Application error - 'The memory could not be "read"'

I have recently upgraded from a Dimension 4400 to a 9100 (and from XP Home Edition to XP Professional at the same time) and since then two of my most-used shareware utilities have started to generate repeated Windows error messages of the same format.

 

I regularly use a thumbnail generator/image processor and now on about 50% of the occasions when it tries to start the thumbnail generation process I get an error message of this form:

'The instruction at   referenced memory at .  The memory could not be "read".'

 

Usually that is all I get, but sometimes I then get a second error message in this form:

'The exception unknown software exception (0xC0000017) occurred in the application at location .'

 

The other utility giving problems is a automated binary newsgroup downloader, where I get exactly the same format of error messages, although far less frequently than for the thumbnailer.

 

The Microsoft Knowledge Base implies that errors of this kind are usually down to poorly written code. and seeing that both these things are shareware I might have accepted that, except that both worked flawlessly on the old 4400, which was also running Windows XP SP2, albeit Home Edition not Professional.

 

Here are my questions.  Is it possible that moving from XP Home to XP Prof might be revealing some shortcomings in the program code of these utilities?   Might the D-type processor in the 9100 be revealing software inadequacies?  (In either of these cases there is nothing I can do except wait for a code update.)  Or is there something else that people know about which I can adjust in the Windows settings to try to overcome this?

 

All comments gratefully received.  Thanks in anticipation.

 

Robert

 

Dimension 9100