The instruction at "0x70d62832" referenced memory at "0x00000008". The memory could not be "written"

[Dave]

One of my Windows 2000 workstations receives this error when manipulating
XML file with notepad, wordpad and MS Visual Studio 2003. Explorer.exe
needs to be restarted after this error. What would cause something like
this? I disabled all unneeded programs and services from startup, and it
has all the windows updates installed.

 

[George Hester]

Ans: Internet Explorer 6.

Workaround: Start | Run | regsvr32 /u thumbvw.dll | OK | OK.

 

[Gerhard]

George,

Can you expand on that a little? I couldn't find anything in the KB.
Will thumbnail view still work in Explorer after unregistering it?

Same problem here, I am also working with XML in Visual Studio, getting lots
of these errors.

Gerhard

Ans: Internet Explorer 6.

Workaround: Start | Run | regsvr32 /u thumbvw.dll | OK | OK.

 

[Dave]

Yeah how will this effect the system?

George,

Can you expand on that a little? I couldn't find anything in the KB.
Will thumbnail view still work in Explorer after unregistering it?

Same problem here, I am also working with XML in Visual Studio, getting lots
of these errors.

Gerhard

Ans: Internet Explorer 6.

Workaround: Start | Run | regsvr32 /u thumbvw.dll | OK | OK.

 

[George Hester]

Well it is a sledge hammer on a fly. The trouble is for me to explain the whole shebang just takes too long until I know it works. If it works that's great and we can just regsvr32 thumbvw and put everything back to broke just as it was before. The issue is the data that is removed from HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT by unregistering thumbvw.dll. Note that unregistering this actually does very little. Except fix the issue. Registering it back will just result in the issue again. But sometimes it doesn't. In fact sometimes it fixes the issue entirely.

But if you don't want to use the sledge hammer approach here is the fix with a fine tooth comb:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xml\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}

Remove the data in that key in the registry. Note if you have installed cumulative updates for IE 6 from the first half of 2003 then to fix the issue IE 6 will need to be removed first. It is really mshtml.dll.

 

[Gerhard]

Thanks George,

I have decided to use the sledge hammer. However, it will take about a week
to determine if that fixed it.
I googled this issue all the way back to last summer, and I have read all
your posts. I noticed that nobody ever posted back to indicate whether it
fixed their problem or not. I will post back in about a week, or sooner if
it did not fix it.
In looking at my event log I see that I was crashing with just about any
application that I ever use, VB6, Access 2000, Outlook Express, IE6 and
svchost. Sometimes the instruction points to itself, sometimes to a zero
address, and sometimes to an apparently good address.
I do not have to be working with XML files in order for the crash to occur.
And of course I do not have thumbnail view enabled for the folders that have
XML files.
When it happens, it is not immediately apparent that Explorer crashed,
Explorer is still there. But then the machine cannot shutdown, hanging on
trying to close Explorer no doubt, and it requires a hard reset then.

Gerhard

Well it is a sledge hammer on a fly. The trouble is for me to explain the
whole shebang just takes too long until I know it works. If it works that's
great and we can just regsvr32 thumbvw and put everything back to broke just
as it was before. The issue is the data that is removed from
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT by unregistering thumbvw.dll. Note that unregistering
this actually does very little. Except fix the issue. Registering it back
will just result in the issue again. But sometimes it doesn't. In fact
sometimes it fixes the issue entirely.

But if you don't want to use the sledge hammer approach here is the fix with
a fine tooth comb:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xml\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}

Remove the data in that key in the registry. Note if you have installed
cumulative updates for IE 6 from the first half of 2003 then to fix the
issue IE 6 will need to be removed first. It is really mshtml.dll.

 

[Dave]

I tried his fix on one of my workstations. The user told me that it fixed
the problem, but it disabled thumbnails in explorer.

