I'll try...even if it doesn't make sense cause mIRC was able to open this file for many years...
maybe not direct related...
dunno how mirc handles icons,
but i do know that 6.0x and above all had problems loading icons (from ICL library tho), that were 16bit
mirc would give such error,
so i had to convert ICL manually to 32bit, and then it was alright
again doesn't have to be directly related ... but who knows...