firefox and other problems

Hi,

Download Memtest86 (the bootable ISO zip file), unzip and burn to CD using ISO Recorder (note there are different versions for SP1 and SP2 - check which one is needed by right clicking My Computer > Properties). If you have Windows XP SP3 please use the version for SP2. Then boot from the CD and let it run for 3 or 4 passes (the more passes the less change it passed the test but is still wrong, so 10 passes would be even better) - overnight if possible. If the machine boots from floppy then there is a download link to create a floppy boot disk on that page.

Let me know the results.

Regards,
John.

Hi John B,

I let Memtest86 run overnight. If I got it right, there was 12 passes... I didn't find anything I could do except to reboot and take the ISO cd off. Should the results be somewhere as a log file or something, or should I just wait for a while and see how the computer works now?

Good morning John,

I got some questions. After running the Memtest86, my desktop (i have switched my pc on two times after Memtest) hasn't been visible at startup. I see the background pic, but nothing else. I run some program by ctrl+alt+del, etc, and then the desktop appears. Also I can't switch Avast Antivirus protection on. There's a red circle on the icon and it doesn't go away nom matter how many times I enter the password. I followed instructions from Avast website and looked at the state of service avast! Antivirus. It was ok. I updated Avast in Control Panel-Add&Remove Programs, etc... nothing changed.

Everything else seems to work fine.

You said those Service Control Manager events are related old programs and ones, which haven't been fully uninstalled. Would it help, if I remove them from for example Zonealarm programs list?

Hi,

Should the results be somewhere as a log file or something, or should I just wait for a while and see how the computer works now?

As far as I know the results are shown on-screen after the tests.

I got some questions. After running the Memtest86, my desktop (i have switched my pc on two times after Memtest) hasn't been visible at startup. I see the background pic, but nothing else. I run some program by ctrl+alt+del, etc, and then the desktop appears. Also I can't switch Avast Antivirus protection on. There's a red circle on the icon and it doesn't go away nom matter how many times I enter the password. I followed instructions from Avast website and looked at the state of service avast! Antivirus. It was ok. I updated Avast in Control Panel-Add&Remove Programs, etc... nothing changed.

This is very very strange. I have told lots of people to use this and nobody has every had problems. Probably some conflict..

Can you please check Event Viewer again. The date and time an Event is created is displayed in the list of Events, so please post any events that are created at the time you boot your system and have trouble showing your desktop and starting Avast.

You said those Service Control Manager events are related old programs and ones, which haven't been fully uninstalled. Would it help, if I remove them from for example Zonealarm programs list?

This would not help. The problem is that the drivers/services are still mentioned in the registry, so Windows is trying to start them. Then it cannot find them and creates an event. Nearly everybody has this, just because uninstallers do not always work fine (for example Norton is extremely bad and leaves half), and you can try solving this (by risking stability) but it should not be a big problem to have these left-overs.

Regards,
John.

"John B." wrote:Hi,

Should the results be somewhere as a log file or something, or should I just wait for a while and see how the computer works now?

As far as I know the results are shown on-screen after the tests.

I let it run about 10 hours. It seemed to continue on and on. I couldn't tell a lot what was going on on the screen. I saw lines of red text at the bottom, and they all said "test 8" and "pass 12"... I didn't know what was going on.. is it of any use to run it again?

I got some questions. After running the Memtest86, my desktop (i have switched my pc on two times after Memtest) hasn't been visible at startup. I see the background pic, but nothing else. I run some program by ctrl+alt+del, etc, and then the desktop appears. Also I can't switch Avast Antivirus protection on. There's a red circle on the icon and it doesn't go away nom matter how many times I enter the password. I followed instructions from Avast website and looked at the state of service avast! Antivirus. It was ok. I updated Avast in Control Panel-Add&Remove Programs, etc... nothing changed.

This is very very strange. I have told lots of people to use this and nobody has every had problems. Probably some conflict..

Can you please check Event Viewer again. The date and time an Event is created is displayed in the list of Events, so please post any events that are created at the time you boot your system and have trouble showing your desktop and starting Avast.

My Desktop and Avast started working correctly after another reboot! Here's info from Event Viewer anyway:
At the time of starting my pc today at around 12 o'clock (I stopped Memtest86 at 6 o' clock in the morning and shut down my pc), when desktop didn't appear and Avast didn't work, there are these events: ATI Smart 105, SecurityCenter 1800.

You said those Service Control Manager events are related old programs and ones, which haven't been fully uninstalled. Would it help, if I remove them from for example Zonealarm programs list?

