How can I determine cause of "Critical Stp" sounds in XP/IE8?

The immediate purpose of this post is to ascertain whether there is any means to determine the cause of a "Critical Stop" beep under Windows XP. I have tried the MMC and DRWATSON, and there is nothing there that can be associated with them. It seems to me if the system detects a "Critical Stop" event and beeps it must be logged somewhere.

I am working on a new build with Win XP. The beeps are being generated by IE8, which is essentially unusable. This is a fresh and clean installation, which seemed to be a seamless install. I suspect it may be related to a combination of IE8, Yahoo and Flash runtimes, but for now I'd just like to see what is triggering the beeps.

 

I uninstalled all Flash addons. I disabled Messenger because I don't and never will use it. I uninstalled and reinstalled Java and that shows up as 2 add ins. The only remaining one showing is Diagnose Connection Problems which I believe is native. The install was with XPSP0 with SP2 slipstreamed along with a SATA driver, then SP3, then all critical updates 10 at a time.

Since I originally posted, I looked at the MMC and realized I hadn't scrolled down far enough as I found several other Error entries. Most relate to IEEXPLORE.EXE and indicate hanging or faulting applications. The dates indicate these took place during the initial install. However, during the install there was no indication that something had gone amiss.

These make me think I need to uninstall and reinstall IE. I ran Who Crashed and it showed nothing as best I could tell. But it looks pretty cool and is going in my permanent tool box. I have to study up on Process Monitor as the massive information reported is way out of my league.

I was sort of focusing on the add ins and possible interaction with Yahoo because the install seemed smooth and trouble free and I"d read about such interactions elsewhere. But what really confounded me and made me look that direction was that a few weeks ago my IE developed nearly the same bizzarre behavior after 8 months of stable operation. That was what prompted me to do the new build, which consisted of all new components. I assumed it had to be the same cause, which would have to be something about the common current configurations. But right now it looks like a plain old corrupted install.

If I have any revelations I'll be sure to post them. If an unstall/reinstall works, I'll be happy. But I still think it nutty to assign a sound to something as dastardly sounding as Critical Stop and not explain what a Critical Stop is or how to identify what caused them

 

Hi David:

Over the past 5 hours I did most of what you suggest. I left the java in place and did not run a registry cleaner. I may try that also in one last go.

I'll mention some of what I encountered in case it is of interest. When I did an uninstall and rebooted my MMC application log contained one error entry- "cannot query DIIName registry entry....most likely caused by a faulty registration", the source being Userenv". Not knowing what this meant I forged ahead and reinstalled, then rebooted. This time the MMC was totally clean, no Errors or Warnings. I then navigated to E:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe and clicked it. I got a good old Critical Stop sound and the message that this was not a valid Win32 application.

I tried again several more times, along the way errors crept in consisting of 4 of the above and one that said the IIS metabase was not installed or was disabled. At this point nothing I can do clears them. Perhaps a registry cleaning will do that.

Thanks again for your time and assistance.

 

Gadzooks! Praise the Lord! (knock on wood) I think it is fixed!

I uninstalled java, then ran ccleaner. It found a number of things, including several associated with IE. I ran it and rebooted. The MMC log still reflected the 4 Errors, which were probably harmless. But I wanted a truly clean setup before undertaking my "one last try". and I opened regedit and looked up the registry entries identified in the Errors.

They were both located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\GPExtensions\ . Neither seemed to be associated with anything. I backed up the existing registry, then deleted both. For me this was scary.

When I rebooted, my MMC log was perfect. I proceeded to reinstall IE8, then reboot. I was cautiously optimistic when I saw an IE8 icon on my desktop, which hadn't been there before. The MMC log was still perfect. I then proceeded to undertake a pantomime drum roll and clicked the IE8 icon. Wah La! It actually started. I entered a URL for another site, then to here. This would not have been possible the last time IE actually started up. Not a rugged test by far, but my visceral feel is that I'm where I wanted to be.

Thank you again, David, not only for your straighforward and sensible advice but for giving me the encouragement to go through "one last try". At his point I'm going to savor a cold beer and perhaps several. I am them going to make a post at one of the general purpose forum categories, perhaps "welcome". If you get a chance, take a look.
Steve in Columbus, Ohio