Posts by DMR

Hey,

I went to the acrobat website and found a way to stop these files from being created. Visist this website: http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/330414.html

Great- thanks for posting that link! I only did a quick look through Adobe's site, and I didn't see that article.

If i wanted to restrict IE [any browser] to only a limited few sites, could i then simply place them in hosts, flush the DNS cache and disable DNS Client Service

Technically, yes- I think that would work, although I haven't actually tried it. (I'd set the DNS client service to "Disabled" just to make sure it never gets activated). It's a pretty brute-force "solution", but if you're only planning to grant access to a small number of websites (via hosts file entries), it would be manageable. Of course, you're right about just plugging raw IP addresses into the browser- that would obviously defeat the blocking.

In terms of the problem at hand- I hate to say this, but I think it needs to be said:

Throwing technology at the problem of a child's computer misuseage/overusage doesn't really solve anything. The issue of your son's computer usage is, to a large degree, behavioral, and a true solution needs to be of like kind.

do you have to disable the DNS Client Service to get xp to read the hosts file before going off to look up an IP?

The hosts file is always read, and is always refered to, before a DNS server lookup. Technically, what really happens is that the contents of the hosts files are read (preloaded) into the local DNS client resolver cache; it is the local DNS resolver cache that actually gets queried (before the request is sent to a DNS server). Since the resolver cache may hold other (valid) cached DNS URL->IP address mappings, it's probably a good idea to delete the existing contents of the cache before you start restricting sites via IP/URL blocking. Open a DOS box, type the following command at the prompt, and then hit Enter:

ipconfig /flushdns

The acrxxx.tmp files are temp files created by Adobe Acrobat. The fact that they accumulate is a known problem; if the number of these files stored on your computer exceeds 65,536, your computer may actually crash when you try to work with PDF documents.

I don't know if there is a way to stop them from being created, but they can definitely be safely deleted. I use a helpful little tool written by called ATF-Cleaner, which quickly and automatically deletes old files like temp files, cookies, browser cache files, etc.

Hi cpici- welcome to DaniWeb :)

This particular forum is just a place where members can introduce themselves, but we don't work on technical problems here.
If you can tell me which version of Windows you're using, I'll move your question to the most appropriate forum.

Thanks.

Sheesh! Talk about blowing your own horn...

:mrgreen:

Hi William Kruger- welcome to Daniweb :)

First of all, I've split your post into its own new thread, as per the guidelines stated in our posting rules:
"Do not piggyback threads (aka "hijack" threads) by posting your question as a reply to another question."

Regarding your problem: Because there are different variants of the infections that cause the bogus warning symbols, and because every member's computer is configured somewhat differently, here's what you need to do in order for us to get an initial picture of the state of your computer:

Download the (free) HijackThis utility.

Once downloaded, follow these instructions to install and run the program:

* Create a folder for HijackThis outside of any Temp/Temporary folders and move the downloaded HijackThis.exe file to that folder now. A folder such such as C:\HijackThis or C:\Spyware Tools\HijackThis will do.

* Run HijackThis, but do not have HJT fix anything yet; only have it scan your system! Once the scan is complete, the "Scan" button will turn into an option to "Save log...".

* Save the log in the folder you created for HijackThis; the saved file will be named "hijackthis.log". The log file will open in Windows Notepad once you save it; cut-n-paste the entire contents of the file from Notepad and post it here.

The log contents will tell us a lot about what "nasties" have crept into your system, and once we analyse the …

Have you totally disabled all firewall software on all machines while performing your troubleshooting? If you can't even ping a machine, it's often a question of blocking by a firewall.

and i my computer displays a black screen with white text on it..

Please try to be as specific and detailed in your responses as possible; the more details we have up front, the faster we'll be able to get you up and running again.

* It's normal for lines of white text to scroll down the screen during the process of booting in Safe Mode; the lines are displaying the names of all of Safe Mode drivers that Windows is loading. The boot process may appear to freeze for a bit at that point, but after a short delay it should continue to the Windows startup screen and then the desktop.

