After a reboot/restart it says:

The instruction at 0x00000000 referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "written".

It takes me a long time to get an Internet connection often and some of my card games (from a Hoyle CD) take a long time to open up. I am clueless as to what is going on.

What does this mean and what should I do? I think (not sure) that this began after I did some HP software updates which I've never, ever done but it was strongly suggested to me to do so. I'd love to undo those now but don't know how.

I have an HP Compaq Pavilion a1030n with WinXP home edition (sp2), use IE& and OE6 and my security is Trend Micro PC-Cillin 2006 - which is now giving me strange message prompts about my firewall. I also have Verizon FIOS and 504 RAM. My scan always come out clean and I keep everything updated.

Needless to say, I am hysterical, frantic and desperate for any and all assistance. I tremble at the thought of having to go back to the original restore and lose absolutely everything.

Please advice. I'm in quite a messy bind here. Thanks in advance!

run an online virus scanner such as trend micro house call and see if it comes up with something.


back up your data as soon as you can.

download a copy of memtest86 and see if your memory is crapping out by booting to the cd and running the ram test.

call an old priest and a young priest, lock the room...


:-P everyone can use a little humor in times like these