Constantly getting fatal excpetions!!! Help.

[ThomasT]

Ok I'm so tired of messing with my computer. I've reformated and did a clean install of win98. Thinking this would resolve some of the problems I had with win95. The problem now is that I'm always getting "a fetal exception (OE: page fault) has occurred at ....... in VXD VCACHE (01). I've done every thing a can think of to to fix this. Can anyone help???

Thanks ThomasT

[Bleeding Edge]

Constantly? At start-up; when you open a particular windows componet such as Control panel; when a certain program starts; at shut down? Is it always a fatal error at xxxxx VXD cache (01)? Are they different fatal errors?
In one instance, where the file Dblbuff.sys is involved and the file doesn't have the following date, time and size, A call to MS is the only immeadiate fix or wait for the 1st Service Pack.
7/6/98; 6:35pm; 2,614K

More than likely it's one or more VXD files that have been corrupted and need replacing. Since you know exactly where and when the error occur, it may be best to do a search for "VXD fatal error" here: search.microsoft.com/default.asp?SPath=\support&SName=Support (http://search.microsoft.com/default.asp?SPath=\support&SName=Support)
Select Support and Knowledge Base.

[This message has been edited by Bleeding Edge (edited 03-19-99).]

[nimrod]

it certainly sounds as if some files have been corrupted but it would be interesting to know what your problems with win95 were??, as the problem may be hardware not software.
i liked the freudian slip with the word fetal, as if it were some devil child.

[Bleeding Edge]

What, like the memory modules might be bad?

[ThomasT]

Thanks guys for the info.,
According to Notrons CrashGuard (which by the way will successfully avoid a crash about 10% of the time) Exell has caused a crash 3X, controll pannel 3x, IE 4x, and about 5 others programs. This is all in the last 3 days. I reinstalled win98 yesterday in hopes of fixing an currupted files but I still got some.

I has having win95 problems after installing a 128meg DIMM and inadvertently dislogding my video card. It messed everything up trying to fixed it. Got it fixed and then decided to upgrade. I THINK I might have found my problem though. MAYBE!!!! Just for fun I disabled my Norton virus protection and since then (last night) I haven't had a problem, but I have used the computer much either. I'll have to wait and see.

Thanks again,
Tom T

[Bleeding Edge]

Great! Good luck http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[ThomasT]

Forget that!!
My computer just crashed 2x since that last post 10min ago. Fatal exception (OE: page fault) has occurred at 0028:0A458D5C and 0028:C004E801 in VXD. VCHACHE (01). Could it be my memory? The diagnositic tests say the mem is ok.


Thomas T.

[This message has been edited by ThomasT (edited 03-19-99).]

[Bleeding Edge]

Okay. Did some more digging. This is what I found.

Seems like your processor is notifying the OS that an application(s) is making illegal calls to the CPU, so when Windows receives this notification, it displays the message your getting, then the system hangs.

I can't tell you how to fix this but I hope you get a better understanding of what is occuring.

If the processor (PII) is affected by ECC errata, it may be possible to prevent it from returning some of these calls, there is a remote chance of a work around if this is the case. If you have a recent Intel CPU, I'll get a list of all the design defects for that CPU -If you are interested. Just post the S-Spec number. That would be the last 4or5 alpha-numeric numbers from the product code starting with the letter "S."

Anyhow, try disabling the ECC on the processor from the BIOS setup and anything related to error correction.

It's difficult to accept that so many of your programs are causing this. Could it be an un detected virus?

After your clean reinstall of the OS (full FDISK/FORMAT none upgrade version; minimum hardware -video card and modem?), did you update your hardware drivers and Explorer and run only that and the OS to be sure it isn't hardware/WIN98 related? Then load just Excel, update that to SR1/SR2 and run the system for awhile? Then continue adding software like that or have you been doing it all at once?

I am just dropping thoughts here.

