DCOM conflict with Updates???

[Guest]

Hello All,

I am having a dcom problem that has reoccured despite conducting a complete format and reinstall of xp and seems to only occur after running Windows Update. I ran my problem past a technician I know and he thought that it could be something to do with a conflict between a Windows driver update and SiS chipsets? Does anyone know about this issue and how it can be fixed? I have searched the net and not been able to find anthing that seems to match my problem. My full problem is detailed below. Please note that there are too many error logs to paste here. (I have had 21 error logs tonight alone. Contact me if you require any more information. Please dont tell me to 'not worry about it'. This is causing spontaneous reboots on my computer and is a serious problem that hasnt been fixed by a complete format and reinstall.

The full Story:
Last weeky computer began autorestarts, The computer spontaneously bluescreened, and then began a reboot (note that the bluescreen disappeared too quickly to read. During an attempted safe mode boot, the computer hanged at mup.sys. After many attempts at rebooting and system restore, I reinstalled Windows XP using a full format (not a quick format). I had only just recently cleaned up sasser and bobax from my computer (yes I turned off system restore and used the clean up tool after the updates/patches were installed), updated my antivirus, and installed ALL the Windows XP updates. I just assumed that the problem had resulted from virus damage and thought it would be easier to just do a complete reinstall. Anyhow, 3 days after the reinstall and 1 day after I completed all the Windows updates, the computer began doing it again - spontaneous shutdown and reboot but this time I was able to reboot and continue as normal after a few minutes. I ran fix sasser, antivirus and macafee stinger on my computer again thinking I had been reinfected despite all the Updates and my antivirus being up-t-odate. Nothing showed up. I ran this past my technician and he thought that it could be something to do with a conflict between a Windows driver update and SiS chipsets? Does anyone know about this issue and how it can be fixed?

Thanks, Mame du Bois

 

[Navin R. Johnson]

Hello All,

I am having a dcom problem that has reoccured despite conducting a
complete format and reinstall of xp and seems to only occur after
running Windows Update. I ran my problem past a technician I know and he
thought that it could be something to do with a conflict between a
Windows driver update and SiS chipsets? Does anyone know about this
issue and how it can be fixed? I have searched the net and not been able
to find anthing that seems to match my problem. My full problem is
detailed below. Please note that there are too many error logs to paste
here. (I have had 21 error logs tonight alone. Contact me if you
require any more information. Please dont tell me to 'not worry about
it'. This is causing spontaneous reboots on my computer and is a serious
problem that hasnt been fixed by a complete format and reinstall.

The full Story:

Last weeky computer began autorestarts, The computer spontaneously
bluescreened, and then began a reboot (note that the bluescreen
disappeared too quickly to read. During an attempted safe mode boot, the
computer hanged at mup.sys. After many attempts at rebooting and system
restore, I reinstalled Windows XP using a full format (not a quick
format). I had only just recently cleaned up sasser and bobax from my
computer (yes I turned off system restore and used the clean up tool
after the updates/patches were installed), updated my antivirus, and
installed ALL the Windows XP updates. I just assumed that the problem
had resulted from virus damage and thought it would be easier to just do
a complete reinstall. Anyhow, 3 days after the reinstall and 1 day after
I completed all the Windows updates, the computer began doing it again -
spontaneous shutdown and reboot but this time I was able to reboot and
continue as normal after a few minutes. I ran fix sasser, antivirus and
macafee stinger on my computer again thinking I had been reinfected
despite all the Updates and my antivirus being up-t-odate. Nothing
showed up. I ran this past my technician and he thought that it could be
something to do with a conflict between a Windows driver update and SiS
chipsets? Does anyone know about this issue and how it can be fixed?

Thanks, Mame du Bois

I have been using motherboards with SIS chipsets for years and have
never heard of this problem, or any other problem. In the past month
alone I've built four systems with SIS chipsets running with both XP
Home and Pro and they're all 100% stable. I would look at all the
various hardware components that are typically associated with reboots:
CPU overheat/bad CPU fan, loose plugs or boards, bad power supply,
flakey memory chips, clogged air intakes, etc.

