Monthly Archives: November 2007

removing old twain/scanner devices

Computer Aid Posted on by

I have a PC that, over about 2 years, had about 3 scanners connected to it.

So now, when I want to scan, I get a dialog box, asking me to select which twain device to use.

I decided to do something about it and find out how to remove the old twain devices.

The solution is fairly simple: all twain devices are located in c:windowstwain_32

So I just create folder c:windowstwain_32_old

then I move folders (one at a time) to the _old folder, until I find the folder that is used for my current scanner. I then move the folder back, and move all the other files and folders from twain_32 to twain_32_old.

Remember to restart your scanning software after each move, so you can check which twain device you moved.

In my case, I went from 5 twain devices to 2… but I still cannot remove the “wia-HP scanjet2400 1.0 (32-32)” device… it looks like its tied to the “HP Scanjet 2400 TWAIN 1.0 (32-32)” device.

very slow PC due to spoolsv.exe using 100% CPU

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer has a PC that seems almost stopped.

The mouse pointer moves without a problem, but actions like clicking on the start button take over 1 minute to complete…

I try safe mode, and the PC operates normally.

Maybe its an infection… but there are none of the obvious signs (popups and strange startup programs).

I restart in normal mode, and start the task manager as quickly as possible. Hopefully I’ll get a look at whats causing the problem before task manager becomes unusable.

And it works. I see spoolsv.exe sitting at 100% cpu usage.

Hold on. spoolsv is the printer spool service… why would a print spooler go haywire?

Anyway, I kill the process, and everything returns to normal… for about 1 minute.

Then everything starts slowing down again.

A look at task manager shows that spoolsv.exe has been restarted…

Hmmm, I guess I’ll just lower the priority of the spooler… but permission is denied. In that case, I stop the spooler service (control panel -> administrative tools -> services)

Now I can use the system, and look for a solution.

It seems that a few different places on the net agree that the best way to resolve this to delete the files in the c:windowssystem32spoolprinters

I’m a bit more cautious, so I start in safe mode, make sure the spooler service is stopped (and spoolsv.exe is not running). Then I move the 2 files (*.spl & *.shd) to a temporary folder.

I restart the PC, and the problem is finally fixed.

Continue reading →

Common Computer Errors And How To Fix Them

Computer Aid Posted on by

Common Computer Errors And How To Fix Them

Troublesome computer errors may not only hamper your work, but may also cause physical damage to your system. There are many different types of errors that you may encounter while working on your PC. In this article, we are going to investigate some of the common computer errors, and the steps to fix these errors.

Code 10 Error and Code 39 Error

Code 10 error and Code 39 error usually occur when a driver is missing, corrupt, or incomplete. To fix these errors, you must update the driver of the device that is displaying the error. To do this, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the Start menu and select the Control Panel command.
  2. Select the Performance and Maintenance link and then select the System link.
  3. In the System Properties dialog box, on the Hardware tab, select the Device Manager button.
  4. Scroll down the installed hardware list in the Device Manager window and identify the faulty drivers depicted by a yellow triangle containing a black exclamation mark.
  5. Double-click on the device to open its properties tab.
  6. Here, on the Driver tab, select the Update Driver button and follow the screen instructions to complete the process.

 Spoolsv.exe Error

All printing related tasks on your Windows PC are handled by the Spoolsv.exe file.

 Spoolsv.exe errorusually occurs when many .SHD and .SPL files accumulate in the spool directory. These files are used by the Print Spooler to save the print spool data and job setting information of your print job. Therefore, to fix the error, you will have to delete these files from the spool folder. Perform the following steps to delete these files.

  • From the Performance and Monitoring Control Panel window, select Administrative Tools, and the select Services.
  • In the Services management console that opens, search for and right-click on the Print Spooler service and select the Stop command.
  • Next, open Windows Explorer and navigate to the C:WindowsSystem32SpoolPrinters folder.
  • Here, delete all the .SHD and .SPL files.
  • Now, open the Temp folder and delete all files you do not require.
  • Restart thePrint Spooler service from the Services management console.

If this does not work, use the Windows XP System Restore feature to rollback your computer to the time when your system was working fine.

DLL Errors

DLLs are dynamic libraries used by Windows operating systems to save functions and codes that are loaded by the operating system and software installed on it to perform specific tasks.

