Games, WMP, IE unstable in XP

[Mark]

Howdy guys. I hate to use up your time, but I've got a
doozy of a problem here.
Okay. Fresh XP install; all service packs, critical
updates, and video drivers are current.

Running a ASUS A7N8X motherboard with an AMD Athlon XP
2000+ processor, ATI RADEON 9600 card, 512 MB of RAM.
Games always crash. Warcraft III crashes within minutes
of starting, Giants: Citizen Kabuto can run for quite
some time, but they all crash. Sometimes they give me an
error message; sometimes they say "XXXXX has encountered
an error and needs to close. Would you like to send
Microsoft an error report?" Sometimes it's *bloop*
straight to a blue screen of death (sorry, haven't jotted
any of those error codes yet. I will next time it
happens, though).

I've got the error codes for Warcraft, Windows Media
Player, and Internet Explorer, and I hope you guys can
make some sense of them or tell me who can.


For Windows Media Player...

Faulting application wmplayer.exe, version 9.0.0.2980,
faulting module wmp.dll, version 9.0.0.2980, fault
address 0x00119fd2.

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 39 2e 30 2e 30 2e e 9.0.0.
0028: 32 39 38 30 20 69 6e 20 2980 in
0030: 77 6d 70 2e 64 6c 6c 20 wmp.dll
0038: 39 2e 30 2e 30 2e 32 39 9.0.0.29
0040: 38 30 20 61 74 20 6f 66 80 at of
0048: 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 31 fset 001
0050: 31 39 66 64 32 0d 0a 19fd2..


For Warcraft III...

Exception 0xC0000005 (ACCESS_VIOLATION) at 001B:6F5E0194
The instruction at '0x6F5E0194' referenced memory
at '0x000000B0.'
The memory could not be 'read.'


For IE...

Faulting application iexplore.exe, version 6.0.2600.0,
faulting module mshtml.dll, version 6.0.2600.0, fault
address 0x0010471a.

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 69 65 78 ure iex
0018: 70 6c 6f 72 65 2e 65 78 plore.ex
0020: 65 20 36 2e 30 2e 32 36 e 6.0.26
0028: 30 30 2e 30 20 69 6e 20 00.0 in
0030: 6d 73 68 74 6d 6c 2e 64 mshtml.d
0038: 6c 6c 20 36 2e 30 2e 32 ll 6.0.2
0040: 36 30 30 2e 30 20 61 74 600.0 at
0048: 20 6f 66 66 73 65 74 20 offset
0050: 30 30 31 30 34 37 31 61 0010471a
0058: 0d 0a ..


(Replace no.spam.com with uchicago.edu to send e-mail
reply.)

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi Mark,

That sure is a doozy! Let's roll up our sleeves and start
troubleshooting for a solution before pulling out the same
old application fault and exception error solutions. ;-)

1. To see if it's a software conflict: Temporarily disable Startup
programs one at a time, starting with Firewall, Antivirus, and ad
blockers using: http://new.jtsoft2001.com/windows/startup.php

You can lookup what a program does before you disable it here:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm

2. Run a virus scan at: http://housecall.antivirus.com Afterwards
Download & Run Spybot from: http://security.kolla.de to find any
Trojans, Adware, or Spyware which could clog up your system.

3. Click My Computer / Rightclick the Drive & Choose Properties
/ Run the "Disk Cleanup..." / Next Click the "Tools" Tab and run
the "Error-Checking" and "Defragmentation" utilities.

4. Go to the Windows Update site for everything under Critical and
Recommended: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Hope those solve the problem Mark, if not there's more we can try.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| Howdy guys. I hate to use up your time, but I've got a
| doozy of a problem here.
| Okay. Fresh XP install; all service packs, critical
| updates, and video drivers are current.
|
| Running a ASUS A7N8X motherboard with an AMD Athlon XP
| 2000+ processor, ATI RADEON 9600 card, 512 MB of RAM.
| Games always crash. Warcraft III crashes within minutes
| of starting, Giants: Citizen Kabuto can run for quite
| some time, but they all crash. Sometimes they give me an
| error message; sometimes they say "XXXXX has encountered
| an error and needs to close. Would you like to send
| Microsoft an error report?" Sometimes it's *bloop*
| straight to a blue screen of death (sorry, haven't jotted
| any of those error codes yet. I will next time it
| happens, though).
|
| I've got the error codes for Warcraft, Windows Media
| Player, and Internet Explorer, and I hope you guys can
| make some sense of them or tell me who can.
|
|
| For Windows Media Player...
|
| Faulting application wmplayer.exe, version 9.0.0.2980,
| faulting module wmp.dll, version 9.0.0.2980, fault
| address 0x00119fd2.
|
| 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 39 2e 30 2e 30 2e e 9.0.0.
| 0028: 32 39 38 30 20 69 6e 20 2980 in
| 0030: 77 6d 70 2e 64 6c 6c 20 wmp.dll
| 0038: 39 2e 30 2e 30 2e 32 39 9.0.0.29
| 0040: 38 30 20 61 74 20 6f 66 80 at of
| 0048: 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 31 fset 001
| 0050: 31 39 66 64 32 0d 0a 19fd2..
|
|
| For Warcraft III...
|
| Exception 0xC0000005 (ACCESS_VIOLATION) at 001B:6F5E0194
| The instruction at '0x6F5E0194' referenced memory
| at '0x000000B0.'
| The memory could not be 'read.'
|
|
| For IE...
|
| Faulting application iexplore.exe, version 6.0.2600.0,
| faulting module mshtml.dll, version 6.0.2600.0, fault
| address 0x0010471a.
|
| 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 69 65 78 ure iex
| 0018: 70 6c 6f 72 65 2e 65 78 plore.ex
| 0020: 65 20 36 2e 30 2e 32 36 e 6.0.26
| 0028: 30 30 2e 30 20 69 6e 20 00.0 in
| 0030: 6d 73 68 74 6d 6c 2e 64 mshtml.d
| 0038: 6c 6c 20 36 2e 30 2e 32 ll 6.0.2
| 0040: 36 30 30 2e 30 20 61 74 600.0 at
| 0048: 20 6f 66 66 73 65 74 20 offset
| 0050: 30 30 31 30 34 37 31 61 0010471a
| 0058: 0d 0a ..
|
|
| (Replace no.spam.com with uchicago.edu to send e-mail
| reply.)