 

[Gerhard]

Dave,

Yes, that is correct, it does disable thumbnails. But now you can go back
re-enable it, and take out the offending .XML key. Glad to hear it worked,
gives me hope.
You guys must have been crashing left and right for you to determine so
quickly that it is fixed.
I was crashing once a day, every two days, and on rare occasions I managed
to stay up for three days. That's why I want to see it stay up for a week
or longer before I'll call it fixed.

Gerhard

 

[George Hester]

That's a little different Gerhard. The way this issue works is like this. You will be doing something in Windows Explorer like selecting a folder; opening a file; expanding folders;...then you will get an exception error. Depending how debugging is set up in the system we usually get one of two errors. Either a Windows Explorer exception or a Internet Explorer issue. A memory address can be shown. All that is is the race condition that is not caught accessing that location at the time of the crashing shell. The issue is occurring in mshtml.dll. But Windebug will usually show it as msxml3.dll. What you do is attach to explorer.exe and then do what you can do to initiate the crash. Unfortunately this gives no valid information.

My solution should work if what you have is similar to this. When the shell crashes you should find items in the System Tray that are usually there are gone. Like SQL Server. Although the applications are still running.

You can test the issue by opening and closing XML files repeatedly in Windows Explorer. Depending on how susceptible you are to the issue and the complexity of the XML file it can happen after three open and closings or 20. The exact number of times we access the xml files is not consistent.

 

[George Hester]

Don't remove the key. Just the data in the key.

 

[gerhard]

It may be different, but it could be related, George,

I trace the onset of this problem back to November of last year. And there
are three things that happened then, I upgraded to IE6, then installed SP4,
and I started working with XML on an in-house project.

I might have crashed when opening XML files repeatedly, I didn't make the
connection at the time. But it also happens when I don't open XML files,
only it takes longer.

Anyway, there's nothing else to go on, so not having thumbnails for a few
days is of no consequence. I'll let you know what happens.

Gerhard

That's a little different Gerhard. The way this issue works is like this.
You will be doing something in Windows Explorer like selecting a folder;
opening a file; expanding folders;...then you will get an exception error.
Depending how debugging is set up in the system we usually get one of two
errors. Either a Windows Explorer exception or a Internet Explorer issue.
A memory address can be shown. All that is is the race condition that is
not caught accessing that location at the time of the crashing shell. The
issue is occurring in mshtml.dll. But Windebug will usually show it as
msxml3.dll. What you do is attach to explorer.exe and then do what you can
do to initiate the crash. Unfortunately this gives no valid information.

My solution should work if what you have is similar to this. When the shell
crashes you should find items in the System Tray that are usually there are
gone. Like SQL Server. Although the applications are still running.

You can test the issue by opening and closing XML files repeatedly in
Windows Explorer. Depending on how susceptible you are to the issue and the
complexity of the XML file it can happen after three open and closings or
20. The exact number of times we access the xml files is not consistent.

 

[George Hester]

The issue comes from Cumulative Updates to IE 6 from the early part of 2003 till about Sept (mshtml.dll). You have to remove IE 6 then re-install IE6 and Cumulative Update with the October 2003 update to IE 6. There is no getting around it short of removing the operating system. And in Windows 2000 you must insure that Outlook Express gets re-installed when re-installing IE6. This is done in a reg entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C}

change IsInstalled to 0 prior to re-installing IE 6 and cleanup when asked. Always reboot after each major change in the system here.

 

[gerhard]

George,

Well, last night I crashed again when I was opening Outlook Express, after 4
full days of no crashes. Actually it was svchost that crashed when OE
opened.
The svchost that runs the COM+ EventSystem, Netman, Rasman and the Tapi
service, not the one that runs RPCSs. The instruction at "0x00000001" was
pointing to itself.

There was a difference this time, I was able to reboot. Because Explorer
was taken out of the equation with the thumbnail fix, I guess. Usually
shutdown hangs on closing Explorer.

So I re-registered thumbvw.dll and then fixed the .xml key as you have
suggested. It's not the cause, but it helps in recovering.

