Posts by DMR

pm5559:

I've split your post into it's own separate thread so as not to have posts regarding your question get confused with those regarding the original poster's question.

Your new thread is here: http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/showthread.php?t=5473

:)

Weird indeed.

Looks like the Software Gremlins got bored and went to find someplace else to play... :D

Let me give my background up front. I have been an electronic technician for 40 years and a PC technician for about 25 years. I was a major PC warranty station for Zenith in 1984 and have taught computers, as well.

Avoid Dell like the plague it is--they are totally custom, hence difficult (near-impossible) to upgrade--and you are limited to what Dell sells: Intel only.

Most of the negative stuff about HP and Compaq is based on the old-generation equipment. While I might not use them myself (I build my own these days), I have, in fact, recommended the newest generation of Compaqs to some users.

TallCool1,

Your background (and my being fairly new here) aside:

A) My experience with computers goes back quite a way as well, but my hands-on experience with both HP and Compaq systems, and hence my recommendation to stay away form them, comes form recent experience, not legacy.

B) Dell systems are not "totally custom".

However, you are definitely correct in steering blue29 towards a custom-built system; had I gotten the impression that blue29 was inclined to go that route I definitely would have suggested it.

(BTW TallCool1- your profile says that you spent some time in audio recording- when and where? I was in that field for 15 years)

A system restore might work, but than again it might not.

Sorry for the short and cryptic response, but I'm just on my way out the door to make meeting with a client; I'll try to get back to this as soon as I can.

...i highly HIGHLY suggest getting off of Windows XP as soon as humanily possible.

I really do hope you meant "onto" there Zachery... :cheesy:

Yeah- ME is a dead-end OS, not to mention the fact that it's got problems out the wazoo.

I agree about HP; I've had nothing but nightmares with the HP systems (mostly the Pavillion line) that I've had to service. I can honestly say, for a number of reasons, that I would never recommend an HP system to anyone. I've always had a problem with some of "proprietary" stuff that Compaq has done as well (that friggin' "diagnostic" partition for one), and considering the fact that Compaq has merged with HP... well, you get the idea.
If you're going to buy a system from one of the well-established vendors, I'd go wiht Dell at this point. I've had great experiences with Gateway in the past, but A) others haven't, and B) it's been a while since I've purchased anything from them.

I also understand your reasons for not wanting to learn another OS at this point, even if you aren't particularly happy with Windows. However- keep in mind that if you get a large enough drive (or a second drive), you can install Linux as a separate OS if you want- it (or Windows) can be configured to boot multiple OSes on the same machine. I have one of my old P-III boxes running Win 98, Win 2k, and XP, as well as 3 versions/distros of Linux.

BTW- with a cap of $3000 in your budget, you should definitely be able to get a box that will last you for a loooong time for that amount or less.

Hello,

I was wondering Lastoria if you were running any anti-virus software, and a firewall. Your computer absorbed damage from this round, and am curious what you were thinking of doing for prevention. If you are not running Antivirus and a firewall, we should talk to help prevent future problems.

Christian

Yes, definitely good ideas; they'll help you avoid having to go through this again.

Also- as I've pointed out to others, you really do greatly lessen your risk of getting polluted by malware if you use a browser other than Internet Exploder.

Unless you really just can't live without IE, try Netscape, Opera, FireFox and the like instead. Those browsers are, for a few reasons, much less of an "open door" into your system than IE is.

A little more information would help us.

What exactly happens when you try to perform the tasks?
Do you get any errors? If so, what are they (exactly)?
Has anything happened to the system lately that might contribute to the problem (crash, installation of new software, etc.)?

OK, let us know what happens and we'll take it from there.

There seem to be a number of circumstances under which you might get that error. Read through some of the links in the following Google search to see if you can find a solution or information pertinent to your particular problem. Let us know what you come up with.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22This+patch+package+could+not+be+opened%22&btnG=Google+Search

OK, I'm not as much of an expert on all of the various malware programs out there as some of our other members are (I use Linux primarily, so I'm immune to this stuff ;) ), but the log looks pretty clean to me except for all the Yahoo toolbar/serch/etc. crud.

