help with hijack this log

[cauzomb]

I'm wondering if it wasn't due to a "shared file" where an application uses the same file that the system does.. Or perhaps the application changed a file durring an update process and over-writes with a non windows XP file, say some windows vista or windows 7 file was included in an application update etc....

Some of the recommendations that I was going to make if nothing else worked was to re-install the applications, restart several times with the internet unplugged and finally, in windows normal mode, logged in as administrator, use the "Add/Remove programs" to uninstall certain applications, one at a time, with a full power down/restart between uninstalls... This sometimes fixes problems.. I'm pretty sure that the system restore you performed did the same thing that re-installing the application and then using "add/remove programs" to uninstall the application, would do, in regards to shared system files and 3rd party applications.

If you PC is working fine with the additional ram, keep it in the computer..

Make the previous recommended changes to your PC's services, indexing services, and try to disable disk write cache..

I think it's worth the effort to help in speeding up your computer at startup and shutdown, as well as decrease the likelyhood of the hard disk becoming corrupted or fragmented reads, "disable disk write cache and make a fixed page file"

The other part of the tuning suggestions "stopping and disabling some services" helps secure your computer while online and frees up some "base/system reserved" memory addresses, so that other applications can use it, as well as reduces the number of services that load at windows startup, windows should startup to the desktop noticeably faster.

[see attached images below]

Start by turning off disk write cache.

Log in as administrator, then go to the control panel/system/hardware/device manager "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" select your disk drive controller "first one at the top of the list in the IDE/ATAPI controllers menu" Then click on the "primary channel" tab, if you have a Hard disk installed on the primary channel, it will show up and there should be several check boxes, one of which has the option to disable write cache, uncheck it, click OK. Close all control panel windows then restart the computer.

Once the computer has restarted, go back into the same control panel section and verity that the setting has been disabled.. If it has, then check secondary channel, if this is your CDROM, skip it, close the current controller menu then in "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" double click on the next controller "secondary controller" "primary channel" and make/check for the same settings, disable write cache on this disk if it's a hard disk....then click OK, close all the open windows then restart... I've found that you need to restart before disabling write cache on the "secondary channel" for the changes to take.

I think there is another option to disable write caching for individual drives in "control panel" "computer managment/disk management. You may want to try this way first.

logged in as administrator, open the control panel/administrative tools/then navigate to "disk managment" left click on disk management, then find your hard disks in the right hand menu.. When you right click on an individual hard disk in the disk management section and select properties, you will get a list of all hard disks and other disk drives installed..

Find your C and D drives in the list of installed hard disks. Right click on C: then select properties, in the policies section of this disk you should see an option to "optimize for quick removal" checking this option will disable write caching...

Unfortunately, due to my current setup with all my disks set to RAID in the BIOS, I am unable to change these options.. They are grayed out.. otherwise I would show you a screen shot of this section/option..

Once you have disk write cache disabled for all of your hard disks, restart the computer and log in as administrator, then disable drive indexing, repete the steps from the previous post to disable drive indexing and delete the catalogues. Restart the computer after making these changes..

Then disable sound schemes, restart the computer,

You can at any time in this process set your fixed pagefile size, it's recommended to prevent disk fragmentation and to prevent windows from automatically "dynamically" resizing the page file size..

Moving onto the services.. Go ahead and perform the recommended services changes as in the previous post. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask..

There's some other suggestions to do in "networking devices" related to connection speed and security; setting the speed/duplex from "AUTO" to "force 100 full duplex" and disabling "magic packet" and "wake on lan"

There's also another set of changes to do for networking but I'll wait for your next progress report..

The good thing about these steps and changes is that; when you learn how to do this stuff to your own PC, you won't need the "remote assistance" technicians.

[LJborn]

Leaving town for a week in the morning, and haven't started packing! Will have to wait until we get back to work on this. Will post again when I've started following your instructions. Thank you again for your persistence and patience!!!

[cauzomb]

You're welcome, I'll keep an eye out for your next post, enjoy your trip.

[LJborn]

HELP!!!!! after I went back to old configuration the shutdown problem disappeared. Then I went through and 'redid' all your cleaning instructions. Then all of a sudden I was seeing a logon screen, which I hadn't seen in ages. All I had to do to get past it was to click ok, but I wanted to bypass that timewaster that I hadn't had before....


I did the following:
clicked on Run
typed control userpasswords2
unchecked 'users must enter a username and password to use this computer'
clicke on apply
clicked ok

The next time I turned on the computer, I got an error that I couldn't login. PUshed the start button to turn off the computer. The next time I turned on the computer, I just got a black screen.

Right now I am on the laptop, since I can't do anything on the PC.

I really really need some bigtime help here. I was trying to get rid of a problem, but seem to have created one, or was it just a coincidence?

This is way way way out of my league. The computer is definitely powering on, but I can't see anything. Did my display just happen to die at the same time that Windows XP decided not to let me automatically log in? I don't have a password so can't log in with a password since I don't have anything to enter. And that would be if I could see anything on the screen.....

I had just done a complete backup yesterday, so I haven't lost any work, but I can't access anything....

HELP!!!!!!

[jholland1964]

Try to see if you can log in via Safe Mode,

Using the F8 Method:

1. Restart your computer.
2. When the machine first starts again it will generally list some equipment that is installed in your machine, amount of memory, hard drives installed etc. At this point you should gently tap the F8 key repeatedly until you are presented with a Windows XP Advanced Options menu.
3. Select the option for Safe Mode using the arrow keys.
4. Then press enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.

If you can then maybe you can change things back. If you cannot then it seems likely that this is just a coincidence.

