Computer Problems

What kind of machine is it? Is it a store bought (HP, Dell, Gateway....).

I've just recently seen this error on an HP Pavilion. They have a few ways to try to fix it on their site.

 

wish i could help, im not much of a software cruncher.

 

http://www.file.net/process/sfsync02.sys.html

Star Force. And have a nice day.

Boot into safe mode and I would guess remove a recently added game.

 

UGGGGG, I hate that F*&UKING program. Proof that another legit customer has been screwed by the industry for trying to actually purchase software. If ya wanna be legit but not get screwed get it cracked if ya can then buy the original and never open it .

CheckOut mah old post about this crap.

http://www.dragonwolves.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14147&highlight=starforce

 

Yeah, I ran into StarForce with a Sierra game that someone gave me. It rendered my DVD-ROM and CDRW drives inaccessible, so I never did get to play it, because it of course had a CD check too. This removal tool fixed it for me.

I don't mind anti-copying technologies, as long as they don't cause other problems, but I *hate* CD checks -- if I have to dig out a CD before I can play a game, I'm probably going to play something else instead.

 

Who remembers Psygnosis games?

We used to get the cracked versions because buying was a crap shoot on whether you could actually run the game or not.

Which lead to this classic gem:

Psygnosis - Latin for "lucky to load"

 

With the owl right?

 

My favorite place to diagnose stop codes: http://www.aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php but yea, sounds easily like starforce, or some other software issue.

 

Yep the owl.

http://cache.cow.net/psygnosis/

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psygnosis

 

If you think your drive is dying, and it's Western Digital, try out their diagnostic tool. SATA is just the newer interface from the old IDE, for RAID you need 2 drives of the same size, but in general a new SATA drive is just plug and go.

Also, while you're in safe mode, disable automatic restart so you can see the error message and maybe see a different stop code.

 

I've never personally had it work, but it has worked a few times with customers, a Windows Repair. Boot from your windows CD and go into the Recovery Console (not the automatic repair) and do a chkdsk /r /p

The 000000F4 stop code means some system critical process isn't starting up like it should in Windows.

DCOM usually involves your network, try uninstalling any ethernet drivers or networking type software as well?

All good harddrive manufacturers have some sort of diagnostic tool as well, check out seagate's: http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/B7a.html

 

If safe mode is running but regular isn't then it isn't the hard ware.

Hard ware problems generally don't care what you are doing.

With the caveat that files on dinged places on a hard drive or upper memory problems. Then you will have a problem everytime you load a certain file OR when a really big file loads and hits a bad memory area.

Here is how I troubleshoot memory. Pull all your memory but one stick. Boot. if there is still a problem, replace the one stick with one of the removed ones.

Oh and as I always suggest, check your fans. Those going bad can cause all kinds of weird issues due to heat.

 

I think his mask of sanity is about to Slipppppppppppppp