Have you done a virus scan?
Have you run Ad Aware and SpyBot?
If so, what did they have to say?

Also- what about your security settings; have you checked those yet?

OK, if you want to specifically use the IPs that you've got and access the machines from the Net that way, I'd install a good software firewall on each of them. You might want to take a look at the Zone Alarm firewall packages from Zone Labs.

OK- have you tried booting into rescue mode from the install CD yet?

Hello Ian- welcome! :)

2 things come to mind:

1. Check all of your computers for viruses and spyware/malware/adware; these programs can cause the connection problems you're experiencing. Read through some of the other threads in this forum for instructions for downloading, installing, and running the following (free) spyware removal utilities:

HijackThis
Ad Aware
SpyBot Search & Destroy
SpywareBlaster

2. Check your security-related settings in your Internet Options control panel.Make sure your security levels aren't too restrictive, that you don't have unwanted entries in your "Restricted Sites", etc. You can try lowering the security levels temporarily and see if that helps; if not, my bet would be that it's a spyware-related problem.

So, are you saying that when you go to View->Customize Current View, it's set to sort by "sent" date, but still sorts by "To" instead? Have you tried setting up a new custom view and seeing what happens there?

May I ask, is tilting actually a problem for laptops?

No, tilting isn't a problem per se. My bet as far as the sensor mechanism goes is that it thinks that in the case of excessive tilting, that might indicate that the laptop is on its way to doing something bad, like sliding off your lap or a table.

I will say that I find the mechanism to be a bit sensitive on my particular machine, though- I first triggered it just by tilting it up to see how much heat was being dissipated through the bottom of the unit.

And so you have it mate:
[img]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/beer.gif[/img]

In terms of svchost, you can think of it as program/service "launcher", much like run32.dll. An explanation is here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;250320

It's often normal to see multipe instances of svchost running for the reason given above, but malware programs can be launched by svchost as well, so I'd go ahead with SpyBot and see what happens from there.

Many of the malware programs do make registry modifications, and the removal utilities (including SpyBot) will detect those- that's part of their job. I've never had a problem with SpyBot or Ad Aware deleting something they shouldn't, but if you're unsure about deleting any entries those programs found, let us know and we can you if they're safe to delete or not.

I have an error myself. When I try to open my Windows Media Player..A window pops up saying "killah has caused an error in KERNEL.32.DLL" how can I get rid of this error?

A) While your problem might be related to spyware or the like, your specific error isn't directly related to this thread. You should delete your post here and start a separate thread, giving more information abvout the problem (when did it start, what changes you might have made just prior to the problems' occurrence, etc.). One of the Moderators has posted a notice concerning the "piggybacking" of one problem into/onto a pre-existing thread, and it makes sense:

please! if you have your own problem start your OWN thread about it.

i dont like having to split threads and whatnot, plus its hard for us to deal with two problems in the same thread.

Thanks

B) Download and run the spyware/adware removal tools mentioned in this and many other of our recent threads.

Bloody Slackers! :cheesy:

Also, Redhat 9's support life is almost expired.

Yes. Version 9 was the last official freely-distributed "Red Hat Linux" release before they went to the (not free) Enterprise line and spawned the (still free) Fedora project. Fedora is not a direct Red Hat product; RH supports the effort as a collaborative partner, but the Fedora project itself is not an "arm" of RH. Support for RH 9 and earlier versions will probably still be available for some time in the form of documentation on the RH support site, but direct customer support and development is definitely slated for extinction very soon.

Many say that Redhat is great for newbies, when really it isn't too much different than any of the other mainstream distros. From what I remember, Redhat 9 didn't even come with an mp3 decoder, yet came with a plethora of multimedia applications...

RH pulled "out of the box" mp3 support to avoid possible legal issues; you can still add it post-install. "Dependency Hell" aside, it's a pretty good distro for those coming from a Windows world; the lastest offerings from SuSE and Mandrake fall into this category as well. All are very intuitive, and come with a couple of very slick choices of GUI environments (yes, in Linux you aren't stuck with one).

Knoppix would be great for testing out your hardware to see what you can get working in linux before you actually install it.

