Windows not shutting down and more

[Guest_imported]

I just had this message deleted because the name was taken and now I have to go through all this again!!! AAARRGHH!

I am running a celeron 400 with windows 98. It is connected to a hub with one other computer and a cable modem. The troubles began at a time just after I got the network set up, I had file sharing on. Then, one day, my cable modem started sending and receiving all the time regardless of what I was or wasn't doing. No MSN messanger, no ICQ, nothing. I have heard people can gain access to your computer from the net if you have file sharing on? This may be my problem and if so what do I do? Firewall? How do I go about setting that up?
Since then I have turned off file sharing and the modem is still "alive".

Also, Windows refuses to shut down. For a while it would lock up at the "windows now shutting down" screen and after waiting several hours an error message woulp pop up saying

"Terminating thread due to a stack overflow problem. A VxD" (What is a VxD??) "probably recently installed, has consumed too much stack space. Increase the setting of "MinSPs" in the system.ini or remove recently installed VxD's. There are currently 4 stacks allocated."

This message seemed very odd to me because it was so informative and descriptive, very unlike Microsoft I went to the system.ini and did not find any referance to MinSPs and so I added a line
MinSPs=6

Since then, the computer does not even make it to the shutting down screen. Now everything dissapears except my desktop background and it freezes, no error message even after several hours. I would uninstall any VxD's that I had installed except, well, the obvious. I don't know what programs are VxD's and which aren't.

This may be irrelevent but I am also unable to defrag any of my hardrive's for defrag freezes my computer once it begins. I have downloaded InoculateIt and it finds no virus but I wonder if this is a quality Virus Scanner.

Sorry to make this so long, but I wanted to be as specific as possible to avoid having to answer questions to get my questions answered. Any help would be apreciated. THNX

Existance is Suffering

Spiral

 

[Comtech]

Set the MinSP=8
Get ZoneAlarm (free firewall, very simple).
A VXD is a Virtual Device Driver, and it may have become corrupted. (There are hundreds on the system).
Does windows give you any indication of which VXD is causing the problem?
Turn off all power management, both in BIOS and windows.
Make sure that "Fast Shutdown" is disabled.
If all else fails, just reinstall windows over top of itself.

Jim
reboot@pcmech.com

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

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Jim's Modems:

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/modems/

 

[ray436]

Here's something that may help you defrag....and some other tips to add to the good ones above.

Dump your internet cache, some PC I've seen have literaly 10's of thousands of bits and pieces from web sites (picture elements, logos, etc, etc,) and during defrag these are shuffled about too, but you don't need them so lose 'em. Use disk cleanup in your Accessories / System Tools / Disk Cleanup off of the Programs menu on the Start button. Many times defrag will simply gag on the volume of files found in the cache. BTW Scan your PC then suspend Anti virus while defraging, this can cause trouble if the files are scanned during defrag, and can also cause the process to start all over again endlessly.

The modem activity you see when 'nothing' is going on could also be your ISP requesting an IP address just to see if you are there. My service does this every 15 min.

Try out Zone Alarm like Jim said ( I also use it.. very good program ) and you will soon find out what the traffic is all about. You will get a message telling you who is trying to contact your PC, and can then go to Internic.net and reverse the IP address to see who owns it. Some traffic could also just be your local network requesting IP's from each other.

Ray

 

[mbaranski]

Also, I've heard that IE can cause some of those shutdown problems, make sure you've got all the "updates"

MWB

 

[gpwolf]

I concur with zone alarm....you'll want that. From what you wrote you need to know that a cable modem is always "alive" You can't turn it off unless you unplug it. Get the firewall......you'll get hit by hackers if you dont.