Hi, i get consistent BSOD when trying to use Zonealarm 4.5 on my new PC.

The specs are:
Mobo - MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
Ram - 2 x Corsair 512MB PC3200
CPU - AMD64 Venice 3000
PSU - Antec Neopower 480 Watt
Graphics - Sapphire Radeon X550 256mb PCI-E
HD - 2 x 80gig SATA
OS - WinXP Pro sp2

When using ZA4.5 everytime the True Vector clients starts when the pc boots up i get the bsod.

So far, i have:
- Tested the hd with seatools which came up clear
- Tested the ram with memtest (together and individually) which came up clear
- Ensured all latest drivers for all hardware
- Cleaned inside of case and most component connections
- Checked compatibility of hardware
- Tried different combinations of ram in different slots.

After all the above im still getting the BSOD's and im beginning to think i have some faulty hardware. Weird thing is, the message changes when adjusting the ram. Regardless of which slots are used when both sticks are in i get the 8E message but when just one stick is used i get the 50 message (and thats with either stick). So im wondering at the likelihood of BOTH my sticks being faulty so im wondering whether it may be my mobo.

I know this version of ZA works with this version of windows I have installed as it works fine on another PC which is running the exact same OS.

I have some minidumps with both the 8E and 50 messages - if someone could take a look at them it would be MUCH appreciated. If it turns out I have some faulty hardware i might be able to still arrange an RMA.

Any help/advice appreciated.

Hi,

All of your crashes are caused by vsmon.exe and it is a processs associated with the ZoneAlarm personal firewall. It is used to monitor Internet traffic and generate alerts depending on the security rules configured by the user.

Your problem may be related to faulty ram. For problem isolation, you had better de-install ZoneAlarm and install other firewall. If it still crashes, the culprit is faulty memory such as ram, L2 cache memory of CPU or video memory.

Hi cpc, thanks for looking into my problem.

I've tried ZA6.6 and psygate and both of these seemed to work fine with no bsod's, so im wondering why v4.5 doesnt like my pc. The reason im trying to get v4.5 to work is that its my fav firewall, the later versions are very bloated and resource hungry and the other brands are ok but not up to the same par, for my needs/preferences anyway.

I suppose if all else fails i'll reluctantly stick with v6.6, but if i could just ask you a couple of questions...

- Is this vsmon.exe a process installed by windows or zonealarm?
- Is my mobo then considered definately not in the list of possible causes?
- Can you recommend any things i can try to get 4.5 working on this machine?


Cheers again for your help!

Hi,

The problem is related to two device drivers use the same piece of common storage. Let's say ZA allocate a trunk of storage which he thinks it is owned by ZA. However another device drivers also thinks that piece of storage is owned by him. Not only ZA 4.5 has this issue. Even though the lastest ZoneAlarm has the same issue.

This is the reason same version of ZA works at a PC and crash at another PC. You can compare the software list and find out what is difference between two windows. It is beyond my knowledge to trouble shoot which device driver conflicts with ZA. You had better report this problem to ZA.

Thanks for your help cpc, i'd buy you pint if i could!

Hi Boaby,

ZA has conflict with other software. For example eMule and ZA has conflict. Probably one of your device driver is conflict with ZA. You can research at Internet to find out the culprit.

http://forum.emule-project.net/index.php?showtopic=50732