What might have happened?

[glennc]

Howdy,
Last night, everything seemed fine. Did a Macrium BU, ran McAfee security scan deep, ran MalwareBytes Scan, surfed the net. No warnings or cautions. Checked email.
Answered email. Downloaded newest Zonealarm Free Firewall, didn't install it. Programs that can updated their defintions. I believe that is about it. System is homebuilt and new and running good (?). Did have a power outage earlier in the day. Booted to normal windows (Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit).
Turned on this morning and left room. Came back with Message to do System Restore or Fix startup. Without caffeine or thinking hit Fix Startup. Ran a while and started, not enough caffeine or sense to write down any codes or anything, IIRC it said 1 error. Rebooted and checked my BIOS, seemed OK. Booted, ran sfc /scannow with no problems.
My question is: What happened, what is the most likely cause with the current info, Is it safe?(Marathon Man)? If not, how messed up am I. Is there anything I should check? Everything appears to be working appropriately, 1/2 necessary caffeine.
Thanks for any input. New to W7, skipped Vista, anxious!!!!!
glennc

 

[richc46]

Dont guess, go to event viewer from search. Look for the problems that occured at the time of the shutdown. There will be codes and explanations. Look for errors.

 

[glennc]

Morning richc46,
Brilliant idea. Got to event viewer, never saw one before now. I went to Event Viewer, and then lost the ability to follow your directions.

Look for the problems that occured at the time of the shutdown. There will be codes and explanations. Look for errors.

I see no obvious way to find anything by time. I see codes like I went to Event Viewer/Local and found errors in Summary of Administrative Events, opened errors, in the last 24 Hours I have 21. Am I anywhere close to where I should be??
glennc

 

[richc46]

Once you see event viewer click on administrative. Once there if you do not see the time, right click on the row just above the titles (name, date etc) and set up time.

 

[glennc]

richc46,
In the Middle column at the top it currently indicates a bar in dark gray Event Viewer (local), under that is a lighter gray bar which indicates Overview and Summary and Last refreshed 7/20/2010 7:51:09 AM. I have a feeling this is not what you meant!
glennc

 

[richc46]

Bring up the viewer
click custom view, on the left
Then click on administrative.

 

[glennc]

Back again richc46,
Under Custom Views, I found Administrative Events with a list of dated errors and warnings. At around the time I shutdown I see a SideBySide Error, a within 32 seconds another SideBySide Error. At approx 17 minutes before that is a User Profile Service Warning something about 1 memory item leaked From Registry something Superantispyware\SABUpdate.
Mean anything to you?
Thanks dude!
glennc

 

[richc46]

Make a screen shot

 

[glennc]

Here you are, the ones around midnight



Hope it helps
glennc

 

[richc46]

The only thing that I see is atikmadag, which refers to video. Go to device manager. In manager go to graphic cards and check it. Make sure you have the most up to date driver and do not see any yellow warning markers.

 

[glennc]

Thanks richc46,
No the video adapter shows no error........?......! Thanks for the peek.
glennc

 

[richc46]

Go to the website of the card mfg and make sure you have the most up to date driver for the card.

 

[glennc]

Just found out about the Reliability monitor. It showed a Critical Error this morning when it wouldn't start. It stated that it could not find the reason. Is it safe?
glennc

 

[whs]

Just found out about the Reliability monitor. It showed a Critical Error this morning when it wouldn't start. It stated that it could not find the reason. Is it safe?
glennc

Usually in any system you will find tons of "critical errors" - at least in mine. Most correct themselves or do not seem to be that critical after all. Whether the one in your system has any significance is hard to say without more info.
But I saw in your log that you had a side by side problem. That usually means that a required .dll in the SxS folder is screwed up. SFC /SCANNOW can possibly correct that. If your SFC did not do that, I would run it again - possibly in safe mode.

 

[Jacee]

I bet if you uninstall ZoneAlarm, your computer will be okay again. Stop it from running in Services ... type services.msc in the start search box.

Download and run as adminitrator the ZA removal tool:
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/fr...cpes_clean.exe

Once removed, turn on Windows Firewall.

 

[richc46]

I think that I or someone else mentioned in one of your threads:
Microsoft Security Essentials
Malwarebytes
Comodo or Windows Firewall

I have seen many BSOD with Zone Alarm installed.

 

[glennc]

Just found out about the Reliability monitor. It showed a Critical Error this morning when it wouldn't start. It stated that it could not find the reason. Is it safe?
glennc

Usually in any system you will find tons of "critical errors" - at least in mine. Most correct themselves or do not seem to be that critical after all. Whether the one in your system has any significance is hard to say without more info.
But I saw in your log that you had a side by side problem. That usually means that a required .dll in the SxS folder is screwed up. SFC /SCANNOW can possibly correct that. If your SFC did not do that, I would run it again - possibly in safe mode.

Hello whs,
Thanks for the response. I did run a sfc this morning right after it did the start-repair? Didn't see any problems, but will happily run it again. Thanks Kind sir
glennc

 

[glennc]

I bet if you uninstall ZoneAlarm, your computer will be okay again. Stop it from running in Services ... type services.msc in the start search box.

Download and run as adminitrator the ZA removal tool:
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/fr...cpes_clean.exe

Once removed, turn on Windows Firewall.

Hello Jacee,
I am no longer running Zonealarm. It was the first firewall I tried and uninstalled due to bizarre effects. I then went to Comodo, which had it different but equally as bizarre effects, which I too uninstalled. This is what I believe made me do a recent clean reinstall. I am at the moment using McAfee with no apparent problems. Thank you for you assistance and knowledge.
I appreciate you time.
glennc

 

[glennc]

I think that I or someone else mentioned in one of your threads:
Microsoft Security Essentials
Malwarebytes
Comodo or Windows Firewall

I have seen many BSOD with Zone Alarm installed.

Hey richc46,
It might have been me that mentioned the Malwarebytes and Comodo Firewall. Malwarebytes if you selected the option to add it to your explorer dropdown menu caused the backup button in Windows backup to quit being able to be pressed. It also made the manage option on the r/c on Computer fail to work. Beats me. Unclicked the option and it worked again. I uninstalled it and later with the clean re-install, never put it back on this system. The Comodo caused dropping connection and reconnection with the net to fail. As for MSE, I want a more hands on interface so I use McAfee. It is already paid for so I don't think I'll dump it until expiration, unless it manifests strange side effects also. No luck for the weary.
Thanks, I can attest to those two and Zonealarm from personal experience.
glennc

 

[gregrocker]

I bet if you uninstall ZoneAlarm, your computer will be okay again. Stop it from running in Services ... type services.msc in the start search box.

Download and run as adminitrator the ZA removal tool:
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/fr...cpes_clean.exe

Once removed, turn on Windows Firewall.

I advised OP over a week ago to uninstall MacAfee and third party firewall as well as other ancient XP security solutions he uses which have strapped down his Win7.

The Windows firewall works perfectly with the best free AV solution avaiilable now, Microsoft Security Essentials. Why would you pay to bloat out a brand new OS with outdated tools?

Read the side-by-side error in full to reveal which program is generating it (Adobe Air?) to also uninstall it. Google the other repeat errors text and numbers to research how others have solved them then winnow them out one by one.

This is a whole new OS with new solutions and tools.