Posts by gerbil

Sorry, techno, that commit charge makes no sense to me... surely it is not so low with 47 processes running? Lessee, from TM, under Commit Charge, post the 3 figures for Total, Limit, and Peak. Just a snapshot will do, no need to average em mentally or suchlike.
Knowing that you have 1G of RAM, the Limit figure will indicate the size of your PF. [it is RAM + PF - Kernal usage]. Or just post a pic of your TM.

Hi, go to Task Manager's Performance tab. Urk, it needs a bit of interpretation. So, to start, the figure at the foot of the PF Usage chart is in MB, other figures are in KB, and the conversion factor is 1024.
PF Usage is a misnomer in Task Manager : the figure at the foot of the Page File Usage graphical monitor is the Commit Charge, which is actually the sum of RAM in use + Page File in use.
Commit Charge [KB] = curent total memory usage [of both RAM + PF][KB]. It is just the amount of virtual memory the OS has committed to the running programs.
Limit CC = Most of installed RAM + Page File size. Most of RAM? XP always keeps a variable amount of RAM in reserve. If you disable your page file you will see that CC Limit is less than Total Phys MEM [RAM] by about 50KB or so, the reserve. This rises rapidly as you have more processes running, probably because the OS calculates that there is a bigger chance of an emergency memory call occurring.
At bottom of TM you see that PF Usage number repeated as Commit Charge [Total]. The second figure there is Commit Charge Limit, now in MB ...[x 1024 to get KB].
You have 1024MB of RAM; compare the size of your "PF Usage" to the size of your Page File and you can see how much the sys is using. …

The dual processors should handle the individual threads with no problems at all. Actuators/heads do not come into this because the drive controller or the windows disk drivers will queue R/Ws to the hdd. But possibly the ms installer software could be doing something like creating temp files with non-exclusive names -> confusion.
I don't know, and because I'm not too fussed about saving seconds when installing etc, I aint looking. :)

Good-oh, DaM. It does seem as thought the R/W capability has been blasted. Option 2 for the drive is a shaving mirror.

I did say "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.", and that is true.
The jumper you placed is to limit the disk size seen by the interface so that a FAT32 format into just one partition can cope with it [for W2000]. That, however, is not the disk size limit, not is it the volume size limit for XP. I suggest you read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184006
and this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463
And yes, you can boot with it. Just that nobody uses FAT32 when NTFS is available... for data security.
Linux is a different kettle of fish as far as disks go. I know nothing of it.

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.

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.

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 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?

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.. :)

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.

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.

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.

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...

Hi. If you opened the cmd window and there ran...
msizap.exe g
the window would have hung around for you to read and then close. Running that command from the Run box will do the same job, but as you found, the cmd winndow does not remain. No matter, it would have listed what it had done.
So, try to install Java RE now.

Oh, crikey! So sorry, I typed in the wrong file name!! Here is the offending post reworded. [I'll get a mod to edit the original for me.]
It is also available from here: http://majorgeeks.com/Windows_Instal...ity_d4459.html
-in this case you are downloading msicuu2.exe -dclick this to install the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility, then from its program folder copy msizap.exe to C:
-you can then uninstall the cleanup utility that was just installed; you only need msizap.exe. And run as above in a cmd window...
msizap.exe g

In the rar package from http://rafaelwolf.com/sharedfiles/msizap.rar there are just two versions of msizap.exe - msizapU.exe is also renamed to msizap.exe, ready to run.
MsizapA.exe is for Windows 98 etc.

It is also available from here: http://majorgeeks.com/Windows_Installer_CleanUp_Utility_d4459.html
-in this case you are downloading msicuu2.exe -dclick this to install the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility, then from its program folder copy msizap.exe to C:
-you can then uninstall the cleanup utility that was just installed; you only need msizap.exe. And run as above in a cmd window...
msizap.exe g

Mmm... okay, it is a windows Installer problem... let's clean that up. Download this pgm, Msizap.exe, and copy it to your C: root. Do not dclick msizap.exe!!! Instead, open a cmd window and drag in Msizap.exe, then on that cmd line add..
g -so that the full cmd is "msizap.exe g"
Run that.
And try to update again.
---To get Msizap.exe, download this: http://rafaelwolf.com/sharedfiles/msizap.rar
Extract, and then copy only Msizap.exe to your c: root. You don't need the other files in that package; it is safe to delete them..

pos, go to the nasty viruses etc section in this site, and follow the guide in the first star post at top. Post those logs either here or there. Then we may be able to help.

