The XP Issues have begun....

[AndrewPaulNet]

I'm not sure if this happens to any of you, but after about 6 months to a year of having XP, it starts acting up.

Now, I know this is partly due to installations, etc. etc. but ack, it's getting really annoying now. I installed my XP last January and right on target it's starting to act up. My XP Pro and key is completely legit.

My problems started a few days ago - havent really installed anything new. To be noted: I do give my system regular spyware checks and my anti virus and defrag programs run like clockwork.....

So far my 3 biggest issues are, in order of how annoying they are:

1. Can't open the properties page of my network connection anymore (and God knows maybe what else?) - always always always makes windows do the crash and recovery thing.
2. Random intermittent crash and recoveries, like I mentioned before, just opening a program or a menu will make XP's taskbar and notif. area disappear, a few seconds later, the taskbar will come back and 1/2 of my notif. icons will be gone (the programs are ofcourse, still running).
3. Memory cannot be read errors, also intermittent and random. In various programs, sometimes at logoff or restart/shutdown. Usually in svchost.exe or explorer.exe or some other necessary XP system file.

One other thing that happened is that My Outlook 2003 was totally screwed on my main profile. Don't know how or why but one day it just up and couldn't check mail. When I tried to go into the mail accounts it said it couldn't do it and to reinstall. Tried the repair, tried the reinstall to no avail. So I ended up setting up another profile and copying exporting the mail, and that worked....I have no idea why this happened.

So far, everyone has said this seems to be bad memory. I have had my memory for 2 years. It's OCZ 512 and 2700, I've noticed that it's being counted as 2100 now though, I'm not sure why. On the chip is says OCZ PC2700 DDR and it's got a nice purple heatsink on it. I'm not a tweaker. I'm the type who updates constantly, keeps the system on it's feet and does his regular housework like defrags, av scans, spyware/adware scans every week. Why is my XP misbehaving all of a sudden.

I've decided not to format or reinstall until I upgrade which hopefully will be in June sometime. So that's not an option for now...
If you can, I'd appreciate your advice or suggestions on what to do.

I've checked a bunch of sites too, but nothing really adds up. Help Me Out please.

Thanks

 

[ISAslot]

You may want to run your harddisk-brand-checkup-utility to see if it's keeping a secret about its health.

 

[JustMike]

Bad mobo and/or power supply is a possibility as well.

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

SMART status on my drives are fine. For precaution, I did run a couple utils on all my drives. All reports hard drive health at 100.

I have a maxtor 80 gig 2mb, 7200 RPM (System) @ NTFS and also a 120 gig 7200 8mb 7200 RPM (Emergency Ghost/Backup/Files).

Also have a bunch of small ones, but I can't check SMART on those (on the raid channel). And another 120 Gig Seagate 8mb 7200 RPM on USB.

As for mobo, power supply. I suppose it could be those...but why the sudden probs now? The power supply is an Antec 350w I got last year, the board is a KT3 Ultra 2 R, nearly 2 years running.

Whyyyyy, Whyyyyy!!!!

 

[Amused]

Sounds like file corruption is taking place due to a hardware failure that is not catastrophic, but just bad enough to slowly, and randomly corrupt files.

Have you tested your machine for stability? Have you run Prime95 and memtest for 12+ hours? If you cannot run these two for 12+ hours without errors, your machine is not stable and will, over time, corrupt files.

 

[skyking]

I have a 19 month old XPpro install that I have abused to no end with several dozen different PCI and vidcards, many apps installed, uninstalled reinstalled, and a flakey hard drive power connector. I'd do as the others suggest, and look into the hardware issue.

 

[wjsulliv]

Memory Errors... Random restarts. Sounds like a ram issue or ram slot on the motherboard issue.

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

Ahh, I see what you mean.

I never have random restarts. Just crashes and the memory errors.

I tried moving my ram around to no real avail.

File corruption you say? Hmm. There's nothing I can run to see if the files are ok?

I can run a burn in, but what will it determine for sure - nothing really.

Thanks! And keep em' coming....

 

[Amused]

Prime95's torture test will show if there is any hardware failure that causes file corruption.

I've had XP on a machine for over 2 years with daily heavy use with no problems at all. XP is not to blame here.

 

[Jeff7181]

I had this problem with Win95 and Win98... but I'm coming up on 1 year for this install of XP as well and I don't have any problems like that. I have the normal problems... ya know, slower boot times cause of the larger registry with all my 100+ programs and games installed.
I've also taken steps to prevent Gator and the rest of GAIN's advertising crap from being installed on my computer. It only works with NTFS though... what you do is create the folder that GAIN applications install to, and then set the permissions so nobody, not even the administrator has the ability to write to that folder.

