Monthly Archives: August 2007

xpsys.exe spyware hijacks to onlinestability.com avsystemcare.com udefender.com securepccleaner.com

Computer Aid Posted on by

I found a real nasty piece of spyware on my neighbors PC the other day.

Antivir and windows defender found (and removed) some trivial infection, but didn’t notice that xpsys.exe (found using hijackthis) kept coming back (even after I removed it using hijackthis). This is the first time I’ve seen windows defender not detect some spyware… strike one against defender.

The malware would display a red triangle in the taskbar. 

And, it kept popping up messages about the PC being infected (and asking me to download “spyware remover” by clicking on ok).

Even after closing this window, IE would then try to open one of the following websites:

  • onlinestability.com
  • avsystemcare.com
  • udefender.com
  • securepccleaner.com
  • and probably a host of others, if I could be bothered to test it for a few hours…

So, a careful scan of the web found the following useful website: castlecops

The main help was downloading and running the following file in safe mode: SDFix

After it ran, everything was back to normal.

missing security tab in xp home

Computer Aid Posted on by

I needed to view a folder on a xp home system, but the admin user didn’t seem to have permissions to view the folder…

So I think: easily fixed… just get the properties window for the folder, go to the security tab… whats this? no security tab!

After a bit of web trawling, I find that XP home doesn’t allow the security tab be visible unless… you start in safe mode, and then login as administrator… grrr.

hp pavilion (ntldr is missing – ntldr is compressed)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer cannot boot his pc (ntldr is missing).

I try a hp xp “recovery” from the crappy recovery partition… but afterwards, I still get the same error… I don’t want to do a full wipe.

So I jump into ubcd4win, copy ntldr from the hp recovery partition, then restart.

But then I get the message “ntldr is compressed”.

Ok, back to the office. I do some research, and I find I can use a43 file manager from ubcd4win, in order to uncompress a few files (like ntldr) from the root c: drive.

After that, xp finally starts successfully. Hmmm, looks like I didn’t really need to take the system away with me after all 🙁

nvidia mcp network adaptor fault on A7NBX-VM motherboard

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer moves house, uses dial-up for a few weeks, then goes back to broadband, but the PC won’t connect to the net.

A swap of PCs, shows that the internet connection is fine, but something is wrong within the PC. It looks a lot like a faulty network card, but it seems to get a dhcp ip address correctly…

I take it back to the office… and it works just fine on my wireless usb adaptor. I clean up some spyware (favoriteman, winfixer, drivecleaner), then I plug it into the ethernet… but that won’t work.

I try booting ubcd4win, but it also cannot see any network.

I’m just about ready to install a new network card, when I decide to try a linux live cd (mepis).

While it boots in verbose mode (by pressing F2), I notice a strange error… something like: invalid mac address detected : 00:123:45:67:89 please complain to your hardware vendor.

I take a look at the bios, but there doesn’t seem to be a way of altering or resetting the mac address.

Ok, I go into control panel -> system -> hardware -> device manager -> expand network adapters, r-click on the network card -> properties -> advanced -> network address… then I enter a “random” mac address (I pick my routers address, and alter 2 numbers slightly).

and it now works!

nero 6 cannot handle many files (not enough quota is available to process this command)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Had an unusual situation, where I was using nero to backup a large number of files (over 1000, all in the same folder).

I hate having this many files in 1 folder, but many customers let this happen.

Nero would think about it for an hour, an then give the error message: not enough quota is available to process this command

I’m not sure about nero 7, but this is very irritating behaviour.

I eventually decided to just split the files into sub-folders, just to complete a backup.

Vista cannot get dhcp address with some routers

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer recently purchased a laptop with vista, but wasn’t able to get it working with his wireless linksys router.

I tried both wired and wireless setups, but neither worked (yet an XP Pc would work just fine).

I even tried changing wireless security to “none”

A quick search found suggestions about using a static IP address, but that was no use.

I also found: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233

So i tried:

DhcpConnDisableBcastFlagToggle 1 – default
DhcpConnBcastFlagToggle 0
DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag 0

But still no go!

Customer then decides to give up, wipe the laptop, and install XP instead (and I don’t blame him).

vista loses DVD driver (matshita UJ-891S ) code 39 on a toshiba laptop

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer find he suddenly cannot use his vista laptop to read any cd/dvd discs.

I notice that the vista device manager shows the dvd drive (a matshita uj-891S) has a code 39 error.

On the net, some people suggest getting the most recent drivers (but vista believes it has the most recent drivers anyway), and others suggest the MS support page at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/929461

I start going through the MS instructions, but I see that there in no registry entry for UpperFilters, just LowerFilters.

I wing it, and delete the LowerFilters setting, and after a reboot, the drive is usable again!

laptop dials and switches

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’ve had a customer call me on 2 occasions, to fix (amongst other problems) two laptop problems (first was no sound, the second was no network access).

In both cases, the solution obvious (if you know what to look for).

The sound hardware all looked fine, until I realised the laptop had a difficult to see volume dial at the front… just turn the dial, and the sound is back!

The wireless network wasn’t working due to the wireless switch (on the side of the laptop), being in the “off” position.

Luckily I didn’t waste much time looking for a phantom problem, and solved the problems quickly.