Bit of a strange problem. On Start up one of my start up programs will produce a application error:
"The instruction at "0x00149d04" referenced memory at "0x00199000". The memory could not be "read".

If i click ok the error will disappear, but if i open up any other program, whether its Internet explorer, a text document, a game. The error reappears for that particular application. I can however open up other programs while the error is being displayed.

My first thought was its a registry problem so I have completely cleared out the registry of any bad associations etc, also defragmented HD, this has had no effect. I'm at a loss as to how these errors can be spawned for every application on my pc.

Helly grays, welcome to PCHF.

The key word in that error there is "memory". Absolutely nothing at all to do with the registry.

Altough it could possibly be a disk problem, RAM is much more likely to cause this error, because RAM is slightly more prone to failure, especially if you have poor quality RAM installed in your PC. Also, RAM is where the temporary memory for your applications are stored. Your HDD is only used if all of your RAM is being used in the form of a "pagefile". How much RAM do you have?

So, the first thing you should check is memory. For this, there is a free utility called memtest.

If you have a floppy drive (easier), then please download and unzip the following: http://www.memtest86.com/memtest34a.zip

If you have a CD-Writer with Nero (or other ISO writing software), please download, unzip and burn the following: http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.4a.iso.zip

Once you have installed the above onto either a floppy drive or CD, then restart you PC, and let memtest do it's thing! It can take several hours, and any problems encountered with memory will show up as failing addresses highlighted in red.

I have 1 GB of Corsair DDR XMS3200XL Pro TwinX (2x512MB) RAM, it is a few years old, I'll give the memory test a go anyway, Thank you

Please let us know how it goes on

Ok something funny just happened. I burned the disc with the memory tester, was just away to restart but decided to create a new restore point before I fiddled about with anything, as soon as i created the restore point the Application error disappeared< i am now able to open every program and file as normal, i've restarted twice (without doing the mem test) just to check if the error reappeared but all seems fine, problem fixed.

Does this make any sense to you? I've had this problem for over a week now, restarted pc many times. I wasn't aware that creating a restore point would have any effect on a pc? although whats more unusual is that looking over the old restore points created automatically. I'm pretty sure the last one is when the errors started, also there hasnt been an automatic restore point created since then....

I wouldn't have expected it to, but it's possible that you may have had some software, virus or malware which could have affected memory access. May still be worth doing a memtest, and also pchf prework just in case.

EDIT: Marked as Resolved.