Posts by durbanboy

Thanks for your swift response.
Your comments and the article included does explain the reason why.
I just wish that there was an industry standard that everyone stuck to.

I have just purchased a brand new Hitachi Deskstar 500gb SATA Harddrive.
When installed in my PC, I performed a NEW Windows XP installation. When it got to the point when it wants to fromat the drive, it tells me there is only 476gb available.
My question is - where is the other 24gb, and how do I recover it?
After all 24gb is a sh*t load of storage.
I have completed the installation, and don't want to start again if possible.

All comments welcome.

Hi Everyone, this is stranger than fiction, but I have resolved the problem of my computer shutting down. It happened by accident. The keyboard was the problem. I don't know why this is so, but when I changed keyboards, the problem went away. As soon as I hooked up that keyboard to another PC that I knew had no problems, it would suddenly start randomly shutting down, especially on Secure sites. I have 3 PC's all networked, and 2 of them shared the same keyboard, mouse and screen. So far so good. It's been over a week now and no problems.
I have no idea so to why a keyboard should cause the problem.

A couple of weeks ago I reported that my PC shuts down. It is still happening, but now to my other PC as well.
I appears to mainly happen when, when you go to a secure site - internet banking, ebay, paypal etc. The moment you start typing in account codes it shuts down. It also does it when filling out questionnaires.
I have run AVG anti-virus and anti-spyware, Avast anti-virus, Ad-aware, AFT-cleaner, Hijack this, Malbytes anti-malware, Registry Mechanic, Spybot Search and Destroy, all to no avail.
The problem is still there.

I originally thought the problem was hardware, so bought a new m-board, dual core P4 processor, new ram etc. Did not sort out problem.

I am now at my wits end.
PLEASE is there anyone out there who can help.

My computer shuts down for no reason at all. It does not matter what I am doing, but is more prone to do it on 'secure' sites - eg. Internet Banking.
I thought I had a hardware problem, so have replaced motherboard, processor and memory. It ran fine for 3 weeks, then started up again.
I use Registry Mechanic, Bug Doctor, AVG Anti-Virus and AVG Anti-Spyware.

I ran 'Hijackthis' and here is the log:

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 18:24:35, on 08/07/2008
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v7.00 (7.00.6000.16674)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware 2007\aawservice.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG7\avgcc.exe
C:\Program Files\Lexmark X1100 Series\lxbkbmgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_05\bin\jusched.exe
C:\Program Files\Lexmark X1100 Series\lxbkbmon.exe
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\GrooveMonitor.exe
C:\WINDOWS\CTHELPER.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\MOM.exe
C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe
C:\Garmin\gStart.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\LEXBCES.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\LEXPPS.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\ccc.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\AppleMobileDeviceService.exe
C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5\guard.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG7\avgamsvr.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG7\avgupsvc.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG7\avgemc.exe
C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe
C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero8\Nero BackItUp\NBService.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\IoctlSvc.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\MsPMSPSv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\SearchIndexer.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\usnsvc.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live\WLLoginProxy.exe
C:\Program Files\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.google.co.uk/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 …

I am a new member to this community.
Although I go by the name "Durbanboy", I live in the UK. I was born and lived in Durban South Africa for 30 years, and have lived in the UK for 6 years.
I am the Quality Control Manager for a company that supplies the Formula 1 motorsport industry.
My hobbies are motor race marshal, photography, and trying various ways to stuff up my computer. Luckily I have 2 of them, one of which gets left alone. The old addage " If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies here. :)

I have this blue screen of death which has a security message
"Trojan-Spy.HTML.Smitfraud.c
IE 0028:c0011E36 in VXD VMM (01) + 00010E36"
I have seen many threads and fixes for this. My problem is that I cannot run any of the fixes as I cannot get anything to work in Safe Mode.
My screen alternates between the blue screen and the desktop.
Oh! I am running WinXP Pro SP2.
I cannot run the windows disk to repair as my disk is only SP1.
I hope someone out there can help me fix this or at least enable me to save one folder, before doing a format. :sad: :o