Try this: download this removal tool, JavaRa: http://sourceforge.net/projects/javara/files/javara/JavaRa/JavaRa.zip/download ; Unzip, and dclick JavaRa.exe. In the box that pops press Remove Older Versions.
You might also then try to update Java using the Update button; select the first option, to use jucheck.exe [that will work if Java is actually installed].

And be sure to use the Service Name, not the display name. check via ..
sc query

A Problem... look, you are going to have to get a Recovery Console of some sort. Cannot you borrow an XP cd?
No? Then perhaps you can download one of these and burn it to a cd [unzip if necessary, then burn the .iso, don't open it!]:
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/bootdiscs/xp_rec_con.zip
http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso

Use the cd to boot your sys into the RC. I think then you could try again to uninstall SP3... its uninstall files may exist still. It is possible that one or more of the replacement files did not copy correctly.
Anyway, in the RC, enter these commands:

cd %systemroot%\$NtServicePackUninstall$\spuninst
batch spuninst.txt

" Here is what I got: orange - 6.7V, red - 10.5V, purple - 10.4V, yellow - 25.7V."
And you used Black as the ground [or low/negative connection point] for your meter? Please don't use that PSU... it is not regulating. I am surprised that your mb has survived... it says a lot for the mb's onboard regulators!! Get it tested, but repairs are usually not worthwhile when compared with the cost of a new one.
Don't continue using it to test it with HWMonitor!!
[Aside.. a lot of boards now use 24 pin connectors... it allows systems with equipped PSUs to source extra power from another PSU output, it is added on the mb to power from the other lines.]

It's 120vac, then.
but please, use that software I mentioned. It will give all we want, and more. Post a screenshot, or save the log and post the top bit of it, down to the line Thread Dumps [we don't need to see those], about 1/10 of way down a notepad.

And if the PSU passes those tests then you need to use some software which will give you the voltages the CPU is getting. You see, the mb has several power supplies devoted to the CPU, these can be software regulated... a good, quick and simple application is this one: HWMonitor from http://www.cpuid.com/softwares.html
Actually, if you got this, ran it and posted a screenshot of the result, that would do nicely. Save you measuring voltages [assuming your HP is compatible].
Yeah... assuming that your sys runs long enough to use this app, I'd prefer you to do this... just for safety's sake [yours and your mb's!!]. Install it to your desktop for easy access.

Re the line voltage...Er.. what country are you in? What is your domestic line voltage? Normally this would have been set correctly by the manufacturer or exporter of the PSU for the country where it is to be sold.
Go to this site: http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html
Near the middle of the article, just above the 3-line paragraph starting with this: "Some of the voltage lines on the connector may have smaller sense wires ..." you will see a two-section table of Pinouts referring to the mb plug ... Pins 1-10 and Pins 11-20.
Wire colours to the other plugs follow the same convention... eg on a power plug to a cdrom or hdd you will find red 5v, yellow 12v, 2xground black.
Don't worry about the levels on the grey and green wires. Measure carefully, don't slip the probes!... measure at the back of the mb plug. Probe tips will reach the contacts inside.
You must have the PSU connected as normal otherwise it will not regulate. The voltages in the table should be taken as minimums, but the reading3 should be no more than a few percent above... say 5% above.
You can only easily measure the voltages, and that is enough... don't worry about the currents. If the voltages are good then so are the currents. If you are not comfortable about it, grab a friend who is. Please.

They are standardised... but you can find them and the wire colours by seraching your PSU model. It may be best for you to take the PSU or case to a tech who will check them with a load plug... take him 2 mins.
If you have a DVM [dig multimeter] look up your PSU and check. The PSU must be connected to a load for it to regulate correctly. eg. your mb. But you are quite sure that your CPU heatsink is well seated with good, soft paste?

Thanks, nil. It's tough ivestigating in-house or company software... that which is private is open to question merely because it is not known. thanks for sorting those details.
12 -14 days? something you did eradicated it - be happy with that.
Cheers.

