Posts by gerbil

DBAN writes a jumble of ones and zeroes to the whole drive. It the disk will take a format, don't worry about it. IDE optical drives I place as Master on the secondary IDE interface. Or I used to... don't have one now.
Setting the jumper to Master or Slave should not matter at all, as long as you don't have two drives on the interface identified the same way.

Ah. A spelling issue. SCVSSSVC.exe

The command should be:
dir C:\Program Files\HP\Common>XXcopycommon.txt /a /s /og
What is SVSSSVC.exe?? Could you post a hijackthis log?
HiJackThis:
You have a choice of versions, installable program or stand-alone executable; in action they are fundamentally identical.

i] -download hijackthis: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5554.html or http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/
-dclick that .msi file to install Hijackthis as a program. Else...
ii] - download the executable file from: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/files/hijackthis.php
- unzip if necessary; copy hijackthis.exe to a new FOLDER placed either alongside your program files or on your desktop.
Start Hijackthis via the desktop icon or by dclicking hijackthis.exe.
- CLOSE ALL OTHER APPLICATIONS and any open windows including the explorer window containing HijackThis.
- click the Scan and Save a Logfile button. Post the log here.

Google is fine, as long as you take a couple kilos of salt in there with you. Put that on your shopping list.

You missed the HP directory in that line. You can copy/paste in a cmd window. No matter, PP'll see you right. It'll probably come down to dll confusion.

As far as I know, BIOS during POST just interrogates the controller as part of its process of listing connected hardware. No actual test of functionality is involved, just a return of type information. If it won't format with either of the two methods I suggested, it is for all intents dead.

Possibly it did, possibly it already was from when the formatting failed. A successful formatting would write a bootsector for the partition being created, and also write the MBR to the first disk sector [before the first partition]. Certainly, a disk without an MBR won't be seen by Explorer because it won't be able to find any partition information [partition info for up to four primary partitions is in the MBR, or up to 3 primary and one logical; further logicals are chained]. Explorer won't present a partition with no drive letter, either.
You can use a Windows Setup cd to format the drive if it can be recognised - just go as far as you wish creating partitions and then exit by pressing F3 twice.
Or use Partition Wizard [free].
As an aside, I checked the SMART records of my drives... not a single bad sector recorded.

"sorry to be so long answering this post". Nope. This goes at your pace. Ok, and mine, also.. :). I try to be timely but it is not always possible.
To temporarily disable real-time scanning, open MSE, click the Settings tab, select Real-Time Protection, and clear the check box. Remember to turn it on again.

I don't wish to take over from PP here, simply because as i stated before i don't have a definitive answer to the problem. But your cmd window plaint I can address:
You do not have to change the prompt of C:\Docs n Setts\You> to anything else at this time, simply open a cmd window and rclick anywhere in it, and paste [or type] in that line i gave...
dir "C:\Program files\HP\Common">c:\XXcopycommon.txt /a /s /og
That will do it for you.
A lesson - to change that prompt to C:\> simply type cd\ [and press enter]. To change to another drive or partition you must inform it that you are doing so with the /d parameter, and type, say..
cd /d e:\
or... cd /d d:\work or cd /d "d:\my work" - the "" are because of the space; no "" and my will be considered the filename and work a parameter. cd is exactly similar to chdir. Another... cd c:\"program files"
Look, it's all fun, and to discover more just type help. For info on a specific command type eg. dir /? or dir help. You are welcome to ignore that lesson, too. Folks make it through life without knowing any of it. They are the lucky ones.

I'm onto a hiding to nothing, PP. :) And us perfect scripters will let you off this time.
Personally, I think HP hates M$ with some great passion. Those dlls obv don't conform, hence the private "common" folder. I guess there is an error somewhere in that folder, or the calling of some content, and its popping to the desktop is just showing that. I don't have a solution, bar repairing that HP software.
Anyway.. er, moggie, that is a dir of system32, not Hp's common. Try pasteing this into the cmd line:
dir "C:\Program files\HP\Common">c:\XXcopycommon.txt /a /s /og
- give us the contents of that file in C: root.

I'm not leaving out any options that i am aware of. Basically, those things perform in two states only: perfectly well, anything else is not at all.
For fun, give it an hour in the refrigerator.

I could have written that a bit better. Chopping and moving bits garbled it somewhat. What i meant was.. the user profile could not have gone into [or stayed in] the bin otherwise its file table entries would be intact. Outside the bin, sectors marked as deleted are re-usable, hence are not safe. By file tables being corrupt, I meant only the actual entries for the files you seek being broken, not the table integrity lost.