* If the computer does actually halt/hang during the driver-loading process of the Safe Mode boot, reboot again using the F8 key to get back to the Boot Options menu, but this time choose the "Last known good configuration..." option instead of "Safe Mode". The system may be able to boot itself back to an earlier non-corrupted configuration.

Give us feedback on the above suggestions and we'll take it from there...

System information? Do you mean the BIOS's POST (startup routine) information that displays (white text on black background) before Windows actually starts?
If so, you may just be starting to hit the F8 (to enter Safe Mode) too early. Some BIOSes will freeze (and sometimes even give you an error beep or message) if they get overloaded with F8 keypresses too early in the boot-up cycle. If this is the case, try again; if not, tell us exactly where in the POST routine it stalls.

1. Reboot the computer in Safe Mode.
2. Log in under the "Administrator" account.
3. Make your change in the Users and Groups control panel.
4. Reboot normally.

IPlugged the old drive in, but the computer wouldn't recognize it (tries to find it, but can't).

Is it just Windows that doesn't recognize the drive, or does the computer's BIOS not even detect that the drive is at least physically present?

Hi,

first of all, i m sorry that i have already posted one similar thread which i can't seem to be able to delete. can any one please tell me as how to delete a thread if its irrelevant.

Once another member has replied to a thread (as seems to be the case in your other thread), only a moderator can delete that thread. I've deleted the thread for you. :)

Congratulations Davey:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/06/10/13/2136211.shtml :)

(hope our servers are up for the traffic...)

I'll be moving on back to my dreams of the simpler life of those teenage dreams...

Heck, I'm just thinking of moving on back to my dreams of the simpler life of those teenage girls. :mrgreen:

Hey Dani- Happy (day after) Birthday!

[IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/Smilies/party.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/Smilies/party.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/Smilies/party.gif[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/Smilies/GroupGrins.gif[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/Smilies/party.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/Smilies/party.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/Smilies/party.gif[/IMG]

As for teaching soemone to build a port scanner, and then sniffing around someones box, no pun intended, I dont think this is the place for that.

this is all IMHO

It's M(NS)HO as well.
Considering that certificate/login validation is an everyday part of client/server transactions, I question the need for the requested functionality in a legal setting.

In some cases that's the faster, easier way to go. Glad you got it going again, regardless of the method. :)

What you describe could certainly be the early warning signs of a dying drive. Both Maxtor and Western Digital have diagnostic utilities available which will test the integrity of their drives; if you want to get a more definitive idea of the health of your drives, you should download and run those utilities. Here are the links to the utilities:

Maxtor's "PowerMax" utility:
Bootable floppy disk version
Bootable CD-ROM version

Western Digital's "Data Lifeguard" utility

.

Hope Mr. Happygeek comes down on you with his stick

Ha! Let him bring on his stick- I shalst whacketh him with The Sacred Wet Trout.... [IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/Smilies/fishwhack.gif[/IMG]

(its really a big one from what i have heard :P )

Nooooooo comment! :eek:

Uncalled for and in no way relevant to the topic. Please refrain from personal comments Mr. Iamthwee.

I'm sure it was all in good fun, and hopefully AD will take it that way. Wee-wee doesn't have a habit of taking nasty jabs at other members. :)

Hi goodgood,

You've definitely got a few infections, but there is one thing you need to take care of before doing anything else:

C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\Temporary Directory 3 for hijackthis.zip\HijackThis.exe

The log entry above indicates that you are running the HijackThis.exe program from within the downloaded HijackThis.zip download package. You are also running HJT from within a Temp/Temporary downloads folder.
One of the normal steps in eliminating malicious programs is to entirely delete the contents of all Temp folders. Given that, if HijackThis (and other data that you care about) is living in those Temp folders, it will be erased along with everything else!

