Hello Pamela3636,
And thanks for your question. Although it it difficult to solve these
types of problems without interaction, there is very high probability
that your problems are video card or video driver related. Following
are the steps I would take to isolate the problem as well as
background information on IPF's.
Invalid Page Fault problems are caused by either a corruption of
memory or two programs trying to access the same portion of memory at
the same time.
In this Microsoft Knowledge Base article: WD2000: Part 1:
Troubleshooting Invalid Page Faults (IPFs) and Exception Errors at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q236319 ,
Microsoft says:
"When an invalid page fault occurs, an unexpected event occurs in
Windows. An invalid page fault typically indicates that a program
improperly attempted to use random access memory; for example, when a
program or a Windows component reads or writes to a memory location
that is not allocated to it. When this occurs, the program can
potentially overwrite and corrupt other program code in that area of
memory."
Errors at the 018F: memory range and in GDI(Graphics Device Interface)
generally indicate that the problem might well be with the video card
driver or settings.
In order to isolate the problem, there are a number of steps I would
take, and often perform some of them even though I am convinced they
are not the root cause of the problem. In any situation like this, you
will have to do a large amount of sleuthing and trial and error. I
suggest keeping good notes of what you have tried and what you might
have changes as you proceed:
1. Run a good virus checker with current virus definitons - just in
case
2. Be sure that there is plenty of hard drive space available as
Windows will sometimes write VERY large files for virtual memory usage
on your hard drive. Running out of space for a swap file could cause
this type of error.
3. Be sure that your virtual memory is set for Windows to manage it
automatically. You can set a minimum swap file size equal to your
physical RAM, but never set a maximum. Always let Windows manage that
parameter for you.
4. Run a defragmenting program and defrag your hard drive
5. Run scandisk (included with Windows) or, better yet, Norton Disk
Doctor to see if there are corrupted files. If you have Norton
Utilities, run Norton Win Doctor, as well,
6. Download and run Ad-Aware available free form www.lavasoft.de to
check to see if you have spyware running in the background and using
valuable resources
7. Microsoft suggests:
"To resolve this issue, identify when the error message first
occurred. Also, determine if you recently made changes to the
computer, for example, you installed software or changed the hardware
configuration.
Use a clean boot troubleshooting procedure to help you identify the
cause of the error message.
For additional information about the clean boot procedure, click the
article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge
Base:
Q243039 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 95
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q243039
Q192926 How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 98
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q267288
Q267288 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows Millennium Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q192926
This will prevent programs from starting and running in background
memory. If the problem goes away, you then have learned that something
that runs at startup is the cause and can add back programs one at a
time until the problem reoccurs and you have discovered the offending
program.
7. Reduce the color depth of your graphics display and/or the graphics
acceleration.
For additional information about reducing graphics hardware
acceleration, click the article number below to view the article in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q263391: How to Change the Graphics Hardware Acceleration Setting in
Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q263391
And in this article, though speaking to Word problems and IPF's in
GDI...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q236383
Microsoft mentions:
"Is It the Video Driver?
Word frequently queries the video driver for information it needs when
formatting and printing the document. A damaged video driver can cause
an invalid page fault or exception error to occur.
The instructions below apply to your situtaion as well:
"To troubleshoot this problem, install a different video driver by
following the steps for your version of Microsoft Windows.
In Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me:
Quit all Microsoft Windows programs.
Right-click the Windows desktop.
On the shortcut menu, click Properties.
Click to select the Settings tab. Note the settings for the desktop
area, color palette, and font size. You may need to know these if you
want to return the display settings to their original state.
NOTE: In Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), click Advanced.
Click Change Display Type. Note the display adapter that is currently
in use. You may need this if you want to return the display settings
to their original state.
For the Adapter type, click Change.
Click Show All Devices.
At the top of the Manufacturers list, click Standard Display Types.
For the Model, click Standard Display Adapter (VGA).
Click the OK and Close buttons to close the dialog boxes.
Click Yes when Windows asks you to restart your computer. When the
computer is restarted, your display appears in 640x480 resolution with
16 colors.
In Windows 2000 or Windows XP:
Restart your computer.
Before the Windows 2000 or Windows XP splash screen appears, press F8.
Select Enable VGA Mode, and then press ENTER.
In the Please select the operating system to start section, select
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional or Microsoft Windows XP, and then
press ENTER.
NOTE: The operating system now loads the Standard VGA driver.
Start Windows normally, and then try to reproduce the problem. If the
problem is corrected, you have identified the problem as a damaged or
incompatible video driver. You need to contact the manufacturer of the
video card for an updated video driver."
8. It"could" be a bad RAM chip problem, though usually very unlikely.
Should nothing else solve the problem, have you RAM chips tested.
***************************************************************
Additional resources for information on Invalid Page Faults:
Gdi.exe / Gdi32.dll - Errors at
http://www.generation.net/~hleboeuf/ergdi.htm .
One artcile here specifically speaks to this error when printing from
Internet Explorer: GPF in Module Gdi.exe Printing from Internet
Explorer - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q261156
"SYMPTOMS
When you print from Internet Explorer with a Hewlett-Packard (HP)
DeskJet 932C or 952C printer, you may receive a general protection
(GP) fault in module Gdi.exe.
CAUSE
The Hewlett-Packard drivers for these printers are not compatible with
the HTML rendering engine that is used in the products listed at the
beginning of this article. "
This may be a possibility if you have one of these printers.
And this page, http://www.aumha.org/kbeipf.php ,KNOWLEDGE BASE LINKS
INVALID PAGE FAULTS also points to a wealth of information.
Search strategy: "invalid page fault" +gdi32
Best of luck in solving this problem and regaining your computer's
performance. Do ask if anything above is unclear and requires
clarification.
Regards,
-=clouseau=- |
