Topic: Windows Protection Error

[PhilTheFish]

Hi everyone - I'm a newbie, please bear with me!

I've got a bit of a problem with my PC (bit of a long story, but here goes...)

Night before last I downloaded windows updates from the microsoft site. One of these included a later driver for my modem (conexant 56k). I rebooted my PC and tried to connect to the internet. Instead of quite a loud click from my modem, it was a much duller click and the modem was not connecting to the phone line. Looked at the help file which said it may be something to do with an out of date .inf file?
I put two and two together and decided that the new driver may be the cause of my problems.

I am running windows ME, so decided to do a system restore to the previous day. This went through OK and the PC attempted to restart. 20 seconds into restart I got the following message " While initializing device VSDATA95...Windows Protection Error. You need to restart your computer...System Halted". Ctrl Alt Del didn't work, so I had to power off. On restart, the PC automatically started in Safe Mode. I then tried to restart again, but got the same message. I tried about 5 times to restart, but kept coming up against the same problem.

What is going on?? How do I fix this? Hope you can help.

Thanks in advance

Phil

[Clive]

Welcome to the forum Phil.  One of our techies will be along later on and I'm sure they will be able to help you.

[Adept]

Hi PhilTheFish!

Do you have ZoneAlarm installed. I think the System Restore has messed it up.

You need to let the machine boot into safe mode and then use Add/Remove programs in Control Panel to remove ZoneAlarm.

This should allow you to boot normally

Don't forget to re-install ZoneAlarm once the PC boots normally!

[Hitch]

Or if this is the problem install a proper firewall like Sygate personal 5 which is still just as free as zonealarm.

Why does ZA have so many conflicts!

[Simon]

Yup, I can recommend Sygate as well.

http://soho.sygate.com/products/shield_ov.htm

[Hitch]

Oh yes the link cheers Simon  

[PhilTheFish]

Thanks for the info. I do have ZoneAlarm installed, so I will have a go tonight.

Thanks a lot
Phil

[Adept]

Let us know how you get on Phil

[PhilTheFish]

Update......

Got home and did as told (uninstalled Zone Alarm), PC booted up fine after that. So far so good!

Now I can't use my modem! Tried everything (uninstall modem - computer froze, Install modem drivers from CD - computer froze). Every time I even attempt to dial up, the computer freezes or crashes and I have to restart.

Any ideas? It is a conexant modem and I have the drivers on disc, but haven't got a clue what to do now.

Phil

[Adept]

A trick which often works is to move the offending hardware to a different PCI slot and reload the drivers.

Hope this works for you

[bat69]

Modems almost always like the drivers installed before the hardware is installed in the puter

[PhilTheFish]

Further update....

Sorted the problem - Reinstalled Windows! I didn't have that much to backup, so I took the easy option.

Thanks for your help

Phil

[Adept]

Nice one Phil! :rock: