First BSOD in a while

It's been a while since I've had one of these, I thought I was okay
I left the laptop running Windows Live Messenger, iTunes, and Firefox. I came back to find the screen black with the cursor blinking as if in BIOS. Any help please?

I also put the screen down a bit, not fully though so it wouldn't go into sleep mode.

Your error is 0x0000007A: KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
A page of kernel data was not found in the pagefile and could not be read into memory. This might be due to incompatible disk or controller drivers, firmware, or hardware.

Unfortunately it only cited a Windows OS driver and they are normally too general to help.

The process vsmon.exe was noted but not as the cause. This belongs to Zone Alarm firewall.

Hello again Route44. I realised that I never had these problems before I reinstalled Zone Alarm. I was using AVG Free before but then I got a smss.exe Spyware that AVG couldn't fix. Zone Alarm stopped it but since then I've seen a slight slow down in computer performance :S

I don't know what other Internet security suite to try. My AVG 8 keys won't work anymore and Avast failed me years ago causing me to move to AVG in the first place. I'm guesssing this was caused by Zone Alarm but what do you think? Is there some other explanation?

Hey sadbluescreener! Sorry about another issue for you. We have had quite a few people having issues with Zone Alarm.

Since you like security suits you may want to consider Kaspersky. Also, have you considered doing the layered method of protection?

And, yes, ZA is known for slowing down systems but then again this will occur for almost any security suit because of resources involved.

Whoa Kaspersky. How much does that cost though? I am so broke =[
No I've never even heard of it. I'm guessing it involves using different security components from different softwares?

Also when I tried booting my computer this morning it wouldn't Vista. I'm currently dual booting 7 and Vista and when I chose Vista the would just remain blank. This happened for a while. I'm not sure if i should be posting here about it but it happened since the BSOD.

Hi sadbluescreener

Like Route44 said, your error is very widely based. It could be anything from hardware failure to viruses and malware infection. Try running a chkdsk to fix bad sectors, run Memtest on each stick of RAM and run the 8-step virus removal tool here ... http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic58138.html ....

Spyder_1386

P.S. If Route44 advises you to do anything else, please follow his instructions as he is far more experienced than I am.

I had previously run memtest and I got 9 passes. But I'll try the other two suggestions, thanks.

You can run some great free offerings for your protection.

Free Antivirus: Avira and Avast 4.8. They even update daily. I run the free version of Avast on 2 laptops and our second PC.

Free Firewall: Comodo and Online Armor (but no 64-bit version yet for OA) OA even has HIPS and both have very active and helpful communities.

Free Antispyware: SuperAntiSpyware; you must manually update for the free version definitions.

ALL provide resident protection.

Hm so running all these programs, won't that slow down the computer more than running just one suite? I'm considering your suggestions bt I'm curious.

My 2nd Rig: Online Armor free, Avast 4.8 free, and SuperantiSpyware free and all are light on resources.

My old Toshiba laptop with 2 gigs of RAM and a 1.4 GHz cpu: Same as above. Light on resources.

* Don't forget Avira antivirus as well; many people swear by it. And, as wih all security the first, best defense are internet habits.

It happened again. is it the same thing?

Avira has a security suite, should I just get the antivirius instead?

You have another 0x0000007A: KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR

A page of kernel data was not found in the pagefile and could not be read into memory. This might be due to incompatible disk or controller drivers, firmware, or hardware.

And, believe it or not, it cites memory corruption. Check your RAM sticks and see if they are firmly in place. Also, check your voltage for you memory in the BIOS. Is your voltage set correctly for the recommended parameters for your RAM?

sigh. if i open the back i void my warranty with MSI. =|
when I go into the BIOS i don't see any section for memory voltage but I'll check again soon. Im reli hopin its js ZoneAlarm..

I can't seem to find any good torrents of online armor. :S and when i googled it all i got were torrent sites. is there a website for it somewhere?

Torrents? You can get the free version directly from Tall Emu maker of OA:

http://www.tallemu.com/free-firewall-protection-software.html

whoa why did i not see that? lol thanks man.

While using my machine a few hours ago I saw that ZoneAlarm was querying whether to let the WerFault.exe process connect to the Internet. Then all of a sudden the laptop tells me that the TrueVector Internet component is turned off and it couldn't be turned back on. I lost all the Aero effects and the Start menu went blank and I could do nothing at all but to remove the battery.
Upon rebooting I quickly uninstalled ZA an installed OnlineArmor, SuperAntiSpyware and Avira Antivirus. So far I've had few conflicts. OA asks about every process that runs or tries to connect to the net, but I can get used to that. The System Control Manager process (scm.exe) that works with my touchpad controls had problems at the first boot but it seems to work properly now. The boot time seems to be quicker with all 3 separate programs than with ZA. But the HD light seems a bit more active. All in all I think the multi-layered approach could work though I've had one instance where I could open no programs at all, not even Task Manager. Windows said either the program doesn't exist or i don't have the permissions to open it but I've only had that problem once so far. thanks for very much for the suggestions Route44, you've been a great help yet again. =]

You're welcome. Because the security software has real time protection and they will need to load you will have slow downs from time to time, including boot-up but as you have noted there is less resources being utilized than what ZA demanded.

Remember to manually update SAS daily; only their $ version will automatically update. OA will continue to do pop-ups as it learns your habits.

=[ Could it really be bad memory after the memtest procedure and passes?

Minidump error is 0x0000007A: KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR

A page of kernel data was not found in the pagefile and could not be read into memory. This might be due to incompatible disk or controller drivers, firmware, or hardware.

The cause specifically cited memory corruption. As good as memtest is bad RAM has been known to on occasion to pass.

What make is your motherboard and RAM? How much RAM do you have installed and what OS are your running?

I currently have 4GB RAM but I'm only running a 32-bit version of Vista Home Premium. I'm also running Windows 7 on a different partition, also 32-bit. I am not at home right now so I don't have the laptop with me to check. Will do so as soon as possible. I've realised that i've never actually seen these BSODs, as in I've nt seen the screen actually go blue, it always seems to happen when I leave the computer doing something and it's not all that I leave it to come back and find an error. =S
So confusing. Should I run memtest again?