Hello, everyone! I joined the forum to find some help for my problem. It seems very similar to that related in this thread -- http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread19435.html . I've searched for answers, and the best seems to be found here. :lol:


I did have Norton System Works on this machine, which I have uninstalled using Add/Remove Programs and SymNRT. I am running Windows XP on a Toshiba laptop. I have updated all my drivers and Windows files. I have run a variety of virus checks and spyware software -- including Spybot, Spyware Doctor, Trend Micro's online scans among others. I have tried the MS fix 894391.

The problem occurs only when I boot up. Sometimes, I get the Generic Host Process for Win32 error. If I click to send the report, the information sent is similar to this (I'm not positive about the WER71b0.dir00 part -- the rest looks right):

C:\DOCUME~1\Mark\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER71b0.dir00\svchost.exe.mdmp

C:\DOCUME~1\Mark\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER71b0.dir00\appcompat.txt

szAppName : svchost.exe szAppVer : 5.1.2600.2180 szModName : unknown
szModVer : 0.0.0.0 offset : 00000000


After this message, I get the message that svchost.exe has encountered and error. At this point, the system often hangs. It appears to be writing to a Dr. Watson file. I have had huge Dr. Watson files since this problem began -- once up to 19 Gig. (Yes, Gig). If I can get past this problem, and if I can get online, I have no other problems and the system will run fine until I need to reboot.

I can boot in Windows Safe Mode w/Networking with no problem. If I boot without loading services, I can load fine. However, I've tried taking the services one at a time to see which one is causing the problem, and I have not been able to narrow it down. I think it may be one of the Microsoft services, as I hide those then one by one enable the non-Microsoft services, and I can have problems one time and not the next. Microsoft suggested I create a new user profile, as the old one might be corrupted, but that didn't seem to help. (He also said the proof that it was corrupted was the ~ in the above messages... I thought that was left over from the 8-character file names . . . .)

I've been working with Microsoft technical support with this. They are at the point they want me to backup, reformat the drive, and start fresh. However, I'm not sure I have all my original software disks for my programs, so I'd really like to avoid this if at all possible. Since this seems to have been a problem for over a year now, I'm hoping there have been some new solutions.

I would be truly grateful for any help or suggestions you may offer.