I understand. i like to get things working, too, and sometimes will invest more time than the object is worth, just because it's a challenge. And that's just fine. But there is something bigger here - data security. Please don't risk the pain of losing stuff. Open the drive [remove the silver? tape] and you have a ripper mirror.
So all is not lost. :)

It would appear to be mortally wounded; you could have no confidence that anything you managed to get on it would be accessible. A drive should just work, and perfectly. Personally, I wouldn't use it even if it did struggle to life. I must ask, does it work properly on your friend's computer?

All recovery softwares head straight for the file tables [master and perhaps the backup]. With an NTFS system there is no other way... the file tables record which sectors are used for each file, a deletion is made by marking those sectors' entries with an altered bit; the table entries [filename and sectors used] remain intact. If both tables are corrupt then the affected files are pretty much lost to all but the most expensive forensic work.
So if you delete a profile [a collection of files and registry entries] then the associated sectors are marked, as mentioned above. If the Recycle Bin is full or a file etc is too big then it won't be placed in the bin. Shift-Delete, an application delete or a cmd line delete won't put them in there, either. Once so marked they can be overwritten at any time. Pretty much, if those apps don't show the profile's files, then they are gone.

If a Dell XP cd loads and validates onto a non-Dell system, I would like to know about it.

Ah... that is because PP's fixit worked for you - it ws scripted to remove those entries from registry, and so they no longer appear in hijackthis.
What, actually, are the contents of that common folder? And what is its full path? A quick way to kill both those birds is to use "dir" in the cmd window, and then to copy the cmd window contents, paste here.
Cmd copy etc functions are exposed by rclicking inside the top border of the cmd window. Copy is a bit weird... you can just use Select All, and Copy [by rclicking in the border again.. sigh...] or you can select only what you wish to copy by first using Select all, and then mousing to select the region you really want. Just something more to convince me that the M$ developers rarely talk to each other.

Sometimes, helen, the only way to uninstall a corrupt product is to first correct the installation, then uninstall it. May i suggest that you reinstall AVG over the current pgm? AVG's installer will inspect what you have then ask whether it should repair or uninstall - choose Repair. Then try the uninstallation process again.
AVG installer link [I assume that you have the latest version, free edition? : http://free.avg.com/au-en/homepage
There are free uninstallation programs out there, but i think they all invoke the object pgm's own uninstaller and then search for and delete remnants. I would attempt to repair the AVG first as noted above. If it fails again, well, here are a couple to try: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/Revo-Uninstaller-Pro.shtml [30 day free full-working trial] and: http://download.cnet.com/IObit-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-75161625.html?part=dl-6271865&subj=dl&tag=button [always free].
Not having had any really obstinate pgms I personally have not used either. So....
Ads for escorts [we won't mention ad-targeting here...] and bikes? Time to take MBAM for a trot again [update it first!].
My time. I'm not over-extended. I do this when I have a spare moment, others do crossword puzzles. When I cannot cope, or don't know, i'll say so.
Cheers.

It is an installaer package error. Try this:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5541530_fix-nsis-error.html
..or just download the package again. something has been corrupted.

mmm.. helen, before you scoot off.... did either of those two procedures I gave you work to create a new administrator account? And if so, were you able to successfully transfer across files that you wanted?
AVG. Gone?
I really do not mind helping further, if I am at all...

Hi. Your post is not at all long... I hate guessing. Queryiing for more info just wastes time.
"It shows up in BIOS and My computer and Disk Management just fine. Under Disk Management, it's apparently "Healthy"" just means that the controller on the hdd is working and responding to probes. It does seem that the actual disk R/W process is failing, though. If it has SMART support you could use a tool like SIW by Gabriel Topala to query its performance. Failing that, then try DBAN to wipe the drive, and try formatting again.
DBAN = Darik's boot n nuke... dl and copy to a medium you can boot from... a floppy, USB flashdrive, point it at the CORRECT drive.. :)

Another Oops! moment...
Give sooky a password..
net user sooky * .

Oh, computer names. Yes, there are several, and it can be confusing. If you go to System Properties via Control Panel,
[or go Start > Run, paste: control sysdm.cpl,,0 ..and press Enter] you will see under Registered to: your? name and organisation name you gave during installation. The number code is the Product ID and relates to your machine and the installation medium type.
You can only change the first two via registry [see below]. Do not change the Product ID.
A couple of tabs to the left you see Computer Name; this is the name by which your computer would be seen if you networked it. You can change that right there.
To change your registered name and organisation name:
...first copy the text in the box to a notepad [format/wordwrap unchecked], alter what is inside the RHS "" to whatever you desire and let the "" remain, and save as fixkey.reg to your desktop; dclick it to run... agree; if it opens in notepad instead rclick the icon [file], choose Merge, else choose Open with, Registry editor....