Anyway this is how it goes:

When you attempt to start Windows or an application inside of Windows, you may encounter errors similar to the following:


A fatal exception <XY> has occurred at xxxx:xxxxxxxx

Fatal exception errors are codes returned by a program in the following cases:
Access to an illegal instruction has been encountered
Invalid data or code has been accessed
The privilege level of an operation is invalid

When any of these occur, the processor returns an exception to the operating system, which in turn is handled as a Fatal Exception Error. In many cases the exception is non-recoverable and the system must either be restarted or shutdown, depending upon the severity of the error.
In the following example of a Fatal Exception error


A fatal exception <XY> has occurred at xxxx:xxxxxxxx

the <XY> represents the actual processor exception from 00 to 0F. The xxxx:xxxxxxxx represents the enhanced instruction pointer to the code segment and the 8-bit address is the actual address where the exception occurred.
Windows does not cause these errors, but has the exception handling routine for that particular processor exception, which displays the above message.


[This message has been edited by Bleeding Edge (edited 03-20-99).]

[ThomasT]

Thanks Bleeding Edge,
I did do a clean install of the OS with a nonupgrade win98. But I didn't update my drivers and Explorer to check for conflicts before loading MSOffice. I'm very interested in the BIOS and disabling the ECC. When I was having problems with my video (after dislodging the card), I went into my BIOS serveral times trying different things hoping to fix my problem. I could have very easily messed something up in there.
My CPU about 2 years old now and prier to my upgrade, I hardly ever had any problems so I don't think its my CPU.

Thanks for all your time and help Bleeding Edge.

Tom T

[nimrod]

from what you have described i personally would check that all the cabling/cards/memory are seated correctly before you do anything else, as you did not have a problem prior to installing your memory. you could quite easily have dislogded something. after you have done this set your bios to default settings then run it again. if the problem has disappeared (hopefully) you can then go back to your bios and start tweaking.let me know how you go on

[ThomasT]

Ok guys I think I may have it! I don't know what this is responsible for but I updated my Bus Master IDE drivers and things have been going smoothly. I've had no crashes in the past three hours which is preety good compared to what I was getting. This may have been the problem. I'll let you guys know tommorow if I've alleviated the problem.

Thanks for the help,
TomT

[brandon184]

I constantly had fatal exceptions too...Turned out it was the memory.

[ThomasT]

Brandon, I'm afraid I might have the same problem. I have done everything trying to fix these problems I'm having. Most all of them have happened after installing the mem. but I thought I was having problem b/c I thought I messed-up my Vidio card and BIOS. Was your mem. bad (i.e. defective) or was in it just not capatable?

Thanks for everyones help,
TOm

[Nathan]

Here is some info on the site below on those types of errors.

Like the others have said, it sounds like a simms/dimm problem.

www.helponthe.net/nathan (http://www.helponthe.net/nathan)

[oldbe]

If you open your case again (to look things over) watch closely the "flexing" of the motherboard as it is rather thin and often gives with the pressure necessary to install memory or cards resulting in components not totally 'set' in the sockets and it has given me a bit of a fit while setting new memory/cards. I finally supported the motherboard with nonconducting mat'l for better support while installing components. At any rate insure 'all' components are totally set.

[Harry Murphy]

I'm curious as to what ISP you are using. A lot of
people have problems like that with Netzero.
Also, people have said that their video
cards and drivers are at fault and that when
they have replaced them, they have no longer
had such a problem. What video card and driver
do you have? There are some real bad ones that
that cause these problems like some of those by SiS.

[ThomasT]

Ok Everyone,
I've taken out my 128meg DIMMs. So fat I've had no errors. I'm gonna play with this machine the rest of the night and tommorow. I'll let you know if it was this darn DIMMs.

Thanks for everbodies help.
Tom T

[Bleeding Edge]

Hold it.
Did you double check the for the proper bus setting on the motherboard/bios to correspond to the Dimms?

[ThomasT]

oh oh,
You've got me. I'm afraid you'll have to explain this to me. How can I find out what the my DIMMs bus is? I'm not aware of this. My DIMMs is out and I've had zero errors (before the removal, this machine would have crashed about 5 times by now).
Could my DIMMs be fine, just not set-up right?

