slow performance and error message

[Jane Mathis]

About a month ago my computer started acting really slow and it has just gotten worse. Around the beginning of the week it totally stopped responding sometimes and 10 minutes later responded but gave me an error message saying GDI+ Window: explorer.exe - Application error. The instruction at "0x4ec95695" referenced memory at "0x4ec62ef4". The required data was not placed into memory because of an I/O error status of "0xc0000185". Click on OK to terminate the program. Click on CANCEL to debug the program. The first two numbers are different each time but usually begin with 0x4. The last number is always the same. The process affected is usually explorer.exe, but it is been different about 10-30% of the time. I have tried defragmenting and virus scanning with Norton. Please help me as soon as possible.

[cluberti]

The first two numbers are memory addressess that denote the location in virtual memory in the application's virtual address space that the instruction that was executed was stored (in your example above, it was at 0x4ec95695) as well as the location of the memory that was referenced by the request (again, in your example, 0x4ec62ef4). These will always be different every time you load the application, so these will always change and that is normal.

The third number is the error code that was generated, and it's a Win32 error that states that there was a device I/O error that caused the problem. This would indicate that there is either something installed and hooked into the explorer process causing the issue, or perhaps a driver issue (either a filter driver, like antivirus / firewall / antispyware / backup software, or an actual device driver like the video card device driver).

If you download and run ShellExView and disable all non-Microsoft entries listed, and then download and run Autoruns and disable all non-Microsoft entries there as well and reboot, does the problem return?

[Zxian]

Possibly a driver issue, but more likely some form of malware. There's a list of tools in the Malware Prevention and Security forum. I'd suggest you follow the instructions in some of the threads there (regarding recommended cleaning software).

[cluberti]

Possibly a driver issue, but more likely some form of malware. There's a list of tools in the Malware Prevention and Security forum. I'd suggest you follow the instructions in some of the threads there (regarding recommended cleaning software).

Note that since it's a GDI+ error, it could also be a poorly-written printer driver too - just throwing that out there.

[gosh]

Clean boot troubleshooting:

1 - Try Safe mode

2 - Try Msconfig

In msinfo32 > software environment > windows error reporting , tell us what errors are listed here

-gosh

[RJARRRPCGP]

About a month ago my computer started acting really slow and it has just gotten worse. Around the beginning of the week it totally stopped responding sometimes and 10 minutes later responded but gave me an error message saying GDI+ Window: explorer.exe - Application error. The instruction at "0x4ec95695" referenced memory at "0x4ec62ef4". The required data was not placed into memory because of an I/O error status of "0xc0000185". Click on OK to terminate the program. Click on CANCEL to debug the program. The first two numbers are different each time but usually begin with 0x4. The last number is always the same. The process affected is usually explorer.exe, but it is been different about 10-30% of the time. I have tried defragmenting and virus scanning with Norton. Please help me as soon as possible.

Slowness is USUALLY NOT A HARDWARE PROBLEM, *unless* it's a bad HDD, bad IDE cable or bad IDE controller.

The first thing I would do, because it mentions I/O error, is to check the system event log for disk errors or IDE controller-related errors.

You may have a bad HDD.

Edited September 7, 2007 by RJARRRPCGP

[Jane Mathis]

Sorry for the long wait; I had totally forgotten about my thread.

The first two numbers are memory addressess that denote the location in virtual memory in the application's virtual address space that the instruction that was executed was stored (in your example above, it was at 0x4ec95695) as well as the location of the memory that was referenced by the request (again, in your example, 0x4ec62ef4). These will always be different every time you load the application, so these will always change and that is normal.

The third number is the error code that was generated, and it's a Win32 error that states that there was a device I/O error that caused the problem. This would indicate that there is either something installed and hooked into the explorer process causing the issue, or perhaps a driver issue (either a filter driver, like antivirus / firewall / antispyware / backup software, or an actual device driver like the video card device driver).

If you download and run ShellExView and disable all non-Microsoft entries listed, and then download and run Autoruns and disable all non-Microsoft entries there as well and reboot, does the problem return?

I have almost always used Safe Mode, which automatically disables all startup programs, since the slow performance started happening. The errors do occur. Also, a benchmarking application gives a speed of 3 MB/sec. Benchmark applications, when set on high priority, should not be affected by startup programs.

Possibly a driver issue, but more likely some form of malware. There's a list of tools in the Malware Prevention and Security forum. I'd suggest you follow the instructions in some of the threads there (regarding recommended cleaning software).

I already did countless virus scans. The only "malware" found was a Widget Workshop help file, which I deleted just to be on the safe side.

Possibly a driver issue, but more likely some form of malware. There's a list of tools in the Malware Prevention and Security forum. I'd suggest you follow the instructions in some of the threads there (regarding recommended cleaning software).

Note that since it's a GDI+ error, it could also be a poorly-written printer driver too - just throwing that out there.

When the errors started occurring, I had not installed any printers in over a year.

