If you recently upgrade your Windows XP installation into SP3 and you have Spyware Doctor running, you will gonna get into a problem. Spyware Doctor from Pc Tools detects Trojan-Spy.Pophot.WX in RunDLL32.exe even if the system is uninfected. RunDLL32.exe is a system file that Windows uses to run code in DLL files so this Window file is important in your day-to-day PC use.
You will find yourself in an endless loop of scanning to remove the file, rebooting your computer, and then finding the file again. If you are in this situation, you can do this workaround:
1. In the Spyware Doctor window, click the Settings button on the left.
2. Click Global Action List to the right of that.
3. At the bottom, click Add.
4. In the New Rule dialog box, choose "File on disk" from the "Select data type" drop-down list.
5. To the right of the text box below, click the ... button to browse for a file. Locate and select RunDLL32.exe in the Windows\System32 folder.
6. Make sure "Always allow" is selected in the drop-down list at the bottom and click the Add button.
Symptoms:
Computer boots like normal, Windows loading screen will appear, after a few seconds, a quick blue screen will appear and then your computer restarts. You can't even read the BSOD information because it just flash in less than a second. This will go on and on and you will be stuck in a loop. Computer will not boot even in safe mode or any other option.
Solution:
First thing to do is to disable the option that computer automatically restarts when a fatal error/system failure occurs. There is an option inside windows for that, but in this case we can't do that. So what you need to do is to press F8 before the Windows XP logo appears right after the BIOS screen (just like what you do when you want to boot in safe mode). This screen will appear:
(this image is from Vista but it's basically the same) What you need to do is choose the option: "Disable automatic restart on system failure" (the one in the red box). After doing that, your computer will restart, and you will now see the Blue screen error message.
9 out of 10 computers that i worked on will show the BSOD (blue screen of death) message:
Unmountable_Boot_Volume
For some, the only solution when you see this error is to reformat the hard drive. But this problem can be easily repaired by using the built in Window Tool "Chkdsk" or checkdisk (same as scandisk on older windows version).
What you need is a Windows XP installer CD, put in you CD Drive, boot your computer from it.
When this screen appear, choose the Repair option:
You will now get to the command prompt. . Type chkdsk /p and hit Enter. This will launch a utility which will check for errors on your hard drive, it will take a while, just be patient. When it is finished, remove the installation disk on your cd rom drive, type EXIT and your computer will now be back to normal.
This problem usually occurs after cleaning up your PC of unwanted viruses. When you double click your C or any other drive, the "open with" dialogue box appears instead of seeing the content of the drive. You can however browse the drive either by using the address bar, or by right-clicking the drive and choose open.
You can fix this problem by modifying the registry. But the best way to fix this problem without firing up regedit is by using Flash Disinfector by Subs (Download it here).
After downloading, execute the program, your screen will become blank for a few seconds, click ok, and you're done.
However, there is a little problem with Flash Disinfector. After running this program, the Autoplay function of your Windows Xp machine will be totally disabled. It is useful if you don't want to be infected again by autorun viruses, but I found out that some user actually wants to see this option pop up whenever you insert a flash drive on the USB port of your computer. Like this one:
Fortunately, Microsoft released a tool called MIcrosoft Autoplay Repair Wizard, or Autofix (autofix.exe). You can download it here.
So what does this program do? The Microsoft AutoPlay Repair Wizard scans your computer devices to find defective AutoPlay settings, and attempts to fix those it finds. So you can easily restore the function that Flash Disinfector disabled.
Run the program and follow the on-screen instructions. Please note that you need to log on and log off you windows session or restart the computer if you intend to fix multiple drives. If you're restoring a flash drive autorun function, you need to insert that drive in your usb port and select the appropriate drive letter.
Somebody brought an Acer Aspire 4710 laptop here in my shop. The owner wants me to reformat it because she is planning to sell it. It's easy if you have the recovery cd/dvd, the problem is, she doesn't have one, because it never came with one when she bought it. FYI, majority of laptop manufacturer today do not include recovery disk, instead they put it in a hidden partition in your hard disk drive.
So I turned the laptop on, backed up any important files, restart the computer and fired up the recovery software by pressing alt+F10 (i believe this is the universal key sequence to enter recovery mode for acer laptops). Then another problem occur.
The eRecovery file has a password (Empowering Technology Password). A note under the setup of the password reads:
If you lose the Empowering Technology password, there is
no way to reset it except by reformatting your system. Make sure
to remember or write down your password!
According to some website, the default password is 000000 (that's six zeros). But it does not work in this laptop. It turned out that it was user generated password, the owner doesn't know what it is, or maybe she already forgot what it is.
