HP Pavilion zv6000 has issues with SP3

[BOB IROC]

Ok, I have been wrapping my head around this one for days and I have narrowed it down to Service Pack 3 being the cause or something to do with the computer not liking Service Pack 3. I have a customer that had a dead hard drive in her laptop so I replaced it. Like many people she did not make restore CDs so I used a OEM Windows XP disc (from Dell) and installed that and changed the key to activate it which has worked well many times in the past. I got all updates installed but when I try to go to pages that need an active X installed or some plug in for IE installed IE hangs and crashes. For example when I go to Adobe.com and try to install flash or adobe reader or try to run the safety scanner at onecare.live.com it crashes when the little yellow ribbon comes down prompting me to install the add on/plugin. I used system restore and restored back to SP2 and it does not happen.

The computer has the latest drivers (from HP and Windows Update) for the hardware and I tried installing all the updates before installing SP3 and then install SP3 after that and it hung on the install when it was cleaning up files. Below are two events that happen when IE hangs.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 8/10/2010
Time: 3:34:31 PM
User: N/A
Computer: PAVILION-ZV6000
Description:
Fault bucket 1180947459.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 42 75 63 6b 65 74 3a 20 Bucket:
0008: 31 31 38 30 39 34 37 34 11809474
0010: 35 39 0d 0a 59..

and

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 8/10/2010
Time: 3:34:28 PM
User: N/A
Computer: PAVILION-ZV6000
Description:
Hanging application iexplore.exe, version 8.0.6001.18702, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67 ion Hang
0010: 20 20 69 65 78 70 6c 6f iexplo
0018: 72 65 2e 65 78 65 20 38 re.exe 8
0020: 2e 30 2e 36 30 30 31 2e .0.6001.
0028: 31 38 37 30 32 20 69 6e 18702 in
0030: 20 68 75 6e 67 61 70 70 hungapp
0038: 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 0.0.0.0
0040: 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73 at offs
0048: 65 74 20 30 30 30 30 30 et 00000
0050: 30 30 30 000

I have searched for issues with SP3 and this and similar laptops and found this link from HP but when I tried to install it the update said it was not applicable

Lastly I tried turning off Date Execution Prevention and rebooting the computer but for the life of me I cannot figure out what is causing this to crash. I ran thorough hardware diagnostics and everything passed and installed new memory into the laptop and even returned one chip thinking it may be bad ram. Aside from SP3 the computer seems to run fine and I want to return the computer to the customer but I would like to have the latest service packs and patches installed. I am tempted to try installing XP Professional enterprise license to just see if that would make a difference but I am afraid that it will not so here I am again looking at you guys for insight and advice.

[BOB IROC]

Ok to make the situation even more weird I think it may have something to do with the Audio Card/Driver. Maybe it was a fluke but when I disabled the card in Device Manager and went to one of those pages trying to install an add-on with the card disabled IE did not crash. The onboard audio is a conexant AC Link Audio and it is the latest driver from HP's site. I guess I will hunt for a newer or older driver to test that theory.

Still open to suggestions and help though.

Thank You.

[geoscomp]

What version of IE is installed?

[BOB IROC]

what version of ie is installed?

IE8 but if I install IE8 under SP2 it works fine. Just happens under SP3

[BOB IROC]

Ok so it is not the audio driver but it still happens even though there is more of a delay before IE crashes and eventually locks up. I was testing my theory by installing all drivers but the audio driver and going to adobe.com and installing Flash or Adobe Reader or going to oncare.live.com as that tries to install an addon for the safety scanner. Eventually the IE page will go to an error page that says that the page cannot be opened and states a malicious add-on could be the cause. Below is the associated event.



The application, C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe, generated an application error The error occurred on 08/10/2010 @ 20:40:59.984 The exception generated was 80000007 at address 00000000 (ntdll!KiFastSystemCallRet)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

[CCT]

Read a thread where an incompatibility of Divx with SP2 caused that error and was temporarilly resolved through disabling DEP and permanently by updating the DivX drivers -> http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-xp...dia-files.html

[BOB IROC]

Read a thread where an incompatibility of Divx with SP2 caused that error and was temporarilly resolved through disabling DEP and permanently by updating the DivX drivers -> http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-xp...dia-files.html

I didn't even make it that far. This was a fresh format and install on a new hard drive. The only thing that was on there was Windows and when I went to install plug ins like flash or adobe reader it crashed and only under SP3.

However I think I have it solved and it had to be something in that Dell OEM disc I used not liking that HP. I know OEMs sometimes add little customizations and drivers to their discs but I have used this OEM disc on many computers of various brands and simply changed the key to the one on the COA sticker on the computer or extracted from the current Windows install if the sticker was unreadable and never had an issue. A buddy of mine had an OEM Windows XP home for a Gateway and I used that and did the same thing and so far so good. I will post back if it still acts up and if it does I have two options. 1. Install WinPro enterprise which I do not want to do or 2. make them pay for a set of discs which is what I will probably recommend they do anyway if they plan on keeping the laptop for an extended period. It is already almost 5 years old but you never know.

As always thanks for all the help and advice everyone.