Stop 0x7e (0x0000000d,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000) after SP2?

[keshlam]

First time I've had trouble upgrading a machine to SP2... Blue Screen with
the subject Stop message and very little additional data. I haven't found
that pattern

eMachines says their best guess is that it's a bad software interaction, but
they've no clue what. I haven't added anything very odd to their standard
build...

Does anyone recognize that signature as something meaningful, or should I
just flail about hunting for the tool which is causing trouble?

[MAP]

"keshlam" wrote:

> First time I've had trouble upgrading a machine to SP2... Blue Screen with
> the subject Stop message and very little additional data. I haven't found
> that pattern
>
> eMachines says their best guess is that it's a bad software interaction, but
> they've no clue what. I haven't added anything very odd to their standard
> build...
>
> Does anyone recognize that signature as something meaningful, or should I
> just flail about hunting for the tool which is causing trouble?

http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php

[keshlam]

> http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php

Good resource but I didn't find that pattern.

Rechecking my error log: Oh. It was a 7f(0d,0,0,0). MS suggests memory
problem (or, less likely, other damage) as first bet, followed by possible
driver problems (especially backup, multiimedia, antivirus and CD mastering).

So I need to find this machine's hardware test, then try playing with how
those apps interact with . That gives me a direction to go in, anyway.

[Quaoar]

keshlam wrote:
> First time I've had trouble upgrading a machine to SP2... Blue Screen
> with the subject Stop message and very little additional data. I
> haven't found that pattern
>
> eMachines says their best guess is that it's a bad software
> interaction, but they've no clue what. I haven't added anything very
> odd to their standard build...
>
> Does anyone recognize that signature as something meaningful, or
> should I just flail about hunting for the tool which is causing
> trouble?

Start a bit simpler: Go to Windows Update, there is a link to preparing
a computer for SP2 somewhere. Otherwise, remove all peripherals
(printers, scanners, etc) except for a usb mouse. Run complete virus
and adware/spyware scans. Run Disk Cleanup. Defrag. Then chkdsk /f
from a command prompt. Check Device Manager for any device warnings or
errors. My money is on a disk problem.

Q

[keshlam]

Hmmm. MEMTEST86 (freeware with a good reputation) isn't finding any problems.
So it looks like other hardware (I can recheck the disk; thanks) or software.

I'm almost tempted to reinstall the machine (again, sigh) from eM's restore
disks and install nothing but MS updates until I reach SP2. If it still
fails, that clearly isolates it to either hardware or something in eM's
standard build... and they seem to believe the standard build should be OK,
modulo an unlikely interaction with the antivirus.

Sigh. As I say, I'm mostly surprised because it's been so long since I've
seen the BSOD and I haven't seen SP2 provoke it before. Pity the error
message is so darned non-diagnostic.

There's a thought: Can more detail be extracted from the memory dump file
without entirely unreasonable amounts of effort?

(At least SP2 uninstall works. I'm almost more surprised by that than by the
problem!)

[keshlam]

Answered my own question, by ripping the machine down to a bare
manufacturer's config, installing nothing but upgrades until I'd passed SP2,
then adding back in applications one by one...

For some reason, on this particular machine and no other I've seen, the
version of Zone Labs Integrity Desktop (a firewall product) recommended by my
employer causes the subject failure.

It's possible that code is downlevel, and/or that it has a bad interaction
with the particular wireless-network drivers on this system, and/or that
there's some subtle bug which only arises on an AMD 64-bit processor.

Since I do like the ZL tool better than the one now built into Windows, I
may try the latest release of their their free-for-noncommercial version, in
the hope that the machine is happier about that one.

Wheee. Thanks, folks; you didn't find the answer but at least you reassured
me that one probably existed and gave me a chance to vent a bit...

[keshlam]

Checked with Zone Labs -- Yes, older versions have trouble on AMD 64-bit
processors; their FAQ says versions 5.1 and later should solve that (though
there's still an issue of interaction with Data Execution Protection unless
you run that in the default just-check-essentials mode).

So the free-for-personal-use download of that tool should solve my problem,
and I'll have to tell manglement that they may want to upgrade the version
used at work.

Oh well. That's what I get for dancing on the bleeding edge; sometimes one
falls off.