[garybonk]

I get this on 13 different semi-connected machines (some wired, some wireless and one sneakernet) when I insert any disk into the 3.5 floppy drives. The BSOD comes up showing this message:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

A driver has overrun a stack-based buffer. This overrun could potentially allow
a malicious
user to gain control of this machine.

If this is the first time you've seen this error screen,
restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow
these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer
for any windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware
or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart
your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup options, and then
select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x000000F7 (0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further
assistance."

No new hardware or software installed.

Virus and malware checks show no infections

All machines boot to HD first.

Most of the machines have CA (Roadrunner variety). But one, the sneakernet machine has another AV brand.

Common links: Linksys router intranet at firehouse (10 computers). Second Linksys router system at my house (2 computers). I use Logmein Pro to access one from the other.

Everything has worked beautifully until a few days ago. Then the sneakernet machine owner brought a floppy in again, as he has been doing successfully for years, and tried to read it on an operating XP Pro SP3 firehouse machine. The BSOD with message showed up instantly and the system rebooted. After floppy removal and reboot completion, the machine acted completely normal. That person then tried the same floppy in another networked XP Pro machine in the firehouse. Same result. Much head scratching!!

I then tried to do some floppy reads at home with various floppies, some with data and some blank. They all gave exactly the same error and BSOD.

Then, I booted my HP Pavilion Laptop in Safe mode. The USB connected TEAC floppy drive was able to read floppies normally.

After that, I rebooted the laptop in normal fashion. The BSOD and error showed up again when I tried the floppy read.

I am having a hard time coming up with something that is file related on all the machines. Can you suggest any potential common factors?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Advertisements]

Download WhoCrashed using the link in my list below. Run the program and post the results.

[The Skeptic]

Download WhoCrashed using the link in my list below. Run the program and post the results.

[garybonk]

I downloaded WhoCrashed and ran it on both of my machines at home. Both machines gave identical crash information, which typically looked like this:

On Thu 11/12/2009 2:25:34 AM your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: vetfddnt.sys
Bugcheck code: 0xF7 (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: DRIVER_OVERRAN_STACK_BUFFER
Dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini111109-01.dmp
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\vetfddnt.sys
product: Computer Associates Antivirus
company: Computer Associates International, Inc.
description: CA Antivirus File Protection Driver

Based on that info, I re-downloaded the CA 2007 suite from Roadrunner. I uninstalled the CA stuff from my laptop and re-installed the recently downloaded version. When I inserted the floppy another BSOD happened.
This is the result:

On Thu 11/12/2009 4:11:23 AM your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: ntkrnlpa.exe
Bugcheck code: 0xF7 (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: DRIVER_OVERRAN_STACK_BUFFER
Dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini111109-04.dmp
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect, possibly the culprit may be another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.

It looks like I need to re-install win XP Pro SP3. Do you agree? Note that this peculiar behavior is occurring on 13 different computers in 3 locations.

[The Skeptic]

I think that I would concentrate first on one computer and then apply the solution to the others.

Please try the following:

1: Disconnect one computer from the net and remove all antimalware programs and firewall (if it's microsoft's - leave it intact).

2: Place the XP Pro disk in the drive and click Exit when XP shows up. Click Start > Run. In the dialog box type sfc /scannow (please note the space in the command) and press Enter. A dialog box will show up. Let the process run to the end at which the dialog box just disappear.

3: Try to run the floppy (before installing firewall and anti malware programs).

4: If the floppy runs well start to install your protection programs one at a time and test the floppy after each one.

My impression is that CA is the one that causes the problems and maybe you should consider replacing it with another AV. Personally I think that AVAST the is the best by far. If you consider yourself a home user you can download it for free. If not, enter their site and see what the terms are.

[garybonk]

To the Skeptic...

You now have a believer!

I used REVO Uninstaller and cleaned out the CA suite from Road Runner. Then ran sfc /scannow.

Checked that the floppy ran OK.

Downloaded AVAST Home and installedand registered it.

Rebooted and everything seems to go OK. Floppy reads OK.

Did this on both my HP Laptop and my Compaq desktop. Both seem to be OK.

You are the genius. No one else seemed to have a clue.

Please accept my gratitude.

BTW, I copied your set of links. I already use many of them. Thanks again.

I noticed that you are north of Israel. I am north of NYC. Do we have something in common?

If necessary, send me a note (nice or nasty) at [email protected].

Many thanks again for pointing to the way out of my virus maze.

Gary

[The Skeptic]

Thanks for letting us know.