This would not help. The problem is that the drivers/services are still mentioned in the registry, so Windows is trying to start them. Then it cannot find them and creates an event. Nearly everybody has this, just because uninstallers do not always work fine (for example Norton is extremely bad and leaves half), and you can try solving this (by risking stability) but it should not be a big problem to have these left-overs.

Ok, I see.

Regards,
John.

Thanks for your time this far.

Hi,

I let it run about 10 hours. It seemed to continue on and on. I couldn't tell a lot what was going on on the screen. I saw lines of red text at the bottom, and they all said "test 8" and "pass 12"... I didn't know what was going on.. is it of any use to run it again?

Well, the reason why I told you to run Memtest is because you got problems after upgrading your memory and I was wondering if the new stick would have gone bad/be bad. You can give it another try if you want to, but if you did not see anything about errors there is no need to in my opinion.

Do you still have crashes of Firefox? And of your system in general? Any other problems?

Regards,
John.

"John B." wrote:Hi,

I let it run about 10 hours. It seemed to continue on and on. I couldn't tell a lot what was going on on the screen. I saw lines of red text at the bottom, and they all said "test 8" and "pass 12"... I didn't know what was going on.. is it of any use to run it again?

Well, the reason why I told you to run Memtest is because you got problems after upgrading your memory and I was wondering if the new stick would have gone bad/be bad. You can give it another try if you want to, but if you did not see anything about errors there is no need to in my opinion.

Do you still have crashes of Firefox? And of your system in general? Any other problems?

Regards,
John.

About the Memtest, I saw the same screen all the time. Some count were going at over one million, but I couldn't figure out was it about errors or something else... Anyway, my Firefox crashed only once yesterday. Just a few minutes ago my pc almost tilted while copy-pasteing a picture. The system shut down explorer.exe and drwtsn32.exe.. for a while only, I guess, cause the system didn't restart, and now the processes seem to be working again. These two have been the only problems I have had since Memtest yesterday morning. Right now, and usually, I have Firefox, Adobe Photoshop, notepad, Windows Media player and Live messenger open at the same time. Tell me, if you have any thoughts...

Hi,

About the Memtest, I saw the same screen all the time. Some count were going at over one million, but I couldn't figure out was it about errors or something else...

You were seeing this, right:
http://www.memtest.org/pics/amd64-big.gif
As long as the amount of 'Errors' (a little to the bottom-right) is 0 for all the listed tests done.

If you want to, you can run it another time, but as it conflicted pretty much with your system last time I do not really recommend it.

Anyway, my Firefox crashed only once yesterday. Just a few minutes ago my pc almost tilted while copy-pasteing a picture. The system shut down explorer.exe and drwtsn32.exe.. for a while only, I guess, cause the system didn't restart, and now the processes seem to be working again.

Yes, drwtsn32.exe is the program which tries to find out what was wrong (never helpful really) and explorer.exe is sometimes shut down when it is really difficult/hard to close something, for instance Windows Explorer when it has crashed.

These two have been the only problems I have had since Memtest yesterday morning. Right now, and usually, I have Firefox, Adobe Photoshop, notepad, Windows Media player and Live messenger open at the same time.

The problems you have are a little difficult to categorize. It may very well be because you are just running a lot of programs at the same time. When I do that pictures also load slow when copy-pasting. For example, Adobe Photoshop is not a light program and Windows Live Messenger can also be pretty irritating nowadays.

This may be an interesting page to work through, as it lists general cleanup tips that could really help speed up your computer and make it crash less:
http://www.malwareremoval.com/tutorials ... slowly.php

Please let me know if you have had any problems since your last post and if you consider this case nearly done.

Regards,
John.

"John B." wrote:Hi,

About the Memtest, I saw the same screen all the time. Some count were going at over one million, but I couldn't figure out was it about errors or something else...

You were seeing this, right:
http://www.memtest.org/pics/amd64-big.gif
As long as the amount of 'Errors' (a little to the bottom-right) is 0 for all the listed tests done.

If you want to, you can run it another time, but as it conflicted pretty much with your system last time I do not really recommend it.

Ok, I might run it again tonight. 'Errors' had a big number, when I rebooted.. maybe it wasn't finished.

Anyway, my Firefox crashed only once yesterday. Just a few minutes ago my pc almost tilted while copy-pasteing a picture. The system shut down explorer.exe and drwtsn32.exe.. for a while only, I guess, cause the system didn't restart, and now the processes seem to be working again.

Yes, drwtsn32.exe is the program which tries to find out what was wrong (never helpful really) and explorer.exe is sometimes shut down when it is really difficult/hard to close something, for instance Windows Explorer when it has crashed.

