Which driver is the problem?

Oh, no! a blue screen! :eek

The MS Error Report Page says:
If the problem occurred after a hardware install, use dell driver reset tool or uninstall the driver... If the problem occurred after a software install, it could have installed a driver that caused the problem ... uninstall the software. If you don't know the specific driver or software, try performing a system restore.

Oh, that's so helpful ... not!rolleyes

Is there a way to tell what driver it is? The only thing I remember doing was wanting to remove Adobe Photoshop downloader from that tray at the bottom right of my screen. I have ACDSee and I don't want to launch Adobe Photoshop downloader when downloading pix from my camera. But I don't know if that was the problem (I right-clicked and selected "exit" and the Adobe icon is still in the tray).

The blue screen came up when I put the computer on hibernate; it said something vague about "software or hardware problem." This a.m. when I booted up, there was an error report window, so I sent that off to MS. (I will describe what it said below). After sending the error report, Firefox (default browser) opened to a MS Error report page with the above quoted advice.

Here is a copy of the Error Report:

Error Signature:
BCCode:c2 BCP1:00000007 BCP2: 00000CD4 BCP3: 00000020 BCP4:E18AF0E8 (or maybe E18AFOE8) OSVer: 5.1.2600 SP:2.0 Product 768_1.

I do have a recent system restore point (7/28/07) but can't remember if I put anything on my system since. I have downloaded but not yet installed Bit Defender 10 BETA as a test subject.

Ideas? Thanks!confused

Cricks

 

Hi Cricks,

I need the answers to a few questions before we can proceed to troubleshoot this issue.

First, before any other questions, do you agree to troubleshoot with me? (The agreement is that I will ask questions to gather information necessary to research your issue, then we will work on it together through MajorGeeks.com; I can't guarantee resolution of the issue. If this is acceptable, then we can proceed.)

1. What version of Windows are you running? (Please be as specific as possible, and include Service Pack number, if any.)
2. What brand of PC are you using? (Let me know if it is a custom-built machine. If necessary, it may need to be researched piece by piece.)
3. Are you able to boot to Windows in Safe Mode? (Tap f8 during startup, until the Advanced Options menu appears. Then choose Safe Mode with networking.)

Let me know your answer ASAP.

 

Dear Chipper,

I don't know if I'm willing to work with you or not, yet. I'd like to know more about your experience and expertise working with solving computer woes. No intention to be rude, just careful! If this system crashes irretrievably, I'm going to be very unhappy :cry As I don't know what the problem is, it may be difficult for me to ground-truth this process as we go along.

But I do have the information you requested - WinXP/Home/2002, Svc Pack 2; Dell Dimension 2400; and yes, I expect so.

Cricks

 

Hi Cricks,

And no, you're not being rude, you're being wise. My training in drivers comes from work as a Support Professional for Windows Vista technical support. I've also worked for the past five months as an MSSecurity agent. As such, I am the new guy at troubleshooting Windows issues. I've fixed both software and malicious software issues in the past, and my experience with drivers is mainly from using the MSCONFIG command to edit the system's active drivers list. I know how to turn them on or off. By turning off all startup items and third party drivers, for instance, I know how to verify whether the issue is in fact with a third party driver. That particular procedure is called a 'Clean Boot'. By using MSCONFIG, we can narrow the exact driver at issue by turning drivers back on until the issue repeats itself.

I will tell you now that if the issue is in fact a Microsoft driver corruption, I do not have the training to fix it. A System Restore might actually fix the problem outright, by the way, with little risk to your data. A System Recovery almost certainly will, but will also delete all software/data on the system and reinstall Windows at its factory settings. That's a scenario I'd like to avoid unless your computer has no relevant data or software that isn't backed up on external media (CD, DVD, flash drive, external hard drive, etc.). If you can back up your data now, I would advise doing so now on external media to prevent loss.

The reason I say I cannot guarantee the resolution of the issue is simply because there are variables in computer troubleshooting which are beyond my control, and many of them involve the interaction between Windows, hardware, and third-party software.

I would like to help you with this issue, and if you have any more questions, by all means, ask.

Chipper :wave

 

Take the guesswork out of the problem...

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246

If you want to attach them here, I can analyze them.

Edit: for some reason i thought you had Vista.

 

Thanks Adrynalyne for offering to assist with the issue; would it be possible to use a HijackThis scan to analyse the drivers? I will be around for about five and a half hours for today, and will be back tomorrow. Cricks, if I can help with this, I will.

 

No HJT will only give information on run keys, running processes, and services.

It doesnt display driver information.

 

Thanks to both of you!

