Posts by digitalocksmith

HJT will tell you whats running at the time of the scan.....

Download a copy of HijackThis and save it to your desktop in a folder. Do a scan and save the HijackThis logfile. Do not remove anything. Post your log file here. Link to HijackThis:

http://castlecops.com/zx/Merijn/hijackthis.zip

Lets see what nasties lurk within your vista installation.

Regards!

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5449/?o=1240

Can you help us with things like, laptop specs, Operating system used, LAN topology etc.

Regards

‡‡Please print out or copy this page to Notepad since you will can not have any of browsers open while you are fixing this and try to follow it as closely as possible taking it step by step.

If you have any of the below apps installed, uninstall them and update with my suggestions

‡‡Chose either Avira or AVG as your AV, uninstall the other and Update the Antivirus program.

‡‡Please download Spybot Search and Destroy install it and update the program.

[hide]

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

[/hide]

‡‡Please download VundoFix.exe to your desktop. Ignore the AntiVirus warnings and download it anyway because you need to run it. Wait on installation and running.

[hide]

http://www.atribune.org/ccount/click.php?id=4

[/hide]

‡‡Download CleanUp! and install it. Wait on installation and running.

[hide]

http://www.stevengould.org/downloads/cleanup/CleanUp452.exe

[/hide]

‡‡Please download following program CWSHREDDER. Wait on installation and running.

[hide]

http://www.trendmicro.com/ftp/products/online-tools/cwshredder.exe

[/hide]

‡‡Download about:Buster and save it to your desktop. When it has finished downloading, unzip the folder to your desktop as well. You should now be left with an aboutbuster folder on your desktop.Wait on installation and running.

[hide]

http://www.malwarebytes.org/AboutBuster.zip

[/hide]

‡‡I would suggest though that you download CCleaner. It is a great little program that I use every time I close my browser to get rid of temporary files. I usually just run the cleaner part every time I'm done with the browser.During the install there will …

I cant agree....incompatible RAM will give you a series of error beep codes as your system will fail to POST.

If everything spins up and you get no beeps with just a blank screen, i would bet my bottom dollar on mobo failure most likely caused by ESD to onboard transistors!

Look this might be a stab in the dark, but have you tried changing the Hardware Acceleration setting in the Display tool in Control Panel from Full to none, when set at full, this can sometimes cause the stop error you recieve in Win32k.sys.

Also, have you updated your XP OS with SP2? (sorry, i just saw your running home with sp2)

Welcome!

A few tips you could try to see if they help, but i dont like your chances.....

http://www.uofr.net/~greg/hardware/laptop_power_troubleshooting/

You found a thinkpad?? ....mmm ok!

You could also use a live CD of a linux distro that you can boot too, and then delete the 'SAM' file in windows system folders that holds the password hashes!

Yes...Vista includes support for phone activation!

Was the mobo purchased brand new or pulled from a 'Working System'?

I have experienced these symptoms on past builds and it has usually turned out to be a faulty mobo i bought second hand.

My bad!

iTunes will rob you of the codecs you need for the app your trying to view them through?

Also check that you dont have 'Mac Address filtering' enabled on the router!

If you do, you will need to insert the mac addy of your laptops wireless NIC to the mac addy filter table on the router!

What is happening (as caperjack mentions) is that your network settings on the lappy are not matching those that are set in the router.

To put you on the right track, the network settings on your lappy should be identical to those on your desktop (which obviously already match the routers).

You have checked that 'network discovery' is turned on in vista's network and sharing centre haven't you??

Regards

Sometimes disks have to be intialized. It's one of these 'added features' of Microsoft OS's.

Try entering the Disk Management Console from windows,

Start | command prompt | DiskMgmt.msc

If the disk is recognized in the bios as you say, it should be visible in here. Right click it and assign it a drive letter to see if this helps.

Regards

Cute Partition Manager Version: 0.9.1 by OSL Corp is nice and light, with a user friendly interface!

http://www.webpicturecreator.com/download/dir/Cute-Partition-Manager/45285.html

Regards

Are you running this driver http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html assuming you have XP?