These two have been the only problems I have had since Memtest yesterday morning. Right now, and usually, I have Firefox, Adobe Photoshop, notepad, Windows Media player and Live messenger open at the same time.

The problems you have are a little difficult to categorize. It may very well be because you are just running a lot of programs at the same time. When I do that pictures also load slow when copy-pasting. For example, Adobe Photoshop is not a light program and Windows Live Messenger can also be pretty irritating nowadays.

This may be an interesting page to work through, as it lists general cleanup tips that could really help speed up your computer and make it crash less:
http://www.malwareremoval.com/tutorials ... slowly.php

Please let me know if you have had any problems since your last post and if you consider this case nearly done.

Regards,
John.

Since my last post my PC has shut down two times. After restarting, I get a message "system has recovered from a critical error" (free translation..). You're right, this is difficult to categorize.
My PC has been generally pretty fast now after removing programs, adjusting startup programs, freeing disc space, etc. I bet it's that bloody memory (that I bought 5th Dec), that conflicts with older parts or something. I bought this pc 4,5 years ago. Yeah, I think malware-wise this case is finished, and I thank you for all the advice, but I might reply soon again, if something interesting/bad happens, ok?

Hi,

Ok, I might run it again tonight. 'Errors' had a big number, when I rebooted.. maybe it wasn't finished.

Well, if you know Error was not zero, I recommend running Memtest again. If you then really note that it is not zero, you can try running Memtest with only one stick of memory in. After doing every stick seperately you know which is bad.

I bet it's that bloody memory (that I bought 5th Dec), that conflicts with older parts or something. I bought this pc 4,5 years ago.

When somebody lost his/her keys you ask where the person saw it last, so, logically, you ask when the PC was last working fine/stopped working fine Have you checked the user's manual of your motherboard in which slot you should put the sticks of memory or are all slots filled now? I have seen cases where somebody had 3 slots and only 2 slots of memory and put them in the wrong slots. I have even seen one case where the manual of the motherboard was wrong on putting them in other slots worked way better. You may want to give it a look and try putting it in others..

Yeah, I think malware-wise this case is finished, and I thank you for all the advice, but I might reply soon again, if something interesting/bad happens, ok?

Hmm, well, I am still not satisfied and actually pretty much want to solve this with you

Regards,
John.

"John B." wrote:
Hmm, well, I am still not satisfied and actually pretty much want to solve this with you

Regards,
John.

John,

that's cool! I'm very happy, if you want to continue helping (I was thinking the teachers in this forum want to concentrate to malware problems). I will read the user's manual and run that Memtest again with your instructions after New Year. I will reply by Saturday. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year John,

I read my mother board manual. According to it, the sticks of memory were in right places. The manual didn't tell that the sticks should be in a specific order. Anyway, I took the new 1GB stick out of slot 2, and did a MemTest for the old 512MB stick of memory in slot 1 (I have two slots only), where it has always been. I didn't see any errors this time, no red rows at all, just a message, that no erros were found. I let it pass 4 times. Then I took the old stick out and put the new 1GB stick in slot 1. I run Memtest for about 17 passes and errors =zero. In previous tests for both sticks when I got up to 4 million errors, the 1GB stick was in slot 2 and old stick in slot 1.

Maybe it works better, when a stick with larger memory is in slot 1. I hope it would be this easy! Now I'm running my pc with the sticks in new order. I will observe, how the pc works today and maybe make a MemTest for both sticks in new slots over next night. Unless you have other ideas.

Hi,

Happy new year!

Maybe it works better, when a stick with larger memory is in slot 1. I hope it would be this easy! Now I'm running my pc with the sticks in new order. I will observe, how the pc works today and maybe make a MemTest for both sticks in new slots over next night. Unless you have other ideas.

No other ideas at the moment, please let me know how the PC works and the results of MemTest if you have run it.

Regards,
John.

Hi John,

After a good start a day before yesterday, the same problems continued. I run Memtest last night. The memory chips of 1GB and 512MB were both in use, 1GB in slot 1 and 512MB in slot 2. I got about 500 thousand errors after pass 14... (when the chips were the other way around, in their initial positions, I got about 4 million errors). What should we make out of this? tell me if you have any suggestions. I surfed the net to find info. A lot of it went beyond my understanding, but I found a couple of sites, that say this 1GB chip from Kingston is good for my mother board. None said, the chips should be ie of the same manufacturer or in a specific order.

Hi,

You checked both individually, right?

What type are the sticks of memory and what brand and type motherboard do you have?

Regards,
John.