[Bleeding Edge]

Typically, 128 Dimms are PC100 compliant.
Meaning they need to run at 100MHz.
Motherboards have jumpers to set the speed of the bus (also in BIOS.) These settings are initially set to 66MHz or 100MHz (on the MB jumper) and typically overclocked in the BIOS. I can't tell what your Dimms are but you should be able to guess from the product number. It'll have a 100 somewhere in it.

[ThomasT]

The product # has a 60 on it, but nothing that comes closs to 100. (TECHlab TLS3165405AJ-60)

[magk9]

Maybe you have EDO Dimms(60ns)?? I've seen a lot of 'em being sold. Surplus Auction, and others like that. I've had plenty of memory that would NOT work on a particular board, but be fine on another. Especially from auction sites!! Any time I get a lot of crashes, it has always been the memory.Also, I had a board that I later found would NOT run anything BUT EDO dimms. 10ns dimms crashed it constantly, regardless of the vendor.

[Gorx]

Try limiting you [Vcache]Limit Virtual Cache:
This is the Disk Cache (replacement for smartdrive), not to confuse with Virtual Memory.
Disk Cache is important for improving hard disk performance,but not at the expense of using up all your extra Ram and
leaving none for anything you want to run.
Some users only use a maximum setting, others a maximum and minimum setting. Just experiment and find what's best in your situation.
Open System.Ini for editing (click Start > Run and type sysedit in the Open box and click OK)
(Or click on Find "Files or Folders" type sysedit then create a shortcut and put in a tools folder in your Start Menu)
Select System.Ini in the System Configuration Editor to bring it to the front
Add these lines to the [vcache] section (add the section anywhere if it's not there):
(I use this first one with 64megs Ram it limits my Vcache to 4megs and it works fine)

[vcache]
MinFileCache=4096
MaxFileCache=4096

(This one is from this article.)

[vcache]
MinFileCache=1024
MaxFileCache=8192


These values limit the size of the vcache (in kilobytes), so that Windows is prevented from using more of your available RAM for the vcache. This will increase the amount of free memory available to your system, so that when you open another program it is not paged to disk immediately due to lack of free memory.
The MinFileCache (=Minimum File Cache) setting prevents Windows 95 from shrinking the cache below 1024Kb. As a rule of thumb, use 25% of your RAM for the MaxFileCache. In general, most users say that a MaxFileCache (=Maximum File Cache setting) of up to 9Mb works best for them, even if they have more RAM available. Just experiment with these settings to find what works best for you. You can see how your vcache behaves by starting System Monitor (Sysmon.exe) from your Windows directory. Choose Edit > Add Item > Memory Manager > Disk cache size.
(I use Discovery Pro on my Nuts&Bolts )

My Page:
http://pages.hotbot.com/arts/gorx/windows.html

[CMonster]

I too would tend to believe that it was memory causing the problem - I had a similar problem on a client's puter after installing a regular EDO (2)SIMM upgrade. The memory POST tested fine and even benchmarked without error, but the machine kept getting ..."System Registry Error" internmitant on boot and some BSoD page faults. I removed the memory, upgraded with memory all of the same brand and it worked fine.

Strangely enough, the "defective" memory, continues to work perfectly by itself in another system to this day.

The Errors were so intermitant and random, but frequent enough, that I swore at first it looked like a corrupted file or disk problem. But since the only thing that had changed recently was the memory... that was the first thing I checked.

BTW and FYI, It is my opinion that "Norton's Anything" is best installed on the computers belonging to people you don't like much.

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 03-28-99).]

[ThomasT]

This is an update on the status of my computer. For everyone who has help me, I thank you. This is what was wrong.
1st-my mother board is not compatable with using SIMMs and DIMMs together (I had both).

2nd-Nortons CleanSweep caused most of my crashes. I had installed the new IE5.0 and CleanSweep was causing the problem. Symantec has a new APITRAP.DLL file that fixed it (thanks Larry).

Thomas Tittelbach