What does this error message mean?

David_L6

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iexplore.exe - Application Error

The instruction at "0x01c9494e" referenced memory at "0x00000473". The memory could not be "read".

Click OK to terminate the program.
 
I'd sort of like to say it means it is time for you to move on to a proper browser like FireFox ;) But that could be construed as unhelpful.....

What it means is that the application (iexplore.exe) Internet Explorer has come to a halt because it is trying to read protected memory. In the world of mainframes these are known as protection exceptions, because memory in mainframes is reserved for useage by relevant applications or services. This kind of memory feature is now finally being built into the PC - and with the latest AMD64 processors you get DCE (is that right?) protection too built into the processor. What has probably happened is the program has been poorly coded and reatined an old address for memory that no longer belongs to it - perhaps a buffer that has been released or a workarea cleared and paged out, that kind of thing - then the program runs up against that instruction and falls down in a heap.

What it means to you? you lost all your browser sessions and start again.

Or, like I said, move along up to another browser - it's a big big world out there and you might just have fun discovering them too! ;)
 
It means that somewhere in the dark recesses of IE's code that it tried to send an CPU access memory instruction at a6t 0x01c9494e but could not read the memory at 0x00000473 possibly because the instuction was faulty or the memory dissallowed any reading at that point in time.

Edit: Or you could read mainframe guy's answer who is more to the point than mine ;)

The most important question however is how did this crash happen? were you trying to access a certain page or did IE just crash randomly?
 
It happened when I re-booted the computer. Just a pop up box that had the above message in it. Didn't cause any problems. I just clicked OK.


I do have Firefox installed, but I do still use I.E. once in a while (I am right now).
 
David_L6 said:
It happened when I re-booted the computer. Just a pop up box that had the above message in it. Didn't cause any problems. I just clicked OK.


I do have Firefox installed, but I do still use I.E. once in a while (I am right now).

There's many ways you can troubleshoot this problem, but first I need to know the following:

1. Which OS are you using
2. Which version of Internet Explorer (Including Service Pack version)
3. What did you do in an attempt to fix it so far...

If it came up as you rebooted the PC, it's nmost likely to be spyware related as iexplore.exe is not supposed to load on startup.

I would start by updatnig IE to the latest version if it's not already, and then download/install/run Microsoft Antispyware using a Full Scan.

If it doesn't find anything, and you're on Windows XP, just get your Windows XP install CD ready and try this:

1. Go to %systemroot%\inf
2. Right-click on ie.inf and click Install.
3. Put the CD in the drive when it prompts you.
4. Reboot and do a full Windows Update.

That is the only way to reinstall IE 6 if it's the one you have, there's no repair option in that version.

Let me know if that works.

Cheers,
 
Could happen to any program, even Firefox.
 
Mainfraimguy, the browser has nothing to do with that .. It is a system error, You can get it with anything, not just the browser. Saying that it is the browser is basically a hash hit response.

It is more than likely from a program you installed. figure out what one, uninstall it, then reinstall it ..
 
FishBoy said:
there is only one thing we can do :p since we're always crashing

I know you're only half joking here, but Linux crashes too you know... it's not all 100% fullproof like you guys like to say it is!

Just put as many applications as you put on Linux as you put on a Windows PC and we'll see how rock solid stable it will be... If Linux was as stable as you guys say it is, there wouldn't be as many package updates all the time :p
 
xsk8zerox said:
I hate to say it but your memory is probably failing. Download http://www.memtest.org/ memtest and test your memory

What!??? Hum... Where did you get that from exactly?

I see this error often with clients I support (tech support) and it can be MANY things. If his memory was failing, he'd be getting Blue Screens, not this kind of errors!

This can be due to incorrect user promissions in registry keys or system folders or a program that tries to run with the wrong user account and is not allowed to. Could be so many other things, but NOT a hardware memory failure.

RAM either works or it doesn't. Symptoms of RAM that is failing is frequent unexpected reboots, or blue screens, but not "Memory cannot be read" errors.
 
Its most likley to be early signs of ram failure. As this error should not occur unless the processor as fed an incorrect instruction.

That wont happen unless your ram slipped a bit and sent a 1 instead of a 0 or vice versa.

Run memtest overnight and start saving up for new ram. Its not going to fail completeley but its a sign you need to consider new stuff.

xtweaker: RAM either works, has intermittant faults, kinda works, is only good for windows, or is dead. its not one of the pieces of hardware that is either working or not. RAM is mad of hundreds of millions of transistors and capacitors. If one of those transistors sticks its going to feed the wrong value tothe cpu eventually but it wont kill the whole chip/module.

You need to learn about hardware more before you go telling people they're wrong :D
 
bad ram. like they said memtest. If you have more than on stick run memtest on both at same time then indivig. Iv seen bad memory do some crazy shi*
 
LordOfLA said:
Its most likley to be early signs of ram failure. As this error should not occur unless the processor as fed an incorrect instruction.

That wont happen unless your ram slipped a bit and sent a 1 instead of a 0 or vice versa.