DLL errors usually occur when:

  • A DLL incompatible with your operating system is registered with your PC.
  • A current version of DLL is overwritten by an older version. usually happens when you install a software application.
  • A DLL required by an application is missing or corrupt – the DLL may get deleted when you uninstall an application using it, or may get corrupt by a faulty application or malware.
  • One or more DLLs used by an application are not properly registered on the system.
  • A hardware that is using the DLL generating the error is faulty or a there is problem in its driver.
  • Registry entry for the malfunctioning DLL(s) is corrupt.

DLL errors are fixed according to their cause. To fix DLL errorsthat occur due to missing, corrupt, or outdated DLLs, you may need to restore the problematic DLL. To do this, search for and download the DLL from the Internet, and copy it to its original location on the computer.

If a DLL is overwritten, search on the application manufacturers website, to see if any updates for the product are available. If yes, then download and update the product to fix the DLL error.

To fix DLL errors due to hardware, first try to update the driver for the hardware. If this does not work, then check the hardware itself as it might be faulty. If it is, either repair or replace the hardware to fix the error.

90 percent of computer errors, including DLL errors, are usually caused by malware infection and registry problems. Therefore, you must take appropriate measures to keep your PC free from these problems. To prevent and remove malware, you may use reliable antivirus and antispyware utilities. You must regularly scan your PC with these tools to ensure that your PC is not infected, and also update them regularly to ensure that you are protected against the latest malware. Additionally, you must get yourself a dependable registry cleaner tool to regularly scan and remove errors and unwanted information from the registry.

askpbar and swbot infection, and beware of free webmail accounts

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer cannot login to his email (yet other family members can access their emails)

Once I get there I notice the PC is very slow and seems to have a spyware infection (hijacked home page).

I quickly track down the problem to be askpbar and swbot.

Removing them is quite straightforward… I disable the BHO using winpatrol, and disable any registry startup entries.

However, the email accounts are a different story… He uses yahoo mail, gmail, and another web based email program.

When he tries to login, he gets various types of “username and/or password is not valid” errors

Since this is via the web, then its likely that the password is incorrect.

We try the various “I forgot my password” options, but they either involve leaving the account inactive for over 5 days, or the email of the password to the “alternative” email address is never received (maybe because the alternate email address was one of the other compromised accounts, or after a year or two, its quite possible that the alternate account has been forgotten or deleted, or the spyware people have altered the alternate account)

Since this has happened with 3 different accounts (and only with 1 user), then its likely that the password has been stolen by spyware, and the email accounts hijacked.

It just goes to show that you cannot rely on only free webmail accounts.

Its also unfortunate that the customer also printed many business cards (with the yahoo email address). Now that this email account is effectively lost, the cards also become less effective.

I have my computer-aid account diverted through gmail, and then downloaded to my email client.

I use gmail for 2 reasons:

  1. good spam filtering
  2. It keeps a copy of my local emails (in case something happens to my PC)

If my gmail account ever gets “stolen”, then I can bypass it, in order to receive my emails, while I setup a second gmail account. Luckily, I’ve never needed to do this in over 2 years since starting my gmail account.

0X800CCC0F error while dowloading emails in outlook express

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer had problems downloading emails using outlook express.

OE would start downloading, I’d start the progress window, and I see its downloading message 1 of 25. Then it goes to message 2, etc.

At message 4, it stops, and gives an error 0x800CCC0F. A search on the net shows nothing useful, except to try reinstalling OE… but it seems that OE and IE are tied together, so you need to remove and reinstall both…

I try a few more times, but I get the same error, but at different points: sometimes with message 9, sometimes at message 6.

Each time, OE would start downloading the first message, as it wasn’t marked as having been downloaded… so OE accumulates many duplicate emails.

I figure: I’ll try using the bigpond webmail, so I can only make 1 email available at a time, then OE can “digest” the emails and I might pinpoint a corrupt email.

But I quickly find the bigpond webmail gives me a mostly blank screen…

OK, plan B: I try bigpond webmail on firefox… but that gives similar results.

Plan C: Install foxmail… but it just sits at message 9 and won’t go past it.

At this stage, its getting late, so I promise to test webmail from the office (to eliminate a telstra problem, or a local pc problem).

At the office, bigpond webmail works flawlessly. So I move some of the larger emails to a temporary mail folder. I then make an appointment to revisit, and prepare myself to reinstall OE and IE.

