'various.exe - Application error' - what does it mean?

[George_222]

I've received (two so far) the following pop up errors in the last 3 days:

nwiz.exe - Application Error
The instruction at 0x7e41bc9f referenced memory at 0x006e69f5. The memory
coul not be "read". Click OK to terminate this program.

and

AcroRD32.exe - Application Error
The instruction at 0x2d8818d3 referenced memory at 0x00000008. The memory
coul not be "read". Click OK to terminate this program.

They also show up as event 26 in the system event log (Application popup)


Its only the two so far, everything else seems to be working fine.
I've tried an updated AV and Spybot scan - clean.
I've tried a basic SCAN disk - OK, no errors.

Any ideas whats the likely cause?

Is it a possible RAM of Hard Disc fault?, if so how best to locate it?

 

[R. McCarty]

Most likely physical RAM. Two unrelated applications both having
memory faults at different addresses would point to memory. There
are numerous free memory testing applications. Microsoft offers a
tool for download and instructions from this site:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Not directly related to your issue but you may want to update both
your nVidia drivers and install the latest Adobe Reader Version 9.

 

[George_222]

Thanks.

I've downloaded and run MS memtest. 24 passes at normal test. Is it likely
to need an extended test (T) to find errors? Will try that tomorrow.

If the ram is OK, any other ideas?

Once again, thanks for assistance.

(PCs - don't you just luv 'em).

 

[R. McCarty]

Only other idea that comes to mind is maybe a dependant component
of these programs ( such as a Dll ) that may be corrupted. That was
the reason for suggesting updating nVidia driver and Adobe Reader.
If the problem only recently appeared, a System Restore might take
the machine back to a "Problem Free" condition. Sometimes an issue
appears only if a certain combination of programs/drivers & updates
are present - a difficult situation to untangle or figure out.

 

[Paul]

Thanks.

I've downloaded and run MS memtest. 24 passes at normal test. Is it likely
to need an extended test (T) to find errors? Will try that tomorrow.

If the ram is OK, any other ideas?

Once again, thanks for assistance.

(PCs - don't you just luv 'em).

If you want another test of memory and CPU integrity, try Prime95
and its Torture Test. When asked to "Join GIMPs", say no, and
run the Torture Test. There should be no detected errors in
up to a four hour run. If you make it that far, you've passed
and can stop and exit the program. When overclocking, this
program will stop with an error in about 10 seconds. It is
a better test than a memory test program.

http://majorgeeks.com/Prime95_d4363.html

The Prime95 main web site is mersenne.org, if you need
more information. The above link and version, is
multicore aware.

Paul

 

[George_222]

Thanks, I may try that, but I don't think its memory related now. Its just
run about 4.5 hours worth of extended tests (about 11 cycles in total) and
found no errors, this as well as the 24 basic runs yesterday.

Fortunately, I make a backup every month, so I may try reloading the 1st Dec
backup, which was made 14 days before any problem was noted. But before I do
that, I'll try updating the Adobe reader and Nvidia stuff first.

Currently, in 'monitoring mode' hopefully it wont happen again ( some hope
;-) ).


If anyone can think of things so far missed, I'd be grateful. I hate just
reloading to clear a problem.