Need Help Stopping OS And App Crashes

[sweetdaddyjones]

Help! I have been having intermittent OS crashes (BSOD) and application crashes (usually Firefox) lately. I am running XP SP2 with all the latest security patches installed. Last night, I recorded the crashes I received hoping someone would be able to interpret the results.

First, a little history:
1. I had some crashing problems a year or so ago, but the problems seemed to go away after I upgraded my video drivers.
2. I recently upgraded my monitor to a 19” LCD Samsung. Since upgrading, the video intermittently flickers, especially when minimizing or switching apps. My new crash problem often coincides with the flicker problem.
3. I updated my NAV LiveUpdate software a couple of weeks ago because my old version stopped working. The crash problem got worse about that time, although I can’t say for sure whether there is a connection.
4. I had the stwoyle trojan on my machine 2 weeks ago. I successfully removed it.
5. While removing the trojan, I verified via highjackthis that no other malicous things were loaded on my machine.
6. After Firefox crashed a couple of times, I upgraded to the latest version, but it did not help.
7. Other applications crash or are in use during BSOD’s besides Firefox, it’s just what I usually have open. I have also had crashes while using Quicken, Photoshop, etc.

Now for the stop errors I received last night:
#1: Got this one using Firefox while switching tabs, no error name was given
0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x804E2EAD, 0xF14DE790, 0x00000000)

#2: Again using Firefox while switching tabs
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
0x000000D1 (0x00000001, 0x00000011, 0x00000001, 0x864E8C5B)

#3: Doing nothing this time
0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBF806508, 0xF31EB4F4, 0x00000000)
Win32k.sys – address BF806508 base @ BF800000, Datestamp 422511a2

#4: Debug information on Firefox crash
App: xpcom.dll
Offset: 0003d268

My current list of suspects includes my video card, mobo, and NAV. Any experts have any advice?

System specs:
AMD 1700+
Epox 8k-7A (flashed to latest BIOS)
2x512 MB Kingston RAM
ATI Radeon 7200 VE 32 MB DDR (latest drivers installed)
Soundblaster Audigy
APC UPS

Thank you for any help you can offer.

 

[iss]

2. I recently upgraded my monitor to a 19” LCD Samsung. Since upgrading, the video intermittently flickers, especially when minimizing or switching apps. My new crash problem often coincides with the flicker problem.

Did you uninstall the previous monitor drivers before installing the new ones?

with all that is going on with your system I would suggest running System File Checker. put your XP disk in the optical drive, open a command prompt and type sfc /scannow this will scan the system files for any damaged or missing files and repair or replace damaged or missing files.

 

[sweetdaddyjones]

Thanks for the help, iss.

Did you uninstall the previous monitor drivers before installing the new ones?

I can't remember if I did or not at the time (I was previously just using the the generic MS driver), but tonight I uninstalled my Samsung drivers, rebooted, uninstalled the MS driver (I think it was the MS driver although XP was reporting it as Samsung), and re-installed the Samsung driver. While I was at it, I did the same with my ATI drivers. My graphics acceleration was and is turned off, by the way.

with all that is going on with your system I would suggest running System File Checker. put your XP disk in the optical drive, open a command prompt and type sfc /scannow this will scan the system files for any damaged or missing files and repair or replace damaged or missing files.

I ran sfc and it didn't report any problems, but thanks for the tip. I am still having the flickering problem, and I've had 4 app crashes tonight. 3 crashes were firefox and 1 was IE. Details as reported by the event viewer are the following:

• Faulting application iexplore.exe, version 6.0.2900.2180, faulting module wininet.dll, version 6.0.2900.2753, fault address 0x0002734f.
• Faulting application firefox.exe, version 1.0.7.0, faulting module firefox.exe, version 1.0.7.0, fault address 0x00204e59.
• Faulting application firefox.exe, version 1.0.7.0, faulting module xpcom.dll, version 1.7.20050.25981, fault address 0x0002a7b3.
• Faulting application firefox.exe, version 1.0.7.0, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x00011f6c.

However, I haven't had any BSOD's since re-installing the drivers.

 

[DelJo63]

google for some benchmark testing software you can download, like PC WIZARD.
You can run some intensive tests, eg video, ram, hd, and see how stable or
how well the system runs.

if you disconnect from the internet before running the tests, then you can
stop all the programs in the launch-bar, in particular any NAV/NIS.