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]
"RegisteredOrganization"="at home"
"RegisteredOwner"="sooky"

That should do it.

Firstly, your being an administratror. All too often an account will get blitzed and its properties confused. Often the creation of another account [it must be with a different name because Windows encodes account names and buries those codes deeply] and then the copying across of everything under Documents and Settings will solve that problem. But you cannot use the Guest account to create an administrator account, you can only do that with another administrator account, or through the Administrator account.
Seems like you are the only administrator. Okay. When you installed XP it created the default Administrator account, and it is still there, just normally hidden. It was hidden the moment you created your own administrator account. To reveal it during login you can use Safe Mode, and also there create your new administrator account. [If you are the only user then pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del twice just as windows starts in Normal Mode may not get you the screen with Administrator login]. Oh, by default, the Administrator account password is blank, ie press Enter.
You should also be able to do it while logged in normally if your sys still sees you as an administrator. Let's see if it does... go Start, Run, and enter cmd
In the cmd window enter..
net user -you see there all the accounts your machine has; some may surprise you by their existence! Okay, now enter..
net user helen [or whatever your admin account name is]. Near the bottom …

Mike,of course you should be able to, and simply, and I am not sure how you managed to foul it up. :)
The first job is to attempt to recover any file you have lost in the process, and this free pgm will make a fairly decent go of that: gurgle for and dl...
REST2514.EXE - best is if you use another computer to dl it, and dl it to a removable medium such as a floppy or USB flashdrive from which you then run it [this avoids the creation of temp internet files etc which may overwrite your lost data]. Failing that, just dl it to your hdd and run it from there.
Dclick that exe to run it.
The other job simply involves creating a folder set as you go that reflects what you want to do. Explorer almost presents the actual physical drives as "invisible", showing them as merely part of the whole folder structure.
COPY your data over; "Moving" files involves the simultaneous deletion of the parent files... you may not wish to risk that?
As a further step it is possible to move across all the pgm and system temporary, application and data files, and inform the system about where they are so that data is no longer written to your C: drive, but I'm not too sure that you are ready for that...

Cool, Helen. Your last post has the log that I wished to see [x2.. :) ].
Zwankysearch is no more.
Are you still hoping to uninstall AVG9? Choose the uninstaller/removal tool from here: http://www.avg.com/ww-en/download-tools To stop AVG9 dclick on the Resident Shield icon, then uncheck the Residential Shield Settings and lastly click Save Settings. Then run the removal tool.
I'm not sure you need all those toolbars? You can uninstall the ones you don't want. IMesh... hmmm. And
Your trusted zone should not contain any entries, really. Anything in there can download anything it wants, no checks. You can remove them via the Security Zone in IE, else...
-start hijackthis again, click Scan, in the window that opens place checkmarks against all the entries listed below that still exist, and then press Fix Checked.
O15 - Trusted Zone: http://www.mp3rocketpro.com
O15 - Trusted Zone: *.mymusicinc.com
O15 - Trusted Zone: http://www.news.com.au
O15 - Trusted Zone: http://www.superantispyware.com
There is nothing else showing as bad in the log.

Good-oh, techno. Panda seems to now ignore cookies with the quick scan, and it is about time cos they are harmless.
Rest easy.

Oops. Sorry, Helen, I forgot that the hijackthis download from the site I gave now comes as an installer package which actually installs Hijackthis as a program. It is also still available as an executable [exe file] which does not require installation.
I have accordingly reworded that advice script [meant to do it ages back...]. Note that I have removed the renaming; that was a hangover from when malwares identified hijackthis and prevented it from running.

HiJackThis:
You have a choice of versions, installable program or stand-alone executable; in action they are fundamentally identical.

i] -download hijackthis: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5554.html or http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/
-dclick that .msi file to install Hijackthis as a program. Else...
ii] - download the executable file from: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/files/hijackthis.php
- unzip if necessary; copy hijackthis.exe to a new FOLDER placed either alongside your program files or on your desktop.
Start Hijackthis via the desktop icon or by dclicking hijackthis.exe.
- CLOSE ALL OTHER APPLICATIONS and any open windows including the explorer window containing HijackThis.
- click the Scan and Save a Logfile button. Post the log here. It is fine to just add it as text to your post, or you can attach it via the Advanced Editor section.
MBAM should have identified and removed Zwankysearch [zwangisearch] if it was present. But we can check that. They are browser redirectors, sending you via their own website, and include their ads.

