Java HotSpot Virtual Machine

Newbie trying to create a JVM from C on Win2000. How can I find out what's wrong? Default dir when invoking is where all my code is.

/*****  Code  ********/
vm_args.version = 0x00010001;

res = JNI_GetDefaultJavaVMInitArgs(&vm_args);
if (res < 0)   { fprintf(stderr, "JNI_GetDefaultJavaVMInitArgs failed\n");
                 exit(1);
               }
printf(" - JNI_GetDefaultJavaVMInitArgs succeeded\n");

sprintf(classpath, "%s%c%s", vm_args.classpath, PATH_SEPARATOR, USER_CLASSPATH);
vm_args.classpath = classpath;

res = JNI_CreateJavaVM(&jvm,(void**)&env,&vm_args);
if (res < 0)   { fprintf(stderr, "Can't create Java VM (Return value %d)\n", res);
                 fprintf(stderr, " Classpath = \"%s\"\n", vm_args.classpath);
                 exit(1);
               }
/******* Results: ******/

 - JNI_GetDefaultJavaVMInitArgs succeeded
Can't create Java VM (Return value -3)
 Classpath = "C:\jdk1.3.0_01\jre\lib\rt.jar;C:\jdk1.3.0_01\jre\lib\i18n.jar;C:\jdk1.3.0_01\jre\lib\sunrsasign.jar;C:\jdk1.3.0_01\jre\classes;."