 

[EeyoreX]

Memory Errors... Random restarts. Sounds like a ram issue or ram slot on the motherboard issue.

This is my primary guess as well. Even if your PC does not restart. Have you run a utility like memtest? You say your PC2700 RAM is now being recognized as PC2100. Did it correctly show as PC2700 before? If so, that is yet another clue that memory could be your problem.

\Dan

 

[Smilin]

Filter your system log for 6008's to see just how many crashes you're getting. See if you have any record of savedumps (if not, reconfigure so memory dumps are saved). If you see savedumps/bsods/STOPs of 3 or more different types you likely have a hardware issue. If you spot a trend in your crashes like they started on a particular date, check your windows\setupapi.log file to see if you made any hardware/driver changes around that time.
Also filter for 9,11,26,50 and 51s which can all be indicative of hardware failure.
Grab memtest or the Microsoft real-mode tester at http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
If you're overclocking, stop.
It sounds like you might have some damaged files. Do a chkdsk, Reapply sp1 and run SFC.

Your regular maintenance is admirable - that's definately the way to keep your box up. Always use an ad/spyware removers that provide a log or backup of what they remove. Those tools should be used to find bunk registry keys for you - NOT make the decision about what should be deleted. Keep your windows\repair\regback folder up to date by kicking off a ASR and then cancelling it when it prompts for a disk.

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

Tried memtest and that windiag prog. Ram tests fine on multiple passes.

Here is my 'crashlist' - at these crashes, my taskbar and not. area icons will go away and come back in a second or 2, half or more more of the not. icons will be gone, but still ofcourse be running in the background.

Hope this helps. This is the entire fault error list - as you can see, they started on December 15. Not sure what I could have installed or uninstalled. I've had no major changes to my system.

Monday, December 15, 2003 Applicatio n Error Faulting application schsvr.exe, version 3.0.79.64, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00030c3d.
Friday, December 19, 2003 Applicatio n Error Faulting application btdownloadgui.exe, version 0.0.0.0, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x426c6c6f.
Friday, December 19, 2003 Applicatio n Error Faulting application btdownloadgui.exe, version 0.0.0.0, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000000.
Saturday, December 20, 2003 Applicatio n Hang Hanging application iexplore.exe, version 6.0.2800.1106, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.
Sunday, December 21, 2003 Applicatio n Error Faulting application tesla.exe, version 0.9.1.360, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000000.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 Applicatio n Hang Hanging application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 Applicatio n Hang Fault bucket 50080998.
Friday, December 26, 2003 Applicatio n Error Faulting application winamp.exe, version 5.0.0.0, faulting module mpeg2dmx.ax, version 2.0.83.30403, fault address 0x0000e0b3.
Friday, December 26, 2003 Applicatio n Error Faulting application wmplayer.exe, version 9.0.0.2980, faulting module mpeg2dmx.ax, version 2.0.83.30403, fault address 0x0000e0b3.
Saturday, December 27, 2003 NTBackup End Backup of 'C:' 'Warnings or errors were encountered.' Verify: Off Mode: Append Type: Normal Consult the backup report for more details.
Saturday, December 27, 2003 NTBackup End Operation: Warnings or errors were encountered. Consult the backup report for more details.
Saturday, December 27, 2003 Applicatio n Hang Hanging application iexplore.exe, version 6.0.2800.1106, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.
Saturday, December 27, 2003 Applicatio n Hang Hanging application OUTLOOK.EXE, version 11.0.5510.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.
Saturday, December 27, 2003 Applicatio n Hang Hanging application msnmsgr.exe, version 6.1.0.203, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.
Sunday, December 28, 2003 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module mpeg2dmx.ax, version 2.0.83.30403, fault address 0x0000e0b3.
Monday, December 29, 2003 Applicatio n Hang Hanging application CCAPP.EXE, version 2.1.0.610, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.
Thursday, January 01, 2004 EventSyste m The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal processing. HRESULT was 800706BF from line 44 of d:\nt\com\com1x\src\events\tie r1\eventsystemobj.cpp. Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services to report this error.
Thursday, January 01, 2004 EventSyste m The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal processing. HRESULT was 80040206 from line 421 of d:\nt\com\com1x\src\events\tie r2\notify.cpp. Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services to report this error.
Thursday, January 01, 2004 EventSyste m The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal processing. HRESULT was 800706BA from line 44 of d:\nt\com\com1x\src\events\tie r1\eventsystemobj.cpp. Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services to report this error.
Thursday, January 01, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.1217, fault address 0x00033905.
Friday, January 02, 2004 MSN Error Reporting None
Friday, January 02, 2004 MSN Error Reporting None
Friday, January 02, 2004 MSN Error Reporting None
Friday, January 02, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application iexplore.exe, version 6.0.2800.1106, faulting module mxsmrt.dll, version 1.0.4.5, fault address 0x000040c2.
Friday, January 02, 2004 Applicatio n Error Fault bucket 74686877.
Monday, January 05, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.1217, fault address 0x00007ec4.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module netshell.dll, version 5.1.2600.1106, fault address 0x00040f20.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module netshell.dll, version 5.1.2600.1106, fault address 0x00040f20.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module netshell.dll, version 5.1.2600.1106, fault address 0x00040f20.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Applicatio n Error Fault bucket 50848775.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module netshell.dll, version 5.1.2600.1106, fault address 0x00040f20.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module netshell.dll, version 5.1.2600.1106, fault address 0x00040f20.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module netshell.dll, version 5.1.2600.1106, fault address 0x00040f20.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module , version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000000.
Thursday, January 08, 2004 Applicatio n Error Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2800.1221, faulting module netshell.dll, version 5.1.2600.1106, fault address 0x00040f20.