It certainly will back up Outlook. Just include the folders that contain the files you wish to backup. Be aware that apart from your being able to schedule an automatic, periodical backup that you can also use Syncback to backup every few minutes work that you might be doing [by actually running the pgm in the background]. You can group various backup tasks to, say, run on a schedule and leave others for backing up when you so choose...
There are other, more configurable backup pgms out there, it's just that this one does me just fine.

Mmm... then I am very likely south of you. Could you do these two things?
==Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
from: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Malwarebytes_Anti-Malware_d5756.html
or: http://www.besttechie.net/tools/mbam-setup.exe
=Dclick that file, mbam-setup.exe, to install the application,
-ensure that it is set to update and start, else start it via the icon, and UPDATE it.
Select "Perform QUICK Scan", then click Scan; the application will guide you through the remaining steps.
ENSURE that EVERYTHING found has a CHECKMARK against it, then click Remove Selected.
If malware has been found [and removed] MBAM will automatically produce a log for you when it completes... do not click the Save Logfile button.
Examine the log: if some files are listed as Delete on Reboot then restart your machine before continuing.
Copy and post that log [it is also saved under Logs tab in MBAM].
{If it will not run in Normal mode try a Safe mode run first, then repeat in Normal mode.. save and present both logs].

==download hijackthis: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5554.html
-copy it to a new FOLDER placed either alongside your program files or on your desktop and then... rename hijackthis.exe to imabunny.exe
-in that folder start HijackThis by dclicking the .exe
-CLOSE ALL OTHER APPLICATIONS and any open windows including the explorer window containing HijackThis.
-click the Scan and Save a Logfile button. Post the log here.
If you do those thnigs it gives us …

Online backup? You mean cloud backup? Then I dunno. Clouds are too... nebulous. Here today, gone tomorrow.
But if you want a free and good backup tool to run on your sys, then try Syncback Free. It will backup to removable media, too.
An XP Backup? You mean a System State Backup? Everybody should do them, and OFTEN. With XP Pro, the tool [Backup] is already in Pgm Files\Accessories\System Tools. Home users must suck it off their cd especially. System State Backup is a part of that, an option.

Aw, heck.. the detail you don't give. Uninstalling an OS should NOT remove any of your other [data] files. Installing another one afterward with a quick format will likely overwrite them. It depends.... if they exist on the hdd but are lost then it is possible to sometimes recover some of them. Reinstalling Vista on the same partition will just compound your problem. Anything that Vista could see should be visible to W7, other stuff may need special recovery tools. Ask if you need help with that.

It does sound a bit like a hard drive problem. You could try clearing the surface with DBAN -gurgle for that- and then attempting to reinstall Windows.
But first, go into your Lappy's BIOS setup and stop its logo from presenting so instead you see the POST results. check that your hdd is being properly recognised.

Panda is a good scanner. It will remove viruses, and I believe some trojans, at no charge... but you must pay for spyware and other pestware removal. Of course, it does provide you with the list of incidents.... you can remove them yourself, or use it to judge the performance of other tools. Just for fun, I just did a scan with their online scanner... not a single thing found.
Believe them. Try a run with MBAM.

Stand on the edge....

It reads like he did. If you want the SP2 upgrade file, this is the one to get: WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe
It a self-installer package. Just dl from a safe source and dclick to run. Of course, you will have ascertained that your computer is virus/malware free beforehand....

Could you post that actual boot.ini, ceria?
And tell us which partition it is in, which one XP is in, and where Vista was. Drive letters will do.
Also go into Disk Management [via Admin Tools, computer Mgmnt, or just go Start and Run diskmgmt.msc -and tell which partition is marked as Active, and/or System?

Then there is this tool from AVG... http://www.avg.com/ww-en/download-tools
The changer popup? How about telling us what it actually says, and what originated it, what pgm it is from..? Every hotmail login...heh... prob M$ trying to change you over to Bing.
Bing. How did they come up with that name? How on Earth? What were they drinking?

Well, it does really depend upon where it is found. For example if in C: root...ie c:\i386, then that is likely the i386 folder copied in by someone to save loading the installation cd when, say, running sfc. You can delete that one, noting of course, the caveat i presented.
If it is found in Windows\Driver Cache, then no, don't delete it... this is a backup cache of updates from KBs, or Security etc updates.
If it is in Windows\SevicePackFiles then it contains the files from a ServicePack update eg to SP3. If you need to run sfc to repair system files, or the OS invokes the File Protection System then files from this folder may be required.
Then there is the multitude of i386 folders in ReinstallBackups in system32. These are the older drivers cached after hardware driver updates. Pretty much, if your hardware is working fine currently, then you don't need these.
And if you take any notice of this and your system falls apart, then I cannot be found.

