Windows ME unstable

[mikesin]

Sorry to touble you folks but running out of ideas.

About 4 weeks ago my WinME PC started becoming unstable and exhibiting various symptons. To my knowledge I had not made any changes that would cause this however something must have changed.

Symptons include

Display crashes - it all just goes into lots of zigzag lines - keyboard and mouse inactive

BSOD with message 0E:0187:Bff8E64B

BSOD with VMM (01) 000EC00 0E C028 C000F000

Lockup of whichever application I am in at the time with power off as only escape option .

Unsolicited restart of ME without warning

Win protection error - system halted

I have tried -

defrag of C drive

regcleaner

norton untilities like windoctor

Virus scan including online scan from Symantec website

Ad-aware

Spybot

I have followed actions in a document I found on the net called "how to run ME well" that included guidance on disabling all unnecessary processes

Removing all software that I no longer require.

I am now at a loss and the only recourse I can think of is to reinstall WinME.

This I did last year with help from Strider following a system crash but I am reluctant to undetake this action since there was a lot of consequential work such as downloading all of the ME updates and service packs from Microsoft.

Any guidance appreciated...

thanks

Mike

[renegade600]

tell more about your system, what cpu, ram, harddrive size/space available.

[mikesin]

Hi, I used one of the tools that I downloaded from your site to produce a report and this is the first part of it. I have the rest if required...Computer:

Operating System Microsoft Windows ME

OS Service Pack None

Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106 (IE 6.0 SP1)

Computer Name 1 (use for a test)

User Name Mike Sinfield

Motherboard:

CPU Type AMD Duron, 600 MHz (3 x 200)

Motherboard Name AOpen MK33 (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DIMM, Audio)

Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8363 Apollo KT133

System Memory 256 MB (SDRAM)

BIOS Type Award Modular (01/17/01)

Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)

Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:

Video Adapter S3 Inc. Savage4 (8 MB)

3D Accelerator S3 Savage4

Monitor IBM 6332 E74 (66-NL520)

Multimedia:

Audio Adapter VIA AC'97 Audio Controller [H]

Storage:

Floppy Drive GENERIC NEC FLOPPY DISK

Disk Drive DOT4 Mass Storage Class Bridge for IOS

Disk Drive GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE47

Disk Drive GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE47

Disk Drive hpz

Disk Drive psc 2200 (DOT4STORE)

Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8161B (16x/48x DVD-ROM)

Optical Drive MAT****A DVD-RAM SW-9581 (DVD-RW:2x/1x, DVD-RAM:2x, DVD-ROM:12x, CD:12x/8x/32x DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)

Partitions:

C: (FAT32) 8620 MB (2472 MB free)

D: (FAT32) 32224 MB (29093 MB free)

Input:

Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard

Mouse IBM ScrollPoint II

Network:

Primary IP Address 217.137.16.49

Primary MAC Address 44-45-53-54-00-00

Network Adapter PPP Adapter. (217.137.16.49)

Modem Conexant HCF V90 56K Data Fax PCI Modem

Modem Motorola VoiceSURFR 56K External PnP

Modem Parallel cable on LPT1

Modem Serial cable on COM1

Peripherals:

Printer Canon LBP-660

Printer hp psc 2200 series

Printer MightyFAX Printer Driver

Printer Net-It Now! SE

Printer OKIPAGE 4w

USB Device hp psc 2200 series

USB Device psc 2200 (DOT4USB)

USB Device psc 2200 (USBPRINT)

USB Device psc 2200 (USBSTORE)

USB Device USB Composite Device



--------[ Computer Name ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer Comment Logical use for a test

NetBIOS Name Logical 1



--------[ DMI ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ BIOS ]

BIOS Properties:

Vendor Award Software International, Inc.

Version S21M-C2

Release Date 01/17/2001

Size 256 KB

Boot Devices Floppy Disk, Hard Disk, CD-ROM, ATAPI ZIP, LS-120

Capabilities Flash BIOS, Shadow BIOS, Selectable Boot, EDD

Supported Standards DMI, APM, ACPI, ESCD, PnP

Expansion Capabilities PCI, AGP, USB

[ System ]

System Properties:

Manufacturer IBM

Product MACHINE

Version S21M

Serial Number R02-C2

Wake-Up Type Power Switch

[ Motherboard ]

Motherboard Properties:

Manufacturer IBM

Product S21M

Version -1

[Landon]

Open the case and make sure that all of your cooling fans are running and are not seized or running very slowly.

[renegade600]

I did not see anything in your info you gave. Thanks for providing it. Did you add anything to your computer recently whether hardware/software?

[Philis]

Mikesin,
I have ME also. I was getting the same error message as you, 0E:0187:Bff8E64B. Well my system became unusable. I found my startup disk that I had forgotten I had made. That allowed me to set my registry back to a date before I had problems. It was not hard, but, I had to read carefully. Bingo, my pc is back up in a flash.


Umm... do you have a startup disk? -PO-

[mikesin]

Landon - fans running and exhaust air cool...

Renegade600 - about 4 or so weeks ago I tried to set up my UK english keyboard to allow spanish characters (learning the language) - it didn't seen to work to well so I got rid of it by reversing the actions I took...apart from that no hardware changes and cannot recall any software changes.....

Philis - I have some diskettes that I made last year when I had problems - I hve a Win ME startup disk and a winMEsetup.exe and a PC Doctor diag startup.

How can I reset the registry without making too many other changes??

UPDATE - tried winME startup disk procedure - appear to have registry 'cabs' for last 5 days so won't reallt take me back far enough

Thanks

PS the info that I supplied regarding the hardware config seems incorrect in one aspect - system memory size . The machine has 64MB plus 256MB - I added the second larger DIMM in 7/2002 - is the erroneous report significant or just a report problem??

Ran a PC doctor report for system - again it shows Physical memory as 256MB ?
and who is Reg Owner =fangch and Reg Org = Accton??

Restarted system and looked in bios at memory , it shows 320MB which is correct so how come Sys Info etc gives a different value - is this a problem or wild goose chase??

System ran fine all day 27/2 despite being used quite a bit.
Today connected to cybertech to look for update and BSOD with VWIN32(05) 0000359F Error :0E : 0028 : C02A80F7 - gonna search net for this error message. Anyone with any ideas??

thanks