Win2K Machine "Eating Itself Alive"

[tmaki]

I've just run across this newsgroup, and hope there's a solution to a
newly developed problem I'm having with a Win2K box.

The machine has been running flawlessly for about 3 years. It is a
dedicated audio workstation, and is never connected to the Internet.
It's only purpose is to record, edit, and process audio files that I
produce in my recording business.

It is a PIII, 1Ghz, 512Mb, Intel 815 mobo. WD hard drives, Plextor CD
drive. Nothing out of the ordinary. It has been the most stable machine
I've had of the six running in my office/studio.

Just a couple days ago, it was working perfectly. I've got a multi-track
project to mix and edit, and yesterday decided to work on it.

Turned it on normally, and got error messages that I was running low on
virtual memory. Okay, says I, figuring I'd just go in and fix it. It was
strange, though, as nothing has been changed since a few days ago when
it ran just fine.

As I commenced to do the work I needed to do, every program I tried to
run quit with a "the program has generated errors and will shut down"
error. Even Control Panel programs. Just before I reached the point I'm
at now, no executable would run - nothing. All came back with the error.

At this point, all I get is "low virtual memory" or "out of memory"
errors. Windows will not even start. Not even in safe mode. Right this
very minute I running virus scanning and cleaning (McAfee) from a
floppy. Quite a few files were reported as having been "infected" with a
"like W32/Parvo" something or other.

If I could get into safe mode or even the command prompt, I might be
able to figure this out myself. But it just seems to be getting worse
and worse every time I shut it down and start it up again.

I'd appreciate any pointers. I've looked on-line and just can't seem to
find anything (maybe I'm just using the right search words...)

Thanks in advance.


T. Maki
Riverside, CA

 

[Walterius]

Sounds to me like a hardware, possibly a memory or a hard drive, problem.
I'd also look at overheating, especially from dust bunnies. (When was the
last time you blew out the dust?)

 

[Andrew Morton]

At this point, all I get is "low virtual memory" or "out of memory"
errors. Windows will not even start. Not even in safe mode. Right this
very minute I running virus scanning and cleaning (McAfee) from a
floppy. Quite a few files were reported as having been "infected"
with a "like W32/Parvo" something or other.

Hopefully the floppy had a more up-to-date version than the one reported
here:-
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/14/mcafee_av_false_positive/

Andrew

 

[Jim Howes]

Hopefully the floppy had a more up-to-date version than the one reported
here:-
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/14/mcafee_av_false_positive/

On that note, some of my users have reported that the REGTLIB.EXE installed with
Visual Studio 6.0 from service pack 3 onwards is being detected as a worm by
ClamWin. The particular worm (Poebot) spreads via network shares. After
several reported it at once, my heart rate was best measured in kHz, however my
tests on the file, and on the original from VS6sp510.cab in visual studio 6.0
SP5, show that this is almost certainly a false alarm. We're back to somewhere
near 1Hz now.

I note that ClamAV on my linux box, built from the latest sources does NOT
detect this, but I do not know if this particular false positive has filtered
down through to the ClamWin builds as yet.