Error Message? Is this serious?

[Ty75]

Recently when I try to play the Windows Solitare card game I get an error message that SOL has preformed an illegal operation.Sol has caused a general protection fault in module KRNL386.exe @ 0002:00003077. What does this mean? Is my system in trouble?Everthing else seems to be work well.

 

[Barefoot]

Yes, your system is in great danger. Pack it up as quickly and possible and send it to the manufacturer so that they can tear it apart and charge you lots of money for something that requires very little work to accomplish...NOT!!!

Okay, seriously now. I've had similar problems in the past. For starters, run ScanDisk, to make sure that there aren't any freespace reporting errors or other problems that might cause hard drive access errors. If that is fine, then go to your Control Panel and dbl-click on System. Make sure, in the Device Manager tab, that there are no hardware conflicts (devices with a yellow and black exclamation symbol next to them). If that is all well and good, then it is time to think. Try to remember when the errors started occurring. Have you installed any software since then, including programs you downloaded from the internet? If so, then they might have altered a file that Solitaire uses. Usually, only programs that are non-mainstream or that are created by individuals instead of companies are guilty of this. When you've determined what software has been installed, go through the list and try uninstalling them, one at a time. After each one, try to play Solitaire again. If the error pops up, then re-install that software; it wasn't the problem. If no error pops up, then you have found the flaw.

If, after that, you haven't gotten anywhere, do this: In the Control Panel again, dbl-click on Add/Remove Programs. Click on the Windows Setup tab. After Windows finishes detecting installed components, uncheck the Games box and then click Apply or OK. After the uninstall has completed, go back to the same place and re-check the Games box. Make sure you have your Windows98 CD ready; your computer may ask for it. After your games have reinstalled, Solitaire ought to run without any trouble.

 

[Ty75]

Thanks for the help. I did check the device manager. I found no conflicts,( yellow ! or red flags). I did uninstall a couple of programs which did not correct the problem. I did uninstall the Solitare program and then reinstalled Solitare. THis did not correct the situation. The only software I recent loaded and really do not want to play with is Adaptec Easy Creator. I upgraded my burner and had to update software...etc.. and the burner seems to working fine. I would hate to play around and then the burner stuff gets ruined.
I can live without solitare. But if a simple program like Solitare cannot work is there something wrong behind the scenes?

 

[esung]

well, some of the system files might get corrupted one way or the other.. did you scan for virus? I'm just guessing at this point.
or it could be RAM problem (unlikely).

 

[Ty75]

I did a virus scan. No viruses. Ram check at boot up is ok. The system seems to be working fine. All the other programs are opening and doing their thing ok. Just Solitare has that error message.What bothers me is I uninstalled the game turned off the machine , rebooted , then reinstalled and the error message still appears. Device manager remains clean. No yellow ! . Ideas?

 

[Slikkster]

Here's a blurb from microsoft about a particular application that can cause this problem. However, it's also worth experimenting with your startup programs to see if one that's running in the background might be causing it. So, click Start, Run, then type in "msconfig" without quotes and hit ok, click the Startup Tab, and see what you have running. You can experiment by unchecking your various programs (not Explorer nor Systray, however) and rebooting. Then try running Solitaire afterwards. Do this one program at a time. Uncheck one, reboot, try solitaire. It's tedious, but might narrow down the conflict.

Otherwise, here's the Microsoft page on Solitaire and GPF's like you're getting:

Solitaire GPF's's

 

[Ty75]

I tried your idea Slikkster. I entered the config menu and veiwed what was loading. I found a program " Data Life Gaurd" . I unselected its startup option and rebooted. Solitare worked without a problem. Funny thing is I do not remember loading a program called Data Life Gaurd. In fact I was surprised to see Data Life Guard listed in the startup option list.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Vampire]

Data Lifeguard (DLG) is a Western Digital program that (among other things) tests your HD for errors. Not sure why it would be in the startup, but when I downloaded it from WD's web site to test a WD drive that went bad on me, I noticed that its automatic update feature installed itself in my startup folder.

 

[Ty75]

Thanks, I do have a WD Drive as my Master Drive. I must have done something to install the program.