Help with a serious XP problem from a newbie

[The Lindbergh Baby]

Hello everyone. I've never posted to a Windows "help" group before but
I've got a doozie of a problem. Hopefully someone can help me. But I'm
not a techie expert, so please keep it simple. I'd rather the
explanation be overly-simple than too complicated for me to understand.

I'm running Windows XP Home. FWIW, I'm *not* running it with the
Service Pack 2. But that shouldn't have anything to do with this, as
this problem isn't caused by SP2 or a lack thereof. But SP2 sounds like
another complicated kettle of fish, so I'm putting it off.

Anyway, the other day I was booting up when there was a power failure.
When the power came back on, my computer was "stuck" with a black
screen, and no connection to the monitor. I had to shut down by holding
in the power button for about five seconds. I know that's not a good
way to do it, but I had no choice, not even control-alt-delete since I
couldn't see the screen. The system powered back up and I *thought*
everything was okay.

Then I was running a very demanding program--Microsoft flight
Simulator--when I encountered a problem. Halfway through a flight, the
program crash to desktop and a message told me I was out of memory. (I
have a Gig of RAM and the program never gave me this message before even
when I only had 512Meg RAM and ran it.) The message also told me I
should shut down the other processes that were using the memory. I
wasn't running any.

Then later during a scheduled backup, I got a message that said certain
files were skipped during the backup. When I clicked for the full
report, this is what it said:

Backup Status
Operation: Backup
Active backup destination: File
Media name: "Backup.bkf created 1/10/2005 at 8:39 PM"

Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:800423f4
Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode.
Backup of "C: "
Backup set #1 on media #1
Backup description: "Set created 1/10/2005 at 8:39 PM"
Media name: "Backup.bkf created 1/10/2005 at 8:39 PM"

Backup Type: Normal

Backup started on 1/10/2005 at 8:41 PM.
Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and
Settings\LocalService\Cookies\index.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local
Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local
Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application
Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\2mb8t7bk.slt\parent.lock" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
Settings\Application Data\ApplicationHistory\cli.exe.c88dbd71.ini.inuse"
- skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
Settings\Temp\Perflib_Perfdata_1d0.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
Settings\Temp\Perflib_Perfdata_334.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
Settings\Temp\WCESCOMM.LOG" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Program
Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\component.reg" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\$_hpcst$.hpc" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\Sti_Trace.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\wiadebug.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\wiaservc.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\WindowsUpdate.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open
"C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\h323log.txt" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\ACEEvent.evt" -
skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\AppEvent.Evt" -
skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SecEvent.Evt" -
skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SysEvent.Evt" -
skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Backup completed on 1/10/2005 at 10:09 PM.
Directories: 5809
Files: 157121
Bytes: 32,295,710,692
Time: 1 hour, 27 minutes, and 50 seconds


I've never gotten one of these before. It appears to me some stuff
didn't shut down when I did my press-the-button power down. The obvious
question: how do I shut down these processes and get things back to normal?

Thanks for any and all help.



John

 

[Karen]

I'm I mistaken, or is 1 Gig of Ram small?

Hello everyone. I've never posted to a Windows "help" group before but
I've got a doozie of a problem. Hopefully someone can help me. But I'm
not a techie expert, so please keep it simple. I'd rather the explanation
be overly-simple than too complicated for me to understand.

I'm running Windows XP Home. FWIW, I'm *not* running it with the Service
Pack 2. But that shouldn't have anything to do with this, as this problem
isn't caused by SP2 or a lack thereof. But SP2 sounds like another
complicated kettle of fish, so I'm putting it off.

Anyway, the other day I was booting up when there was a power failure.
When the power came back on, my computer was "stuck" with a black screen,
and no connection to the monitor. I had to shut down by holding in the
power button for about five seconds. I know that's not a good way to do
it, but I had no choice, not even control-alt-delete since I couldn't see
the screen. The system powered back up and I *thought* everything was
okay.

Then I was running a very demanding program--Microsoft flight
Simulator--when I encountered a problem. Halfway through a flight, the
program crash to desktop and a message told me I was out of memory. (I
have a Gig of RAM and the program never gave me this message before even
when I only had 512Meg RAM and ran it.) The message also told me I should
shut down the other processes that were using the memory. I wasn't
running any.

