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Pete Lamberty
07-21-2003, 9:24 AM
Hello Everyone, I have been having some problems with my computer. I am running Windows 2000 Professional. What happens is, I will be on the internet and, for what seems like no reason at all, my monitor turns completely blue in color and then some small white letters and numbers come up at the top of the screen. Most of these make no sense to me. But there are also the words "beginning to dump all physical memory". That doesn't sound good to me. So I tried to turn the computer off. But the start button wasn't in the bottom left corner. So I tried pushing Control-Alt-delete all at the same time. That didn't work either. So I just pushed the power button on the tower. This has happened about five times now. What is going on? And is there something I can do to fix this? Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks, Pete

Lee Schierer
07-21-2003, 3:53 PM
I'm not an expert, but what you have sounds like a virus. I would recommend two things. (1) Have your system scanned by an up to date virus detection software package and take appropriate action if it finds anything. (2) Get on line and down load a free copy of "Spybot" and run it on your computer to get rid of any tracking software that might have been installed on your computer. I was amazed at the stuff that had been installed on my computer without my consent by web sites.

Pete Lamberty
07-21-2003, 5:16 PM
Hi Lee, Thanks for your thoughts. To answer the items that you brought up... 1) I have Norton anti virus and I update it and scan the computer twice a week. There have been a few viruses found and the files they are in are now quarentined. Should I delete them? 2) A friend gave me the address of a spyware removal program, it is called Ad Aware, and it found 213 items in my computer. All of which I deleted. I have also gone to Microsoft and updated all the programs that they said that I should. I have also run the defragment program. So I don't know what to do now. Luckily the blue screen only happened once today. If you or anyone else has any ideas, I would be happy to hear them. Thanks for your concern. Pete


I'm not an expert, but what you have sounds like a virus. I would recommend two things. (1) Have your system scanned by an up to date virus detection software package and take appropriate action if it finds anything. (2) Get on line and down load a free copy of "Spybot" and run it on your computer to get rid of any tracking software that might have been installed on your computer. I was amazed at the stuff that had been installed on my computer without my consent by web sites.

Brad Schafer
07-21-2003, 6:00 PM
boy, what an opportunity to bash billco ... :)

you're getting the infamous "blue screen of death". could be caused by multiple things:

a) software corruption due to virus
b) software corruption due to bit rot (piece of disk has gone bad,
causing software at that location to die)
c) hardware problem (e.g., a piece of memory has failed)
d) software bug
e) something else :-/

don't just discount the text that shows up - note the name of the program (.EXE) or library (.DLL) that's dying.

based on your description of all the viruses & spyware (!!!), it's likely you've got critical files that have been quaratined. it's also possible that you've still got a virus or two hanging around.

it's hard to tell you exactly what to do in this kind of forum; the defacto (not necessarily best) answer is "reinstall". you could also do a one for one replacement of things that die (based on blue screen feedback). sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

it's easier to fix if you are (or know) a bit-head.

good luck,


b (not a big M$ fan)

Pete Lamberty
07-21-2003, 9:52 PM
Thanks Brad for your advice. The next time I get the blue screen I will write everything down and post it here. I think I paniced when it said that it was dumping everything and just turned it off as quick as I could. Since you gave me other ideas, I think I could call Gateway and get help from them. I think I might still be able to get free help. Maybe they can discern if it is a hardware problem. Although I like to think that I am not stupid, I am also not a real computer person. I have fixed stuff in the past but I don't have that real strong interest. You mentioned it might be good to reinstall. Is that similiar to what I did when I first got the computer? If I want to reinstall do I have to delete everything first? Then just follow the installation instructions as if the computer was new? That sounds good to me. I don't have anything on the computer that I really need to keep. But how do I delete everything? If that needs to be done. Please advise. Thanks for all the help. Pete




boy, what an opportunity to bash billco ... :)

you're getting the infamous "blue screen of death". could be caused by multiple things:

a) software corruption due to virus
b) software corruption due to bit rot (piece of disk has gone bad,
causing software at that location to die)
c) hardware problem (e.g., a piece of memory has failed)
d) software bug
e) something else :-/

don't just discount the text that shows up - note the name of the program (.EXE) or library (.DLL) that's dying.

based on your description of all the viruses & spyware (!!!), it's likely you've got critical files that have been quaratined. it's also possible that you've still got a virus or two hanging around.

it's hard to tell you exactly what to do in this kind of forum; the defacto (not necessarily best) answer is "reinstall". you could also do a one for one replacement of things that die (based on blue screen feedback). sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

it's easier to fix if you are (or know) a bit-head.

good luck,


b (not a big M$ fan)

Pete Lamberty
07-21-2003, 10:01 PM
Brad, the files that are quarantined are named,
chkl.mrc,
newage.dll, and
script.ini.
The location of all three is C:WINNT\system32\. I don't know what any of this means. Are they important or should I delete them. Thanks again. Pete




boy, what an opportunity to bash billco ... :)

you're getting the infamous "blue screen of death". could be caused by multiple things:

a) software corruption due to virus
b) software corruption due to bit rot (piece of disk has gone bad,
causing software at that location to die)
c) hardware problem (e.g., a piece of memory has failed)
d) software bug
e) something else :-/

don't just discount the text that shows up - note the name of the program (.EXE) or library (.DLL) that's dying.