Vineet, operate under the assumption that kernel32.dll is fine, instead look for a startup program tha might have a problem. You could use msconfig to temporarily stop things such as Orbit Downloader, TUProgST, GoogleUpdater, and restart to see if the error re-occurs.

"What happened and how can I re assign the letter C: to the System Hard drive ? "
Within any practical meaning of the term... you simply cannot. Setup has embedded the drive letter H: thoroughly into the registry, into many, many keys and values.
Reinstall with those "slot drives" empty, or disconnected.

Mmm... that rather says that explorer thinks that j:\ is a filename [well, that is how it works...], and it will think that right up until it discovers that it is actually something higher up the tree, like a folder or drive letter. So, my guess is that the partition table is disturbed. I mean, it obviously did not find J: was assigned as a drive letter. We can repair that if you wish...? Just ask.

Is there a lil webcam on top of the screen? It sees you staring....
Only slightly more seriously.. if it does not respond to software commands to turn on then it is either a software or hardware malfunction.
Try reloading your display adapter drivers. Test change screen resolution, disallow screen blanking after a period [power scheme]. If when the screen is blank you haul the pointer off to one side [just guess] and rclick to get the display context menu and still the screen does not respond, then once again, it's a soft or hard problem. In a darkened room can you see any faint window content? If so, hardware, the backlight.

Disk activity. Perhaps foobar does not load enough look-ahead music data into memory to cope with playback while the hdd is occupied with other work. Try another media player. VLC, perhaps?
Jacking up CPU priority of foobar probably would not affect the latency of disk access from a just-previous CPU operation on another thread.
Just guessing....

When I used IDE I had the hdds as Master + Slave on one interface [sorry, I've been calling it a controller...], and an optical drive as Master on the second interface.. [current sys has but one IDE interface, and it is unused, all Sata gear].
Anyway, I could get confused here.. are you saying that your sys has only one IDE interface? An interface can handle two drives, it is the software drivers that interpret to which the data should flow. So the BIOS software integrity is still relevant. Are you using the 80-wire IDE cables [same connectors, just internally connected grounded shield wires]?

I see, aaafan. Then perhaps you could strong-arm it; delete the pgm files folder Java and its contents, plus the system32 file javacpl.cpl. There are other files in system32, but that one is the one Java reads to open. There are reg keys too, but they would be rewritten when you do a fresh installation, and as I said before, I cannot see Java taking its version info from reg reads. Anyway... it is strange... most pgms are written so as to not mind being installed over the top of themselves; sometimes there are glitches and doing that swiftly repairs them. But try ther offline download.. a manual installer download.

Well, that is interesting, because my Java is up-to-date and working correctly; if I run the topmost, online installer on that page it downloads the file and then comments "The software has already been installed on your computer. Would you like to reinstall it?"
Simple as that. It reinstalls it.

http://www.insideoe.com/files/store.htm
Copy over your inbox.dbx, and any other especially named folders that you may have created.

When Java Update is run it does a version check, then compares that with the website. I have monitored what happens on my computer, and cannot see it check that information from the registry entries, and so i assume that the updater takes its version info from one of Java's files. I cannot tell which one; several have version information in them.
Why not test your Java by visiting their website http://www.java.com/en/download/help/windows_manual_download.xml -the test applet is at the foot of that page. And if it does not pass, then you can use those instructions to brute-force install Java correctly.

Fair enough. If you have deleted all Sun Java pgm files, and any in Application Data, and because I cannot find in registry where the pgm version is picked up, then I do not know where to look next. If it is not a reg read, then it has to come from a file somewhere. I imagine one in system32, possibly javacpl.cpl.
Anyway...

Because most IDE-based machines have two interfaces, try plugging the cd drive into the other interface.. eg.. as slave on IDE 01, or as master on IDE 02.
And if that does not work, try a BIOS flash. But... it is just an IDE data stream, and i could guess that it is pretty much the same as a hdd stream. I know that Southbridges fail.. I had to get a warranty replacement on one.... it was fine with small files, but any transfer approaching even a few MB simply overheated it and the board would just freeze. Why yours handles a hdd transfer and not that of a cd drive, though, does puzzle me: an hdd puts way more heat load in there. Flash the BIOS, even with the same file if there is no update available.
Let me know what you find.