Hi Guys,

I hope that you can help me. I've seen similar postings on this site, but apparently there are multiple causes. I will include a zip of the five most recent minidumps if that helps narrow down the possibilities. I've recently been experiencing very slow internet access. Some websites never load. In the process of trying to overcome the problem tonight, I tried turning off various protections afforded by Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. Turning it off completely allows very fast access to all websites, so I was sure it was something caused by Kaspersky. I would turn off various protections and go browsing IE 8.0, frequently experiencing incomplete or nonloads and attempting to stop and reload pages that wouldn't finish (or start) loading. After doing this for five minutes or so I got my first blue screen. After restarting the computer and resuming my troubleshooting, this blue screen behavior repeated over and over. I uninstalled IE 8.0, thinking that as this was really the most recent change to my computer, maybe IE 8.0 was conflicting with Kaspersky. Using IE 7.0, the web browsing is almost back to normal with AV on, but switching frequently from website to website brought the blue screen back. Without Kaspersky on, I haven't experienced it yet, but it would figure that I'm not taxing the system memory demands as much without antivirus running. It's always the same error message:

STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x00000020, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x9F66373A)

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

It does a data dump and at the bottom it states:

afd.sys - Address 9F66373A base at 9F663000, Datestamp 48a40333

My system is a Dell desktop - Dimension E520, Pentium Dual CPU 2.8GHz with
1GB of RAM. Windows XP SP3 (Media Center Edition) is installed and I'm using Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 (aka 8.0.0.506). Internet Explorer remains version 7.0 at this point (don't think I'll upgrade again for a while, if at all).

I apologize for the wordy description, but I thought it might help if you knew what was happening when the behavior began. If you need any other info from me, please let me know.

Thanks in advance for your help,


--Jeff

You've still got some Norton stuff left behind. Run the Norton removal tool.

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

...Okay, well I don't know what those minidumps specifically reflect about Norton, other than that there is a Norton related product on the system. Norton was my AV program two years ago. I used that tool at the Symantec website to remove every scrap of Systemworks. Then I reinstalled certain Norton Utilities that I liked - but not AV or any resident programs watching disks or activity. Kaspersky and the computer in general has been working with no incident for two years. This is the workhorse in our household, so it runs nearly twenty hours a day. No component of Norton was run lately to coincide with this problem which has arisen in the last several days, and I don't run LiveUpdate. The most obvious things that have occurred lately is IE 8.0 was automatically installed about a week ago, and there were some problems starting Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 over the weekend which turned out to be a conflict with some Flipshare software or driver. I used a workaround solution, renaming a Premiere program file to change the loading order of files when the program starts. Regarding IE 8.0, I uninstalled it and reverted back to IE 7.0. Again, that has alleviated the struggle with loading websites a little bit. Frequently reloading websites or navigating away in a short time still brings the same error.

I have read that the AFD.sys error sometimes has to do with a memory DIMM going bad or a problem with virtual memory options. I ordered more RAM from Dell. I will upgrade from 1GB of RAM to 4GB of RAM using four 1GB DIMMs. This made sense as memory is pretty cheap these days, and the computer could really stand the upgrade. That was a no-brainer. I also followed someone's advice from this website in another thread about resetting the virtual memory settings. I turned it off, restarted twice and then set Windows to manage virtual memory.

At this point I've got intermittent slow webpage loads when Kaspersky runs. If I pause Kaspersky, pages all load quickly. Then I resume Kaspersky and it navigates fine. I gave it some good quick reloads and renavigates, and so far the blue screen isn't back. But I'm not convinced it's really gone. It's too short a period. If those minidumps in combination with the error code message I described before indicate anything else, can someone please let me know? If it continues, I will remove the Norton utlity apps as a last resort, but it doesn't really add up to me that after two years of blissful cooperation that suddenly this is the cause of serious blue screen shenanigans. No?

Please advise.

Best Regards,


--Jeff

I helped a person here a few months back that was having a number of issues and couldn't figure out the cause. I read her minidumps and they cited Norton drivers.

Here is the thing: She uninstalled Norton 6 years previously but for some unknown reason they began to attempt to "work" in 2009 even though the software was unstalled in 2003.

Symantec/Norton is notorious for leaving remnants of itself behind even though it has been uninstalled by the owner. This is such a serious issue Symantec has created a removal tool that you can get from their website (that peterdiva mentions) in order that all drivers are removed. The uninstall tool that comes with this software is in itself incomplete. Make sure you use the one that coincides with your previously installed version.

Old Norton will conflict with Kaspersky.

Well, after trying several alternatives which genuinely did improve the performance of the computer, the blue screens still prevailed until at last I uninstalled all Symantec products and ran their latest removal tool. It has now been one week without a blue screen. It seems incredible to me that the computer ran so well for so long (years), and suddenly this disk/Windows utlity started interfering with no provocation. However, the proof is in the pudding. You guys spotted the problem in the minidump and you were apparently right on. I can't thank you enough for the help. I really appreciate it.

The only question I have for you is about Winfax. Winfax was the reason I didn't immediately use Norton's removal tool when you suggested it. I am very attached to this program. Should I be able to reinstall Symantec's Winfax Pro without new interference issues? The removal tool removes ALL Symantec product files. I know that Symantec/Norton plant deeply in the system. But is Winfax alone likely to cause issues we've been discussing here?

Thank all again!!! You guys are great!!

Best Regards,


--Jeff

Hello Jeff
If you bought Winfax as a standalone product, you may be able to run it without conflict with your (non-Symantec) AV.
If it was part of a suite... installation could be problematic. It has been years since I used winfax,
and I do not remember now how it came bundled for me.

The product was created by developer Tony Davis at Delrina in 1990,
Delrina was sold to Symantec by the end of 1995.
Symantec discontinued WinFax as of June 30, 2006.

There are other options out there, including
An easy-to-use fax service is built into Windows XP so you can send and receive faxes from your computer.
See... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/crawford_02october21.mspx

Hey!

No, this was purchased as a stand alone product. I owned a copy when it was Delrina, and have continued to upgrade to allow for use with Windows as Windows has changed over the years. I'm at version 10.02 - almost the last version. I've found it to be a wonderful program, and I have a good number of documents in there that I like to have available. I backed up all Winfax databases and important database instruction files before I uninstalled and ran the tool. But I wanted to make sure there were no known issues before I attempted to reinstall it. One day when I move on to Windows 7 (or God forbid, Vista) I'll need to find an alternative. But for now I want to keep it on hand.

Again, I can't thank you all enough for your help!


--Jeff