Following is my $.02 on this caper:
My system (following the order at the softsynth site):
OS: Win 98 SE
Make: Dell XPS B800r
CPU: 800 MHz PIII
Anti-virus: Norton 2000
HD Controller/Driver: Promise Ultra 100/1.60 (Build 14)
SCSI Controller: (None, but Promise shows here)
HD: IBM DTLA 45 GB (advertised!)
CD1: LG CD-RW 8x/4x/32x
Printers: HP DJ 970Cse USB/HP LJ III Parallel
Repartitioned: No, no, no
Scanner: Epson Perfection 1640SU (connected thru USB)
Network cards: 3Com Etherlink/Kingston EtheRx VP 10/100
Grfx: NVIDEA GeForce 256 AGP
Audio: SB Live! Value Digital
Trigger: Installed scanner and software
Fix: Disabled stimon.exe at startup (through msconfig)
History:
New system was rock-solid for two months; loaded lots of software, connected a USB printer. At the two-month mark, I installed a new Epson USB scanner and tested it. Next morning, system would not even boot into safe mode. At Dell's recommendation, I restored the system to its factory state.
Reloaded software. System was rock-solid for the two weeks it took to do this. Installed the Epson USB scanner again. This time, I began getting the volume bug BSODs. Again, at Dell's recommendation, I restored the system to its factory state.
Reloaded software. Again, no volume bug BSODs until I installed the USB scanner. I did NOTcall Dell. This time, one by one, I removed the most recently added programs in startup through msconfig. I documented every boot and restart. Was still getting intermittent volume bug BSODs.
Ironically, at the very point at which stimon.exe was the NEXT startup program to be unchecked from the startup list, I discovered the softsynth site. (First hit, through Google, searching for "volume that was removed.") One of the recommended "work arounds" was to remove stimon.exe from startup.
I was ready to remove stimon.exe from the programs at startup anyway, so I went for it.
Since then (23 December), I have not had a single volume bug BSOD (other kinds, yes, but no volume bug BSODs); I have started or restarted my system 46 times since then.
In addition, I sent stimon.exe to the desktop as a shortcut. It does seem to be necessary when scanning to various applications. I just make sure to start it before scanning. It doesn't seem to disrupt the system if left running when the system shuts down.
So, that's my story. I don't know if not running stimon.exe at startup is a "fix" or a "workaround," but it works for me (so far . . .).
Richard H Liniger
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