Random software crashes

[[IF]S|Cpl.Raven]

I am having some trouble with random software crashes laterly. It has been happening for over a month now, but i always keep my patients and find away around it untill recently.

It used to just be firefox crashing when i was watching a movie/episode of anything. I would get a windows message saying firefox.exe has stopped working. My way around would be to use another browser and it would work fine.
Now this problem seems to have spread to other software such as Call of Duty 4. This has never happend before and i dont know a bypass around this one.

The error signature message contains this information if any one understand it
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: iw3mp.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4859a219
Fault Module Name: pbcl.dll
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4ab7b6d2
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00025f43
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 8d13
Additional Information 2: cdca9b1d21d12b77d84f02df48e34311
Additional Information 3: 8d13
Additional Information 4: cdca9b1d21d12b77d84f02df48e34311

Problems that i belive it could be is that there are too much programs running in the background therfore using up to much memory and causing a crash.
There maybe a virus - But i have recently just done a virus checker and it came up with none (virus checker used Avast)
I may have faulty RAM - but i dont know how to check this without taking it out and replacing it.
Overheating problem - the air feels cool coming out my machine therfore i dont belive this to be the case.

Any other problems that may be effecting it and possible solutions would be appreciated

Thank you!

My computer specs are as followed

OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6850 @ 3.00GHz, 3000 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS P5N-E SLI ACPI BIOS Revision 0703, 09/08/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United Kingdom
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6000.16386"
Total Physical Memory 3,581.75 MB
Available Physical Memory 2.17 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.18 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.63 GB
Page File Space 3.79 GB

Graphics card
Name NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
Adapter RAM 640.00 MB (671,088,640 bytes)
Driver Version 8.15.11.9038

[Scinto]

Re: Random software crashes

For finding out if your ram is faulty you can use; http://memtest.org think there is a .exe file you can put in a flash drive and run in dos. (dont hold me to that ive never had to use it).

As for pbcl.dll is PB, though i found this dont know if it will work or not as you havent listed a sound card so one can only assume as you have an onboard.

This is only for Windows Vista as far as I can tell. I don't know if this would help for people using other versions of Windows or Linux....

Error: Faulting application iw3mp.exe, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x4859a219, faulting module pbcl.dll, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x48699adf, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00026dc5, process id 0x1038, application start time 0x01c90ba4876b8c7e.

Issue: From what I was able to find it is an application conflict with your on-board sound card.

Fix: Remove [uninstall] your sound card from the Windows Device Manager, but do not select the option to remove the drivers. Reboot your computer. Windows Vista will redetect your sound card and install it.

After this, you should be fine. Before I found the ONE site that talked about this I tried removing Punk Buster, reinstalling it and looking at Even Balances web site... All of that got me nothing...

I know, it sounds really odd for a sound card and punkbuster [pbcl.dll] to cause your COD4 to crash, but this was the fix.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Random software crashes

Even though the air is coming out cool, you could have dust buildup in heat sinks or fans. Be sure to check and make sure they are clean AND the fans are spinning.

Also, run a spyware scan also. Malwarebytes is pretty good at detecting those things.

Scandisk/defrag your hard drive. Ive run into a few quirky problems and doing those have fixed it on occasion.