based on your description of all the viruses & spyware (!!!), it's likely you've got critical files that have been quaratined. it's also possible that you've still got a virus or two hanging around.

it's hard to tell you exactly what to do in this kind of forum; the defacto (not necessarily best) answer is "reinstall". you could also do a one for one replacement of things that die (based on blue screen feedback). sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

it's easier to fix if you are (or know) a bit-head.

good luck,


b (not a big M$ fan)

Brad Schafer
07-22-2003, 9:53 AM
Brad, the files that are quarantined are named,
chkl.mrc,
newage.dll, and
script.ini.
The location of all three is C:WINNT\system32\. I don't know what any of this means. Are they important or should I delete them. Thanks again. Pete

well, i'm not exactly a Winders weenie, so i can't say for certain what "newage.dll" might be ... all 3 look like virus drop-ins (read: not Windows-related). if they're quarantined, nuke 'em. no sense in them wasting disk space.

(WINNT is the folder where Windows operating system files live. the system32 subfolder is where 32 bit drivers and DLLs live. a .dll file is a set of common routines - DLL = Dynamic Link Library. a .ini file is an initialization file, which usually contains a set of commands or settings that are established at program run time. for example, C:\WINNT\win.ini contains stuff that is used to set up your Windows environment when Windows is first run. and i have no idea what chkl.mrc is.)

as for repairs - if Gateway will provide you "free" help (and it's probably worth every cent! :D ), then by all means, take it. reinstall is a rather drastic step, and i wouldn't want to do it unless absolutely necessary. my guess is that Gateway will ask you if you've installed all the latest patches (hot fixes) from Microsoft, and may be able to step you through a repair process.

another thing you might try, particularly if you have Office (or Outlook) 2000 installed - there is a nice little option under Help called "Detect and Repair" ... if the crash is related to one of the office components, this should resolve it.

BTW - i've run W2K for over 2 years with only minimal trouble; it's not nearly as unstable as any of the previous variants. this should be fixable.

in the meantime, i'd recommend practicing safer email. :p most crud like this arrives as an attachment.

good luck,


b

Pete Lamberty
07-24-2003, 10:42 AM
Hi Guys, Thanks for all the help. I thought you might like to know how this has turned out. Brad mentioned it could be a hardware problem. So I thought that I could call Gateway and get free help. I did this and they had me delete everything from my computer and then reload everything. It took all day to get this done. I still have to figure out how to reinstall my updated Norton Anti Virus 2003 program. I went to their website but I can't figure out what to do. So far the computer seems to be working just fine. Thanks for your help, Pete






Hello Everyone, I have been having some problems with my computer. I am running Windows 2000 Professional. What happens is, I will be on the internet and, for what seems like no reason at all, my monitor turns completely blue in color and then some small white letters and numbers come up at the top of the screen. Most of these make no sense to me. But there are also the words "beginning to dump all physical memory". That doesn't sound good to me. So I tried to turn the computer off. But the start button wasn't in the bottom left corner. So I tried pushing Control-Alt-delete all at the same time. That didn't work either. So I just pushed the power button on the tower. This has happened about five times now. What is going on? And is there something I can do to fix this? Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks, Pete

Brad Schafer
07-24-2003, 11:43 AM
well, i'm glad it seems to be resolved, but it's a shame that these guys' first line of defense is always "reinstall". that's a heckuva lot of work, and not much diagnosis. :(

again, if you get the BSOD (blue screen of death), write down the name of the program that died and give a post. no guarantees, but we might be able to help out.

b

Pete Lamberty
07-24-2003, 1:35 PM
Hi Brad, The last time I got the blue screen I did write down everything and immediately called Gateway. The lady just wanted to know the first few numbers. If you are interested here is what the blue screen said.
***stop: 0x000000D1 (0XE3C09040, )X000000FF, 0X00000001, 0x BBB4A7AC)
Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_or_EQUAL
***Address BBB4A7AC base at BBB45000,
DataStamp 3ecd5361-mrxsmb.sys
Beginning to dump all physical memory.
Thats it Brad. Like I said before, I have no idea what it all means. Now I can get back to thinking about my ongoing woodworking project. Thanks again. Pete



well, i'm glad it seems to be resolved, but it's a shame that these guys' first line of defense is always "reinstall". that's a heckuva lot of work, and not much diagnosis. :(

again, if you get the BSOD (blue screen of death), write down the name of the program that died and give a post. no guarantees, but we might be able to help out.

b

Brad Schafer
07-24-2003, 1:43 PM
in all honesty, i don't know what it all means, either, since i dunno how to read a dump from a winders box. however, i know from the message that the offending program was mrxsmb.sys, which is used by SNMP (simple network mgmt protocol) managers that may be installed.

put simplistically, you probably got a virus that exploited a security hole associated with SNMP, and here's where it chose to roost.

anyway, probably way too much information; the reinstall should have taken care of everything. if not, you know where i hang out. :)


b