I have the computer in safe mode right now; I had another blue screen yesterday when I went to re-boot (things were c...r....a....w.....l....i....n....g and the system said I didn't have enough virtual memory so it was going to create more); I thought/hoped that re-booting would help. This being my third blue screen within the last month, I am beginning to get a little concerned! So I sensibly shut her down for de-stress time (mine, if not the computer's).

Yesterday's blue screen gave the following stop codes:
0XC0000005, 0X80566C37, 0XEF86761C, 0X00000000.

It also said something about getting a BIOS update from the manufacturer (Dell, presumably) and suggested disabling BIOS memory options, such as caching or shadowing.

I have no idea what this means but have an idea that the OS part of BIOS means "operating system" and this really doesn't make me feel better. :confused

Having started in safe mode this morning, I found two options -- to log on as Administrator and to log on to my account (I created an account just for me, and gave myself Administrator privileges because I have a houseguest; I never uncreated the separate account even though she doesn't use my computer). I logged on to my account, and have come on line.

SO.... if I'm going to try this minidump thing that Anadyne has posted at the link cited, I was wondering if I can actually download and install the program while in safe mode?

I was totally unable to backup my files to the CD; all I get is the message that I should put a CD in the D drive (my RW drive), and it was already in the drive, but the drive light went out after initially spinning up, and the system still did not recognize there was a CD in there. :banghead I tried backing out and restarting the copy-to-disk function, but no joy.

But with a BIOS fault, do I dare just re-boot in normal mode to see if I can back up my files?? And if I shouldn't do that, how do I back up my files before I start taking the computer to bits and bytes with the diagnostics? I really don't want to risk the loss of all my photos and other records! :duck

Cricks

 

Ah, well, I answered ONE question - can I download (yes) and install (no) the debugging program!

Do I risk normal mode?



C

 

You could zip them up and attach em here.

 

Dear Adrynaline,

Sorry, I don't understand. Zip what up? I don't have the program that lets on ZIP files, and I can't install the debugging program because I'm in safe mode. Did you mean zip my computer files/records? How would I protect them here even if I did have the zipping program?

So I come back to my other question; is it safe [enough] to re-boot or am I likely to lose everything if I re-boot in normal mode in order to (1) back up my files to CD and (2) install the debugging program that you recommended?

Cricks

 

Not sure if Adrynalyne is around. To compress files into Zip format, you may need a Zip file compression utility. This freeware utility is highly rated here by visitors to MajorGeeks.com:

TUGZip 3.4.0.2

 

Thank you.

I am suspecting that my computer has a LOT of programs on it and this is causing most of my problems -- the system freezes up because it has no room. I've gotten two or three recent notices about needing to create more virtual memory. I have uninstalled some that I don't use, compacted old files, and defragmented, but I still don't have enough memory to install the debugging program Adrynalyne recommended.

I did finally reboot in normal mode (crossing my fingers), and received a message that the system had recovered from a serious error (more BCCodes); and the error report the computer tried to send to MS was corrupted. (The system froze for a bit while it was "checking status of this problem".)

And I've managed to back up my files onto CD. It took 2 CDs to take just my photos! (Maybe I should take them off the computer and keep them on the CDs.)

So maybe my next project is to add memory to my hard-drive ... as soon as I figure out how to do that!

There are probably lots of problems I am trying to ignore here...

Cricks

 

This was all explained in my How To, but anyway, the files in question that need to be examined are in the folder C:\windows\minidump. Assuming C; is your system drive, of course.

 

Well, one thing I found was that the PCDoctor was eating all my ram space, running all the time like that ("your virtual memory is too low..."). I disabled it (presuming - perhaps foolishly :foolish- that I can enable it on an as-needed basis) and suddenly everything got so much faster!!! And I mean EVERYTHING. The program may be the best thing since breadsticks, but it sure is a space hog. I'm going to just let my system run for a while and see how it goes.

I've spent a fair amount of time reviewing also places like ask.com and the MS problem resolution pages; somewhere (perhaps in Major Geeks even) someone suggested running only one anti-spy and one anti-virus program at any one time. I have Norton AV, Verizon's so-called online protection, and have installed Adaware and Spybot and, of course PCDoctor, and Ccleaner. Both the Verizon and the PCDoctor run all the time, so by disabling the latter, I seem to have resolved at least one issue. Maybe! :cloud9

Oddly enough, only the Verizon AV checks find estalive, and nothing seems to remove it. I restored IE and it was still there immediately, so it definitely has its tentacles in deep. If I don't use IE (or only very limitedly), can it hurt my computer?

My other RAM space hog is Firefox (at ~60,000 KB). Can't do much with that, I guess except stop going on the internet!