Lamb Chop Posted March 1, 2009 Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 Today I had a weird experience. Running Windows XP Home Edition SP3 plus all other updates are there. Also run Seconia PSI which lets me know if anything is out of date and run Belarc too which checks on updates and anti virus and have scanned with Avast Anti Virus - then with Spybot Search and Rescue and then with Super Anti spyware. All okay. I had run all of these day before and then worked and other than some programs putting up the encountered a problem and have to close now and then over a week or so which is why I did the scans - not a problem.On booting up it had stopped making the windows theme music on the welcome screen and went to screen saver and that it - nothing else available - scary - tried restart and I have a Dell Inspiron and tried checking all the F2 Bio and F12 Boot up and all on default as per manual. So not that. Restarted and eventually going away and leaving it after crossing fingers - it booted up in half an hour or so. Last program I had had the main problems with and the program not responding which I had been getting on my Epson CX5500 printer last time I ran it for photos. It had had low ink and I refilled it but the Ink Monitor seemed stuck on low ink and and offer for inks and then came up with the have to close encountered problem and report to M$. First time I clicked on the report and closed it but then the rest stayed and would not close got respond message and all stuck there whilst it happily printed out 11 photos. Just would not go away - closed and still came back First job today was printing and so went to Firefox which came up after a wait and then when I tried to go to site to get tide predictions for hubbies fishing it too came up with have to close encountered and tell M$>So tried IE6 and it worked and I started to print and got the same message above as last time re ink monitor. Same problem. Printed out 2 pages needed and then when it stopped printing the bit about low ink and offer etc finally went away on their own. Just then Zone alarm which had been slow starting up too but had its icon up put up the have to close encountered message and I immediately disconnected and then exited ZA and put the windows firewall on. Reconnected and to download another version and got Firefox encountering problem so went to IE6 and downloaded Commodo Firewall free. So I then had two in stock so to speak. did this as the problem with printer started right after I had updated Zone Alarm and installed new version over the old as it does. Meanwhile now all programs are opening and closing properly so I don't know which made the problem. I did a restore to before last update to see if that had caused something as i had been a problem too and now shut down auto update altogether.No changes it said so not that.When I tried then to install Commodo Firewall it too encountered a problem with the installer and shut down.Now all other programs are okay seemingly email working Firefox working so what on earth is the problem. Got me beat. :( Meanwhile on windows firewall which is not so good eh!Better than nothing though :D I run CCleaner every night so cache is clear. Defrag is not need as checked. I also run WinPatrol, Download Accelerator, MS Time Zone and only WinPatrol had a problem over the day it didnt close but the Scottie dog on the task bar was in "checking start up" mode most of the time. But then it took a long time to start up. Any ideas? Is it ZA - printing problem started just after I had new version.Slow programs stopped after uninstalled. Mystified Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankus Posted March 1, 2009 Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 blimey ...exactly the same issues here ...but Ive got vista ......Ive even had a blue screen of death been over the last few days Ive deleted firefox and switched back to chrome (I had got rid of chrome due to googles tracking policy , but then I thought what the hell ) Firefox was eating a huge chunk of system resources ..... and longer and longer loading times Ive also dumped zone alarm and I'm now using PCtools firewall plus Its more stable now and way faster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamb Chop Posted March 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 Thanks Tankus at least it is not me going bonkers!!!So I have heard of Chrome - will try it as maybe it is Firefox 3 haven't long changed over to that had FF2 for longer than most.Anyway I fixed something - because when I booted up got back the windows theme music on welcome page. Something has been altering settings and I haven't a clue on Bio but got out the manual and checked which is not easy as all of these today seem to have been written in other language and lost something in the change over to English. Anyway - in the end I set all the whole lot to default surmising that it was on that setting when it left the factory!Will also have a look at your recommended firewall. I tried on my last computer to install Comodo and it wasn't happy - then cant install it on this one - will try again and if again - it shuts down - dump it. Must have something it doesn't get along with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamb Chop Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Tried Google Chrome - dumped it. Not a patch on Firefox 3which is now working happily - must have been Zone alarm update which is whole enchilada that made it all go weird.Installed Comodo and it is working so well I had to turn it off to get Flash player installed as out of date according to Seconia PSI which is brilliant at getting you in the picture. Got it and put firewall back on quick smart.Only thing is this Comodo is a bit of a hard one to use after ZA and I am just working on and hoping to learn more about it as I go as tells me deep tech things happening and submit and it nags and nags after saying go ahead and let it in on a download like flash player. Maybe to hard for me Only thing still up the creek is my printer so today will uninstall and then reinstall the program and hope that fixes the ink monitor from endlessly telling me I am out of ink. :lol: Caught up on my printing by dragging the nag screens down to base and ignoring them. Didn't make any difference to printing! maybe teach me to change over cartridges when it says instead of letting it run out as I used to on old printer which didn't do photos etc and just printed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamb Chop Posted March 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 Ok today after running well for a while on boot up the computer stuck aftr loading a programs and I couldnt do anything with it so shut it off with the start up button.Then restarted and went into F12 which is boot system and it showed hard disc and under it SATA and lot