I would boot up Knoppix to see …

What is the exact program, and are you sure it's compatible with XP at all?

The reason I ask is that you gave very little information to go on as to what exactly "doesn't work".

It sounds like you have a piece of rogue "dialer" software on your system, probably the result of a virus or spyware infection (variants of the "sobig" virus are known to do this).

- Do a thorough system scan with Norton Anti-Virus or the like, and make sure you're using the lastest virus definition file when you do. Also download, install, and run the following (free) spyware/adware/malware removal tools:

Ad Aware
SpyBot Search & Destroy
SpywareBlaster
HijackThis

You can find download sites for the above utilities by searching www.google.com.

The error message you're getting is indicating that the piece of software is trying to connect (without your knowledge) to some server on the Net, but isn't reaching that server for some reason. The reason it's trying to connect in the first place is to:

a) relay information it has gathered about you from your computer back to the remote site.

b) download additional malware components to your system

The root of that error message seems to range from a scratched or bad install CD to hardware conflicts (given the CRC error, I'd suspect a bad disk or drive). The following Google search for your specific error yields some solutions and explanations:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22SXS.DLL%3A+Syntax+error+in+manifest+or+policy+file%22&btnG=Search

You could also try booting into rescue mode from the install CD and see if you can fix it from there. Might be less painful than a full reinstall.

Also- where exactly in the boot process does it go bluescreen? Depending on the severity of the improper shutdown (a power outage, for example), there might have been some physical damage to some component of the system.

Um, psst!:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324103

;)

See: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.funlove.4099.html for an explanation.

What's most likely happening is that the virus had initially spread to other machines, either via the network or by shared media, and the cleansed machines are now getting reinfected from a source or sources that didn't get properly/thoroughly cleansed.

In other words, you probably missed something; you should go back and thoroughly scan all possible media onto which the virus could have copied itself. This could include floppies or CD that have been distributed, backup media, etc.

Remember that the virus bypasses normal filesystem security and can modify the kernel itself, so don't assume that the virus couldn't possible have gotten into a given location.

You will need the latest version of HJT which is 1.97.7

Absolutely- the spyware definition database used by an 8-month old version of HJT is going to be horribly out of date. If you can't get on the Net from the machine in question, download HJT on another machine, whack it on to a CD, and install it that way.

As for a walkthrough of using HJT, please read our other recent threads on the whole subject; HJT instructions and some very useful info on spyware in general have been posted numerous times by a few of the members.

:)

RUNDLL32 caused an invalid page fault in
module FX20.CPY.DLL at 0167:10016bf3.

You've still got a piece of spyware stuck in your teeth... :cheesy:

The xxxx.cpy.dll is a spyware component responsible for "phoning home" to download ads when you log on to the Net. The filename itself is randomly generated, but it will always have cpy.dll as part of the name. Basically, you need to find and delete any xxxx.cpl.dll and related files; there'sa good walkthough of the removal process in this link:

http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/11144.html

I'm having a similar problem as well with our monitor
we have windows 2000 and recently a horizontal line
which keeps changing colour (usually it's red/pink/blue/yellow)
started to appear on the right side of the screen
it sometimes disappears but it always comes up again

could this possibly be a trouble with the RAM as you've mentioned?

The first thing to do would be to narrow down the location of the problem by (assuming this isn't a laptop):

1. Trying a different (known to be working) monitor on the machine. If that monitor exhibits problems, you can start looking inside the computer for the cause.

2. Put the monitor with the display problem on another computer. Obviously, if the monitor still has the problem, it's the monitor that needs repair.

3. Make sure you don't have anything which throws a magnetic field sitting to close to the monitor (speakers, for example).

I belive most of the IBM laptops (please correct me if I'm wrong) have some type of like shock portection in the hard drive so if it gets droped by acident you can pull the hard drive and it should still work.

The newer models definitely do. It works sort of like the "tilt" sensors on a pinball machine- if it senses excess vibration, jostling, tilting, etc. it immediately suspends drive activity and parks the heads so they don't crash into the platters.

