svchost application error

Recently, my PC (XP Media Center Edition 2005) has an error at startup.

It says svchost.exe - application error

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

click ok to terminate program

click cancel to debug program



Also, Data Execution Prevention message pops up. Generic Host Process Win32
Services

Occasionally, this also takes out the sound from my PC.


I've seen many other people concerned about this in message boards and they
have difficulty finding a solution.



Could this be a virus, spyware, etc?


I really appreciate your feedback and any information for a solution to this
issue.



Thank you

Hi Douglas,

Thanks for your reply. My antivirus program did find a virus recently and
quarantined it. So I was concerned because this error message came up
shortly after and I haven't seen this before.

It seems like it only affects the sound. The volume icon is not there, it
was usually on the bottom right in the taskbar. But when I restart the
computer, the volume seems to work.

I still have internet access. I'm not sure how to look at the services that
are running.

I really appreciate your help!

Thanks

"Douglas Tatelman" wrote:

> I believe svchost is run numerous times on startup - starting all
> sorts of network processes. Sometimes it is corrupted after a virus,
> but you don't mention having recently been infected.
>
> If your startup completes, you could look at the services and see
> which ones are not running, that way you could narrow the problem
> down.
>
> Do you still have internet access? Is there anything not running
> besides the sound?
>
>
> On Nov 24, 9:37 am, lmbooks <lmbo...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> > Recently, my PC (XP Media Center Edition 2005) has an error at startup..
> >
> > It says svchost.exe - application error
> >
> > The instruction at 0x00000000 referred memory at 0x00000000. The memory
> > could not be "written."
> >
> > click ok to terminate program
> >
> > click cancel to debug program
> >
> > Also, Data Execution Prevention message pops up. Generic Host Process Win32
> > Services
> >
> > Occasionally, this also takes out the sound from my PC.
> >
> > I've seen many other people concerned about this in message boards and they
> > have difficulty finding a solution.
> >
> > Could this be a virus, spyware, etc?
> >
> > I really appreciate your feedback and any information for a solution to this
> > issue.
> >
> > Thank you
>
> .
>

As Douglas pointed out, the svchost.exe is a grouping application for a many
different service processes that run in the background all the times. If you
go to Task Manager, you will probably see several instances of svchost.exe
running. There are some tools to see what processes are being run in each
instance to try to isolate the problem. Depending on your comfort and
knowledge level, you can read more and download it here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx

It certainly might not be a bad idea to run another virus/malware scan, just
to be on the safe side. Many times one scanner doesn't find something that
another will. I would suggest malwarebytes's free scanner:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/
--
James
Orlando (Goofy says "Hey!"), FL



"lmbooks" <> wrote in message
news:3C5E4B62-DB03-45E4-99BC-...
> Hi Douglas,
>
> Thanks for your reply. My antivirus program did find a virus recently and
> quarantined it. So I was concerned because this error message came up
> shortly after and I haven't seen this before.
>
> It seems like it only affects the sound. The volume icon is not there, it
> was usually on the bottom right in the taskbar. But when I restart the
> computer, the volume seems to work.
>
> I still have internet access. I'm not sure how to look at the services
> that
> are running.
>
> I really appreciate your help!
>
> Thanks
>
> "Douglas Tatelman" wrote:
>
>> I believe svchost is run numerous times on startup - starting all
>> sorts of network processes. Sometimes it is corrupted after a virus,
>> but you don't mention having recently been infected.
>>
>> If your startup completes, you could look at the services and see
>> which ones are not running, that way you could narrow the problem
>> down.
>>
>> Do you still have internet access? Is there anything not running
>> besides the sound?
>>
>>
>> On Nov 24, 9:37 am, lmbooks <lmbo...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>> > Recently, my PC (XP Media Center Edition 2005) has an error at
>> > startup..
>> >
>> > It says svchost.exe - application error
>> >
>> > The instruction at 0x00000000 referred memory at 0x00000000. The
>> > memory
>> > could not be "written."
>> >
>> > click ok to terminate program
>> >
>> > click cancel to debug program
>> >
>> > Also, Data Execution Prevention message pops up. Generic Host Process
>> > Win32
>> > Services
>> >
>> > Occasionally, this also takes out the sound from my PC.
>> >
>> > I've seen many other people concerned about this in message boards and
>> > they
>> > have difficulty finding a solution.
>> >
>> > Could this be a virus, spyware, etc?
>> >
>> > I really appreciate your feedback and any information for a solution to
>> > this
>> > issue.
>> >
>> > Thank you
>>
>> .
>>