Clean boot troubleshooting:

1 - Try Safe mode

2 - Try Msconfig

In msinfo32 > software environment > windows error reporting , tell us what errors are listed here

-gosh

I tried Safe Mode, but the problem still occurs.

About a month ago my computer started acting really slow and it has just gotten worse. Around the beginning of the week it totally stopped responding sometimes and 10 minutes later responded but gave me an error message saying GDI+ Window: explorer.exe - Application error. The instruction at "0x4ec95695" referenced memory at "0x4ec62ef4". The required data was not placed into memory because of an I/O error status of "0xc0000185". Click on OK to terminate the program. Click on CANCEL to debug the program. The first two numbers are different each time but usually begin with 0x4. The last number is always the same. The process affected is usually explorer.exe, but it is been different about 10-30% of the time. I have tried defragmenting and virus scanning with Norton. Please help me as soon as possible.

Slowness is USUALLY NOT A HARDWARE PROBLEM, *unless* it's a bad HDD, bad IDE cable or bad IDE controller.

The first thing I would do, because it mentions I/O error, is to check the system event log for disk errors or IDE controller-related errors.

You may have a bad HDD.

Here are the event logs in a zip file. Import them into Event viewer. CLICK HERE

I have tried many benchmarking applications (most notably HD Tune and HDD Scan). The only weird thing I noticed was that with HDD Scan, Verify operations (which do not send the data to any other part of the computer, download it and read the manual for more details) worked at a speed of 40 MB/sec (55 at the beginning of the drive, 30 at the end), and Read operations, which send the data to the rest of the computer, worked at a speed of 3 MB/sec throughout. The weird thing is that when I average the Verify operations, I get within 1 MB/sec of the speed that my hard drive used to work at.

Also, the HD Tune benchmark results using default settings:

Transfer Speed:

Minimum: 1.8 MB/sec

Maximum: 3.2 MB/sec

Average: 3.1 MB/sec

Access Time: 14.3 ms

Burst Rate: 3.2 MB/sec

CPU Usage: 47.6%

The access time is perfectly normal, but the speeds are low and the CPU usage is extreme (since I have a Hyper-Threading Pentium 4, 50% is the maximum most single processes can take up)

Here is the SMART data (it's a little messy, sorry):

HDDScan S.M.A.R.T. Report

Model: WDC WD1600BB-98DWA0

Firmware: 15.05R15

Serial: WD-WMAEK2784116

LBA: 312581808

Report By: HDDScan for Windows version 3.1

Report Date: 11/6/2008 9:22:30 PM

Num Attribute Name Value Worst Raw(hex) Threshold

001 Raw Read Error Rate 200 177 00000000-0000 051

003 Spin Up Time 151 143 00000000-0B96 021

004 Start/Stop Count 094 094 00000000-1AD1 040

005 Reallocation Sector Count 195 195 00000000-004B 140

007 Seek Error Rate 200 200 00000000-0000 051

009 PowerOn Hours Count 093 093 00000000-155A 000

010 Spin Retry Count 100 100 00000000-0000 051

011 Recalibration Retries 100 100 00000000-0000 051

012 Device Power Cycle Count 094 094 00000000-1A01 000

194 HDA Temperature 114 253 36 C 000

196 Reallocation Event Count 184 184 00000000-0010 000

197 Current Pending Sector Count 200 200 00000000-0001 000

198 Uncorrectable Sector Count 200 200 00000000-0000 000

199 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 253 00000000-0000 000

200 Write Error Rate 200 155 00000000-0000 051

Edited November 7, 2008 by Jane Mathis

[Jane Mathis]

Can anyone please help me?

[IcemanND]

From the looks of the SMART HDD report, and the symptoms you have of slowness I would go out on a limb and say your hard drive is failing.

[scb1980]

Can anyone please help me?

Hello, the way you sad that your windows is going down may be because of diferents reasons.

First of all it could be because of a virus, Do you have an UPDATED ANTIVIRUS???

Maybe your Windows is going down, since when did you install it??? In this case SAVE ALL YOUR STUFF and REINSTALL IT

In case your HDD had became deffective try at first using Windows Error Check Tool, its not the big deal, but it usually works. Else try using HDD FORMATING TOOL that is freeware in the most HDD Sealers pages.

I have many things in mind, but i hope this helps you. If not you can send me an email. Regards

PD: I'm cuban, excuse me for my english.

By the way could be a damaged or corrupted RAM module

Edited November 26, 2008 by scb1980

[weEvil]

The SMART report is useless. You need a tool to analyze the resuts.

Get SeaTools for windows and scan the drive again with SMART. It will analyse your results and tell you if each is good or bad and by how much.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

[James_A]

Since a WD1600BB is a 160GB Western Digital Caviar Blue drive, you could instead use Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows

Go to http://support.wdc.com/product/download.as...WD1600BB-98DWA0 and take your pick from:

-floppy

-CD

or

-Windows

.