Re: Program abnormal termination - Windows XP Home Edition

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

Hello Wes,

Number 1 is to have this pc's memory thoroughly tested. The behavior of a program just closing a screen or going away does point to hardware issues.

Use a working pc and get a memory test utility, place on diskette, flash drive, (or portable media) and run it on the problem pc.
Run a RAM memory test. MEMTEST86 is one such utility.
See http://www.memtest86.com/

Did someone add memory recently? Anyone been inside the pc case? Hardware changes?
Do you recall any significant change before this type of "abend" started happening?

See what Event Viewer has in it's log. Select Start button/ select Run , then type in

eventvwr.msc<enter>

-- or Go to Control Panel / Performance and Maintenance/Administrative Tools >Event Viewer.

Review the sections and look for Errors or Warnings that match the time the event occurred.
Double click---the information "may" give a clue.

Right Click the My Computer icon on desktop. Select Properties.
Next, select Advanced. Look for a block that says Startup and recovery. Review the settings in the System failure block.
Write an event to system log should be Checked (selected).
Automatically restart should be off.

If you want a dump at each event, look at "Write debugging information". You may want to select "small memory dump".

Review the list of Windows XP services, and see which ones 'may' have been turned off.
From Start > select RUN > then run
MSCONFIG

Once there, select Services Tab. Make sure block "Hide all Microsoft services" is not on.
Scroll down the list of services. Write down & post back on which ones are turned off.

--
Maurice N
MVP Windows - Shell / User
-----


Wes Lucas wrote:
Often a program will bomb out with no message. I usually get a
"bong" like you hear when you hit an invalid key; and the screen is
gone.

It can be almost anything that I'm running, Office, Quickbooks or
anything in IE. What's interesting is the fact that I can have
several IE sessions up, one will bomb out with no message, but the
others will continue to run. Same thing with Office. I can have
several Office applications up; one will bomb, but the others will
continue to run.

I do not get the usual warning screen indicating that its going to
bomb nor does it ask if I want to send the dump to MS.

My system is IBM NetVista with 1.5gig main memory and lots of free
disk space. The processor speed is 1.6gb Pentium 4. WindowsXP Home
Edition is the O/S with SP2 and all the latest updates, per the
automatic Windows Update program.

I ran PC Doctor on the hardware using the long program; and the only
sqwalk I got was lack of a dial tone for the modem (which didn't have
a phone line attached).

I suspect some corruption in the O/S System; but before I reloaded it
or upgraded to Window XP Prof, I thought I'd ask if there is anywhere
to go in trying to debug this.

Thanks.

Wes


23233-1434
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