Combofix has removed your KIXTart script tool.
Did you intend for your wallpaper [background] to be set as "wallpaper"="c:\winnt\system32\kix32.exe in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] ?

c:\winnt\system32\mscc.dll =could you check the properties of this please? You might submit it for scanning...
==Please go to this web page http://virusscan.jotti.org/, click browse and submit this file for examination [use the Choose button to browse to the file]:
-post the result, please.
The folder 1E appears as if it masquerades as IE; what is this program?
c:\program files\1E
c:\documents and settings\All Users\Application Data\1E
These next I suspect; do you know the 3 .exes? If not, delete them.
2010-07-19 15:09 . 2010-07-19 15:09 24576 ----a-r- c:\documents and settings\1164623\Application Data\Microsoft\Installer\{AF18DDC5-1CF6-C5DD-3FF6-1E687DC0BBE1}\Icon047153950CF67C54.EXE
2010-07-19 15:08 . 2010-07-19 15:08 28672 ----a-r- c:\documents and settings\1164623\Application Data\Microsoft\Installer\{6F310ED0-4A2C-CBA3-05E3-E5AD46044D94}\Icon35FC33EA5BDF78E5.EXE
2010-07-19 14:38 . 2010-07-19 14:38 32768 ----a-r- c:\documents and settings\1164623\Application Data\Microsoft\Installer\{2735EFD5-9C2F-C76F-39BB-EC65638C80FB}\Icon4F911834D8D8730B.EXE

Check your PSU voltages... some may be too high.

To my ears, Baby, children just don't have musical voices... too immature. Okay, an exception is boy sopranos, the ones the priests... umm.. mould.
Beiber.... he's done well, and all good luck to him, but for me.. this of yours is key : he's hard to find, take my word.
Phew. I could guess that he's likely to remain one of those youthtube phenomenons.
Cheers.

People have no idea how useful a pen n paper can be, it would seem. Crikey a pc pw is not guarding Fort Knox. Only your lil brother would want to get in.
Err.. there is still gold in Fort Knox, I take it...?
Anyway, I hope you have not tapped someone on the head with a lump of bollywood and stolen his computer.... this works well, and is straightforward enough: cd080802.zip.
Gurgle it.

Call of Duty game? Rabia is middle-eastern name.
Anyway, from Winternals get Process Monitor. Start it, set it to boot log via Options, then restart your sys after deleting that key. Open PM and stop the logging, then search for that key and see what created it.

It devastates me that such a thing as a Beiber has happened.
You have one of the rolls-royce AV suites there... gotta trust it a little bit. Stay outta the trashy sites... boxing, gambling, sex... that sorta thing.:) Even mouse-overs can do you in, so it is getting easier to get hit.

Gee, Baby.. nice... so AVG were not up to date on that one.. Roadkill virus. Interesting.
So you are going with Kaspersky? Looks like AVG did not uninstall entirely, so use hijackthis to remove these entries.
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {5C255C8A-E604-49b4-9D64-90988571CECB} - (no file)
O3 - Toolbar: (no name) - {CCC7A320-B3CA-4199-B1A6-9F516DD69829} - (no file)
O23 - Service: AVG Anti-Spyware Guard - GRISOFT s.r.o. - C:\downloader\guard.exe
Now to remove that service..
==Go Start, run, type services.msc -and press Enter. Maximise the window and at foot select Extended tab, scroll to the specific service, rclick it, select properties. Write down the exact Service Name. Press Stop if it is highlighted [you may have to set the service Startup type to Disable first]. Close Services, now type this line into the run text box and press Enter:
sc delete "exact Service Name" - don't be silly now....
Good luck out there.

UK being a land of audiophiles, I imagine so. I was thinking of a scart audio out adapter... without any dedicated audio sockets you will require an amplifier, whatever plugout configuration you source the audio from.

You are going to need a scart adapter and an amplifier. The audio-out adapter would be no more than 5USD.

I can only think that you for some reason changed your desktop, application backgrounds and fonts to black. You can do that on that page in DP.
Okay....
-drag your mouse down to the bottom left [yeah, I know you cannot see it, or the following...], then lclick once. Now...
-type r
-enter desk.cpl
-press ctrl-tab 3 times
-press the left direction key once
-press Alt-a
-after 5secs, press Enter.
Anything happen? If not, do it again from the start but press instead the right direction key once.

OR.. using a more definite actions control:
-press the Windows key
-type r
-enter desk.cpl ,2 [note that space before the comma!!!]
-press the left direction key once
-press Alt-a
-after 5secs, press Enter.

WinToFlash. Free. Works.

