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Nancy

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 9, 2001
Messages
9,896
Location
upstate New York
My little grandson was playing some games on Nickelodeon and Disney. Somehow, he downloaded something or otherwise caused an EMM386 error which it says, halted her computer. My daughter's computer crashed. I finally helped her get it started in safe mode. She did a scandisk and defrag, but that didn't help. She had some advice that it was a video card error and not easy to fix, and that she would probably have to end up reloading Windows.

Any ideas
 
Nancy what operating system is she using and is it possible to get the complete error message? It's highly unlikely that it's a video card problem. Has she tried scanning for viruses with updated virus definitions? EMM386 is dos extended memory manager. You might have her try Housecall online virus scan if she still can get online in safe mode.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
 
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Nancy,

I am not sure what type of computer you have or what operating system. Windows 95 ? XP. It can make a difference.

EMM386 is a program that manages Extended Memory. It is used with Intel 80386 and above processors. This program allows MS-DOS computers to have access to memory above 640KB.

I might recommend that you press the F8 key as your computer as it is booting up. The screen should say something like "Starting MS-DOS" which will give you a step by step confirmation prompt.

Press "Y" to say yes to everything that comes up until you encounter the EMM386 error message.

Once you have located the line causing this EMM386 error, reboot the computer and press F5 when the screen says "Starting MS-DOS"
If you receive this error on your EMM386 line ensure that your EMM386 line only reads:
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

If you know how to edit the config file you may be able to fix this yourself. If not, take the processor to a local computer store and they can fix it quickly. You do not need to take the monitor or the keyboard.

Hope this helps.

Walter
 
Thank you so much for your swift answers.

Here is the complete message, BTW she has Windows 98:

"EMM386 has detected error #17 in an application at memory address 000:00A2. To minimize the chance of data loss EMM386 has halted your computer. Consult your documentation."
 
Need more info

Need more info

Reloading Windows should not be required unless there has been a hardware failure which has trashed the OS files.

1 - Computer was working fine
2 - Something changed..program installed, etc.
3 - Computer doesn't work any more

Walter gives some great suggestions. I think you need to focus on unwinding what happened in installing whatever it was.

Can you identify and uninstall the program she installed?
 
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Ross,

You?re probably right; a virus could be the culprit here since Nancy?s grandson was apparently on line. Suggestion would be to run the virus protection program, making sure to update it first, and see if that clears up the problem.

To me it sounds like an application tried to reserve some memory space that was reserved for something else. Windows does not do a very good job of cleaning up after itself and oops ? Houston we have a problem. Since Windows can?t fix the problem itself it sends the error message and you have to reset it.

By the way I visited my cardiologist today. He did an EKG and baseline Echo on me. Apparently all is OK as he said I have no restrictions, other than boxing, down hill skiing and football, and to see him in a year. My EF is now 50% versus 45% prior to surgery. He indicated that the EF should improve over time.

One thing the Doctor did say was that when using coumadin, one should not use generics if you can help it. Issue he said is the quality of the batch and the degree the generic brands can deviate from the standard. He implied that this can cause variances in the dosage and cause fluctuations. He said that if I did stay with generics that I should stay with the same manufacturer.

Walter
 
Well, if Walter's method is unsuccessful, then you might be right about the virus, but she does have virus protection on the computer.

However--- when I did a search on Google, there seems to be a kid who has his own website and calls himself EMM386, the bane of all gamers and says he's a hacker. I'm wondering if he might have been hacking at Disney or Nick.

She's got a spare computer, but she wants her main one back.

I'll let you know what happens.

Oh, by the way, my other daughter got the bugbear worm in a business email. So she's trying to get that one gone. It disabled the antivirus and the firewall and the computer.
 
Oh, by the way, my other daughter got the bugbear worm in a business email. So she's trying to get that one gone. It disabled the antivirus and the firewall and the computer.
Click to expand...
If shes got an AV program, she must not have the definition updates. I use Norton and it stopped BugBear in it's tracks and quarantined it for deletion. I can't stress how important it is to keep the definitions current. I get new ones every single day (Definitions).
 
Thanks for your suggestions with my computer. Unfortunately, I cannot get online in safe mode. I will probably end up bringing the computer in to be fixed.

I did go through the step-up line by line and saw that the EMM386 line read as Walt said it should.

Also, I ran my antivirus program a couple of times and it didn't clear up the problem.

As for my sister, the computer had Norton on it but I don't know how update it was. I am sure my mother will let her know of your suggestions. Ross, thanks for the info on BugBear.
 
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