Once onsite again, I look at webmail one more time, but its the same blank screen. At this point, I close the webmail window without logging out… So I try logging in again, except I’m not given the login window… but instead I see the webmail inbox screen… fantastic.

After some experimenting, I find I can get webmail to half work by hitting the refresh button whenever I get a mostly blank screen.

So now, I get OE to download 2 or 3 emails at a time… and OE is able to download all the pending messages… no errors… Hmmm, I was expecting at least 1 error / corrupt email.

I decide to give OE a bigger test: I email a 1Mb attachment back to “myself”… and it also works perfectly.

So I tell the customer its all tentatively fixed… but let me know if the problem reappears.

bigpond 3g and 802.11g wireless conflicts

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer calls, saying they are having difficulties accessing their email (and other strange dropouts) while using their bigpond 3G usb adapter.

Once I get there, I find its all behaving itself normally… no problems (except for VISTA running on 512MB RAM!).

I try various things to try to force the problem to appear, but the email, web browsing, and updates are faultless.

Customer says when the dropouts happen, they usually need to restart the laptop… but strangely, the laptop works well at other locations. They even have an external antenna for the 3G adapter, so that the signal strength cant be an issue.

I also note that when I connect to the 3G network, it takes about 5-10 seconds to connect… no unusually long delays.

Out of curiosity, I look at vistas available networks, and besides the 3G network, it can also see a weak, unsecured 802.11G wireless network… and this is where all the symptoms start to make sense.

I know that XP (and I extrapolate that VISTA has the same weird behaviour) will sometimes prefer to connect to a very weak wireless network rather than other networks (sometimes even ignoring wired ethernet!).

I’m told a neighbor has a wireless router (I reckon its the unsecured network I saw on the laptop).

What I think has been happening, is that the laptop will connect using 3G, and then decide to automatically switch connection to the 802.11G network next door… So now emails refuse to work, as the neighbor is with a different ISP, and web browsing can be badly affected.

What could also happen, is that the laptop connects to 802.11G before it gets manually connected to 3G, so some leftover 802.11G settings cause problems with the 3G internet.

The solution is very easy: push the wireless enable/disable button on the laptop, and the 802.11G network/antenna is disabled.

easy to remove browser hijack/infection (search-earth.com and pcsecuresystem.com)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer calls with an infected PC.

They had trend micro pc-cillin, and went out, purchased, and installed norton IS.

Hmmm, 2 antiviruses can spell trouble.

Plus the system has a few annoying popups at startup time, plus a browser hijack to sites like search-earth.com and pcsecuresystem.com

In the past, browser hijacks usually indicate a severe, and difficult to remove, infection.

Since the infection had only been on the system for about 4 days, I found it surprisingly easy to clean up the infections (after uninstalling trend IS).

hijackthis is a wonderful (and dangerous) tool for this.

Since this PC is used by a few people (and in 3 months, it had accumulated 1800 files in the temp folder), I decide to install BHODemon, Winpatrol, SpywareBlaster, and emptemp2.

I also start a defrag just before I leave, just to give the PC a bit more of a speed boost, as it was getting sluggish for a 5 month old XP PC.

shorting HDDs and power supplies

Computer Aid Posted on by

The PC (an older dell) wouldn’t start… no lights, nothing.

Sounds like a power supply.

I do the standard thing:

  • Get a new power supply from the car.
  • Before inserting it into the PC, I rest the PSU on the old PSU, and only connect the motherboard.
  • Push the power button and: PC starts up, and then complains (as expected) about no boot device.

So far, its all standard and boring stuff.

I note that the PC has 2 hard drives (both 40gb ide)… one of which is not secured very well, but is unlikely to come loose.

So I install the PSU, plug in everything, close the case (murphy usually strikes if you close the case before trying to start the PC… and then you need to re-open the case).

Yep, I got hit by Murphys law: The PC doesn’t start at all.

A quick look inside shows nothing unusual. I take it back to the office and test the new PSU: it has failed!

I don’t want to risk another PSU just yet, so I to measure electrical resistance of the various molex pins on the HDD and CDROM.

Sure enough, one HDD has the 12 volt “grounded” this is what shorted out both PSUs.

OK, I remove the bad HDD, and “replace” it with the second HDD, get a third PSU, plug in everything, switch on, and I hear a pop and a puff of smoke out of the corner of my eye.

