jon

yeh i reinstalled all the acer programs and it still does it, i think it is because i unpartitioned the hdd.

so what should i do to get rid of it, go into regedit and remove the program from there


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## IlluminatedSheep

Have you got a D drive (CD/DVD)? Would it let you back up to a disc?

Can you get into the program at all, or do you just get the errors? I can't believe it wouldn't give you the option of where to back up to. If you can't get the program to run, it could be a faulty installation disc. (I'm running out of ideas now!)


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## gurra92

It seems like the program wasn't successfully uninstalled. There's still some shit left. Is there's a CD or someting, wich is used to install the program? If there is, you should use it to repair the program (or re-install or something like that).


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## johnsonyong03

mean ghost is it ? restore back the windows is it ?


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## Jon

i just added a 50mb d: to check and it works fine with that on it doesnt come up with the error message.

and i rang up acer and the guy said that the best thing to do is to have a d: as well as otherwise the error message will always come up.
i asked him if i could uninstall the program and he said that you cant, but could i uninstall it through regedit?

thanks

if there is no way i will probably keep a small D: of 50 meg jst to stop the error messages


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## IlluminatedSheep

Well, if you really can't change the back up destination (!), and it's all working now, I say just leave it. Do you know if it is set to back up automatically though? As the errors may come back when it fills up 50mb...


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## Jon

nah, its not automatic, basically it just copies whatever is on your C: onto your D: which is pointless having a program to do that really as i could just do it myself.

so what do you think of the idea of uninstalling it through regedit?


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## IlluminatedSheep

I dont know enough about that to advise I'm afraid. I dont suppose the disc came with an uninstall option on? (Vain hope I know) If I have this problem, I unually just do it through add and remove programs, then do a search to find everything it missed, and just delete them.


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## pdc76

first you tell him to delete everything, then you tell him to reinstall everything, then you tell him to leave everything as it is.


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## IlluminatedSheep

Delete everything, because it was corrupted, re-install, it's working ok, leave as it is. What's wrong with that?


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## pdc76

the problem was the missing partition, not corrupted files.


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## IlluminatedSheep

Indeed, though we didn't know that at the time  The fact that he had uninstalled all the Acer programs could also have effected it.


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## ar_the_tech

this is part of Acer's e-recovery.  Spybot or spykill or pop up destroyer or annoying-things-be-gone-version-9.2 won't fix the issue.  If you simply want to stop the error from popping up, open MSCONFIG - (start > run > msconfig), and disable eragent.  This will not solve the cause of the problem.  This error can be caused by merging the two silly partitions that Acer ships with.  The recovery utility is looking for two partitions (3 including the hidden one), and if they're not there, it complains.  Did you use partition magic or something to merge the partitions?

Just disable eragent is msconfig...

~AR


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## ar_the_tech

Oh look, there's a page two....  sorry....




Jon said:


> i found out that it is the e Recovery program that came with my laptop and that it is bringing this error message up because i re-partitioned the hdd into a single c: and this program by default saves its backups to he d:.
> 
> anyone know how i can chnge it so it saves it to the c: i hav tried but couldnt do it.
> or would it be better to have a bit of my hdd partitioned so i can use the recovery program? - as this should stop th error messages?
> 
> thanks
> 
> jon


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## Olive Sandwich

*invalid arguement was encountered*

Hi all

I bought a new acer, loaded Office, Norton, and Roxio Disc Copier on to my shiny new laptop and after Roxio the evil box started popping up every time i turn on my computer.

in response to the last parts of the conversation below - i checked and all my acer programs are in Acer (C  (i havent deleted any files pre installed etc.

my IT man says it sounds like a glitch in one of the programs i downloaded 

the computer asked me to burn a factory settings default back up disk when i very first turned it on which i did and have now got time on my hands and i want to restore it to factory settings to get rid of this box.

however the computer is not doing anything with this factory settings disk when i put it in. and when i click on acers 'empowering technology - erecovery button which is meant to have a button to click called 'reinstall system' there is nothing there except a little message in red saying 'initialising erecovery somethingerather' 
but its initialisizing NOTHING
NOTHing is happening!
No initailisation of NADA

ah dear it is very annoying and i would appreciate advice!

many thanks
yours 
Olive Sandwich


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## Olive Sandwich

hello all again

i didnt see this message from AR before i wrote my mesage - 
i think i will diasble eragent now so i dint go crazy
thanks


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## yantaq

*eRagent*

as to uninstalling the eRagent, I am not very sure but if the eRaget was preinstalled hidden somewhere, technically you can uninstall it, but you need the utility to do that in Dos mode, i am afraid Acer does't provide it with the machine, only technical support team deals with it. from registry you can not clear all of eRagents components cleanly, so options is return your partion to when you bought it or have eRagent cleard at the service station. good luck!


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## Olive Sandwich

thanks for that 
i think i'll return it and go from there


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## xichael

*The Solution*

If eRAgent can't live without a D: partition, then kill eRAgent...
Just disable it running on startup from the System Configuration Utility:

In the start menu, click Run
Type msconfig
Click on the Startup tab
Uncheck the eRAgent entry
Click OK & restart windows
That worked for me


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## Ajanman

*How to resolve Acer eRAgent invalid argument problem*



Jon said:


> when i turn on my new laptop it brings up an error box (in the blue bar it says eRagent) that says an invalid argument was encountered, i dont think its effecting anything buts its annoying, what should i do to stop it?
> 
> thanks
> 
> jon



I had the same problem with a customers PC. To solve it, I ran msconfig and unchecked the following two entries:
eRAgent 
Alaunch

Unchecking the 'eRAgent' entry only, didn't solve the problem.

Ade


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## Big Felter

Thanks for this thread!  I also recently removed the "silly" acer partition after suffereing with it for a year.  FYI for all I used a freeware (for seven days) program that was very easy to use called "bootit-ng".  I highly recommend it.

In the post before this one you mentioned that you unchecked Alaunch as well from start up, what is Alaunch?

I am considering going back in and adding a very small partition back to keep these operating as I really don't know what these two programs do.

Regards,
Felter


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## crismtzcis

Hello, 

I just bought one week ago an Acer Aspire One netbook. I get the error message about the eRagent but only on the guest account. 

I've tried disabling the eRagent and Alaunch using msconfig, but the issue persists. 

Is there any way I can solve this issue without having to create a d hdd


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## Big Felter

I eventually decided on readjusting the partition size to a very small partition but yeah it is the only way to make that go away, and also allows you to use the tools, which arent so bad, so long as the partition isn't half your HDD.


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## crismtzcis

thanks Big Felter...ill try doing a partition for a small size of the hdd, hope that solves that annoying error message

thnx again for the help


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