Cathleen writes:

<<When I turn my computer on I get this message;
Unhandled exception: c0000005
At address: 100016b8

After I click OK
I receive;
PromulGate Universal has encountered a problem>>

I've no idea what "Promulgate Universal" is, but clearly it is some piece
of software trying to start up from your computer's startup chain.

Run Msconfig, click the Startup tab, and turn off anything you can identify
as possibly associated with this program.

While you are there, you might turn off any other programs you don't really
need running at startup.  These days, many programs seem to wrongly think
they are essential to your computer well-being and install themselves into
the startup chain. This is possibly the biggest single cause of general
computer
problems, as having more than is necessary running at any time compounds
the possibility of conflicts as well as putting unnecessary load on the
smooth running of your system.

If you don't see anything there you can recognise as this particular
program, possibly it is a piece of spyware or malware. In which case, you
should run both Spybot and Adaware with updated databases.

I've rarely seen an "out-of-the-box" brand-name computer come intelligently
set up for efficient home running. Even XP, by default, has many Services
running that are better disabled---eg error reporting, which at least will
get rid of that annoying "Do you want to report this error to Microsoft?"
box. (See Blackviper website for specific details about how to configure
Services).

Of course, if you aren't sure about what you're doing, only turn off those
programs you recognise and don't need to run all the time.

If it's any help, in my own XP Pro, there are 5 items showing in
Msconfig/Startup, of which one is AVG antivirus (which I don't really want
there either, as it's unnecessary unless I'm online, but it's too much
hassle defeating it from reinserting itself into the startup lineup) and
the other 4 are tiny system utilities such as clipboard and dialogue-box
extenders, etc. If I were a true minimalist, that list would be empty.

XP running bare-bones is pretty good and delightfully stable.
Unfortunately, manufacturers and software producers like to add all sorts
of junk to the starting lineup, and in so doing compromise the integrity of
your system.

Unless you know any better, you'll end up wondering why your computer gets
slower and more troublesome.

Don Penlington




 From the beach at Surfers Paradise.
http://www.geocities.com/donaldpen/
for sunny Queensland photos, fractal art, free computer tutorials, and more.

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