If you brought your system to me with the problems you described I would
first vacuum out all the dust, including inside the power supply, the
heatsink under the CPU fan and the fan/heatsink on the video card. I'd
then power it up and check that all the fans were spinning normally. I'd
power it back down and remove all the circuit boards, including memory,
then reseat everything - on a really old system I'd even clean the card
edge connectors with a soft eraser. I'd then pull all the power plugs
and reseat them. At this point I'd power it back up and see how it runs
- with all the case covers back in place. I'll usually run a virus
scan/defrag/scandisk, anything that will heat up the system. At this
point, if I were still having trouble, I would pull out anything that
isn't essential to run the system; sound card, CD-ROMs, NIC, modem,
extra memory, etc. and test it with a different power supply. If all
seems well I would then start to slowly add back all the components I
pulled until problems occurred again - the last component added would be
the original power supply. If there are still problems even with
everything pulled, and using a different power supply I would then
suspect the motherboard or CPU.

Intermittent problems are always the toughest to diagnose and usually
require a great deal of patience and a fair amount of time. Good luck
solving yours.


NRJ

 

[Guest]

Thankyou very much for your time in answering my problem. I know and appreciate how much time and thought goes into postings, so again, Thankyou

I will go through what you mentioned but it should be noted that the second time it happened was a fresh, completely formatted installation with nothing but drivers and all the updates and antivirus updated. I did this intentionally as I initially thought it was a result of sasser or another virus. I made specific mention to the updates as it happened both time only after the update (althoug possibly a coincidentce) and I had been told (by someone with impecable computer knowledge) that there is a known conflict between SiS chipset and a Windows VGA driver update. I am going to try and unisntall the lastest driver update (if thats possible) and then leave it to monitor the situation.

Mame du Bois

 

[Guest]

Dear mr Johnson,

I thought I would tell you how I went with my problem. I pulled my computer apart and rebuilt it and cleaned all the dust out and paid special attention to the RAM modules swapping them around and making sure they were inplace ok. I still kept getting the error messages. I sat down and though about the 3 possible causes...I came up with vga driver, Windows Updates and Printer. These are the only changes made to my computer when this problem started. I decided to start off with the Printer. I thought this was least likely but still had to be considered as it was one of the only changes that I made when the problem started. After a conversation with a Hewlett Packard technical support person that I was sure was going nowhere, he made me remove all the HP components from the startup menu in msconfig....Thinking it wasnt going to help (but glad that the 5 background process were now not running all the time), I monitored the event viewer...after 24hours not one error message...compared to around 21 a day!!!...I have been monitoring this for the last few days and these error messages are a thing of the past. The thing I thought most unlikley was the cause.

HP printers produce exceptional quality but they really need to work on their software. Its ridiculous that printer software could cause a hardware and software stable computer to crash like that! This is the only time I have had serious problems with my computer.

I would like to thank you for your help and your time in posting a reply to my messages. Its greatly appreciated. THANKYOU!!!!

Miss Mame du Bois

 

[Navin R. Johnson]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 01:52:01 -0700, "Mame"

Amazing that a printer driver/helper app. could cause so many problems.
Although, anything is possible with HP stuff. At least now your system
is clean and all the parts are in order.

FYI, I've been in the PC repair business for about fourteen years now
and stopped recommending HP printers back in 1996 or thereabouts. One of
my customers at the time was a school district. They purchased 120 or so
HP inkjets - I believe they were 550C's, but I could be wrong. In the
next two or three years I made more money fixing those pieces of crap
that any other piece of equipment ever..... Over the years I've had to
go on service calls for printers other than HP brand but even today I
still get ten HP printer service calls for every one from all other
brands combined - excluding Lexmark, which are throw-aways. I've been
recommending Canon printers (I have both an i560 and an i860) for about
the past three years - and before that, Epson. HP's are just too damn
mechanical and it's inevitable that a gear or roller or belt or
something will break. The cost to fix them is usually more than the
printer is worth. IMHO, Canon makes the best printers today.

NRJ

 

[Guest]

Thankyou for the reply. Yes it is amazing that a printer could cause so many problems. My computer has been problem free since I made the changes I told you about in my last posting.