Quickly power off the PC, measure electrical resistance again, and the second HDD now has a short across the 12 volt supply. Luckily the PSU is still OK.

Is this just a coincidence? Or is something “deeper” going on?

I look at the second HDD, and it has a burnt plastic smell, and the circuit board has scorch marks around an IC…

So now I have 2 burnt out HDDs, 2 burnt out PSUs, and the risk of any further repairs causing more equipment to fry.

I decide to cut my losses and tell the customer that the PC is not repairable (and no charge for my shorted power supply).

I also explain that the repair costs can quickly escalate, so buying a new or a used PC is the best way to go.

tuning/tweaking VISTA and IE7 for low memory (512 Mb RAM)

Computer Aid Posted on by

I have been able to tune VISTA to use about 360Mb RAM, without sacrificing essential things like networking and automatic updates (your mileage may vary).

Please note that the following instructions are “all care, no responsibility” Ie: the way your PC is operated/configured could mean that the tuning I describe might cause you to lose all your data; make your system less secure; make your hair go grey :-). Make sure you understand what you are doing, and don’t just blindly follow what I say.

The PC I’m using has a “windows experience index” of 1.0

Its a 2Ghz Celeron, with a 40GB HDD, and 480MB RAM… which is good with XP, but not with VISTA.

Immediately after installing VISTA, I noticed that a lot of the usual vista “eye candy” like aero, was already switched off (probably due to the low experience index). If your PC has aero enabled, then by following the instructions below will get a “windows 98” GUI!

Next, I set out to disable parts of VISTA that are annoying, or can slow things down due to memory and cpu usage:

  1. First and foremost: run windows updates, and make sure you have all the latest updates.
  2. The “welcome center” that usually starts automatically. Well, it has a tickbox in the lower left hand corner: untick the “run at startup” tickbox.
  3. Right click on start button -> properties -> classic start menu
  4. Start the control panel -> switch to classic view -> windows sidebar properties -> untick “start sidebar when windows starts”. If you really want the sidebar: buy more RAM
  5. Start the control panel -> Administrative tools -> services -> standard tab. Then select view -> customize -> untick “console tree”. Then look down the list of services and double click on the following… setting the startup type as follows:
    1. Background intelligent transfer service: manual
    2. Diagnostic Policy Service: disabled
    3. Distributed link tracking client: disabled
    4. IP Helper: disabled
    5. Offline Files: disabled
    6. ReadyBoost: disabled
    7. Secondary Logon: disabled
    8. SSDP discovery: disabled (unless you have SSDP network devices (routers and “media broadcasters”))
    9. Tablet PC input service: disabled
    10. Themes: disabled
    11. WebClient: disabled
    12. Windows error reporting service: disabled
    13. Windows image acquisition (WIA): disabled (unless you use a scanner or digital camera with the PC)
    14. Windows Search: disabled
  6. Disable system restore (you will no longer be able to wind the clock back if you install some nasty software): control panel -> system -> tasks -> advanced system settings -> system protection -> untick all disks in the “automatic restore points” box.
  7. While in the system properties window, also do the following:
    1. Remote tab -> untick “allow remote assistance”
    2. Advanced tab -> settings -> advanced tab -> virtual memory “change” button -> untick “automatically manage…” -> tick “custom size -> enter initial and maximum to be “1000” -> click “set”.
  8. Disable User Account Control (UAC). Note that this turns off the annoying “you must authorise this action” popups… your system becomes slightly less secure, and you get a slightly less annoying red shield in the bottom-right taskbar. Start button -> run -> msconfig -> tools -> click “disable user account control” -> click” launch”
  9. Use a tool like “winpatrol” to disable any other programs that don’t need to run (eg nvidia stuff, soundman.exe, messenger, etc
  10. Right click the “computer” icon on the desktop -> explore -> right click on your “C:” drive -> properties -> untick “index this drive…” and when prompted about a file “in use” (sometimes after a few minutes), tick the “apply action to all subsequent”, and select “skip”.
  11. After a system restart, run a disk defragment (start -> programs -> accessories -> system tools)

Tuning Internet Explorer 7:

  1. Right click on a blank part of the “toolbar”… eg: slightly to the left of the home icon. From the dropdown menu, make sure “Menu Bar” is ticked
  2. Tools -> internet options -> Advanced ->
    1. Untick “enable page transitions”
    2. Tick “Use inline autocomplete”
    3. untick “use smooth scrolling”
    4. Disable phishing filter (only do this if you know you won’t be a victim of phishing)

Note that I leave windows defender running, and I also install antivir, so that the system is not unprotected… If the PC is not on the internet, you can save even more memory by disabling the antivirus, windows defender, and the VISTA firewall. 