Please do the following:

* Create a folder for HJT outside of any Temp/Temporary folders. A folder such such as C:\HijackThis or C:\Spyware Tools\HijackThis will do.
* Right-click on the HijackThis.zip folder and choose the "Extract all..." option from the resulting drop-down menu. This will start Windows' Folder Extraction Wizard. Click the "Next" button to start the wizard.
* In the next window, click on the "Browse" button. In the destination selection box, navigate to the new folder you created for HJT, hilight it, and click "OK".
* Click "Next", and then click "Finished"; a window dispaying the newly-extracted hijackthis.exe file should open.
* Double-click on the hijackthis.exe file to verify that the program works. If it does, just close hijackthis for now.

That problem looks like it should go to Viruses, Spyware and other Nasties Forum.

We're moving there now... buckle up for the ride :)

I'm wondering how many boards I'm going to see this spam on....

Yeah- it's a typical (and sadly transparent) spammer contrivance:

New Member A posts: "I've heard about this product called XYZ. People have told me it's really great, but I want to get some other opinions before I buy it. Has anyone here used XYZ?"

New Member B chimes in: "Hi- I've been using XYZ for quite some time now, and I can tell you that it really works. I'd recommend it to anyone!"

Now- would it surprise you know that the Daniweb membership database indicates that "Jean5" and "BillyColl" both registered from the same IP address? No... I didn't think you'd be surprised.

I was considering delteing this entire thread on the grounds of it being Spam, but I think I'll just leave it here instead. That way, if people are Googling for "EXECryptor", they can find this thread and come to their own conclusions about the product based on the way it has been *ahem* "marketed" here. [IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/Smilies/possessed.gif[/IMG]

Hopefully you can avoid a reformat. Here are a couple of links containing suggestions for dealing with a Dynamic Disk which is reported as "Unreadable":

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_21305462.html
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=236086

* By "quit working", do you mean that it just stopped appearing in Windows when you plugged it in, or did it/does it exhibit some other kind of symptom?

* Are you having problems with any other USB devices, or is it just th ethumb drive?

* Were there any errors or other indications of trouble that you noticed just before the drivestopped working? If so, give us as much detail as possible about what exactly happened.

* Does the drive work on any other computers?

* Open the Event Viewer utility in your Administrative Tools control panel and look through your System and Application logs for entries flagged with "Error" or "Warning", especially those which look like they relate to USB or drives. Double-clicking on such an entry will open a properties window with more detailed information on the error; post the details from a representative sample of some of the different error messages (please don't post duplicates of a given entry, or flood us with the entire contents of the logs).

To post the details:
In the Properties window of a given entry, click on the button with the graphic of two pieces of paper on it; the button is at the right of the window just below the up arrow/down arrow buttons. You won't see anything happen when you click the button, but it will copy all of the details to the Windows clipboard. You can then paste the details into …

Our apologies- we're not ingoring you, we're just stretched a little thin helper-wise right now.

What exactly happened in your case I can't say, but having been through it a few times before, here's the general course of events as best I could determine once I'd resurrected the drives:

1. Something (could be anything) corrupts a piece of software, usually a driver. In my last two incidents the culprits appeared to be a) a power outage, and b) a driver update conflict. SOmetimes the STOP code in a Blue Screen error can help you more accurately determine the exact source of the corruption.

2. Driver goes BANG!, OS gets showered in shrapnel, and either the driver, the OS, or both do some serious fandango on disk and memory locations that they definitely shouldn't be writing to.

3. One of those areas turns out to be the Master Boot Record, the Master File Table, the Partition table, or some equally critical and low-level section of the drive.

Linux has some tools which will try to "guess" the partition type (FAT, NTFS, ext2, etc.) of a damaged disk and will therefore often be able to mount and access the disk (assuming the entire partition table isn't hosed) when Windows can't. Linux also obviously doesn't care about Windows boot-related files, so doing something like trashing the NTLDR file won't stop Linux from being able to recover the rest of the files on the drive.

As for the …

Have you looked in to FileMaker Pro? It's a good balance between ease-of-use and functionality, especially if you aren't heavily in to database development

Type: Dynamic Disk

I think that's your clue- the disk was formatted as (or converted to) a Dynamic disk, and Dynamic disks are handled differently than "Basic" disks. Do not try to convert the disk back to a Basic disk- you will lose all data if you do so!!

