Installation errors kicad-4.0.5-i686.exe is not a valid Win32 application (solved)

Software
1

Hi everyone

I have a windows PC and receive these errors
“kicad-4.0.5-i686.exe is not a valid Win32 application”
and “kicad-4.0.5-x86_64.exe is not a valid Win32 application”
when installing KiCad I tried both new stable versions 32 and 64 bit does anyone have an idea what I am doing wrong.

2

What Windows do you got?

Start>ControlPanel>System…

3

Hi I have windows 7 professional

4

So do I and it works fine.
Are you behind a firewall?
What size are these .exe files, my 64 bit version is 352,381KB?

5

Sounds to me like you are installing a 64 bit version on 32 bit Windows.

6

Is the 32 bit version

7

Hi

Thanks for the advise, I switched off my firewall and I tried to install both 64bit and 32 bit versions.

The 32bit version gives this error:

kicad-4.0.5-i686.exe is not a valid Win32 application

The 64 bit gives the error:

kicad-4.0.5-x86_64.exe is not a valid Win32 application

I can only install the 2013 vesion so I guess I have to work with that now.

Thanks all

8

Is it (edit by Joan: Windows) 32 or 64 bit version?

9

Noooo! … no one will be able to help you really as that thing is outdated and so far back, it’s not funny anymore. Please have a heart :sweat:

  1. can you please tell us the bitness of your windows as @bobc asked?

(64bit programs don’t run under 32bit Windows and produce the error you observe…)

  1. can you check that the download is not corrupted (essentially answering @davidsrsb 's question) ?

(as both files, 32bit and 64bit cause the same error we can assume you got a different problem, maybe corrupt downloads… reason? damaged memory modules in your computer, broken router, etc…)

This is what the downloads look like for me in Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit and both are start-able:

640×574 133 KB

PS: hashtab is an addon I installed some years ago. Use at your own risk. I’m not affiliated.

PPS: first indication of badly corrupt files would be different file sizes (in bytes as you can see them under Properties>General). Not so badly damaged files will have different checksums but the same size, thus the hashtab addon.

1 Like
10

I googled for the error, and found a surprising number of things that can go wrong that are not down to the downloaded file being corrupted or anything, but some incompatibility with the windows config. e.g. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_programs/windows-7-and-exe-is-not-a-valid-win-32/8f8c4d85-5015-47ec-82d1-5d0ebe7a8bd4

It’s a kind of typical “something went wrong” Windows error. Personally I might try Dependency Walker but that is more of a dev tool, not really designed for regular user.

1 Like
11

So far everyone who has verified that they can run both images is also running 64-bit Windows. Both installers should be 32-bit programs anyway. I did notice though, since 4.0.4 the installer’s language has changed to Greek. Was English in 4.0.2 but previous versions didn’t contain any version information. Not sure if that could be an issue though.

12

kicad-4.0.5-x86_64.exe is a 64 bit build and installs in “C://Program Files”, not “Program Files (x86)”, where legacy win32 apps go.

13

kicad-4.0.5-x86_64.exe is a 32-bit executable that installs a 64-bit build.

14

Well it is not suitable for installation on a 32 bit Windows PC

15

Well thank you for pointing that out, although it was never implied that it was. But I’m sure you’ll correct me.

16

What does Start-ControlPanel-System-“System type” say?
That is the line that identifies 64 or 32 bit Windows

17

Hi all

On my PC: Start-ControlPanel-System-“System type” says 64 bit Operating system.

Joan & David sorry I didn’t read your posts attentively, I think you were right the setup files I download are not correct it is only 2KB size files and I get them from this website: https://kicad.org/download/windows/ . This might be my problem do you perhaps have a link to the correct exe files?

18

Oh sorry David I did not check the file size mine is incorrect what might have caused this?

19

That’s the correct source.
If they are just 2kb after downloading you either saved the html link by accident and didn’t wait for the download dialog to pop up and ask you where to save them or something else went wrong?
If you can, re-download the _64 file again and make sure you get the 344MB on your end.

20

Try http://downloads.kicad.org/windows/stable/kicad-4.0.5-x86_64.exe again, which is the correct version for you.
Do you have a firewall in the way? If you get the 2kB again, try opening it with Notepad as it may contain an error message