After all that, restart your PC, and start task manager -> performance -> memory box… and you should see the memory usage at below 500MB (I get 360Mb while running a few applications, and 280Mb with nothing else running).

How fast is VISTA in this situation: Its OK… but it still has the occasional sluggish response when switching windows and opening control panel.

VISTA trustedinstaller.exe uses 100% cpu

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’ve setup VISTA on a “low end” system (2Ghz celeron, 480MB ram, 40GB HDD).

I’ve done extensive tuning to make the system bareably quick (I’ll detail what I did in a later post).

But just the other day, I noticed that the system seemed a lot slower than usual.

Using task manager, I found the culprit to be trustedinstaller.exe

A quick look around some forums showed a few complaints, and many people agreeing that trustedinstaller is related to automatic updates, so shouldn’t be disabled.

I tend to agree.

And I found the best solution is to use task manager, R-click on the process name -> set priority -> below normal.

After that, I couldn’t notice any slowdown (yet it would use as much CPU cycles as it could get away with)… After about 20 minutes, trustedinstaller.exe settles down to 0% cpu usage.

I wonder if the management of process priorities within VISTA and XP could be done better? A process that wants to use 100% cpu should (in order to deliver a better “user experience”) be automatically lowered in priority… I know unix does that very effectively (for a 40 year old OS!).

more asus wl-520GC problems with VISTA

Computer Aid Posted on by

A past customer (he had a faulty wireless in a brand new HP media centre PC) calls me out to get the wireless going on his new (and newly repaired) HP PC.

I get there, and I can see that the PC and the router can now “see” each other wirelessly.

I run through the usual VISTA options to connect to the wireless, and Vista tells me:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

I’m then given an option to diagnose the fault. I click on the button/link, and the window just disappears… Hello? I thought VISTA was going to help me… but it just ran away to sulk!

OK, into network diagnostic mode: set the router to open system (no security)… and I still get:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

This is looking like a vista issue, as I’ve already tuned the relevant router parameters to suit the environment (changed the SSID, set it to only “G” mode (there will be no 802.11B cards around), make sure the firewall/NAT is enabled, etc

I decide that a windows update might fix things, so I connect the VISTA PC to the router via ethernet, and start the update (all 30+ updates!).

While thats happening, I take a look at the asus router firmware… as it could also be “guilty”.

The firmware is at 2.0.0.4, but the asus website has firmware 2.0.0.7 available. So I download it, and prepare to install it once the updates are complete.

After all the VISTA updates, and a firmware upgrade, I restart the router and VISTA, try to connect to the wireless network, and I get:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

Hmmm, I’m running out of options here…

In case the PC has another wireless problem, I try a spare USB wireless adapter that I carry around with me, but vista cannot find drivers for it over the net, so I insert the driver CD… but VISTA refuses to read the CD (it thinks its a blank CD!!!).

I’m allowed (reluctantly) to take the PC back to the office.

Once at the office, I use my standard netgear usb wireless adapter in the VISTA PC, and it detects and connects to my office wireless network just fine.

Next, I power up the asus router, try to connect to it, and I get:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

Ah, its not VISTA thats the problem.

Next, I try the HP built-in wireless adapter (with one of my 7 Dbi antennas), and I can connect to my office network (so far so good), but again, when connecting to the asus router, I get:

The capabilities of the wireless network adapter on this computer don’t match the requirements of this network.

At this stage, its either a faulty/incompatible router, or some router setting are incorrect.

I go back through the wireless setting, and decide to set them (one at a time) back to their original/generic settings.

I find the setting that fixes the problem is: Wireless Mode.

The default setting is Auto (ie both B and G network support).

By changing the setting to “G only”, vista stops being able to connect. I think this is a fault with the asus router… setting it to “G only” should allow (not prevent) “G” cards from connecting.

This is a case where going the extra mile, to try and improve the wireless performance for a customer, actually activated a fault with the router/VISTA

Grrr.