Okay. I'm happy to assume then that this [Admin Password Scrambler (APS) - Unknown owner - C:\WINNT\System32\apss.exe] is something that is in-house with your company.
Do you still have that MBAM log? I would like to see it. If you do not have it, then please follow these instructions [otherwise wait till I read that MBAM log]:
==Download this file to your DESKTOP: http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe
.....or this file: http://subs.geekstogo.com/ComboFix.exe
-IMPORTANT! : close other applications and save work, turn off your Antivirus, Antispyware and Firewall for the duration of this scan.
- to run it dclick the Combofix.exe icon and follow the prompts to start it. If you do not have it installed already, Combofix will download and install the Recovery Console on your system.
A word of caution - do not touch your mouse/keyboard until the scan has completed [your computer will restart automatically] when a log, C:\Combofix.txt , will pop onto your desktop - post that log in your next reply.
The scan will temporarily disable your desktop, and if interrupted may leave your desktop disabled. If this occurs reboot to restore the desktop.

Hi. You MUST uninstall Avast then. I know it is good, but two AV services can open your system up to problems. Having more than one is a practice that is totally NOT recommended.
apss.exe .. it entered your sys on July 20; when did you start having this problem with the website?

Hi, nil. 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.

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SWFAss] c:\winnt\SYSTEM32\KIX32.exe /i c:\winnt\SWFAss.KIX
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [45A41D] C:\WINNT\system32\B2BABE\45A41D.EXE
Good; now delete these two files and the folder B2BABE.
c:\winnt\SWFAss.KIX
C:\WINNT\system32\B2BABE\45A41D.EXE

What is Consolehookloader.dll? Search for it.; in Properties, who is listed as its provider?
And this: Service: Admin Password Scrambler (APS) - Unknown owner - C:\WINNT\System32\apss.exe - I cannot find any information about it. Check the properties of this file, C:\WINNT\System32\apss.exe and report its provider.
A big problem though is that you are running two Antivirus Services, Symantec and Avast. I don't know if you are paying for Avast, but you must remove one of them. They interfere.
Pleas run and then post a fresh hijackthis log, with your opinions.

Baby D, I use Avast Free Edition, Avira Free is also very good, perhaps better. AVG scores somewhat lower now. I should add Comodo.. they also have a free AV service which includes their firewall . I do not know how their AV service rates in testing.
==Get CCleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com/ - and install it in a new folder. You should keep this one for general use. I set the installation checkboxes only to open from the recycle bin. It's neater that way.
Now run CCleaner from the recycle bin rclick menu using its default settings [if you set up CCleaner as i suggested, rclicking the bin icon should give you the Open CCleaner option...].
If you have FireFox open the Applications tab and ensure at least that Cookies and Cache are checked.
Select the Cleaner icon, press Run Cleaner.
Run CCleaner in any other Accounts.
[To customize file cleaning select the options you wish to use via the Windows and Applications tabs ..]
Now please run hijackthis again and post that fresh log.. I wish to check if that file and its keys were completely removed.

Hello, BabyD, no matter, good that it is working better, but there are a few oddities about your AVG installation and we should fix those, you still have remnants of Symantec and so I shall guide you to remove those, but there is still malware, and a winlogon entry is not quite right.
Firstly then, start hijackthis, click Scan, in the window that opens place checkmarks against all the entries listed below that still exist, and then press Fix Checked.
F2 - REG:system.ini: UserInit=C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {5C255C8A-E604-49b4-9D64-90988571CECB} - (no file)
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-18\..\Run: [ypeyluwe] C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\Local Settings\Application Data\txnkbdldt\ijadbqdtssd.exe (User 'SYSTEM')
O4 - HKUS\.DEFAULT\..\Run: [ypeyluwe] C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\Local Settings\Application Data\txnkbdldt\ijadbqdtssd.exe (User 'Default user')
O9 - Extra button: Run IMVU - {d9288080-1baa-4bc4-9cf8-a92d743db949} - C:\Documents and Settings\Baby D\Start Menu\Programs\IMVU\Run IMVU.lnk (file missing)
O20 - Winlogon Notify: avgrsstarter - avgrsstx.dll (file missing)

Good. Now find this file and delete it:
C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\Local Settings\Application Data\txnkbdldt\ijadbqdtssd.exe
[if it will not delete then in hijackthis find the Misc Tools section via either Main Menu or Config buttons, press Delete a File on Reboot and in the window which opens browse to the file, press Open and then restart... ]

To cleanly uninstall Norton/Symantec AV services get the correct tool from.... http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
Finally, AVG - it appears to be installed badly, with files in strange folders; I suggest that after the above procedure you uninstall AVG 9 and …