Then later during a scheduled backup, I got a message that said certain
files were skipped during the backup. When I clicked for the full report,
this is what it said:

Backup Status
Operation: Backup
Active backup destination: File
Media name: "Backup.bkf created 1/10/2005 at 8:39 PM"

Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:800423f4
Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode.
Backup of "C: "
Backup set #1 on media #1
Backup description: "Set created 1/10/2005 at 8:39 PM"
Media name: "Backup.bkf created 1/10/2005 at 8:39 PM"

Backup Type: Normal

Backup started on 1/10/2005 at 8:41 PM.
Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and
Settings\LocalService\Cookies\index.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local
Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local
Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application
Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\2mb8t7bk.slt\parent.lock" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
Settings\Application Data\ApplicationHistory\cli.exe.c88dbd71.ini.inuse" -
skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
Settings\Temp\Perflib_Perfdata_1d0.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
Settings\Temp\Perflib_Perfdata_334.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
Settings\Temp\WCESCOMM.LOG" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\Program
Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\component.reg" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\$_hpcst$.hpc" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\Sti_Trace.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\wiadebug.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\wiaservc.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\WindowsUpdate.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open
"C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\h323log.txt" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\ACEEvent.evt" -
skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\AppEvent.Evt" -
skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SecEvent.Evt" -
skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SysEvent.Evt" -
skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Backup completed on 1/10/2005 at 10:09 PM.
Directories: 5809
Files: 157121
Bytes: 32,295,710,692
Time: 1 hour, 27 minutes, and 50 seconds


I've never gotten one of these before. It appears to me some stuff didn't
shut down when I did my press-the-button power down. The obvious
question: how do I shut down these processes and get things back to
normal?

Thanks for any and all help.



John

--
To reply, remove "die.spammers" from address


Von Herzen, moge es wieder zu Herzen gehen. --Beethoven

 

[The Lindbergh Baby]

I'm I mistaken, or is 1 Gig of Ram small?

Plenty huge. I ran this on 512Meg till this past Christmas with no
problems.



John

 

[Jim]

Then I was running a very demanding program--Microsoft flight
Simulator--when I encountered a problem. Halfway through a flight, the
program crash to desktop and a message told me I was out of memory. (I
have a Gig of RAM and the program never gave me this message before even
when I only had 512Meg RAM and ran it.) The message also told me I
should shut down the other processes that were using the memory. I
wasn't running any.

This usually means that there is a problem with the pagefile. When XP says
"out of memory", it does not mean "out of physical ram".
I snipped the backup log, but all of those problems make me wonder if the
drive has serious problems..
Jim

 

[D.Currie]

This usually means that there is a problem with the pagefile. When XP
says
"out of memory", it does not mean "out of physical ram".
I snipped the backup log, but all of those problems make me wonder if the
drive has serious problems..
Jim

Maybe not physical problems, though. I'd suggest clearing the pagefile,
running a thorough scandisk, defragging, and if need be run sfc as well.
Couldn't hurt, and it might turn up some errors.

 

[The Lindbergh Baby]

Maybe not physical problems, though. I'd suggest clearing the pagefile,
running a thorough scandisk, defragging, and if need be run sfc as well.
Couldn't hurt, and it might turn up some errors.

What is this pagefile and how do I clear ir?

I already defragged. Also did a restore to a point before the error
happened, with no results. What is sfc?



John

 

[D.Currie]

What is this pagefile and how do I clear ir?

I already defragged. Also did a restore to a point before the error
happened, with no results. What is sfc?



John

--
To reply, remove "die.spammers" from address


Von Herzen, moge es wieder zu Herzen gehen. --Beethoven

The pagefile is just another name for the swap file. You just turn off the
swap file, reboot, and then turn it back on.

sfc is the system file checker. The command to run it is sfc /scannow and
make sure you have your Windows CD handy.

You can get more info on them in Help & Support if you aren't sure exactly
what to do.

 

[The Lindbergh Baby]

The pagefile is just another name for the swap file. You just turn off the
swap file, reboot, and then turn it back on.

Okay, what's the swap file then, and how do I find it and turn it off/on?



John