Eager to get going early on my income tax return, I got a surprise shortly after installing TurboTax 2010 software under Windows XP. As TurboTax tried to “get a jump-start” on my 2010 taxes by pulling in last year’s tax return, this annoying box jumped onto the screen.
Doesn’t say much, does it? Look up the 11 digit error code, 17257300799, on Google Search and the Turbo Tax support website. Nada. Play around with the program and you’ll trigger other 11 digit error codes such as 17942563671 and 17638845067. Information about similar messages on the TurboTax website goes something like this:
We have seen reports with some TurboTax customers where you attempt to start a new return (or transfer from a 2009 return) and the program shuts down with a serious and unexpected error.
One of the problem reporter error numbers we have seen has been 1991550181, but it could be any 11-digit number. Please be sure you have attempted all troubleshooting steps from our “Other Articles to Try” section on the left side of this page so you can eliminate other system problems first.
Duh. The “Other Articles to Try” section lists the usual suspects (such as antivirus software) that cause things to go wrong when installing software. I laughed when I read that the error code could be any 11-digit number. How in the heck do you troubleshoot a random number? Looking it up doesn’t work.
Want to try your hand at fixing this bad boy? Follow these steps.
1. On the lower left side of the box, click What is sent in the error report?
2. You’ll see a box that starts “The following information is included in the error report.” On the left side, click Error Info underneath About This Report.
3. The next box (see below) will show detailed information about the error. What helped me was the .NET exception message highlighted in gray.
4. Use this information and your bare wits to correct the error. On my machine, restrictive permissions caused the message “Access to the path … is denied.” Fixed in a jiffy with the Windows Explorer security dialog.
Best of luck. If worse comes to worse, you can always surf over to the IRS website, download, print, fill out, and mail 2010 Form 4868, “Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.” That will give you a few more months to wrestle with TurboTax.