I have installed AutoCad R14 on my new laptop which is running Vista Basic. On attempting to start the application from desktop icon it gives me an error message "BAD MEM POINTER. SmartHeap library". The application does not start at all and I cannot get rid of this message. HELP PLEASE!!

R14 - that's like 10 years old!

As seen in this Autodesk Discussion Group thread, you are not alone. It seems several folks are having problems with Vista and getting smartheap library errors. Considering how old R14 is, it is not surprising Autodesk does not provide Vista support for it.

See the post in that thread by nijawayne and the reply by Ed S. for a "possible" solution.