svchost.exe Application Error
Posted on February 13, 2007
Filed Under Technology |
One minute, you’re working away on the laptop, the next, you’re looking at an alert message that’s popped up prominently in the middle of the screen, and the PC has locked up. Nothing works, it’s just frozen. Only choice is to force a cold reboot – and it happens again, and again……
This particular error message said:
svchost.exe - Application error : The instruction at “0×1000e765″ referenced memory at “0×00000000″. The memory could not be “read”.
Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program
It doesn’t actually matter whether you click OK, or CANCEL, or do nothing, the end result is the same. Sound familiar? So I’m dead in the water and need it fixed fast. What’s the most likely problem? The message says application error, so must be software. But wait, it also refers to memory error, could be hardware….
Maybe just reseat the memory – no joy; how about swapping them – hmmm, error seemed to move – great, run out, grab some new memory cards and try them out. But the quick fix doesn’t work – same problem. Back to software, but haven’t installed anything lately, so what’s up? Lot’s more experimenting….. somewhere in the process, disconnected the Ethernet cable….. whoa, still get the error, but as long as I move the message box out of the way, I can run other apps.
So what’s happening with the internet – oh yeah, automatic updates run from time to time, and Windows Update has been hanging during shutdown the last couple times – you know when you shutdown and Windows warns not to turn off until it finishes installing updates – but it’s still saying the same thing the next morning.
Eventually, I get on another machine and Google this error. Turns out, I’m far from alone with the experience as it’s apparently been frustrating a great many folks for several months. As this is a generic process, there can actually be several sources for the problem, but in my case, it seems to be that Windows Automatic Updates is breaking. Solution is to turn it off.
Kudos to Scott Swigart who posted this on his Tech Blender blog along with a couple solutions – the simplest of which was contributed by one of his readers. The actual steps are shown below:
- Unplug internet connection
- Go to the start menu
- Right click “my computer”
- Click “properties”, then the “automatic updates” tab
- Choose “turn off automatic updates”
- Reboot your computer
- Re-connect internet
- Go back to start menu; click “all programs”; select “windows update”
- Manually update windows
I modified these slightly by adding the steps to disconnect and re-connect the internet at the appropriate time. Reason is that for me, the trick with implementing this solution was to get around the error in the first place so I could actually get automatic update disabled. My work-around was to disconnect the Ethernet cable to prevent any attempted connection.
I also left off the last step which was to turn automatic updates back on. The contributor of this solution stated that a number of people who had done so, subsequently said that the problem would reappear after some time. The recommended fix was: “if the problem reappears, then turn off automatic updates, and just manually go to Windows Update periodically and update your machine”.
I read somewhere else that Microsoft had released a fix for this problem, and that it had to do with the “Generic Host Process for Win32 Services” running on Windows XP machines with Service Pack 2 installed. However, I’m suspicious as my machine was already up-to-date with all updates – and a further check did not list this patch outstanding in either critical or optional updates.
For me, it sounds like Automatic Updates is still not ready for “prime time”, so I’m leaving it turned off, and updating manually.
So there you go. Hope this helps a few folks out.
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Thank you SO much! You certainly helped this poor soul out
You would think that this exposes a critical flaw in the Windows update process: if you can’t get Internet Explorer to run, how on Earth are you supposed to be able to check for, down load, and install updates?
I hope I never have THAT problem!
regards,
– bob felice