P.S Netshell.dll is the crash I get every single time I try to look at my network card properties.

I also recently had a memory cannot be read in explorer.exe recently, but at the time that I grabbed this, it didn't happen yet.

Ahhhhhh....!!!!!

What's going on?

 

[Smilin]

Your icons disappearing and reappearing is just a side effect of explorer.exe (your gui) restarting after it crashes. Your netshell.dll appears to be the latest version.

Check your windows\setupapi.log file. Start from the bottom of it and scroll up looking for date headers inclosed in brackets [ ] . Check around the 15th of December and see if anything changed.

On your OS (not application) crashes, what stop codes are you getting? After source: event entries you should see some savedump entries in your system log. If you don't, check to see if your computer is set to save a memory dump on crash (in system properties).

Did you run a chkdsk, reapply sp1 and run SFC?

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

No I didn't.

Didn't want to mess with reapplying patches, but if I have to, I guess I will.

Exactly how do I reapply sp1?

What's SFC?

And chkdsk? Doesn't than run by itself when errors are detected? Since I'm running in NTFS?

OK - I'll try this stuff and see.

 

[Maus]

Originally posted by: AndrewPaulNet
P.S Netshell.dll is the crash I get every single time I try to look at my network card properties.

Well, with that you may want to update your network card's drivers.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: AndrewPaulNet
No I didn't.

Didn't want to mess with reapplying patches, but if I have to, I guess I will.

Exactly how do I reapply sp1?

What's SFC?

And chkdsk? Doesn't than run by itself when errors are detected? Since I'm running in NTFS?

OK - I'll try this stuff and see.

You'll need to download sp1 as a network install and run it to reapply.
SFC - system file checker. Checks all your system files against the copies that are supposed to be there and replaces them.
Chkdsk will only run by itself if the dirty bit is set indicating some data was written to the disk that didn't make it.
Have a copy of Q824186 (MS03-039) handy when you reservice pack. You'll want to apply that update right away to avoid getting nailed by blaster.

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

Curses!

I have been cursed!

Nothing I do allows me any escape from my pesky windows xp problems. I swear I have no kind of virus lab or software crack workshop here...

WHY does this happen?!! LOL

I'm just gonna have to format and reinstall fellaz.

After doing the network SP1a install, I still get that explorer crash when I try to go into the properties of my network connection.

Checked the files as recom. and everything is fine - only thing that's comin' up is like unsigned drivers and stuff. I'm not getting anymore memory crashes though. Well, I'm not really sure. I haven't been using my PC enough lately to get one of those.

On a good note, starting over isn't THAT bad I guess. Only thing I really hate about it is trying to get my system the way it was/is. Gaaah! LOL

Thanks again though....if you have any other suggestions, let me know within.....6 hours. LOL.....I'm planning to format at about 3am EST.

Later.

PS...forgot to mention....I did a few burn in's too while I was out and no crashes...., not that it's a bad thing, but this is like the frog dancing and singing for me, and then not doing it when I want him to do it (don't know if all of you have seen that cartoon)....it's not crashing when I want it to I guess; just when it's totally inconvenient and annoying....
I think I mentioned the mem tests came out ok with multiple passes, and also chkdsk came in with a few errors it fixed - they weren't very serious errors either, and mostly in my windows media player directory and music directory.

Ok, gone again.