of numbers which I had seemed to remember was highlighted before so clicked down and highlighted it and it booted up ok.In my manual it has Bio system set out and that looked alright.But nothing re Boot except how to use other devices.Something is upsetting it alright. Running Firefox and Comodo and that is and has been running alright. Anyone else having problems or is it mine alone this time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artist Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 I have been having a few problems with 'not responding' - hanging - and with the printer saying about no ink, although I didn't think it was related.I did all the scans - Had adaware at the time (see thread in Security forum).Re installed Malwarebytes - did a scan - threw up a worm in the fonts........... and no, I haven't downloaded any fonts.Seems better this morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamb Chop Posted March 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 I rang Epsom Australia tech about ink monitor error - always stuck on low ink and report to M$ etc.He said a windows problem - can disable ink monitor but then wont know if ink low. Must say since I got this it seems to be some of the problems.Tried uninstalling and reinstalling Epsom CX5500 multi function printer and still there. Have just uninstalled and reinstalled new version of Webshots as this came up saying a change had been made on installing a new version of Foxit and it does not have that facility - so did the save photos bit and then complete new version rather than usual overwrite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamb Chop Posted March 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Update = solved the monitor problem for low ink on Epsom- by using Internet Explorer tab on Firefox 3 - seemed to fix it and now it is fine.But yesterday and the day before had problems again booting up.Had to go into BIO which means I was in a strange place to me with all sort of things I do not know abut and tried to follow my manual. Reset it so I though on boot by default but then next day same. So again did this and remembered this time to save it and it started up fine.Now again after this had to see what was resetting my start up.So ran everything - Scan with Avast, Scan with SuperAntiSpyware. Scan with Spybot, and then ran a scan with Norman Malware Cleaner which i had downloaded but hadnt run and ran it and it found something in my host file.Norman Malware CleanerCopyright © 1990 - 2009, Norman ASA. Built 2009/03/02 23:11:48Norman Scanner Engine Version: 6.00.06Nvcbin.def Version: 6.00.00, Date: 2009/03/02 23:11:48, Variants: 2926698Scan started: 22/03/2009 17:33:24Running pre-scan cleanup routine:Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3Logged on user: D4MLTT1S\ValerieRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 rcm.amazon.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 rcm-images.amazon.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 ads.mcafee.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 directads.mcafee.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 count.3721.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 ads.cnn.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 adservices.google.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 video-stats.video.google.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 sdc.ca.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 sdc.mcafee.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 wdcs.trendmicro.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 metrics.cnn.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 om.symantec.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 tc.symantec.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 au.adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 us.adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 pn1.adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 tw2.adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 bc-beta.ads.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 xpcs.ads.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 advision.webevents.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 ts.richmedia.yahoo.comScanning running processes and process memory...Number of processes/threads found: 3165Number of processes/threads scanned: 3142Number of processes/threads not scanned: 23Number of infected processes/threads terminated: 0Total scanning time: 1m 31sScanning file system...Scanning: C:\*.*Running post-scan cleanup routine:Removed hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 rcm.amazon.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 rcm-images.amazon.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 ads.mcafee.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 directads.mcafee.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 count.3721.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 ads.cnn.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 adservices.google.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 video-stats.video.google.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 sdc.ca.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 sdc.mcafee.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 wdcs.trendmicro.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 metrics.cnn.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 om.symantec.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 tc.symantec.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 au.adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 us.adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 pn1.adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 tw2.adserver.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 bc-beta.ads.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 xpcs.ads.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 advision.webevents.yahoo.comRemoved hosts entry: 127.0.0.1 ts.richmedia.yahoo.comNumber of files found: 100119Number of archives unpacked: 2398Number of files scanned: 100085Number of files not scanned: 34Number of files skipped due to exclude list: 0Number of infected files found: 0Number of infected files repaired/deleted: 0Number of infections removed: 0Total scanning time: 36m 4sSo is this okay to have removed these bits or does it mean I will now be invaded by something nasty?Everything seems to be working.Plus this Norman program does not appear on programs installed - so is it a run and not install thing? BTW only program that noticed the host file being altered was WinPatrol which asked should it be allowed and I saidn no and then later again should it be allowed and this time said yes as above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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