This one for Vista http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_169.25_whql.html

Regards

It is STRONGLY recommended that you do not use 2 routers. You may want to return it and purchase an access point (wireless) or a hub/switch.

To use your router as an access point only, please follow the steps below:

Router A is the router you want to use as the router - connected to the modem.
Router B is the router you want to use an access point or switch.

Step 1 Do not use the WAN port on router B.

Step 2 Depending on your network setup, you may need to change the LAN IP address of router B. The default is 192.168.0.1. If you are using another router, DHCP server, or Internet connection sharing software, change the LAN IP address of the router to an IP in your subnet (192.168.0.2). The LAN IP address must be static.

Step 3 Disable DHCP on router B. To disable DHCP, go into the routers configuration > Home > DHCP. Click Disable and then click apply.

Regards

Malware is most likely the cause of these issues.

You should ask for help with cleaning procedures in the required forum.

Regards

imageshack.us]http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6417/untitledpg3.jpg[/url]

dang!!

Nothing to do with firewalls....You need to make sure that your configuration settings on the router match those of each device (computer) on the WLAN (ie Workgroup/Domain, SSID, WEP/WPA encryption etc)

Good Luck :cool:

Its your PSU.....350W is not enough to run any new card effectively!

With those graphics, you should be aiming at 500W plus ;)

I'm suffering, i have reinstalled my win week ago, but same situation starts occuring after one week. I have no spyware/virus, Any ideas?? :X

How did you install windows XP......did you format and clean install?

Or did you install over the top? (ie repair install or other)

:cool:

Computers are an extremely complex machine...since their inception, no other man made device has caused humans to make as many stuff ups as they have, accept for the exception of Tequila and handguns!

What dcc means is, that we will need a total rundown on your mobo and system specifications in order to make a correct analysis for you.
Its just not as simple as a fitting socket!

If you are not sure about your full system specs try a freeware program called Everest! (It will give you all we need)
Available here...http://www.majorgeeks.com/EVEREST_Free_Edition_d4181.html

Regards..:cool:

Just be careful of those generic 'all the flashing lights, bells & whistles' case fans that tend to give out after about 6 months use!

I realise you want to make the antec look good, but you have some very nice internals in there (going by your rig specs) that you want to keep the temps down on!

I replaced my 80mm flashing LED fans that started making horrible noises, with Thermaltake 120mm's and managed to drop my CPU temps down from 55 cel to 40 cel! (overclocked).

They dont look as good though.....doh! :pretty:

I like to stay away from the resource hogs such as Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky, Panda etc! (even AVG has become this way, much to my dissappointment)
Also avoid security suites as a whole for pretty much the same reasons.
My personal choice remains the same after years of testing, for use with both XP and Vista.....and for the best part its the best 'beggarware', ooops sorry, 'freeware', available on the market. Even better than most paying AV software......Avast Home Edition available here

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Avast_Home_Edition_d1968.html

It contains two GUI user interfaces, a resource friendly 'footprint', has an audible voice warning system, a mindblowing virus database (without the false positives) and updates regularly in audible format......"virus database has been updated" in that lovely American overtone!

As i said, Its Vista compatible and works a treat! :cool:

Yeh....see your point! Its shaping up as a real tough nut to crack.

mmmmm...maybe suggest entering the bios and setting the boot order to CD drive manually, placing the disc in the drive before booting if you havent already tried!

Surely its not possible that the discs are all bad burns....slow the write speed right down to 2x? (or are you using a gen disc)

Maybe im just clutching at straws!!!

Hope you get to the bottom of this and i will watch this thread with interest.

Good Luck dude :cool:

There is no need of any antivirus on the Linux os

:D

Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see!

Some of the points the others have made are very valid, however my advice would be...... be cautious of any software that you utilize over the network.

As linux gains in popularity, it also presents a challenge to the writers of malicious code and their evil intentions!

Dont live in a 'fools paradise', they also have linux in their sights!
Only problem is, there are so many distro's, they dont know where to start...lol!

