It looks programming-related to me (ie. a bug) and thus, there probably isn't much to worry about. Let me see what I can find...

EDIT: Ah, here we go. I'd suggest that you read this article from MS and see if it is helpful.

Edited by - esquilax on 1/18/2006 2:29:55 PM

Oh, it's fine. My computer just started messing up the worst I have ever seen it. It won't connect to the internet even though my router and modem says everything is fine. (And I have two comps hooked up with this router, and the one I'm on right now seems to be working fine.) Also, when I got home this afternoon I tried playing Prince of Persia and got a message saying that something was using my sound driver. If I didn't close the program I wouldn't be able to hear any sounds or music. BTW: I had no other programs running.

So, now I'm just going to have to contact HP customer support tomorrow and see what if anything I can do about this. I've restored it already and it didn't help one bit. Spybot: Search and Destroy has murdered Stop-Sign so I can't really scan for viruses. (I think Spybot is what did this because it may have been conflicting with too many other programs but I can't reinstall Stopsign if I can't connect with that computer to the Internet.)

So, it looks I'm SOL until at least tomorrow.

EDIT: Thanks for the help Esq, but I think I waited too late to try to fix it and now I'm afraid it's byond repair. I'm starting to think that it screwed my system up bad and the only way I would be able to fix it was to use the Emergency disc. But alas, I'll have to order that directly from HP.

Also, if someone has time to kill and doesn't mind, could anyone translate that article that Esq linked to in terms that someone who isn't very text savvy could understand?

Edited by - Killa on 1/18/2006 7:16:53 PM

You don't understand it? Fair enough, but if you are running C++ then I assumed that you were into programming. Basically, the error means that the program in question is making an invalid "call' to a function that has not been specified in a program. Assuming that the problem is as simple as MS states, then the issue is essentially a bug and cannot be repaired without decompiling, repairing, and then recompiling the program in question . As for contacting HP Technical Support, good luck .

Somtimes, those runtime error messages are virus related.

oh dear Killa, you're another victim of the pre-built mass-produced computer rip-off. I dare say you spent a painful hour onto some outsorced muppet in india who said *can you please be using the Vindoze Xp operating system? you must be pressing button A to obtain Hp warranty service.." I've heard it all before. It's all just a big corporate scam.

Emergency recovery discs, another swizz. Hope you had all your stuff backed up before hand!

here's what i'd have done. other than NOt buy a HP computer! (although i have a HP craptop, I must point out that it was bought for me not by me)

find another computer and download the latest Stinger from NAi (Mcaffee) put it ona floppy and boot up yourr pc into safe mode (F8 on boot) and run it from the floppy there. Make the floppy read-only before you stick it in your busted machine.

Still in safe mode, go to start/programs/accessories/system tools/system restore, and choose a system restore point from BEFORE your PC started going funny peculiar.

after the reboot, If it's worked (doesn't always but usually does) then run Norton Windoctor or Registry mechanic and tidy up the registry. Then run through with a decent anti-virus, I use Computer Associates Ez Trust Anti-Virus Armor because a/ I got it for free (but I get everything for free, don't I Edward? ) b/ it's silent, and c/ it actually does work. Unlike crappy Norton that gives you loads of nags and prompts yet never actually does anything useful and invades your registry; imo Norton AV is almost as bad as an actual virus itself!

if all you were having was that error message then I'd say it was just some badly coded software, but it looks like it was the precursor of something a lot more serious. You'd never catch me buying a branded PC!

I've had quite a few HP comps in my past, and this is the first one that I've actually had a problem with. (A while ago when all three of my computers died within two months of each other, they were all Dells which suck horribly.) I've tried restoring the damn thing four times already. Last night before I left for church I tried returning it to December 23rd, because I thought that it would be far enough. However, the wallpaper that I added two days ago was still there, and the date still said January 19th, 2006. I can't connect to the internet anymore even though my modem and my router says differently (and the comp I'm using right now is running fine.) I think SpyBot Search and Destroy is what did it. I had had it about three days before this started happening. And now, I can't get Stop-Sign back on my comp because one, I can't connect to the Internet to redownload it, and two, I think that the damage has already been done and unless I use the warrenty to ether send it off to the repair place in Utah and wait for three weeks or order the emergency disc directly from HP, I'm SOL.

Besides, I called HP TS earlier and the conversation was almost exactly like Taw said.

Me: (after I give product number and all that crap and they ask me what it's doing) well, it won't connect to the internet, it keeps saying that my sound drivers are being used when I have no programs running....(I get inturrupted here.)
Crazy Indian guy who hardly speaks English: I'm soddy, but dis service is only avadible for Vindows XP users. Goodbye, have a nice day.

And yes, I AM running XP. It's like what Clark Howard said, their's no such thing as "Customer Support, only Customer no-service."

Killa, do you have a extra partion on your main drive. I ask this, because I have a Compaq and no emergincy disks, the OS is on the seperate partion, and if I have a Major problem,you can restore to factory settings to fix most problems.

*Mental note* Stop assuming that people have scanned the hell out of their PCs. *Slaps self and walks off*

Sorry FD, but if there is an extra partition on my HD and it has the OS on it, then I'm unaware of it.

**There was no need for Esq to slap self and walk off, Killa shot him about ten minutes ago.**

Look in my computer, mine is E: Presairo RP and is 5gb in size. They have to give you some way to do a system restore. Check there and try a factory restore or as far back as you can go. You have nothing to loose.


Though HP is the same as Compaq, Compaq has an e-mailversion of Support that is quite good. Does hp have that? You can write in detail then, what is wrong. Worst case sunerio(sp), take it to a computer repair place, like Best Buy. There Geek scuad is very good at computer problems.

Edited by - Finalday on 1/19/2006 6:01:11 PM

Finalday-

It'll be tough for him to use email support if he can't connect to the internet! (yet he's still here so I suppose...)

And yes, the Geek Squad is an excellent reccomendation. I've heard nothing but good things about them, and I hear that they're suprisingly affordable.

how did I know that HP customer service and technical help is utter rubbish? cos I have to ring them because some fool IT director bought thousands of HP machines that I now have to support, and if theyre in warranty I have no choice but to call their stupid Indian support line, which is really frustrating! grrrr pah pfui, it's a nightmare, takes hours to achieve absolutely nothing.

is your PC actually working at all? can you back up yopur stuff? if so, do so, get a proper XP disc and repartition/reformat the thing and install a proper version of Windows (not Vindoze) from scratch.

Well, thanks FD, I had forgotten all about HP's restore. Did it a little while ago and it worked fine. Now, everything is fine if I can ignore the inconvience that I now have to reinstall all my programs.

(And yes, the one that I thought was SOL yesterday is the one I'm on now.)

Thanks for all the help you guys tried to give, but sadly FD is really the only one that actually helped. (No offence to anyone, but he just reminded me that there's other restore options besides the one built into XP.)

Killa - I have never owned a pre-built PC myself, and I don't trust those "Restore disks", but if they work for you, then that is a good thing .

Taw - I also disparaged HP, you are not alone. I did say "good luck" to Killa when he was considering that option did I not?