Programs Crashing in XP
 

I have been having a problem lately, and cannot seem to narrow it
down.

Several programs, like Windows Explorer, WMP10, and other video or
audio programs, will come up with an error message that "abc.exe has
encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the
inconvenience." "If you were in the middle of something, the
information you were working on might be lost." Many times, when I
click "OK" my screen freezes, and I have to go to Task Manager to shut
it down. After that, everything seems to work fine.

I've run two different virus programs, McAfee and AVG, thinking it
might be a virus. My system appears clean. I've run AdAware and
Spybot, and aside from a few tracking cookies, all else appears clean.
I use WIN auto update, so I think I am up to date on all security
fixes. I'm behind a router firewall.

I'm not sure what to do to track this problem down. I'm running a Pent
4, 3.0 mhz, WINXP SP2, 1 GB RAM, and two installed hard drives, 200gb
and 160gb, with two DVD Burners. Both hard drives have more than 100gb
free. I do a bit of video work, and have installed different programs
along the way, but nothing that seemed to cause any problems.

I considered reformatting the "C" HD, but with quite a few programs on
both drives, that would be a lot of work. I'll do it if I have to, but
hope there's a simpler fix. Maybe just reinstall WINXP? Does it work
to just reinstall it over itself, or is that just a problem in itself?

Anyone have any thoughts on what might be causing this, or maybe a
suggestion on how to track down the source of the problem?

Thanks for any help.

Re: Programs Crashing in XP
 

"John" <john@john.net> wrote in message
news:fj3fd2d2tj182do7fut1qr4jqbkfdeg12g@4ax.com...
>I have been having a problem lately, and cannot seem to narrow it
> down.
>
> Several programs, like Windows Explorer, WMP10, and other video or
> audio programs, will come up with an error message that "abc.exe has
> encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the
> inconvenience." "If you were in the middle of something, the
> information you were working on might be lost." Many times, when I
> click "OK" my screen freezes, and I have to go to Task Manager to shut
> it down. After that, everything seems to work fine.
>
> I've run two different virus programs, McAfee and AVG, thinking it
> might be a virus. My system appears clean. I've run AdAware and
> Spybot, and aside from a few tracking cookies, all else appears clean.
> I use WIN auto update, so I think I am up to date on all security
> fixes. I'm behind a router firewall.
>
> I'm not sure what to do to track this problem down. I'm running a Pent
> 4, 3.0 mhz, WINXP SP2, 1 GB RAM, and two installed hard drives, 200gb
> and 160gb, with two DVD Burners. Both hard drives have more than 100gb
> free. I do a bit of video work, and have installed different programs
> along the way, but nothing that seemed to cause any problems.
>
> I considered reformatting the "C" HD, but with quite a few programs on
> both drives, that would be a lot of work. I'll do it if I have to, but
> hope there's a simpler fix. Maybe just reinstall WINXP? Does it work
> to just reinstall it over itself, or is that just a problem in itself?
>
> Anyone have any thoughts on what might be causing this, or maybe a
> suggestion on how to track down the source of the problem?
>
www.testmyfirewall.com/abcexe.asp

Re: Programs Crashing in XP
 

In the Adminstrator Tools, check out the Event Viewer to see if there
are any reported errors. You will need the proper technical skills to
understand the results. Also, you can run Dr. Watson, and after the
faults have occured, you can check the Dr. Watson log file.

In Windows help, do a search for Event Viewer, and Dr. Watson. There
will be information about how to apply these utilities. If you do a
search on the net, there are many sites that have information about
these utilities.

It is very important to take note of any reported errors, and the codes
given. Many assistance can be found by searching the net, and or from
the MS site.


Below is an example from Windows Help:
_________________

Using Dr. Watson

Dr. Watson detects information about system and program failures and
records the information in a log file. In the event of a program error,
Dr. Watson starts automatically.

Open Dr. Watson.

Notes:
To open Dr. Watson, click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box,
type drwtsn32.
Dr. Watson cannot prevent errors from occurring, but the information
recorded in the log file can be used by technical support personnel to
diagnose the problem.

For information about using Dr. Watson, click Help in Dr. Watson.