 

[Mark]

Sorry Jimmy, no dice. What else can I try?

 

[Mark]

Based on some of the other things I've heard on the 'Net,
I'm starting to suspect my RAM may be bad. And even if
it's not, it can't really hurt to have another stick.
What's the easiest way to find out what kind of RAM I
should buy?

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi Mark,

Let's not go shopping yet! There's another battery of
solutions we can try first, we've only tried 1/2 of them so far.

If you want to find out about the types of hardware you have on
your system afterwards though, use Aida 32 Enterprise edition:
http://www.aida32.hu/aida-download.php?bit=32

To be sure that you're buying a compatible stick of RAM, take
the old stick with you to the shop and have their assist you. ;-)

However, let's leave all that until after we try the rest of the steps:

5. Update DirectX and your Chipset, Sound, &Video Drivers:
For all Video / DirectX / Game and Hardware Issues, I have a
Checklist of Solutions at: http://NibblesNbitsVideo.tk

6. Dust your fans, vents and components using a 1/4" paintbrush
and a hose vacuum. Use compressed air for hard to reach places.
Set a housefan to blow cold air into your case to expose an over-
heating issue.. If it works add more fans or replace defective ones.
Use this Mainboard Monitoring Utility: http://mbm.livewiredev.com

7. A faulty power supply can cause STOP errors, random reboots,
and black screen lockups. One way to test for that is to remove all
extra devices, network cards, extra RAM sticks, modem, scussi,
sound card, unplug CD drives (if not needed to verify CD), and then
try the game again. If the problem is solved look into a 400 watt P/S.

8. Test your RAM using: http://www.memtest86.com/memt30.zip
after you extract that zip file, click on the README.txt file for the
instructions on how to create the boot floppy to test your RAM.
* Allow Windows to control your pagefile at a "system managed size".
Be sure there's enough space for the pagefile size to = 1.5 * your RAM
Bonus Tip: Set the pagefile to it's own partition or hard drive if possible.
References: http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php is a good site about this as is:
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/expertzone/columns/mcfedries/03june16.asp

9. If your system restarts by itself as a result of a STOP error, use the
steps in this article to stop that behaviour and identify the cause:
http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/windowsxp/bsod.htm

9b. Click Start / Control Panel /Administrative Tools / Event Viewer /
Click the Applications listing on the left / in the right pane look for
yellow or red symbols and doubleclick them to identify any problems,
and they often have a link to a KB article you can read for the solution.

10. Click Start / Run / then type: sfc /scannow and press ENTER
to replace any damaged system files -or- Run Setup.exe on your
Windows 98/Me/XP/2000 CD to reinstall Windows over itself without
erasing your programs and data. Once everything works fine reinstall
updates one at a time from: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com while
testing the game after each update, in case an update caused the problem.

11. If you have room on one of your partitions, use it to install another
clean installation of Windows which you can gradually update with the
appropriate chipset, video, and sound drivers, as well as Direct X, but
with no extras including themes, firewalls, antivirus, etc. You may have
to reinstall the game(s) for use with that partition, but it's well worth it.

12. If you don't have enough space for step 10 I suggest you at least
create a new administrators account with no themes, firewall, antivirus,
or any other software or startup programs installed for that account. If
this solves the problem, then you should switch over to the new account.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| Based on some of the other things I've heard on the 'Net,
| I'm starting to suspect my RAM may be bad. And even if
| it's not, it can't really hurt to have another stick.
| What's the easiest way to find out what kind of RAM I
| should buy?

 

[Mark]

Not sure if this will message will show up; forums seem
to be acting wonky for me, so I'm posting from a
different computer. Jimmy, if you can in fact see this
and haven't seen my last two posts:
No, the changes you suggested didn't help with Warcraft.
I suspect my RAM may be bad.
Memtest-86 is currently detecting 263 errors and still
running.
I will be buying/borrowing a new stick today, but how can
I tell what kind of RAM my computer takes? SDRAM or
DDR? What PCI number?

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi Mark,

Without looking it up in your motherboard manual, the
easiest way to find that out is by simply taking the bad
stick of RAM with you to the shop or you can identify
it yourself using this great (and free) awesome utility:
http://www.aida32.hu/aida-download.php?bit=32
Click Computer / Summary / System Memory.

Sorry to hear your RAM was at fault. It would have
been nicer if it was just a configuration issue. None
the less, I'm glad that we were able to pinpoint the
problem.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| Not sure if this will message will show up; forums seem
| to be acting wonky for me, so I'm posting from a
| different computer. Jimmy, if you can in fact see this
| and haven't seen my last two posts:
| No, the changes you suggested didn't help with Warcraft.
| I suspect my RAM may be bad.
| Memtest-86 is currently detecting 263 errors and still
| running.
| I will be buying/borrowing a new stick today, but how can
| I tell what kind of RAM my computer takes? SDRAM or
| DDR? What PCI number?