These tests should stress the system to give you better clues to work with.

best wishes

PC Wizard 2005

 

[iss]

What version of Firefox are you using? and have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling with the newest version?

 

[just_a_nobody]

Also, you may want to open the side panel up on your computer, and make sure you don't have any bulging or leaking capacitors (metal barrel looking things) on your motherboard. However, as this sounds like a newer motherboard, this may not be the problem.

 

[DelJo63]

What version of Firefox are you using? and have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling with the newest version?

Just update it w/o uninstall. If you uninstall, you lose your profile and bookmarks.

 

[sweetdaddyjones]

google for some benchmark testing software you can download, like PC WIZARD.

This is now on my to-do list. Thanks.

What version of Firefox are you using? and have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling with the newest version?

I'm running 1.07, which I downloaded last week. I just downloaded the latest full Mozilla suite to try that. However, I'm pretty sure it's not a Firefox problem, as I've been encountering crash problems with other apps, including IE.

Also, you may want to open the side panel up on your computer, and make sure you don't have any bulging or leaking capacitors (metal barrel looking things) on your motherboard. However, as this sounds like a newer motherboard, this may not be the problem.

Both my video card and my mobo are 4 years old. My strongest suspicions are that one or both of those are having problems with XP. I will visually check the mobo when I get home from work.

Thanks for all the help. I will post new findings as they are discovered.

 

[sweetdaddyjones]

google for some benchmark testing software you can download, like PC WIZARD.
You can run some intensive tests, eg video, ram, hd, and see how stable or
how well the system runs.

if you disconnect from the internet before running the tests, then you can
stop all the programs in the launch-bar, in particular any NAV/NIS.

These tests should stress the system to give you better clues to work with.

I downloaded PC Wizard and benchmarked my video and Video/ DirectX 3D. The video ran just fine. However, the Video/ DirectX 3D benchmark consistently produces an app crash of PC Wizard. Following are the error messages:

Faulting application pcwizard.dll, version 2005.1.0.65, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x00011ec3.

Faulting application pcwizard.dll, version 2005.1.0.65, faulting module pcwiz32.dll, version 2005.1.6.5, fault address 0x0001cfd3.

Faulting application pcwizard.dll, version 2005.1.0.65, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x00011ec3.

Faulting application pcwizard.dll, version 2005.1.0.65, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x00011ec3.

Prior to that test, I re-downloaded my vid. driver, uninstalled, rebooted, and re-installed. When my monitor did its auto adjustment after the re-install, it set the display to 32-bit color, 1280x1024 resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate. Previously, the resolution was at 1024x768. The new resolution seems to have solved the flicker problem. I changed the resolution back to 1024x768, and the problem was as bad as ever. When I switched it back to 1280x1024, it went away again. This makes no sense to me. I figured it would work in reverse. Thus, I went all the way down to 640x480 and 16-bit color when the problem first popped up, but it didn't help. Why would this problem be present at lower resolutions but not at higher ones?

As for the DirectX benchmark test, what should my next step be to make sure DirectX is the culprit, and if so, what do I do about it? I'm running ver. 9.0.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[iss]

1280X1024 is probably the monitors native resolution, did you run the tests at that resolution?

 

[sweetdaddyjones]

1280X1024 is probably the monitors native resolution, did you run the tests at that resolution?

Yes, I was only at 1024x768 long enough to realize it was much worse at that setting. The flicker problem has been a lot better since re-installing and restting the resolution to 1280x1024. However, I'm going blind looking at these small fonts. Crashes seem to be a little better, although I still have had some since the re-install. Any ideas on debugging DirectX further, and what to do if it the root of the problem?

 

[iss]

personally given the trojans and the continuing problems I think I would do a reformat and reinstall of windows.

 

[gbhall]

adjust font sizes

Many pieces of software allow you to change the font sizes displayed, especially IE, Firefox, Word etc. You need to set the preferred size under View / Zoom or textsize is the usual place. Apart from that, Windows itself can be set to higher sizes. Right click the desktop, click settings, advanced, and most video cards have a DPI setting, which defaults to 96 DPI. There is an alternative of 120 DPI or tyou can set your own.