For more information, click Related Topics.

__________________


Using Event Viewer

Event Viewer maintains logs about program, security, and system events
on your computer. You can use Event Viewer to view and manage the event
logs, gather information about hardware and software problems, and
monitor Windows security events.

Open Event Viewer.

Notes:
To open Event Viewer, click Start, point to Settings, and then click
Control Panel. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click
Event Viewer.

For information about using Event Viewer, in Event Viewer, on the Action
menu, click Help.

For more information, click Related Topics.


________________________


--

Jerry G.


_________________________________________




"John" <john@john.net> wrote in message
news:fj3fd2d2tj182do7fut1qr4jqbkfdeg12g@4ax.com...
I have been having a problem lately, and cannot seem to narrow it
down.

Several programs, like Windows Explorer, WMP10, and other video or
audio programs, will come up with an error message that "abc.exe has
encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the
inconvenience." "If you were in the middle of something, the
information you were working on might be lost." Many times, when I
click "OK" my screen freezes, and I have to go to Task Manager to shut
it down. After that, everything seems to work fine.

I've run two different virus programs, McAfee and AVG, thinking it
might be a virus. My system appears clean. I've run AdAware and
Spybot, and aside from a few tracking cookies, all else appears clean.
I use WIN auto update, so I think I am up to date on all security
fixes. I'm behind a router firewall.

I'm not sure what to do to track this problem down. I'm running a Pent
4, 3.0 mhz, WINXP SP2, 1 GB RAM, and two installed hard drives, 200gb
and 160gb, with two DVD Burners. Both hard drives have more than 100gb
free. I do a bit of video work, and have installed different programs
along the way, but nothing that seemed to cause any problems.

I considered reformatting the "C" HD, but with quite a few programs on
both drives, that would be a lot of work. I'll do it if I have to, but
hope there's a simpler fix. Maybe just reinstall WINXP? Does it work
to just reinstall it over itself, or is that just a problem in itself?

Anyone have any thoughts on what might be causing this, or maybe a
suggestion on how to track down the source of the problem?

Thanks for any help.

Re: Programs Crashing in XP
 

On Mon, 7 Aug 2006 17:23:42 -0400, "Jerry G."
<jerryg50@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote:

>In the Adminstrator Tools, check out the Event Viewer to see if there
>are any reported errors. You will need the proper technical skills to
>understand the results. Also, you can run Dr. Watson, and after the
>faults have occured, you can check the Dr. Watson log file.
>
>In Windows help, do a search for Event Viewer, and Dr. Watson. There
>will be information about how to apply these utilities. If you do a
>search on the net, there are many sites that have information about
>these utilities.
>
>It is very important to take note of any reported errors, and the codes
>given. Many assistance can be found by searching the net, and or from
>the MS site.

Thank you for the information. I will explore these utilities, but
it's funny, one of the programs that seems to freeze up on me is Dr.
Watson. I'll go look at the Task Manager, and find 4-5 instances
running, and I manually shut each of them down. Usually, once I do
that, it'll unlock the program that started the problem, and let it
shut down.

Looking at the Event Viewer, I can see the errors each time a program
crashed, but what do I do with it? Like you said, I don't have the
technical skills to understand this. For example, here's one of the
errors I received from WMP. When I click on the MS link, it says "No
further information on this error ID."

"Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 8/7/2006
Time: 12:09:04 PM
User: N/A
Computer: JOHN
Description:
Faulting application wmplayer.exe, version 10.0.0.3646, faulting
module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 77 6d 70 ure wmp
0018: 6c 61 79 65 72 2e 65 78 layer.ex
0020: 65 20 31 30 2e 30 2e 30 e 10.0.0
0028: 2e 33 36 34 36 20 69 6e .3646 in
0030: 20 75 6e 6b 6e 6f 77 6e unknown
0038: 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 0.0.0.0
0040: 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73 at offs
0048: 65 74 20 30 30 30 30 30 et 00000
0050: 30 30 30 0d 0a 000..

I check the security site given in the previous message, and it stated
that my system was secure. It tested the firewall, and the GRC site
reported my system was totally invisible.

Thanks again.