I am not going to pursue this problem, I've already started setting up a new
machine with the program development projects that I am working on. IE6
will not be on that machine, since you recommend staying away from it.
Once all projects are off the problem machine and working well on the new
one, I will wipe out the machine with the problem and rebuild it.
This approach is faster than helping Microsoft debug their software and then
not seeing a fix anyway.

Thanks for all your help, George, it was worth a try,

Gerhard

 

[gerhard]

Thanks George,

I cannot remove IE6, there is no entry in Add/Remove programs. Presumably
because I installed W2K SP4 after upgrading to IE6.
I have tried reinstalling IE6, after doing the recommended reg hacks, but
that failed because of the expired NO LIABILITY certificate. (I'm between a
rock and a hard place here)

As I said in the message below this one, I am moving the projects to a new
machine without IE6 and then I am going to reformat the machine with the
problem, and reinstall. It is useless in its current state.

But thanks for your all your help and concern,

Gerhard

The issue comes from Cumulative Updates to IE 6 from the early part of 2003
till about Sept (mshtml.dll). You have to remove IE 6 then re-install IE6
and Cumulative Update with the October 2003 update to IE 6. There is no
getting around it short of removing the operating system. And in Windows
2000 you must insure that Outlook Express gets re-installed when
re-installing IE6. This is done in a reg entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed
Components\{44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C}

change IsInstalled to 0 prior to re-installing IE 6 and cleanup when asked.
Always reboot after each major change in the system here.

 

[George Hester]

Don't forget to make sure you are at IE 5.01 when you install ANY Service Pack in Windows 2000 or you will be down this road again.

 

[dcdon]

To do what George stated install I.E.6 over the top, and then use the Control panel
to uninstall it. After you've done that Install I.E.6 and then the updates again.

don


Thanks George,

I cannot remove IE6, there is no entry in Add/Remove programs. Presumably
because I installed W2K SP4 after upgrading to IE6.
I have tried reinstalling IE6, after doing the recommended reg hacks, but
that failed because of the expired NO LIABILITY certificate. (I'm between a
rock and a hard place here)

As I said in the message below this one, I am moving the projects to a new
machine without IE6 and then I am going to reformat the machine with the
problem, and reinstall. It is useless in its current state.

But thanks for your all your help and concern,

Gerhard

The issue comes from Cumulative Updates to IE 6 from the early part of 2003
till about Sept (mshtml.dll). You have to remove IE 6 then re-install IE6
and Cumulative Update with the October 2003 update to IE 6. There is no
getting around it short of removing the operating system. And in Windows
2000 you must insure that Outlook Express gets re-installed when
re-installing IE6. This is done in a reg entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed
Components\{44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C}

change IsInstalled to 0 prior to re-installing IE 6 and cleanup when asked.
Always reboot after each major change in the system here.

 

[George Hester]

You know that may work. Not sure. But to help that along there is a reg entry that is similar to the one for Outlook Expess IsInstalled that can be set to 0 before trying to re-install IE6. The steps for that are in a Windows XP repair IE Knowledge Base atricle.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318378&Product=winxp

 

[gerhard]

Haven't touched IE, it is at 5.01. And I don't intend to change IE for now.
I've installed some of the post SP4 W2K updates though.
It's going ok, I'm installing and validating the projects that I'm working
on.

I don't think that my problem with these crashes was related to the
thumbview problem. This is yet another inconsistency caused by updates, or
the order that they were installed in.
I just don't have the time to track that down now, I have to complete these
projects. Taught me a lesson though, I'm going to stay away from Windows
Update.

Gerhard

Don't forget to make sure you are at IE 5.01 when you install ANY Service
Pack in Windows 2000 or you will be down this road again.

 

[gerhard]

Like I said, installing over it fails due to invalid certificates. It's
time to re-format, windows has a limited lifetime.

Gerhard

You know that may work. Not sure. But to help that along there is a reg
entry that is similar to the one for Outlook Expess IsInstalled that can be
set to 0 before trying to re-install IE6. The steps for that are in a
Windows XP repair IE Knowledge Base atricle.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318378&Product=winxp