Regards to all!

mechbas is correct! Anything that was on that drive will be gone after a format.

This is the main reason why i always keep my system files on a seperate drive/partition from the good stuff (ie music, vids, pics etc).
That way if things go south for the winter with the OS, a format and clean install is the only way to go. (Its all about the registry) ;)

Proper hard drive management is the key to preserving your data and 'format' will never be a scary word again

IMO, repair installs are a waste of time!

My advice would be to back up all your important data and clean install windows.
Just my opinion though, as ive seen to many tears!
A few hours reinstalling third party programs beats the crap out of troubleshooting for days or weeks on end!

Nothin like the smell of fried fdisk in the morning...hehe!

Good Luck dude!!

Possible failing PSU or Faulty RAM module/s would be my first thought.

Best methods to test the PSU is either with a multimeter to check voltages or replace with a known working PSU and see if there's any change!
Try swapping ram modules (if you have more than one) in different DIMMS and booting with only one stick in at a time, alternating them ensuring they are correctly seated!

Check all other data and power connectors are fitted nice and snug!

The alarm you hear is caused by your system failing POST, and they are known as error codes.....Is it one continuous sound or a series of short and long beeps?

Take a look here for error code analysis depending on your BIOS version http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

Regards :cool:

So last Wed I noticed that my PC was acting really weird. A few quick examples, I couldnt remote into it and it was running really really slow.

Have you done all your scans and ruled out Malware as a possible cause?

Can you give any clues as to what caused these strange events to happen last Wednesday? Install any new software or add any new hardware :) or do anything out of the ordinary?

Checked all of your IDE data ribbon and molex power connections to the drive just to make sure all is snug, especially your secondary channel connection to the mobo!

Regards :cool:

OptoRite is an optical drive manufacturer that are fairly new on the market....since 2001/2002 i believe. Some say good, some say crap, who to believe?

Anyhow, one possible solution may be to uninstall the actual drive itself from device manager, and then reinstall. This will prompt windows to re-allocate the correct driver as the 'found new hardware' wizard picks it up!

This is assuming that you have already right clicked on the drive from device manager and selected 'update driver', with no success!
If you have'nt changed drivers this way, try that first.

I'm assuming your windows OS is XP service pack 2?

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article01-420

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283658

Providing you have a copy of your Nero program on disc, Unistall it from 'add remove programs' and then re-install a fresh copy to rule out any corruptions with your writing/burning program which may be the culprit!

Regards :cool:

Based on your error code, take a look here..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/articles/11215.aspx

Good Luck :cool:

WTF!.....35 Malware infections!

Wrong forum Matrix69, I recommend you post your concerns in the 'virus's, spyware and other nastie's' forum!
Let the experts take a look for you!

Good Luck!

OK, you have established that a faulty monitor is not the cause in this situation!

It may be a problem with the video card, video controller or driver!

Does anything show up in 'Device Manager'?

Im assuming that the mobo has onboard graphics as you say that you added a vid card to the machine but windows wouldnt recognize it!
Did you enable the bios to recognize a PCI/AGP video adaptor as it would be set to onboard recognition if this is the original mobo setup?
Also, did you make sure you installed the correct drivers for the card that you added?

To aid your troubleshooting, try the card addition again making sure you get these 2 crucial factors above, correct.
At least before you splash out on a new mobo!

If you still have no success the issue may lie elsewhere, and may still be either software or hardware related!

See how you go! :cool:

What was the 'automatic update' about?
(I am assuming it was a windows update of some sort)

Did you update IE? and what version of IE are you running?
Have you tried opening the same pages using a different browser to see if the same problem exists?...ie Firefox

Also, have you tried rebooting your system aswell as your modem after the installed update? (you would be surprised what a reboot can resolve)

Sorry for the 20 questions but it all helps.
Let us know what you can!

Regards :cool:

'NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart'

Possible causes..... (my $2 worth)

(Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS).

Verify that your hard drive is properly setup in the BIOS setup. This includes checking that the correct boot order is installed. Improper settings can cause this error and so can attempting to boot from a non-bootable media.

(Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file) .

Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.
You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.
Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter "E". This letter may be different on your computer.

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.

(Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file).

Edit the boot.ini on the root directory of the hard disk drive and verify that it is pointing to the correct location of your Windows Operating System and …

The best way to tell, is to see if you can get your hands on a 'borrowed', known working monitor and see if that works with your system!
Dont forget to use the good monitor cable, and power cable, that came with the 'borrowed' one and try these first! If you have success, swap the cables with your original ones and try again. Still working?
You now know that the old HP is toast!

Obviously, if you still have the same dilemma, then the issue may lie with the vid card or somewhere else, but i bet thats unlikely!

Good Luck :cool:

For complete system device information, download and install Everest! Its freeware!
http://www.majorgeeks.com/EVEREST_Free_Edition_d4181.html
However, I dont think we shall need it on this occasion!

What dcc means is what program are you using to write (burn) the data to disc? ie Nero, clone, etc
Also, where did you install the burning program from? (ie genuine disc, home production disc, download from a site, etc)

Your problem sounds as though it may well be a software/driver related rather than an issue with the optical drive itself.

Let us know what you can!

Good Luck :cool:

Malware is a likely scenerio here, however in order to be sure you will need to get your system running in order to perform scans and post your logs!
Try starting the computer with the "last Known Good Configuration" setting. To do this, follow these steps:
1. boot your system pressing the f8 key to access the menu options.
2. When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, use the ARROW keys to select Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked), and then press ENTER.
3. If you are running other operating systems on your computer, use the ARROW keys to select the Microsoft Windows version required, and then press ENTER.

This should allow to get back up and running to follow Keiths advice and also post your logs for assistance (if need be) in the Malware forum!

Good Luck :cool:

I have seen that error message before when installing a scanner on windows 2k!

Sadly, you can end up troubleshooting it for hours or days on end as it seems to be a problem with some sort of registry corruption i believe.
The problem was corrected quickly and efficiently with a format of that partition and a clean install of windows.
Its probably not what you wanted to hear but i bet it works a treat!
Your call...

Good Luck! :cool:

oops.....sorry nickyt8, you did mention that!
my oversight....doh!

Can you get your hands on the old ps2 connecting keyboard and mouse?
These should operate straight of the bat and allow you to enter your system and check for problems and reinstall the necessary drivers!

Regards.....

More info is always helpful in helping you to solve these sorts of issue's ie. desktop or laptop?, type of operating system and also what you see on your monitor when this situation occurs!
Also, can you think back to anything you did in particular before the situation arose, ie did you install any new software or hardware etc.

There could be several issues causing you to suffer 'memory dump', including bad drivers, software installs etc. Do you get the 'memory dump blue screen'? A 'stop error' code?

You may experience the "memory dump blue screen" if you don't have a good video card (common with older laptops). This occurs if you have hardware acceleration turned on. Don't worry, there is an easy solution, turn hardware acceleration off so your computer is just using software acceleration.
To do this choose Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display, then choose the Settings tab and click on Advanced. Then choose the Troubleshooting tab and move the scroll bar to none.
Hope this helps!

Good Luck :cool:

Sounds as though you have either a driver issue, or device conflict issue with that particular install of windows, which i will assume is XP!
Have a check in 'device manager', and see if there are any yellow exclamation marks or red crosses next to the device in question!
Having used Vista since its early development, i forget the exact path in XP, but i think you can access device manager from start>control panel>administrative tools>computer management, open DM from the left tree pane and then click on the little plus (+) signs next to 'keyboard' and 'mice and other pointing devices'.
If you dont see any colored symbols, right click the listed devices in question and select 'properties' then the 'driver' tab at the top!

From here you should see the currently installed driver version, date and supplier.
You can also update( which is the option you should choose), roll back and uninstall the current drivers!

Installing the current driver versions for your devices is not a bad idea, and these can be usually obtained from the device manufacturers website if windows doesnt find them on the update!

