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Within the last few weeks when online my computer will occassionally go to the blue screen and say dumping physical memory to disk. I had a local repair guy look at the computer who wants to completely reset the computer which I was trying to wait to do. Here recently I have noticed this is only happening when I am trying to open an attachment to an email. I get a 403 forbidden error and it won't open the attachment ( a pdf file). I have tried opening this in firefox and also explorer. I did a search on this forum and mainly see solutions whne downloading videos,etc. I'm hoping this might be what is causing the "blue screen of death" and maybe won't have to reset my computer. I have a windows 7 operating system and I apologize if there is more information I didn't include.
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In this order:
Get a PE rescue disc
Buy a 2nd HDD
Boot from the rescue disc and copy all the important files (personal data, settings, etc) from original HDD to 2nd HDD
Wipe the first HDD
Re-install your OS (and then apps) from scratch
If you can't boot to the rescue disc, you likely have worse, hardware-related issues.
Scott -
WOW.
STOP codes and ESPECIALLY any filename mentioned in the BSOD.
Are you getting a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) after you see the 403 error? Specifically and CLEARLY state how these two separate events seem to be related.
Same e-mail source, same file? Or MULTIPLE sources and MULTIPLE files?
Can you SAVE the PDF file and NOT open it inside the browser? Then test opening it separately, outside the browser. If failure, get a non-Adobe PDF viewer and test with that. Download a different PDF from a reputable site.
Bad link, bad file, bad Acrobat install. Test opening PDF on different site, eliminate E-mail. Test opening PDF outside browser, eliminate browser. Test with non-Adobe viewer on alternate PDF file from KNOWN GOOD source, eliminate Acrobat.
Isolate and Identify.
Also do a virus scan with MalwareBytes, establish basic hardware viability by booting to Safe Mode and run for 4-24 hours, while DOING NOTHING, repeat test with normal boot, run a hard drive error check (Chkdsk), and a Defrag.
If your PC details are accurate, you have a VERY old hard drive and not enough RAM. If they are not, then some information on your PC, such as age, brand, peripherals, and usage pattern might be helpful.
SPECIFIC terms on frequency of events, using numbers, are also helpful. Terms like "occasionally" are almost useless. Once a day, once a month, three times in an hour? With a PC that is powered on and in use 24-hours a day, 8 hours a day, an hour or two every other day?
Likely that ONE person is trying to send you ONE corrupt pdf file and there is nothing wrong with your PC. Insufficient information to make any other assessment. -
Yes, I am only getting the BSOD after seeing the 403 error. The error is coming up on all the emails I am getting with an attachment. The file is sent and created by a friend of mine so I'm certain it is a safe file. I tried to right click on the file but it doesn't give me an option to save it. Sorry, I don't know how else to open it differently. I will download Malwarebytes here in a little bit. My computer is a Dell and it's only about 2 years old. core i5 processor. I am consistently getting the BSOD today when I am trying to open a PDF attachment. I went back through my emails and tried to open older pdf files that worked before. Until today, I was only getting the BSOD once a week at the most. I probably use my computer about 4 hours a day primarily for photo editing. I thank you both for your replies and will try to do each step that you have mentioned above.
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Of course, ultimately you are right, Nelson37, but:Originally Posted by Nelson37
1. It sounds like there are some major problems there (and probably more than one) even if it isn't a virus
2. Those first 3 things I mentioned are ALWAYS good things for ANY PC user to have/do
3. While it will take a while to do the Wipe+Reinstalls, in the long run it might be quicker to do than to do all the isolating/troubleshooting you are suggesting (because even once you figure out what has gone wrong, you still have fixing to do and that might not be a straightforward path back to a known good)
Doing it your way might figure out the root cause (and avoid future similar problems). I was just suggesting treating the symptoms (you know - get it over with and move on in your life), as I would guess the chances of this happening again aren't too high (unless it were a virus).
