What might have happened?

I have WindowsXP SP1 which came from Dell already installed. I do not have the Microsoft disc, only the disc provides. I have the Dell 2350.

In your 11/29 Newsletter, "The differences between blank CDs you buy", gave a link www.datadr.com/redir.cfm/cdrid which took me to cd-rw.org, to download the CD-RIdentifier program, which I did. After downloading it, I clicked the zip file, then clicked the cdiden.exe. I immediately got the blue screen with a screen full of instructions, which I wrote down. The error said "windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. The problem seems to be caused by the following file: AFS2K.SYS PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA". "If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer." Which is was the first time, and I restarted. My computer then said it was restored and I got the MS report window to report the error to Microsoft which I did. Was this caused by the CDIdentifier program? In which case, with your providing a link to it, I just wanted to let you know that it created a problem .

If not, what was this error? Was it a problem with my computer? I have not had any problems with my computer since I got it in January. Do I have it backed up? No, Dah. Some of my data I do. What backup do you recommend? I'm new at this. Thank you. Judy

I asked the above question and got an answer of "uninstall cdiden.exe." I did uninstall it immediately after sending the Report to Microsoft.

My question was, please see above. Was it the program I downloaded that created this error?

Or was it a problem with my computer? Thank you. Judy

This question was answered on December 16, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Dear Judy:

It seems to me that it was the program (cdiden.exe) that caused your problems Maybe you were running other programs during the time you tryed installing it If you really want to try to use the program and want to try to install it again, make sure that you are not running any other heavy programs (Ex: MS WORD/EXCEL/POWERPOINT, Windows Media Player, etc.) A page fault usually means that memory was involved, so maybe the cdiden.exe program couldn't access the memory addresses that it needed

Judging upon what you have said, then yes, the cdiden.exe program was the culprit Maybe you should run a virus scan on the file (CD-R Identifier v1.63) that you downloaded to see if maybe there was a virus in it By the way, ALWAYS scan everything you download with an antivirus program before opening it You should also create a new folder just for things that you download off of the Internet just so you could pinpoint it better in case if it does have a virus

As far as backing up your system is concerned, the best form of back-up now is with CD-R/CD-RW because they are inexpensive and can hold lots of data If you don't have a CD-RW on your DELL then you have a choice of either buying an internal or external unit ZIP drives would be another back-up choice.

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Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on December 16, 2003

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