ekrn.exe - Application Error : The instruction at...

I use ESET Smart Security v. 4.0.437.0 with the following installed
components:
Virus signature database: 4417 (20090911).
Update module: 1028 (20090302).
Antivirus and antispyware scanner module: 1236 (20090909).
Advanced heuristics module: 1097 (20090809).
Archive support module: 1101 (20090903).
Cleaner module: 1044 (20090826).
Anti-Stealth support module: 1012 (20090526).
Personal firewall module: 1051 (20090812).
Antispam module: 1012 (20090608 ).
SysInspector module: 1213 (20090902).
Self-defense support module : 1005 (20081105)
on windows XP 32bit service pack 3 HP laptop 1.66GHz 1016 MB RAM system.
I get the following error message randomly while surfing the web with firefox.

Application popup: ekrn.exe - Application Error : The instruction at "0x71a6b2c2" referenced memory at "0x00000008". The memory could not be "read".

Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program

If I press OK or Cancel nothing seems to happen the screen freezes for few seconds and everything works again. Security program does not shut down, browser does not shut down. If anyone knows how I can narrow down what is happening I really appreciate your help. If anyone knows how to stop it from happening I appreciate that even more.

Thank you

 

Hello Rambod,

Did you have any other Antivirus software on the machine before ESET? I would suggest trying to reinstall the ESET software to see if there may be some type of corruption.

 

I upgraded from NOD32 to Smartsecurity. I was running zonealarm pro which I removed before upgrading. Should I uninstall and re-install or just run setup again?

 

I did complete uninstall following instructions on web site and did a re-Install. The problem still exists.

 

Did you uninstall using the uninstall tool? You can find it here.

 

Im getting the same error on a few computers. We have released v4.0.467 to the entire network of 200 computers and servers.

Sofar i have 2 computers that have reported this error but no common reason to why.

Ekrn.exe Application Error.
The exception unknown software exception(0xc0000409) ocurred in the application at location 0x213149ec

all i did was upgrade from v3.0.684 to v4.0.467 through ERAS

 

Please create a process dump from ekrn.exe per the instructions here. It is important to create the dump at the moment the Dr Watson error message appears, not after closing it. Let me know when done so that I can provide you instructions how and where to upload the dump.