Troubleshooting steps, including instructions on how to reactivate a Dynamic disk, can be found in this Microsoft article.

1. If you have a utility package like Norton System Works, you can try one of those disk/Registry repair utilities. They sometimes do a better job than the basic repair tools that are included in Windows.

2. If you're at the point where you just want to delete the folder, you might be able to do it through DOS mode:

• Restart your computer
• After hearing your computer beep once during startup, but before the Windows icon appears, tap the F8 key continually;
• Instead of Windows loading as normal, a menu with options should appear.
• Use your keyboard's up/down arrows to select the "Safe Mode Command prompt only" option and then hit Enter.

This will boot your computer to a DOS screen. At the DOS prompt, type the following command and then hit Enter:

rmdir /S/Q full_path_of_folder's_location

.

Hey Pal, u seem to specialize in big words !!!! What in heavens name do you imply by asking how the array was created. Lets forget the semantics.... and answer the question please !!

A) I honestly don't understand why you're responding with that type of attitude. You are the one asking for help, and I am trying to give you that help. I understand anyone's frustration with computer problems, and their desire to get them resolved as quickly as possible, but trust me- courtesy on your part would be a good place to start. Supplying enough information for us to give you the right answer is the next step. Rebuilding MBRs, MFT, Partition Tables, and the like is not a trivial task, and one wrong move could blow the drives away for good.

B) There are no "semantics" in my reply- quite the opposite: I used the word "array" because that is the precise technical term for different physical hard drives which have been joined into a single logical drive. I actually go out of my to avoid being vague, because that only leads to vague information being given in repsonse to my questions.
Perhaps you are just unaware of the different ways that drives can be joined, and that would explain your apparent belief that there is "An" answer to your problem, which can be instantly handed to you.

C) Creating striped drives or other kinds of arrays can be done with Windows itself (using …

Is the computer still slow/freezing?

OK- A few likely possibilities: IE could be corrupted, your connection/ISP could be having problems, or you could have gotten infected with something that is interfering with your browsing.

1. Download and run ATF Cleaner. It's a free, easy-to-use utility which deletes old (and possibly corrupt) Temp files, cookies, and the like.

2. Download the free IEFix utility. As the name implies, it fixes a few common Internet Explorer problems which can slow down or "break" your web browsing.

3. Do a thorough check for virus/spyware infections. Recommended antivirus/antispyware programs, links to free online scanners, and more can be found in these threads:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread27519.html
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread27570.html
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread28196.html

4. Call Road Runner and ask them to test your line.

5. Download another web browser (Firefox, Opera, etc.) and see if that browser performs as expected.

The folder may have gotten corrupted; check the drive for filesystem errors:

1. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
2. Right-click on the C: drive.
3. Choose "Properties" from the resulting drop-down context menu.
4. Click on the "Tools" tab in the Properties window.
5. Click on the "Check now" button.
6. Put a check in the "Automatically Fix..." and "Scan for..." option boxes.
7. Click the "Start" button.

* If you are prompted to restart the computer in order to perform the scan, do so. The scan will start automatically when the computer reboots.

.

I don't see any signs of infection in your HJT log, although a clean log is by no means indicative of a clean computer. Please give us the details McAfee reports about the infection (exact file name(s), file location(s), etc.

I'm not sure about EasyCleaner (I don't use it), but there is a small, fast, simple, and free utility called ATF Cleaner which cleans up cookies/cache/history/etc. for Opera and Firefox. It cleans up general Windows/Internet Explore leftovers (Temp files, Trash, Temp Internet files, etc.) as well.

* If you can give us any deatils on the history of the problem, that might help.

* Is this just an IE issue, or are other network functions (sending/receiving email, for example) slow also?

* Give us the details of your network/Internet setup.

Hi,

I'm unable to open a file that has videos in it

A file, or a folder?

keep getting a windows explorer error... also search for it the explorer error message comes up.