Usually you don't; you assign the machines on the local network IPs from one of the private, non-routeable ranges like 10. or 192.168. and set the router up for NAT (Network Address Translation). The router will "learn" the IPs you assign to the LAN machines, and by setting up port forwarding as in chanto!'s example, will route both outgoing and incoming requests to the proper destination. The manuals that accompany most routers do a good job of describing how to set everything up, but if you have specific questions just tell us the model of router and we can walk you through it.

How does getting rid of ads and spyware affect my procesor?
Does spyware run in the background or something?

Yes, that's the whole idea of malware programs. Depending on the particular program, it might also be generating network/Interent traffic that you aren't even aware of.

How much memory do you have in your system? If you've got 256 or more and you're still experiencing slowdowns, I would seriously check your system for spyware/malware.

Right off the bat, I see a few unwanted guests:

PGStub.exe
WHENUSEARCH
WAST (wast.exe)
AdRoar

You might need to use other utilities beside SpyBot, Ad Aware, and HJT to get rid of these, but I just don't have time to post links to the possible utilities right now. A google search for the items listed above should get you what you need.

Sorry for the lack of specific info, but if you look around the forums you'll see that we've been absolutely blasted with spyware-related issues lately. Don't worry though, caperjack will be along soon to get you all sorted out... :cheesy:

OK- I'll bet you've probably picked up a bunch of spyware/malware, and that's what is clogging up your system. Download, install, and run the following (free) malware removal tools:

Ad Aware: www.lavasoftusa.com
SpyBot Search & Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/
SpywareBlaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
HijackThis: http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

I would suggest running Ad Aware and SpyBot together; run one of them, reboot to make sure the fixes take effect, and then immediately run the other. Close all unnecessary program before doing the runs.

Also, you should use Window's Automatic Update function to install the latest security patches and bug fixes for the operating system, Internet Explorer, and Media Player- Microsoft has recently posted some new updates which, among other things, can help make your system more immune to the effects of malicious programs like spyware/adware/malware.

Unless you remove the bridge.dll reference in your registry, you'll continue to get the error message when you start your computer; if the bridge.dll file really doesn't exist on your system, there's no problem other than that.

You're welcome :)

Yeah, it sounds as though you might have something flaky on the mobo- try a replacement, before the warranty runs out :sad:

ellie,

All of the information in this thread might seem complicated, but it really isn't. Installing and running the removal utilities mentioned here is really pretty straightforward.

Unfortunately, some of the malicious programs dig themselves very deeply into your system, and sometimes the only way to fully eradicate them is to go in with a pair of surgical tweezers. In other words, sometimes there is no easy, "point-and-click" fix.

This is no one's fault; the people who write these malware programs are just constantly designing the programs to be more and more difficult to remove, and the people who write the removal utilities are constantly trying to play "catch up".

I want 3 machines to have different static IPs that are my external IPs so I can run a ftp server, webserver and a game server.
pc 1= xxx.xxx.xxx.xx1
pc 2= xxx.xxx.xxx.xx2
pc 3= xxx.xxx.xxx.xx3

Man- if you're going to do that you'll have three unprotected machines, running three vulnerable services, sitting out there for anyone to have a whack at.

Unless I'm really being a muppet here (which is quite possible) I think I understand what you want, but what's so bad about using the router and just properly configuring its port-forwarding? Sure, you'll only have 1 static IP on the WAN-facing side of the router, but when you hit that IP in a web browser, the http requests will get sent via port 80 to the Web server; when you FTP to that IP, FTP requests will get routed via port 21 to the FTP server, etc.

As far as static vs dynamic IPs, you can still assign the servers static addresses even if they're behind the router.

• Under Control Panel, select Administrative Tools.
• Select Services.
• Double-click on Messenger.
• In the Messenger Properties window, select Stop, then choose Disable as the Startup Type.
• Click OK.

Sometimes weird toolbars come up but I get rid of those programs.

It certainly sounds like a spyware/malware issue- exactly how are you removing the offending programs, toolbars, etc.? There have been a number of posts here in the last few days which deal with effectively getting rid of malware- take a look through those for solutions.

What is the Windows switcher power toys?

