Monthly Archives: November 2007

ipaq rx4240 wifi confusion (and no AES support!)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer needed his new ipaq rx4240 to display pdf files, and to connect to the internet via his wireless router.

Setting up the adobe software was a bit confusing at first (seems like you need to install the software on the PC… and that will setup the sync software to automatically convert pdf documents to “tagged” pdf documents on the ipaq.

Add to that a corrupted installer, and things took a while to sort out.

While waiting for a download, I was asked to try getting the ipaq to connect to the internet via wireless.

I manage to setup most settings, except you can only setup TKIP encryption (but the router had already need setup for AES)… OK, I’ll take a look later…

I finish the PDF work, I start the cumbersome internet explorer application, and I can (eventually!) navigate my way around the internet… entering urls is a real headache!

At least the wireless internet is working (or so I thought)

As I’m about to leave, the customer disconnects the ipaq usb cable, and then notices that he cannot get any more web pages!

I soon realise that the ipaq must have been accessing the internet via the usb link to the laptop.

In the wifi options section, I can see the customers wireless network, but the ipaq seems to continuously connect and disconnect.

Then it dawns on me: Doh! The ipaq is using TKIP!

So I change the router to TKIP (and the laptop), and then everything works smoothly.

I wish more devices (especially new ones) would support AES encryption! Its more secure than the older TKIP

Another smitfraud variant: advrepnok.dll hupsrv.dll bindmod.dll sdrmod.dll wtopmod.exe softwarereferral.com

Computer Aid Posted on by

I removed a spyware infection, and I’m called out again about 6 days later with another infection. The PC is a newish Dell PC running Norton IS, and it has about 4 user accounts.

At first I worry that I didn’t clean out the infection correctly the first time, but I later find the dates of the infected files are from 2 days ago (Sunday 03/11/2007).

I can’t run task manager (its been disabled), and starting IE results in a browser hijack attempt (luckily winpatrol pops up and warns of a home page change to softwarereferral.com). 

Norton IS doesn’t start correctly (no icons in the taskbar).

I decide to go into safe mode. I login as Administrator

I then run bhodemon, and winpatrol and notice that advrepnok.dll is regarded as an unknown BHO… a google search shows its another smitfraud variant.

The file is in the c:windows folder… a sort by date order shows 5 files with the same date (and very similar time): 3rd November 2007.

The files are: advrepnok.dll, hupsrv.dll, bindmod.dll, sdrmod.dll, wtopmod.exe

I rename them to *.dlll or *.exee so that they cannot be “found” (ie I add an extra character to the extension)

I then scan the registry with regedit, and rename any reference to the 5 files to *.dl or *.ex (ie I remove a character from the extension)

Next, I use bhodemon to disable any bho related to the 5 bad files. I also check using winpatrol, just to be sure

I restart into normal XP mode, and Norton gives a brief complaint about some other trojan, and then settles down. Otherwise everything seems to work perfectly.

Now I just go to regedit and re-enable taskmanager.

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More threats of legal action against me

Computer Aid Posted on by

Is it just the way I write?

Am I a grumpy old so-and-so?

I believe I write objectively about my experiences, both good and bad, and I believe I should be free to express my opinion. If I’ve had bad experience with a company, then I say so. 

Anyway, for the second time in 2 years, I’ve been threatened with legal action.

Some guy calls me, saying he’s looking at my blog…

Me: “ok”

Guy: “i’m reading your post about Bxxxxxxx”

Me: “ok”

Guy: “guess where I’m from”

Me: “don’t know”

Guy: “Bxxxxxxx”

Me: “ok”

He then tells me he wants the post pulled immediately, or he will be talking to his legal representative.

I say I’ll look into it.

Anyway, I remove the references to Bxxxxxxx from the post (he didn’t say which post, so I made an educated guess).

The next day, I thought I’d better make sure the call wasn’t a crank call, and that it actually came from Bxxxxxxx.

So I email Bxxxxxxx, saying that the blog changes were only temporary until I get confirmation about who, what, etc.

Well, the reply was a legal ultimatum, saying things like: “posts regarding Bxxxxxxx in the blog section of your website amount to defamation” and “We are therefore giving you 24 hours to remove all posts relating to Bxxxxxxx”.

Um, the words don’t seem to make much sense to me… if I had a post that said nice things about Bxxxxxxx… then would that also be regarded as defamation? According to the wording of the email: yes!

And do the posts have to be removed? I don’t think so; so I decided to censor the relevant parts instead.

It seems like the email wording was composed by a lawyer who doesn’t know much about the internet… I was almost tempted to let the legal action proceed… just to see if the lawyer(s) behind this would shoot themselves in the foot. Unfortunately, I could not see my case as being as winnable as the 2clix/whirlpool case.

Well, as some of you already know, I believe that all litigious companies deserve the same fate: Bankruptcy. I think the time spent in obtaining legal advice would be much better spent improving the quality of a companies services and products. The word “microsoft” springs to mind with situations like this…

boot device not found (but no fault with hard drive!)

Computer Aid Posted on by

I found an odd problem the other day:

Customers PC gives a boot device not found error.

Bios detects 1 HDD and 2 CDROMS… but then proceeds the say samsung XXXX hard dive “has fault”. Proceeding beyond this gives a boot device not found error.

I figure either a broken HDD, or a loose cable.

When I open the PC, I notice 2 hard drives on IDE0, and the 2 CDROMS are on IDE1.

Hmmm, one of the hard drives is not being detected.