I search the internet for an answer, according the some information i collected, the password is stored in a file on the hidden partition. The partition label is PQSERVICE. The best way to get at this is to use something like UBCD (The Ultimate Boot CD) that will run a complete system from a cd. Once it is booted, you should look for the file AIMDRS.DAT
Use any text editor or notepad to view this file and you can find the password there. Example:
"password" PD= "____" and "hint" HD="____"
I have UBCD but i cannot find the disk, so i look for my Ubuntu CD 7.10. It is a live cd so you can use it to load Ubuntu linux without installing it in your hard drive. You can also use any other Linux Live CD for this matter. The important thing is you can access the hidden eRecovery partition of you acer laptop (PQSERVICE).
You can edit the password, or you can leave it as it is. Remove the live Cd, restart the PC, boot to eRecovery, just enter the password and you can sit back and relax while it loads.
Note:
Some suggests that you can use Acronis Disk Director or other partition software to show up the hidden partition. You can try that one, but I haven't tested it yet.
Somebody brought in a laptop today, it was an HP Pavilion N3310. The owner asked me to do a reformat. The OS is Windows 98 and he wanted it to stay that way. After formatting the said laptop, it occurred to me that there was no driver for the video card, sound card and modem. So I look up on the internet but it was hard to look for the exact specification of this laptop.
Fortunately, I saw someone at driverguide.com uploaded the driver for the built in vga. There's also available sound and modem driver. But the problem is, after downloading, the modem is still looking for the driver. Also, the first vga driver that i downloaded was only meant for Windows XP. So i download another one, and it works. After a little research I found the correct driver for the modem and soundcard at the ESS website. I notice that the file that was uploaded in driverguide is for Win95 and Win98 first edition, so that is the reason why it didn't work.
Here's the download links for those of you who also need it:
PCI Audio/Modem Combo Device - you only need one driver for these two
Exact model: Maestro3.comm ES1980 Maestro-3 Audio + ES56CVM-PI Modem
Win95/98 vxd
Win98SE wdm
Windows ME wdm
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Exact model: Trident CyberBlade i7 AGP (8420-76)
note: You need to be registered at driverguide to download these files
Windows 98 SE
WinXP
Lsass.exe Error - insufficient system resources exist to complete the API
I encountered this error a while ago in a client's pc. Windows will load as usual but when it reach the log on screen, this error will appear:
Lsass.exe
Insufficient system resources exist to complete the API.
At first, i thought that it was just an ordinary error caused by a virus. So i tried to log on using safe mode but the machine restarts before reaching the log on screen.
I searched the internet for a possible solution and it turned out that this error is caused by very low hard disk space. I asked the owner if it is the case and he said yes.
So I boot the PC using the Windows XP installer CD, and go straight to the command prompt. I deleted some files from the C: drive, deleted a total of 50+ mb, then restarted the pc to check if it is already sufficient for a boot start.
It was successful and the PC get past the log on screen. I uninstall some programs that is not important and also moved the My Documents folder to another partition. Mission accomplished.
Here's a step by step guide on how to Port Forward Globe's Prolink H9200 to be use in Utorrent.
Port forwarding in Prolink H9200 is a little bit different in Hurricane 9300G, but it is as easy. Torrent downloads are greatly affected if you do not use port forwarding in Globe DSL.
Step 1. You need to set Port 80 in Utorrent for incoming connections. Any other port is blocked by Globe Broadband. Open up Utorrent, at the upper left menu, click on Options > Preferences.
A box will appear like the one below, put 80 on the box next to Port Used for Incoming Connections. And also, remove the check next to Enable UPnP port mapping
To enable Port Forwarding in Prolink Hurricane's H9200, you need to have Static IP address on your PC.
Go to your desktop, Right Click on My Network Places and then click on Properties. Something like the box below will appear, select Local Area Connection, right-click on it and then choose properties.
Double click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Internet Protocol Property box will appear. Enter information like the box below:
Ip address: 192.168.1.3 (default assigned ip address when using dynamic ip)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Preferred DNS server: 192.168.1.1
Now that you already configured Utorrent and your static IP address. It is now time to configure your modem. I will borrow pictures from fortforward.com
Open up your favorite browser like Mozilla firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera browser. Type in the address bar 192.168.1.1 (that is the default IP address of your modem)
A box will appear prompting you for your username and password. The default username is admin and the default password is password. This page will appear (click the picture to enlarge):
Click the Services button near the top of the page (click the picture to enlarge):
Select NAT Rule Entry from the NAT Options drop down box.
Click the Add button near the bottom of the page and enter these information, and then click submit.
Click the Close button near the bottom of the page.
Click the IP Filter link near the top of the page.
Select Low from the Security Level drop down box. Select Accept from the Public Default Action, Private Default Action and DMZ Default Action drop down box. Click the Submit button near the bottom of the page.
Click the Admin button near the top of the page.
You should now see a new menu. In this new menu, click Commit & Reboot.
Click the Reboot button near the bottom of the page.
And you're done.
*Some pictures are from portforward.com