Fast user switching- this Google search will give you info on that:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=windows+%22power+toy%22+%22fast+user+switching%22&btnG=Google+Search

In Task Manager, look in the "processes" tab and see if you can determine which process is chewing up your resources.

Does this happen randomly, or does it seem (think carefully) to be related to running a certain program or performing a certain task?
Close down any programs you don't need and disable items in your system tray (anti-virus, etc.). If that cures the problem, restart the applications you closed one at a time to see if you can pinpoint the culprit.

Check your ISP's service policy- if they've got a timeout policy, they may also prohibit you from running "keepalive" programs. Note that TallCool1's solution doesn't look like it would violate that policy, as the keepalive activity is being done on the site's end, not yours.

Your connection software might have a timeout setting as well, but without knowing what OS and connection software you're using, I can't give you anything specific.

My $0.02:

I just got a new IBM Thinkpad T-41 which just about fits those specs, and I love it- I've hardly touched my desktop systems since it arrived. I've used a few T-40s in the past, which is what prompted me to check out the T-41.

Thinkpads aren't the prettiest things in the world, but they're very well-built and comfortable to use.

Do you get a POST beep code? If so, what is it? The particular code can point you toward the culprit.

If you haven't done so already:

- Triple-check all of your connections/cables, jumper settings, card seating, etc.

- Remove all non-essential hardware, leaving only the hard drive, floppy, video card, and 1 stick of RAM. Does it boot?

- If not, swap the RAM with another stick and try again.

- If it does boot, reinstall the removed components one at a time, booting the machine after each piece is installed. That way you might be able to determine which component is bringing the system down.

- If none of that works, remove AC power form the system and pull the CMOS battery. Keep the battery removed from the system for 15-30 minutes to allow any residual charge to dissipate. Reinstall the battery and see if she boots.

- Reset the motherboard. The motherboard usually has a jumper to perform this function; check your documentation.

Since you have 5 legit IPs, you could connect up to 5 machines to the modem with a switch or hub (either will work), but you'd lose the security that a firewalling/NATting router gives you.

In terms of switch->router->other PCs, yes- there's no problem with doing that.

I'd go with chanto!'s port-forwarding suggestion though, that will keep all of your machines behind the router.

and loudly proclaimed:

ahhh! finally, somebody got tired of reading the endless and repeating HJT logs... LOL :cheesy:

Man, ain't that the truth! :cheesy:

This is crazy, folks- caperjack has given the answer to all of these spyware/adware/malware questions multiple times in this thread; why all the "thread piggybacking" on this one?

Just download, install, and run the utilities listed in his sig. There's no need to ask about each and every individual occurrence of spyware infestation; The utilities will detect and remove most if not all of these malicious programs.

In terms of bridge.dll specificaly, it's a component of the Gold Casino malware program. It can be particularly annoying, because A) it's very prevalent and very easy to get hit by, and B) it's a real pain to get rid of entirely, because it seems to get it's hooks into the system pretty deeply. It also appears to be one of the "smarter" of these pests, because as far as I can tell it has the ability to reinstall itself if you don't get every last bit of it out.

For spyware/adware/hijackware/ad nauseum programs in general:

You can protect yourself from many (all?) of these pests by not using Internet Explorer as your browser. Because IE is so closely integrated with the Windows operating system itself, programs which compromise IE can gain greater access to the OS, Registry, etc. than can other browsers such as Netscape, Opera, FireFox which only run in "user space".

<edit>

Of course, you could just run Linux and avoid all of this hassle altogether. :cheesy:

</edit>

of their wombats

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [RunDLL] rundll32.exe "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\BRIDGE.DLL",Load

There's your answer right there. bridge.dll is a component of the Gold Casino spyware/malware program, and that registry entry needs to go.

If you've got Gold Casino on your system, you've probably got other nasty unwanted guests on there as well. First- download, install, and run these two (free and excellent) adware/spyware removal tools:

SpyBot Search & Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/
Ad Aware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com

If they don't fix the problem, choose "run" under your Start menu and type "regedit" (omit the quotes) in the resulting dialog box; this will open the registry editor.

In the registry editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run. Right-click on the entry with the bridge.dll reference and choose "delete".