My reason for getting a HP is they produce exceptionaly (and I do stress exceptionaly) high quality digital photography. Thats why I chose HP over Cannon. Canon printed photos are no where near as high quality as HP and as my own personal tests have proven, they dont have the longevity that HP prints have. My HP can replicate the same quality that Kodak's main online print service printers can which is really amazing for a desktop printer. If you know of a better quality printer whith low cost consumables (that leaves Lexmark out!), then I would like to know.

Its just a sad shame that HP are ruining their reputation with poorly thought out software.

Again, thanks for your replies and your advice. Its always greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Mame du Bois

 

[Chuck]

This is interesting, not because of the software problem, but because of the
picture quality issue/
I've used HP, Canon, and Epson printers for some years. The typical older HP
printer has good quality, is fairly rugged, and decent picture quality.
The dot resolution has been a bit less than the Canon or Epson printers.

Since a dot resolution above 600 is higher than generally used by many
commercial printing operations, it can produce very nice pictures. If I
remember correctly, the old National Geographic pictures were less or equal
to 600 DPI.

Anyway, besides resolution, Ink and Paper are two of the critical variables.
Most of the HP printers were optimized for brilliant saturated color, not
for accuracy in color intensity control. I fooled around for some time using
Kodak Q 60 targets and various printers. Generally, results depend on first
getting a standard reference picture, then tuning an individual printer and
paper to get the best results possible. An example might be a Canon S750 and
an Epson R300.
When things are optimized, these printers produce results that are very
good, and in fact, I'd be hard pressed to identify which printer was used to
print a picture on glossy paper.

Another problem is that the most color accurate picture is not usually the
picture picked as the "best" by many people. Usually, the choice has more
intense colors than is really accurate. To add insult to injury, the color
temperature of the picture illumination lighting also has a large effect on
preferences.

Printer driver problems occur with all brands. Lexmark seems to currently be
a source of trouble for more than a few. Printer status monitor software
is often a culprit, regardless of the make. The monitor software can usually
be disabled. USB printers, usually some of the older ones have nonstandard
USB support software requirements that may cause compatibility problems.
Camera USB drivers have been known to cause similar problems.

Given the large selection of products, and the almost infinite number of
possible PC hardware and software configurations, I'm really impressed that
things work as well as they do.

 

[Navin R. Johnson]

Thankyou for the reply. Yes it is amazing that a printer could cause so many problems. My computer has been problem free since I made the changes I told you about in my last posting.

My reason for getting a HP is they produce exceptionaly (and I do stress exceptionaly) high quality digital photography. Thats why I chose HP over Cannon. Canon printed photos are no where near as high quality as HP and as my own personal tests have proven, they dont have the longevity that HP prints have. My HP can replicate the same quality that Kodak's main online print service printers can which is really amazing for a desktop printer. If you know of a better quality printer whith low cost consumables (that leaves Lexmark out!), then I would like to know.

Its just a sad shame that HP are ruining their reputation with poorly thought out software.

Again, thanks for your replies and your advice. Its always greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Mame du Bois

I agree - about HP's exceptional photo quality, but after comparing 4x5
pics from my Canon i860 with pics from my brother's new HP 7960, I
decided that they're just too close to call. The HP pics look brighter
and more colorful but the Canon pics more accurately portray the colors
in the original digital pic. To each his/her own I guess.... In the near
future though, I think these ink-jet photo quality arguments will go
away for good. I just purchased a new Hi-Touch 730PS Dye Diffusion
Thermal Transfer printer for printing photos. Talk about quality, no
ink-jet printer even comes close - and the prints are impervious to
moisture, UV rays and finger prints, they won't ever spot or fade. The
printer does three sizes - 4x5, 5x7 and 6x8. Right now they're a bit
pricey - I paid $361 at NewEgg.com for mine. The print cost ranges from
$.40 for a 4x6 to $.90 for a 6x8 - but, they're reeeeally photo-lab
quality. Compared to any inkjet printer, when adding paper and ink
costs, they're very close in cost per print. I can't say much about the
bundled software that comes with it though - it's mostly crap - and I
had to download the newest firmware update to cure a blurriness issue
but as with any new technology, there will be bumps in the road. I just
print from Paint Shop Pro with no correction at all and it works great.

Check out this link:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/hiti_730ps.html

NRJ