Contempt for the law: my computer's biggest problem

[JediSonic]

My comp has performed so many illegal operations, and has had to be forcibly shut down (via power button) so many times I just dont know what to do with it! Except buy another one which isnt an option at this moment.

I'd like to ask the tech people of CAA.. what does it actually mean when you get the "[program] has performed an illegal operation and must be shut down" error in win98? Can it be caused by lack of system resources?

Every time I run cakewalk music creator 2003, my computer will at some point crash with no apparent reason. Often when I'm trying to play back music is when it happens, but not always. The crash doesnt always work the same way either. Sometimes it gives me the "cwmc has performed an illegal ..." message and a few milliseconds after I close the box, cakewalk closes and the computer is utterly frozen. Sometimes it simply freezes without warning. Even more often than the darn thing crashes, my MIDI keyboard will mysteriously become disconnected from the program so I have to tell cakewalk to reconnect with it, which also resets the instrumentation (patch) of the track I'm using.

Maybe its cakewalk's fault but since its a commercial product (that I payed $40 for) it doesnt seem like it should be acting that way

I try re-installing cakewalk but it wont let me do that unless I have directX 8.1[ish] but I have dx9 and as far as I know I cant downgrade to the required version. The cd has the right version on it but it wont seem to install itself correctly as it seems to copy the files but later says they arent' there.

Anyway if anyone has general tips on how to not have my computer crash or how to safely uninstall / downgrade directX then by all means let me know.

[agasfas]

There can be many reason:
Yes, occasionally if you don't have enough ram/system resources that will happen. If you run many programs at once that can happen. How much ram do you have? Also, that may occur if you deleted some system files or unistalled some programs wrongly; or unistalled a system file w/ a program that is required for another program. Also, I believe it can be caused by bad sectors on your hard drive, is that correct? I've been told that. Plus, some of the newer programs don't run well on some older verisons of windows. That may be the case if it's only that one program that freezes up.

What are your thoughts of re-formatting your hard drive. Sometimes when programs conflict w/ windows that's the best thing to do in my experience.

[JediSonic]

Well I reformatted my hard-drive less than a year ago -_-
I have 191MB of ram and the crash sometimes happens when I'm not running anything else (except in the background). Sometimes it really starts acting up and crashes immediately when I try to play back a song! Like, I'll reboot, open cwmc, press "play", watch my comp freeze up, rinse&repeat!

[agasfas]

What verison of Win98 do you have? B/c if you goto:
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/Mu...ator/System.asp
it states that it requires win98 SE (second edition)

My guess is that you have some conflicting programs/system files etc. Or perhaps some hardware failure such as your hard drive (bad sectors), motherboard and even sometimes RAM can be messed up or damaged to give certain blue screen problems. I know this doesn't mean much, but what system provider do you have? These problems are common w/ Compaq's and Gateways.

[TheMelodyMaker]

This may sound like a strange idea, but have you tried updating your sound drivers (or even using a different sound device)? I've used Cakewalk Home Studio 8 under Windows 98SE, and it actually works better with my Sound Blaster 16 PCI card than it does with the integrated sound chip. It's just an idea; I'm not sure if it'll help or not but it can't hurt to try.

[JediSonic]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

agasfas, I'm only running win98 (not SE). BUT.. cwmc2003 should work with my os:
http://www.etcetera.co.uk/products/TWV062.shtml
http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketdisp.html?PartNo=718024

Melodymaker, it seems to bug out on me regardless of what device I'm using. (I assume you mean the one I selected under "MIDI connections" in cwmc?) How would I go about updating my drivers? I havent had much luck finding updated riptide drivers in the past (riptide is my sound card).

[agasfas]

but if your looking to update your drivers goto the manufactures website (whatever soundcard your using) and they should have drivers for you to download. But I doubt it's the card. I still believe it's either programs conflicting or deleted some important system files. Perhaps not enough resources (RAM) or you have enough but it may be damaged somehow; so in result you actually don't have enough ram to run it. For example: you may have 192mbs, and the system may read 192mb; but if it is damaged it may only read half or less. Heck it happens.

*Also when the illegal operation happens, what does it exactly say? Does it tell you what error occured? Is it a blue screen or something else. In addition, when you forcibly shut down by manually rebooting, that can/will cause system files to be deleted. My guess is that is what may have happened.

format c: is your friend

[Fsiphskilm]

go ahead a

[JediSonic]

Thanks for the link, Volt; I'll check it out.