Good Luck :cool:

Yep....agree with mechbas here!
If your connection has been established, but you cant recieve any web pages through your browser, then something within your own operating system is denying this.
If you are running windows firewall or another third party firewall, try disabling it, and see if you can access web sites then. If successful, you have found your problem. Dont forget that some antivirus software have their own firewall installed also (ie AVG pro) so you will need to check this out, depending on which program you are running.
You could also try rebooting your modem to see if this helps! (switch at the back)
It is then extremely important (from a security point of view) that you also re-enable your firewall after all this, and configure your access permissions within the software to allow future browsing!
Let us know if this helps!

Good Luck :cool:

Once you reset your router back to default (factory) settings, you must re-configure all your settings (ie SSID, WEP/WPA etc) and these settings must be identical on every device that uses your network in order to establish a connection!
Once configured, reboot and see if you can ping the router using its default IP from your system. If the ping is successful, you have established a connection!

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/trench/9778.html

'Cant access the router using its default IP'?
Can you access the login page when you type the routers IP in your web browsers address bar and hit enter?
From there, you will need the routers default password to gain access to its configurations.

http://www.routerpasswords.com/

Also have you checked that (assuming your using XP) the windows XP driver is compatible for your network adaptor? It may pay to install the updated driver just to be sure.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313242

Your routers firmware is hard wired within your router and it is virtually impossible for it to disappear or be accidently deleted.
The problem lies within your routers, and/or network devices configuration setup

Good luck :cool:

Sounds like you gave the wife administrative rights to her user account which XP will do by default...you can manually set your choices to either admin, user or guest.
This will restrict the functionality of these accounts and provide greater security for your system if you limit those users whom are prone to contracting malware.
You mention that you discovered 9 spyware codes on your wifes user account, which you say is par for the course....this is not good.

I would be questioning how this malware is being contracted and taking measures to ensure its not repeated!
One method is to take away these admin rights in the user accounts!

When a user or administrator logs on with administrative rights, any programs that they run, such as browsers, e-mail clients, and instant messaging programs, also have administrative rights. If these programs activate malicious software, that malicious software can install itself, manipulate services such as antivirus programs, and even hide from the operating system. Users can run malicious software unintentionally and unknowingly, for example, by visiting a compromised Web site or by clicking a link in an e-mail message.

Malicious software poses numerous threats, from intercepting a user's logon credentials with a keystroke logger to achieving complete control over a computer or an entire network by using a rootkit. Malicious software can cause Web sites to become inaccessible, destroy or corrupt data, and reformat hard disks.

Anyway, i think you get the picture now........

By seperate sides, do you mean a partitioned hard drive that you each boot into seperately or simply different user accounts?

Have you tried uninstalling, then re-installing IE?

Does the same problem occur when using another browser? ie FF

Serial ATA interface disc drives are designed for easy installation.

It is not necessary to set any jumpers, terminators, or other settings on this drive for proper operation. The jumper block adjacent to the SATA interface connector(if one exists) is for factory use only.

With a Serial ATA interface, each disc drive has its own cable that connects directly to a Serial ATA host adapter or a Serial ATA port on your motherboard.
Unlike Parallel ATA, there is no master-slave relationship between drives that use a Serial ATA interface.

You can use a Serial ATA drive in the same system with Parallel ATA drives as long as both interfaces are supported on the motherboard or with a host adapter. This makes it easy to add Serial ATA compatibility to your existing system without removing existing Parallel ATA disc drives.

I have always found these guys helpful for a read! http://www.mysuperpc.com/build/pc_sata_install_hard_floppy_drives.shtml

For Firefox junkies,
select 'Bookmarks' at the top of the browser, then select 'manage bookmarks' to open the bookmark manager.... now select file>export... choose your location etc etc, and job done!

Yup.....

This is a relatively simple operation and invaluable if anything goes wrong. To back up your favourites using Internet Explorer, go to File > Import and Export. The Import/Export wizard will open and all you need to do is follow the instructions and Export a back up of your favourites to another location on your hard drive or even better, to a second hard drive. The exported folder can then be saved to disk using a software backup program such as nero or the like!
You can import your favourites into Internet Explorer in the same way