Scott -
Are you doing anything unusual with your email which you are not telling us because you are incorrectly convinced that it's not important? Let me give you an example.
Many places of business, such as my company, do active filtering on incoming email. Certain types of risky attachments are not allowed at all. If anything, in my opinion we are too restrictive on what we allow as attachments, but I don't run the company so I don't set the rules. A lot of email programs that filter on attachments do it in a sort of broke way. So I am wondering if you are doing something you aren't telling us like trying to read work email at home (not saying that this is wrong) and you ONLY have this problem when reading work email. If someone sends you an attachment to your email account at, say, gmail, it works fine. I have seen a lot of problems with email at companies because the people in charge don't know what they are doing and I would like to offer the possibility, if remote, that is a reproducible problem related to how your email is setup rather than a "my PC is broke" kind of thing. -
Nothing unusual. It's all personal stuff, I don't work for a company. I have been trying to open it in my aol account which is what I usually use but after reading jman98's post, I forwarded it to my gmail account and opened it without difficulty. Any suggestions now? Thanks for being so patient with me! I'll be the first to admit I'm not that good with this stuff and I greatly appreciate your help!
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Sounds to me like AOL BS is screwing you over. They've probably got some kind of filter on the email to "save" you from "evil" PDF attachments (with ALL PDF attachments defined as "evil") and they implemented it in some kind of broke, half-assed way that is the real source of your problems, not the PC itself.
I wouldn't hold my breath, but you might contact AOL and mention the problem and ask them just what the heck they are doing to PDF attachments that is breaking your PC. Based on a web search I did, I am really doubtful that you're going to get a solution for this. I saw an awful lot of finger pointing at the PC as the source of blame for this issue with no admission of guilt by AOL, but it seems odd to me that Gmail works without a hitch and AOL gives you the BSOD every single time you do this for this to not be an AOL issue. -
Ok, you say the error happens on "all the emails I get with an attachment". This implies many files, many sources. Then you reference ONE file sent by ONE person. Very, very different. Then you say you know it is safe? You can tell they don't have a virus from where you are?
It is very good procedure to attempt to open older e-mails that worked before, It would be EVEN BETTER to, I don't know, maybe describe what happened when you made the attempt.
As for the BSOD happening once a week to some different frequency, "all the emails" today don't help. Did it work on ANY email in the last several weeks, or did you only get one email per week until today, wherein you got several?
Simply trying a different source quickly Isolated and Identified the problem. Quickly and easily, no format and re-install required. -
One of the files were sent by my husband from another computer that has been working fine so I assume it don't have a virus attached as he created the file. When I went back through my emails today and tried to open ones that had attachments they wouldn't open. These are emails that I had opened in the past few months and they worked fine. There were a couple that I had opened within the past couple weeks and could have been a reason for the BSOD but it wasn't immediate like it is now but my email was open at the time of getting it. I do find it odd that gmail is working fine. Hopefully this has found the problem and I'm going to contact AOL to get some assistance hopefully but in the mean time I realize I need to open the files with my gmail account. If however I still get the BSOD even by doing this, I will definately follow the suggestions mentioned above. Thanks again for all of your help!
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It's more likely you have one or more email messages in the email client application which are corrupted and is the underlying cause to the bsod's ... it's a common issue for those who never delete messages and hoard them.
Go to where your email application stores its inbox, sent, drafts, deleted folders, ect ... cut and paste them to a temporary folder, ie C:\temp.
Now get a friend to send a message with a pdf attached to verify its the cause ... if not then it's as mentioned above, corrupted email message (one or more) sitting in your email applications folders.
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After this test transfer any emails received during the test to any suitable folder ... close the client app and return those backup folders to where they originated from ... open the email client app and they'll be available once again. -
It's AOL. The folders typically do not exist on the host PC. There is no "app", it is AOL.
ALL of the multiple events concerned AOL.
With AOL removed from the equation, and everything else the same, problem disappears.
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