3rd party firewall drivers conflicts  

nikonmama said:

I am sorry, I still don't understand how to figure that out. Please excuse me, but I really have terribly limited technical knowledge of computers.

Don't be so hard on yourself - I should be the one apologising :)

Anyway, it's OK, I went back to your other thread and dug up most of what I wanted in this instance from the info report you sent to usasma. Your machine currently has a 6GB pagefile on the C: drive, so unfortunately that's not the reason for the lack of memory dumps during crashes. Time to move on to the next troubleshooting approach...

nikonmama said:

I wish I knew for sure if this problem is something that is going to cause problems later or is just limited to trying to install a firewall.

Unfortunately, nobody can tell for sure until the true nature of the problem is understood.

nikonmama said:

I have been looking into this feverishly since I bought the computer and set it up on 11/1. I have talked to dell repeated times but they insist it is not a hardware problem and that is the only thing covered under the limited warranty. They insist it is some sort of software driver problem,

For what it's worth, I'm inclined to agree with them - there is no indication right now that this caused by a hardware defect.

nikonmama said:

but won't help unless I pay for software support. They said I either need software support from them or from Microsoft, but with both would have to pay and I just can't.

Without memory dumps, even MS would find it difficult to "help" you in any other way except to talk you through the reinstallation of Windows from scratch.

nikonmama said:

I still have until tomorrow if if I want to take the processor into best buy and have their techs look at to see if they can either resolve the issue or deem that it needs to be exchanged. I am just hesitant to do that b/c other than the firewall issue I have had no problems.

If they are willing to look at it for free, you may want to take them up on the offer. Who knows? They might even fix it :)

nikonmama said:

And if I had never even tried to install a firewall in the first place I wouldn't have even had this problem.

I'm confident it's not your fault. Problems of this nature are not caused by incorrect user selections or configuration.

nikonmama said:

I am sorry to vent. I am just really frustrated and can't decide if I should keep looking into getting this resolved or just let it go. I do appreciate your assistance!

Again, no need to be sorry :)

I know that this forum has the collective expertise to talk you through diagnosing the problem, but it may be complex and it will likely take time. For now, I'd recommend considering two courses of action:

1) Take it back to the shop if they're offering to look at it for free. At the very least, make sure they record in their customer service databases that your machine was brought in for investigation, in case it should later turn out that the hardware is defective after all.

2) Live with the in-built firewall. It's actually very good, though not necessarily as "pretty" as some of the others you've tried to install. If you should experience additional problems somewhere down the track, worry about it then.

H2SO4 said:

I know that this forum has the collective expertise to talk you through diagnosing the problem, but it may be complex and it will likely take time. For now, I'd recommend considering two courses of action:

1) Take it back to the shop if they're offering to look at it for free. At the very least, make sure they record in their customer service databases that your machine was brought in for investigation, in case it should later turn out that the hardware is defective after all.

2) Live with the in-built firewall. It's actually very good, though not necessarily as "pretty" as some of the others you've tried to install. If you should experience additional problems somewhere down the track, worry about it then.

Thank you for all your input so far. Best buy will look at it but I will have to pay....$40 I think. Not as much as dealing with dell or Microsoft but I am not sure it is worth it.

I am sort of inclined to just stick with the built-in firewall as you suggested. that is what i have been using. i have been using windows 7 firewall control as an addition to it since it makes it easier for me to to control what programs have outbound access. It is working beautifully.

I just can't help this 3rd party firewall issue from nagging at me. I don't really care so much whether I have one running or not....I just sort of want to get to the bottom of why every single one I try to install results in the same crash.

Nikonmama,
Hello there, I'm an ex Dell employee and I can tell you off the top of my head that this is no hardware problem. Of course, you should be glad it's a software problem and not a hardware problem cause that would mean you got a bad machine from the get go. Anyways, if we look at it logically, you haven't had any problems til you installed the 3rd party firewalls. Then you got the exact BSODs that people get when there's some kind of driver conflict. You hit it right in the head! It's a driver conflict and most 3rd party firewalls have a conflict with windows 7. You'll see that when installing the firewall you probably get a message saying that the driver is not signed blah blah blah and then you click on it to keep going. Then you reboot and BAM! BSOD! There are some firewalls that say that they are compatible with windows 7 but really aren't yet. I've tried a couple but forgot the names of the ones I've tried :P Anyways when the BSODs happen, just go to safemode and uninstall it from there ok? Usually software that involves some kind of network operation have drivers that aren't compatible with win7 so always check on the specs of the software, try it out, and if it doesn't work just uninstall it from safe mode. Not much more to understand about this cause you practically understood it on your own...take care :)

Oh and don't go spend 40 bucks on those services cause they're gonna tell you the same thing I just told you...the good thing about win7 is that you don't really need a firewall cause UAC (User Account Control) basically let's you know when a program is trying to access certain windows files (e.g. software installation).

CharlieV....THANK YOU SO MUCH...for explaining so well what I have been suspecting. That was sort of what I thought to begin with but I don't have a lot of technical knowledge so I took my problem to different forums and that was when I started getting all this input that sent me panicking! Finally I just decided to stop posting about this problem anymore b/c I didn't think I was getting good feedback. I am really glad to hear someone say exactly what I have been suspecting. For a few weeks now I have been using windows 7 firewall control to give me easier control over outbound access with the built in windows 7 firewall and so far so good. I may eventually try another 3rd party firewall once they have had time to get all the bugs worked out.......or I may not.

THANK YOU and if I ever have any other software problems I might email you!

nikonmama said:

Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this issue? Thanks to anyone who replies.

WHen I first had a clean install of the Windows 7, I added Norton Internet 2010, noissues there. ThenI add ZoneAlarm Interne, I got the BSOD. Go into the safe mode to remove the ZoneAlarm solve the problem.

Next, I added Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, no issues. Then I added SPYBOT-Searchand Destroy, no issues.

Looks like nt an issue Windows 7 issue, but application conflict as multiple firewalls all trying to lock the same resources.

We all know none of the packages out there prevents everything. You have to use what you are comfortable with and knows how to control th parmeters.