OT: WindowsXP "Referenced Memory" errors

[JoyMonkey]

I've been having issues with my home PC since mid-July (when I installed DirectX9.0c and did a big Windows Update), and it's getting more and more irritating. I've found several forums with many people experiencing similar problems, but nobody seems to know what is causing it and what can be done to resolve the problem.

Whenever I try to run certain programs (or sometimes in the middle of a game, ie Doom3) I get the error message:

The instruction at "somewhere" referenced memory at "memorylocation". The memory could not be "read".
Click on OK to terminate the program.
Click on Cancel to debug the program.

Clicking OK, obviously terminates the program. Clicking cancel terminates the program and opens up Microsoft Visual Studio Debugger.

Windows Media Player will NOT run at all. As soon as it opens I get this message. Other programs that use ActiveX stuff have a hard time too.

I've updated all my systems drivers, and tried several different Radeon9800 drivers.
I've tried replacing my systems memory, and doubling the memory.
I've updated the motherboards BIOS (Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe)
I've tried doing a system-restore, but I can't restore to a point before the DirectX 9.0c installation.
I've tried installing DX9.0c again over the current install.
I've un-installed all unnecessary programs and cleaned my registry out.

Has anyone here any ideas what could be wrong? I don't want to have to wipe my C drive and reinstall everything again, as I just did that in June and it pisses my fiancee off to no end.  

[pointdablame]

My roommate had the same problem and he couldn't quite figure it out either.  It seems like a memory leak in some program, but it's kind of hard to track down.  I'd check for viruses first, followed by AdAware and Spybot to get rid of any problems there.  Check your startup as well for unknown programs that might be screwing you up.

That being said, my roommate did all of that and had to wind reformatting...  

[Howard_Casto]

download service pack 2, download wmp 10

service pack 2 fixes 20 some odd memory leaks so chances are it'll fix it.

[JoyMonkey]

download service pack 2, download wmp 10

service pack 2 fixes 20 some odd memory leaks so chances are it'll fix it.

I wasn't going to go anywhere near SP2, but since you suggested it I took a little time to find out what it fixes and what's not compatible and I guess it's not as evil as I originally thought.  I'll try installing it later on and see how it works out.

[fogman]

Also, check your memory speed and pageing file.  I believe this error can sometimes be associated with improperly swapping out memory with the paging file.  I kept getting this when I was rendering AutoCAD 3d drawings (lots of memory required).  I set a fixed size 1 Gig page file on a separate drive from the OS and the problem went away.  I did not see the error again in about a week, but then I installed another 512M of memory, so it could also be increased memory.

Hope this helps...

[Howard_Casto]

I wasn't going to go anywhere near SP2, but since you suggested it I took a little time to find out what it fixes and what's not compatible and I guess it's not as evil as I originally thought.  I'll try installing it later on and see how it works out.

Not picking on you specifically, but this kind of statment astounds me.  

ALL service packs are good.  ALL service packs are required to install.  This is why they are called service packs and not "optional, just install it whenever" packs.  It also amazes me that people can complain when a service pack breaks some third party programs.  Gee there are only 30 thousand third party apps out there... shame on microsoft for not testing each and every one and fixing any issues the new service pack might cause.

My point being, m$ works hard to make sure it's products are safe and secure, contrary to popular belief.  Sometimes their fixes cause unexpected side effects, but you have to have faith in the company and the fact that they will get most of these issues resolved in time.  If you don't have faith in m$ then why the heck are you running windows?

[PacManFan]

I wasn't going to go anywhere near SP2, but since you suggested it I took a little time to find out what it fixes and what's not compatible and I guess it's not as evil as I originally thought.  I'll try installing it later on and see how it works out.

Not picking on you specifically, but this kind of statment astounds me.  

ALL service packs are good.  ALL service packs are required to install.  This is why they are called service packs and not "optional, just install it whenever" packs.  It also amazes me that people can complain when a service pack breaks some third party programs.  Gee there are only 30 thousand third party apps out there... shame on microsoft for not testing each and every one and fixing any issues the new service pack might cause.

My point being, m$ works hard to make sure it's products are safe and secure, contrary to popular belief.  Sometimes their fixes cause unexpected side effects, but you have to have faith in the company and the fact that they will get most of these issues resolved in time.  If you don't have faith in m$ then why the heck are you running windows?

This message brought to you by a paid MicroSoft devotee  

[JoyMonkey]

Yeeek! SP2 won't install on my machine. I installed it on a spare PC first using Windows Update and everything went fine.
Then I tried installing on my home PC using the SP2 installer. After a few minutes it gets as far as "Checking for neccesary space" and stays there for a few hours. Then I tried installing it using Windows Update; after about 5 minutes it gets as far as "Creating Cabinets" and then won't budge again.
Looks like I'm screwed huh?

I wish I knew whats causing this error to happen, so I could avoid it when I reinstall XP on the PC again.  

[fogman]

As I said, I would guess you have a memory problem.  Can you swap memory with your other computer to see if that is the problem?  Have you run Memtester?  Have you checked that you have a sufficiently large swap file?

When was the last time you ran a check disk and defragmenter?

As a last resort, reinstall XP over the existing.  It will give you the option to attempt to repair, which you should select.  This has worked for me in the past.

[JoyMonkey]

As I said, I would guess you have a memory problem.  Can you swap memory with your other computer to see if that is the problem?  Have you run Memtester?  Have you checked that you have a sufficiently large swap file?

When was the last time you ran a check disk and defragmenter?

As a last resort, reinstall XP over the existing.  It will give you the option to attempt to repair, which you should select.  This has worked for me in the past.

I swapped the 512mb module out for another one, tried both at the same time. I tried dissabling agp and system cache in BIOS. I ran some memory testing software back in July when the problem started. I tried no swap file, I tried a swap file on another ahrd drive. I uninstalled all the software that I rarely use. I defragged and checked last Saturday, did a full system virus scan and a SpySweeper scan.  

I'm going to try a couple of more things tonight (uninstalling all Norton software, removing all video drivers, removing the .Net framework and re-installing it). If nothing works I'll try doing an XP repair install, hopefully that will sort it out.

Thanks for the tips!

[PacManFan]

It sounds like your COM system (Componant Object Model) has some errors. My guess is that you installed some software lately and the developer of this software distributed some OS - specific dll's (probably W98). I've run into this error before. You need XP OLE(Object Linking and Embedding) drivers. Inside your windows system directory, look at all the ole*.dll files, and see if one of them has a new date. That's probably your culprit.

A "repair" install probably would help.

-PMF

[MnMCaputo]

I too have the A7N8X-E motherboard and had a similar issue with memory faults, it turned out in the bios, my FSB was running at 333 and my ram was pc3700 and was running "by spd" and not matching the FSB.  once I matched the 2.  it was smooth running from there