What is the exact Explorer error?

Are you using Windows 2000, or XP?

How exactly was the array created in the first place? The method used to create the array may have a bearing on how (or if) it can be repaired.

Unfortunately, if your sister really did a System Recovery, I don't think there is a way to undo that (although I haven't used HP/Compaq's Recovery utility in a looooong time, so I could be wrong). I'm surprised that your data files are still intact though, as the Recovery utility is designed to return the machine to its original, "out-of-box" condition, which essentially involves a reformat.

i just missed a wire i had to add to the adapter...

D-oh! :mrgreen:
Seriously though- glad you found the fix.

FC5== Fedora Core, release version 5 :)

Good find- the card is made by a Chinese manufacturere named "Sanxi". Unfortunately, their web site is basically horrendous, probably even more so since I'm trying to navigate the English version of it.

I could only find a driver download for the "A" version of that card, but it looks like it should work with all cards that use the ULI M5285 controller chip. The download file is in RAR archive format; you'll need a decompression utility such as WinRAR to "unzip" it. Instructions for creating the driver installation floppy and using that floppy during a Windows XP installation can be found in the README.txt file in the CK-0019A\SATA50XX folder of the driver package.

There is 2 viruses that keep showing up here they are:

Win32/Vundo
Win32/Chisyne!generic

Not surprising- the Chisyne! family of infections is known to download and install Vundo as well. :(

There is one thing we need to take care of before we continue:

C:\Documents and Settings\The Franks\Local Settings\Temp\Temporary Directory 1 for hijackthis[1].zip\HijackThis.exe

The log entry above indicates that you are running the HijackThis.exe program from within the downloaded HijackThis.zip download package. You are also running HJT from within a Temp/Temporary downloads folder.
One of the normal steps in eliminating malicious programs is to entirely delete the contents of all Temp folders. Given that, if HijackThis (and other data that you care about) is living in those Temp folders, it will be erased along with everything else!

Please do the following:

* Create a folder for HJT outside of any Temp/Temporary folders. A folder such such as C:\HijackThis or C:\Spyware Tools\HijackThis will do.

* Right-click on the HijackThis.zip folder and choose the "Extract all..." option from the resulting drop-down menu. This will start Windows' Folder Extraction Wizard. Click the "Next" button to start the wizard.

* In the next window, click on the "Browse" button. In the destination selection box, navigate to the new folder you created for HJT, hilight it, and click "OK".

* Click "Next", and then click "Finished"; a window dispaying the newly-extracted hijackthis.exe file should open.

* Double-click on the hijackthis.exe file to verify that …

OK- I don't have time to post a full reply right now; if I haven't done so by the time you next check this thread, post a response to get my attention.

The "ULI M5285" number is only the identifier for the main controller chip on your card; I'll need at least a brand name for the card itself in order to help you find the right driver software. Look on the card and your paperwork to see if you can determine the card's manufacturer; if you find an actual model name/number, that would be even better.

There are a few methods/utilities mentioned here:
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

A Google search using the following search string will yield more info:

"windows xp" password administrator reset

If you mean that you want to install Windows while the drive is in your system, and then put the drive back in his system, no- that won't work, or at least not gracefully. For one thing, unless your systems are identical, you'll run into hardware/driver conflicts when XP boots on your friend's machine, because he'll have different hardware for which Windows was not configured. The other problem is XP's anti-piracy activation/validation scheme, which will automatically sense that your friend's machine is not the machine on which Windows was originally installed. To get XP to run on his machine, you'll probably have to call Microsoft and go through the hassle of getting a new activation key.

... All the users are deleted except for HP_admin... she tried doing something like a "system recovery."

Oopsie! Sounds like she managed to do something very close to that, if all that you have left is the default "HP_admin" account.

It would be very helpful to have more specific details on exactly what procedure she tried (and how far she really got with it) before we start suggesting fixes. In particular, knowing whether she tried a "System Recovery" or a "System Restore" would be a Good Thing.