Run memtest overnight and start saving up for new ram. Its not going to fail completeley but its a sign you need to consider new stuff.

xtweaker: RAM either works, has intermittant faults, kinda works, is only good for windows, or is dead. its not one of the pieces of hardware that is either working or not. RAM is mad of hundreds of millions of transistors and capacitors. If one of those transistors sticks its going to feed the wrong value tothe cpu eventually but it wont kill the whole chip/module.

You need to learn about hardware more before you go telling people they're wrong :D

I must have fixed over 50 PC's in 2 years that had this error with several different programs including IE, and none of them had RAM issues. I know very well what RAM is... Everytime I've seen this issue it was due to incorrect user permissions on registry keys or folders that were holding dll's or files the program needed to access (modify or read) and couldn't. And no RAM was at fault.

If RAM is faulty on the hardware side it would be more obvious than a software error saying The instruction at "0x01c9494e" referenced memory at "0x00000473". The memory could not be "read". And it wouldn't ONLY crash in IE. Think about it...
 
That's kind of amusing.

Here's the challenge: Find me an example on the internets of a case where iexplore.exe has caused a memory error - and it's a hardware problem. I've been trying for awhile now.

You need to learn about software more before you go telling people they're wrong :)

Oh, and I want to know which kind of RAM only works with MS Windows, and not other operating systems. I've been searching and searching the internets for this.
 
psh posh. like i have said I have seen ram do so many weird things. But who knows maybe we are both wrong or right. Why dont we let him run the memtest and prove that its not then we can keep helping him.
 
Sounds good.

It is just that iexplore is causing the error, at startup. Not too many people have iexplore.exe in their startup ja know? My RAM is alright, passes the tests, but I occasionally see this error on client systems, and on my own - and it's frickin spyware.

;) we shall see how it goes, hope he updates us tomorrow.
 
Mastershakes said:
Here's the challenge: Find me an example on the internets of a case where iexplore.exe has caused a memory error - and it's a hardware problem. I've been trying for awhile now.

You wont. Because software doesnt cause those errors. Hardware does and in 99.99999999 etc % of cases its a stuck transistor in a ram chip

Mastershakes said:
You need to learn about software more before you go telling people they're wrong :)

I do thanks, I'm a developer with among other things basic knowledge of assembly and plenty of hours logged in a ring0 debugger to know that what I have stated is right

Mastershakes said:
Oh, and I want to know which kind of RAM only works with MS Windows, and not other operating systems. I've been searching and searching the internets for this.

Windows is less demanding on system ram. Therefore RAM that your everyday UNIX will refuse to utilise will more often thn not be just fine in windows.
 
LordOfLA said:
You wont. Because software doesnt cause those errors. Hardware does and in 99.99999999 etc % of cases its a stuck transistor in a ram chip.


wow. I guess this issue falls in the 0.00000001 % percentile. I'm gonna buy a lotto ticket.

Read the error again. Read the very first two words. Application error.

Good. Now, word of Bill.

Here is an exerpt from an MS technet article. Pay close attention to the bolded bits. Translation? SPYWARE/ADWARE/MALWARE causes these errors.

Unrecoverable errors are also known as user-mode faults or exceptions. Programs such as Internet Explorer run on your computer in what is known as user-mode (or Ring3). Processes that run in user-mode do so in their virtual address spaces and do not have direct access to hardware or memory that was not allocated to them. Because user-mode processes are effectively isolated from the system and other user-mode processes, they do not interfere with these resources. Therefore, they do not compromise the integrity of your computer. For example, if a process tries to read or write to a memory location that has not been allocated to it, the result is an unrecoverable error (in this case, an exception). When these unrecoverable errors occur, you must close the affected program or process to maintain your computer’s integrity.

Note that most programs interact with other user-mode processes. You can extend some programs by using add-on features that share their memory space. In the case of Internet Explorer, ActiveX Controls, Browser Helper Objects, tool bands, and other components can add custom functionality to the browser, such as additional toolbars, wallpaper or banner ads. These components run in the same memory space as the browser, and may generate faults or exceptions on Internet Explorer or one of its components. Like most programs, Internet Explorer also interacts with other parts of your computer. For example, you use your display driver, display hardware, and installed fonts to display Web pages. You use your printer driver and hardware to print Web pages. Other programs may also interact with Internet Explorer. These interactions with other software or services can also cause unrecoverable errors in Internet Explorer.

Full article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;276393&sd=tech



LordOfLA said:
I do thanks, I'm a developer with among other things basic knowledge of assembly and plenty of hours logged in a ring0 debugger to know that what I have stated is right.

That's real cool. I hated those stacks though.

right? Bill Gates & co. disagrees with you on this. They developped the code.


LordOfLA said:
Windows is less demanding on system ram. Therefore RAM that your everyday UNIX will refuse to utilise will more often than not be just fine in windows.

That is something I didn't know. I figured Windows would be more demanding if anything, UNIX being so efficient and all. I'll find some stuff to read on it. Very interesting.
 

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