I unplug the first HDD, and the second is detected by the bios. I unplug the second HDD, and plug in the first… and the first is detected by the bios…

OK, the HDDs are fine.

But why have they suddenly stopped working “together”?

I pull them out, and I see that the first HDD has jumpers set to force it to be master, but its plugged into the slave socket on the IDE ribbon cable. The second HDD is obviously connected to master socket, and has jumpers forcing it to be a slave.

OK, I swap the drives around, so that master is plugged into the master socket, and slave is plugged into the slave socket… after all that, the PC boots up as if nothing happened.

Normally, I would have gone for the cable select jumpering, but I didn’t want to waste time “folding” ribbon cables to make them fit the tight space inside the PC, so I decided to leave the drive jumpers as they were.

Storms are good for the computer repair business…

Computer Aid Posted on by

Here in Brisbane (a few weeks ago now…), we had about a week of storms. Most would just pass by, maybe drop some hail, and lots of thunder and lightning.

The storms changed, what was shaping up to be a quiet week, into a busy one.

I replaced about 4 failed power supplies.

One customer had his PC and router fried (covered by insurance)

Another customer had his laptop power supply damaged… Also an insurance job… which is odd, as a laptop power supply should be inexpensive to repair except:

The laptop is an Acer Aspire 1700 (with no battery… it wasn’t even sold with one). This one of the weirdest laptop I’ve seen… Its huge and heavy:

  • A 17″ LCD display
  • A 3.5″ hard drive (ie a normal hard drive)
  • Normal DDR RAM (not the usual SODIMMS)
  • A normal Pentium 4 CPU (not a pentium M or a low-power substitute)
  • A 19V, 8 Amp power “brick”… ie 152 Watt… most store power supplies seem to max out at 120 Watt… and to top it off, the power socket in the laptop is a non-standard shape (a large round metal shield with 4 pins within it (arranged in a square shape)…

Why would any company design such a laptop?

New HP media center PC has a faulty wireless

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer had a new PC, purchased from Harvey Norman (HP media center PC hobbled with VISTA… He doesn’t like VISTA… as many of my customers tell me… and I agree with them).

He also has a new ASUS WL-520GC wireless router, so he asks me to setup the router to work with both his old PC (wired), and his new PC (wireless).

I setup the router, and the wireless security, and make sure the old PC works via ethernet.

I then move to the VISTA PC… and after some looking, I find the wireless antenna socket at the back (in an unusual place, just below the power supply…).

I plug in the surprisingly short 2 inch antenna, and wait to see if VISTA detects any wireless networks.

Nothing.

Ok, restart VISTA, then:

Nothing.

There is a wall between the wireless router and the PC antenna, so I stretch the PC antenna to the door, and then stretch the wireless router to be within sight (2 meters away).

Nothing.

While puzzling over this, I hit the vista “rescan for networks” button a few times, and explain to the customer how unusual this is.

At one point, I see the routers SSID, but with a signal strength of zero bars out of 5.

This is looking like either a bad antenna, or a bad router, or a bad PC.

I try some of my spare antennas, but I get a similar situation.

I test out my spare router, and it also cannot be seen.

At this point, its obvious the fault is within the PC.

Whats disappointing, is that these type of PCs can often go for years before some of the more advanced features (like built-in wireless) are used (by individuals who don’t often make use of all the bells and whistles).

Since its still under warranty, I don’t open it, and I tell the customer to get Harvey Norman to fix it… I can’t do anything without voiding the warranty.

Customer is disappointed, since his old PC is also a HP, and it also had a fault (which took a few weeks to repair)

Update: Harvey Norman sends out a tech (from AWA), who opens the case, and reconnects the antenna cable… but he has no network knowledge, so I’m called out again… and there starts another story.

tp-link router doesn’t really “route”

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’m setting up a wireless router for a customer… ADSL works fine, but as soon as I plug the modem into the TP-Link wireless router (into the WAN port), I can get as far as the router, but not out to the internet.

After some juggling of devices, I notice that both router and modem use the 192.168.1.X address range. This shouldn’t be a problem, since the WAN port should be “isolated” by the router (via NAT), so that the router-side IP addresses do not conflict with the WAN/modem side IP addresses… and thus they can both use the same IP address range without any conflict.

I eventually setup the TP-Link to use a slightly different IP address range: 192.168.2.X, and at that point, it all works just fine.

I’m running a bit short of time, otherwise I would have had a close look at the NAT settings, & see if that was the source of the problem (but then most routers have NAT setup to avoid this type of problem anyway).

I wonder why tp-link routers are that little bit different?

dvd writer can write a dvd, but not read it

Computer Aid Posted on by

I came across an unusual dvd failure.

Customer says she can no longer write dvds from her video camera (it used to work… just plug in the camera to the PCs firewire port, and the cameras PC DVD writing software would start, and guide you through to burning a dvd.

Now, however, the cameras software would start, and then complain about there not being a valid disk in the drive.

I use the burning software on the PC, and it seems to write about 1GB of data onto a blank DVD. I then try reading it, and windows thinks for about 3 minutes, then says something about an invalid disk in the drive. I pop the DVD into the DVD-rom drive (PC has 2 optical drives), and I can read the newly-created DVD. Hmmm.

I place a CD into the “faulty drive”, and I can also read the contents.

At this stage, it seems clear that the “DVD reading laser” seems to be faulty.

Its the first time I’ve seen an optical drive, where only 1 mode stops working (usually, the whole drive breaks… from mechanical failure).

Oh well, I replace the drive with a new DVD-RW and everything is back to working order.