I saved the error text a couple of times and here ya go:

CWMC caused an exception 10H in module CWMC.EXE at 0167:0061bce9.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0167 EIP=0061bce9 EFLGS=00210246
EBX=00000000 SS=016f ESP=00d5eec8 EBP=00d5ef04
ECX=00ed3e10 DS=016f ESI=00ed3e10 FS=41af
EDX=00000000 ES=016f EDI=00ed3cf0 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
dd 1c 24 e8 2d bf 05 00 dc 5d 08 59 59 df e0 9e
Stack dump:
00ed3e10 00ed3e10 006df1b4 00ed3e10 00000000 00000000 005e4d64 00d5f000 0069b718 ffffffff 20000000 3fe92d2d 00d5f000 0069ef20 ffffffff 00d5f00c

and a second time:

CWMC caused an exception 10H in module CWMC.EXE at 0167:0061bce9.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0167 EIP=0061bce9 EFLGS=00210246
EBX=00000000 SS=016f ESP=00d5eec8 EBP=00d5ef04
ECX=00ed3e10 DS=016f ESI=00ed3e10 FS=420f
EDX=00000000 ES=016f EDI=00ed3cf0 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
dd 1c 24 e8 2d bf 05 00 dc 5d 08 59 59 df e0 9e
Stack dump:
00ed3e10 00ed3e10 006df1b4 00ed3e10 00000000 00000000 005e4d64 00d5f000 0069b718 ffffffff 20000000 3fe92d2d 00d5f000 0069ef20 ffffffff 00d5f00c


The computer freezes as I mentioned; usually, the desktop is visible as is the cursor and everything.. just nothing moves and I cant do anything (including ctrl-alt-del restart)

[agasfas]

As I stated before, format c: is your friend . Just kidding. No but seriously, if it freezes that often you have probably deleted a system file by manually rebooting your computer or perhaps your RAM may be damaged. I format my computer about once every 4-6months. It keeps everything running fast. I believe the Win 98 dics has a system recovery section. It'll check and make sure all the files you need are there. Also, are you running any anti-virus programs such as McAfee or Norton? Because with the older versions of Windows, if you dont disable the anti-virus program when installing and uninstalling programs it can cause errors to occur on your system such as constant freezing or errors.

Another possibility (Adware/Spyware):

In additon, have you scanned your system for spyware/adware? That can/will cause systems w/ little memory (192mb) to freeze up constantly. If you don't have a program to scan and check your computer for this stuff goto: http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10319876.html?tag=lst-0-2
or
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download506.html to get it.

This program will scan your hard drive for these kind of things. It's so easy to rack up hundreds of adware/spyware programs. They usually come from free downloaded programs such as Kazaa, gator, IE tool bars etc... But if you do end up scanning your system and find things, always reboot your computer after deleting the spyware/adware. That will refresh your registry and your computer will speed up. Spyware/adwares are memory hogs. That may be a reason why your computer is freezing up.
Just a suggestion.

[JediSonic]

Well my comp is always free of spyware... according to spybot s&d, which I personally like a lot more than adaware since sbs&d actually gives you some non-technical info on stuff it wants to delete (when possible).

Its quite possible that McAfee was running when I installed the software but I dont think I have a win98 repair disk. The problem with reformatting hard drives is that you lose EVERYTHING unless you back it up on some other media (such as CD-R's) but then you still have to reinstall dozens of programs that need registry files.

By the way, I tried Volt's link but the freeware version isnt good for much : \

[agasfas]

Does your computer freeze up all the time besides running that certain program? If it does I would suggest to format. Unless your willing to format or anything like that, you may be stuck w/ your computer always freezing up.

But if it only crashes when you run that specific program, try uninstalling it and reboot your computer. THen re-install it. But make sure you anti-virus program is disabled for both the unistall in re-installation. That aside, that's all that I can think of. It may just be the program.

Edit: Also, if you have a lot of programs in your taskbar area that will cause your memory to become low. If that is the case, close some of them before running that certain program or edit the task bar to minimize the number of programs that load when starting up your computer. That will reduce the amount of RAM being used. Thus less computer freezes.

[Saint Kevin]

you might try running sfc.exe (type 'sfc' in the run dialog box). If it doesn't open, try typing it in thr 'find' dialog box from the start menu and seeing what happens.

sfc, or, System File Checker, checks for corrupted system files, so maybe this will help you (although you might need your original windows CD). Hope that helps.

[LorentzForce]

OK, for the actual answer.

Illegal operation errors often occur when there is a memory problem, such as your current error. This error can range from the basic bad memory management during programming of the OS itself, all the way to the hardware, the memory that is, being faulty. Due to such broad area where errror can be picked up from, it's not always easy to find the error.

I often blame these errors to drivers though. Most products are fine, so they are simple in coding in relation to drivers. That's why hardware drivers are continually changed while the hardware is in existence.

So, in conclusion, I believe it's your sound card. That statement is also backed up by the fact that you're using Windows 98, a horrible OS for driver updates next to MS-DOS and Windows 3.x/95. If possible move to Windows 2000 or XP.

(but for Great Justice, get Linux! )

[Mr. SmartyPants]

possibly your virtual memory is being eaten up? before i reformatted my harddrive, i hd virtual memory problems like crazy, and things slowed down to like the speed of a slug with salt on it

linux is good, but it gets many many hackers, and you need to know shell extensions