[pivan]

Okay, so here is the process of elimination:

1.
SAS Core Service
Adobe Flash Player Update
avast! Antivirus
Configfree Service
DVD-Ram Service
Intel PROSet Wireless Event Log
Java Quick Starter

= CRASH (<10 mins)

2.
avast! Antivirus
Configfree Service
DVD-Ram Service

= NO crash (>1 hour)

3.
SAS Core Service
Adobe Flash Player Update
Intel PROSet Wireless Event Log
Java Quick Starter

= CRASH (<15 mins)

4.
SAS Core Service
Java Quick Starter

= NO CRASH (>3 hours)

5.
Adobe Flash Player Update
Intel PROSet Wireless Event Log

= CRASH (<5 mins)

6.
Adobe Flash Player Update

= NO CRASH (1 hour)

7.
Intel PROSet Wireless Event Log

= CRASH (45 mins)

Am about to turn in, but will leave computer running overnight with all but this service on, just to ensure I've done this right. Hopefully there'll be no errors come morning, and you'll have all sorts of fabulous advice as to what to do next!

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To me it looks like the Intel PROSet Wireless Event Log

Disable just that one now and see if the crash occurs

We will look at the admin error next

[Essexboy]

To me it looks like the Intel PROSet Wireless Event Log

Disable just that one now and see if the crash occurs

We will look at the admin error next

[pivan]

Yes, I've had all but the Event Log running overnight, no issues.

What next?

[pivan]

Bugger.

Just had another crash. Everything under the Services tab is checked except for the Intel PROSet Wireless Event Log.

I can only assume that whatever the Administrator error was preventing me from changing might be masking the true culprit.

Either that or there is another service causing the same crash, which is unlikely.

While I'm waiting to hear from you with regard to the Admin error (there are only two users on the computer and both are part of the administator group), I'll try running the isolation test on the other half of the services, just to see what happens. Trouble is, the crash is so random with regard to when it happens that I've no way of knowing how long things will take. You were right when you said it was the tedious part!

Thanks again.

Edited by pivan, 10 April 2012 - 11:10 PM.

[pivan]

Annoyingly, I had a crash when the OTHER half of the original 14 services was isolated as well.

So either the Admin issue is mucking up the isolation test by not letting me actually isolate appropriately, or I somehow had something running that shouldn't have been (perhaps Avast?).

I need to start the test from scratch, but feel it's unreliable if I can't follow your original instructions to a tee regarding unchecking the Load Startup Items box. So let's fix the admin issue and start again.

Why isn't it recognising my Administrator status?

[Essexboy]

OK lets try two things

FIRST

Download a fresh copy of Avast to the desktop
Download aswClear to the desktop
Using add/remove uninstall Avast
Reboot to safe mode and run aswClear.. Select versions 4,5,6,7
running each one after the other

Reboot to normal mode

Re-install Avast - deselect Chrome if you do not want it

THEN

Download Windows Repair (all in one) from this site

Install the programme then run

Go to step 2 and allow it to run Disc check


Once that is done then go to step 3 and allow it to run SFC



On the start repairs tab select advanced mode and click start


Select the items in the red surround (remove the ticks from the rest ) and tick restart system when finished

[pivan]

Uninstallation went fine, but I can't install avast. It keeps hanging on the rotating circle as soon as I open it. I've waited up to half an hour for something to proceed, but nothing has. The rest of the system won't respond. I have to force reboot. I thought maybe I had to reinstate normal start up in msconfig, which I did, but it hasn't made a difference.

So, I'm going to download avast again, and try from the top.

In case I do manage to get to the end of your last round of instructions, what happens after that? I want to keep things moving coz obviously a whole day between steps is difficult.

Many thanks...

Edited by pivan, 11 April 2012 - 07:56 PM.

[pivan]

Finally got to the end of it all. The re-downloaded avast installed correctly.

Issues encountered during Windows Repair:

1) The Check Disk step would prompt for a reboot after an almost imperceptible flash of command prompt, but the program didn't restart so I had no idea if it did what it was meant to do or not. I launched the program again manually.

2) The System File Check step was taking so long that the computer crashed twice during successive attempts. It was about 60% through at the time. I decided to skip it and once again do a selective startup with all non-MS services unchecked.

3) After the final repair step finished, the computer didn't reboot automatically despite having the checkbox ticked. I did so manually.

4) Finally, ran msconfig, the shaded checkboxes under Selective Startup are still shaded, and when I click OK I get the same Access Denied message.


Other possible useful information:

1) After each crash, a NetLimiter window opens asking if I think it was the cause of the crash.

2) I've removed the second User Account from the computer (it isn't used anyway), so I'm now the sole user and very clearly listed as an Administrator.

3) In Safe Mode I get an 'Administrator' user option at the Windows log on page as well as my own, but in normal mode I only get my User Account.

[Essexboy]

Could you create a new user account as an administrator - from safe mode if need be

Then run in the new admin account and see if the crashes still happen

I must admit I thought it may have been a bad update on Avast as sometimes this will occur when moving from version 6 to version 7

[pivan]

Successfully added a new Admin account.

It gives me total access to the System Config without any errors.

So I thought I'd try the isolation tests again by changing the startup under the new account, and logging back in as my usual user account. If I still get the crashes after testing all of these, I'll run under the new account only. I've a million preference settings under my existing account, plus work that needs to get done, so I can't fiddle around in another account for now, but I can have the isolation tests running--or not running as the case may be--in the background.

Will report in again tomorrow, but in the meantime it's be interesting to know how certain you are that, based on the minidump files, the crash is definitely related to one of the non-MS services. Or is that simply step one of more tests to come?

Cheers.

[pivan]

Crashes persist under new admin user account.

New development: I've had two crashes BEFORE the log on/Welcome screen.

Getting harder to do any isolations effectively.

[Essexboy]

I think we may have the beginnings of a hardware problem here

Download Speedfan and install it.

Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.
The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.
If you are running on a vista machine, please go to where you installed the program and run the program as administrator.

(this is a screenshot from a vista machine)

[pivan]

I'd love to be able to post all that info but this is all the program is giving me, at 5 minutes and 10 minutes from startup:





The fan is definitely coming on and off all the time and the temperatures adjust accordingly.

This was the detection, for what it's worth:

Win9x:NO 64Bit:NO GiveIO:YES SpeedFan:YES
I/O properly initialized
Linked ISA BUS at $0290
Linked Intel 82801GB ICH7 SMBUS at $18C0
No active display found!
Found nVidia GeForce 7300 Go
Unable to read Video BIOS
No active display found!
Linked nVidiaI2C0 SMBUS at $3D403E3F
Linked nVidiaI2C1 SMBUS at $3D403637
Linked nVidiaI2C2 SMBUS at $3D405051
Scanning ISA BUS at $0290...
Scanning Intel SMBus at $18C0...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D403E3F...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D403637...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D405051...
Found FUJITSU MHV2080BH PL on AdvSMART
Found ACPI temperature
Found Genuine Intel® CPU T2300 @ 1.66GHz
End of detection

[Essexboy]

Your temperatures are showing high.. Might be time for a dust bunny hunt

Could you follow the steps here

I would look carefully around the CPU area as those are the highest temperatures

[pivan]

Computer is clean, but will certainly do a once over (though it's a notebook, not a desktop). Temperatures have been running fine, generally. Several hours on, all temperatures good.

It seems too coincidental that the BSOD started concurrently with the fix. If the minidump files point to a driver, and if the crash is capable of occuring before Windows gets a chance to load fully, where does that leave us?