[LJborn]

I went into Safe Mode.
Run
control userpassword2

it would NOT let me reverse the action. there was NO checkmark in 'users must enter a username and password to use the computer'.

it would not let me fix. I tried changing password, since that was something it said I could do, but I haven't used a password so couldn't do anything for old password. i entered a new password twice and clicked ok and restarted computer. now it shows the 'password' the 'correct' length for the new password I set, but it still won't let me in.

i went back into safe mode. i clicked on 'users must enter a username.....' and then it let me highlight administrator. then I clicked apply and ok and shutdown/restart.

I AM TRAPPED!!!!! Same screen. I can see grayed out in the background Administrator and three dots for the password, but in front is the same logon message: "unable to log you on because of an account restriction".

How do I fix this? I don't understand what the restriction is.

Thank goodness I have this old laptop, or I wouldn't even have a way to ask questions.

[LJborn]

Could this by any chance have something to do with all the Services I was instructed by cauzomb to disable? (see earlier parts of this thread).

Please advise.

[jholland1964]

Could this by any chance have something to do with all the Services I was instructed by cauzomb to disable? (see earlier parts of this thread).

Please advise.

No I don't believe so...more likely the problem you had was not really fixed by all of this and now has been exacerbated by what you did on 7/23/2010:

I did a system restore back to 5/10/2010

Which essentially "undid" or complicated anything you have done on the computer since that date. I truly believe this was a huge mistake.

Look at all you have done to the computer since that May 10th date:
Removed the following programs:
Advanced System Optimizer 3 - which likely had done some damage all ready
Portions of the old Norton/Symantec program which was RUNNING
Uninstalled AVG and installed Avira
Then you:
Unchecked everything from msconfig start up
Hid microsoft services and unchecked everything else
Ran CheckDisk and defragged
Probably corrupted files because you used the power button to turn off your computer multiple times.
Changed the pagefile size
Disabled various MS services
Added a registry patch

Now by going back to May 10th this has "undone" and "redone" a lot of the registry changes made since then. Meaning some things removed had their registry entries restored. As you noted, Avira was PARTLY gone and AVG was PARTLY back because a System Restore will NOT remove programs.
System Restore actually operates only on a very few system files and settings. System Restore backs up your registry. System Restore does not backup your data. If you delete or damage a file, System Restore will not recover it. System Restore will NOT uninstall a program. In fact if you have installed a program and find you don't want it if you use System Restore it may leave you with much of the program but it just won't be listed in Add/Remove, making it much harder to uninstall. System Restore does not keep old copies of your files or settings. If you're looking for an "old version" of a file or program that you used to have on your machine, System Restore isn't going to have it. System Restore does not fix your system. So if your computer crashes and needs to be repaired System Restore will not repair it.

System Restore is meant to restore from very RECENT changes like just day or two, not weeks. If you install a new driver for instance and that driver doesn't work correctly then System Restore may be able to restore the computer back to just before the time that driver was installed and revert back to older settings...not weeks back just a short time back.


Honestly now, with the problems you are having my only recommendation is a complete reformat and reinstall. You obviously have major damage to major files on the computer and to continue to try to find and fix these is all but impossible. A reformat and restore will take a few hours. I wouldn't mess with this anymore if it were my computer.

[LJborn]

Well, I'm not an expert. What I did on 7/23 was on the advice of this forum, including the exact date for system restore.

I gather you would have given me different advice, had you been online the next to last week in July.

I 'solved' the logon problem by a system restore to right before I made the change that caused the problem, i.e. 3 days ago. I now have to put in a password to logon, but at least I can get in. I'm afraid to try to get rid of logon by myself, since I obviously messed up the last time.

I went into msconfig and only my antivirus program and Itunes run at startup.

I went into revo uninstaller and got rid of remnants of that optimizer program that y'all said was a problem. I think it is totally gone from my computer.

I'm not really clear on what you want me to do. Are you talking about wiping my computer and reinstalling everything? Or is there some intermediary cleaning exercise that you are suggesting?

Again, I am not in any way an expert in these things. I basically do what I'm told, if I can understand how, which usually means pretty detailed instructions. I totally understand if you are so unhappy with what I did that you aren't interested in going any further. Thanks anyway for your time. I'm sure you are busy, and it must be frustrating when you see things done a way you wouldn't have recommended.

[jholland1964]

I am talking about wiping the computer and reinstalling everything. But if you want to try a repair install instead then that would be up to you.
No, I wouldn't have given the advice given but I was away that week in July. In some cases I may say to use System Restore but as I said, only a couple days back at most and also in very specific circumstances.
But with all that was done even prior to this it is evident to me that there are/were a lot of corrupted files on there.
A key factor in all of this is not the System Restore but the damage very likely done by this Advanced System Optimizer 3. It was on the system since May. There are so many things this program does, without the user interaction, that it cannot help but cause damage. Everything this program claims to do with "one click", easily be done manually by the user, but much of it is totally unnecessary. You really can't "optimize" the registry for one thing. And it isn't needed but this is one thing this tool does all the time...play with the registry. There is absolutely no way a single tool can possibly know what every registry entry on a computer is for. Every program on a computer has it's own registry entries. A tool like this Advanced System Optimizer 3 only can be set up to look for what are considered "normal" entries. Install a program this thing isn't set up to know about and there begins the problems. It does it's scan, sees new registry entries because you have installed a brand new program or your antivirus program has installed some new protections and the Advanced System Optimizer 3 will say..."whoa, wait a minute, I don't know what this is, it must be bad let's change things back to the way it was after my last scan"...so your new registry entries from your new program or your new anti-virus update are now gone. What happens...the programs won't work correctly and while it was removing those new entries it also "fixes" any other entries in there that may be intertwined with these new necessary for the new program entries. Because it has also fixed those then something else won't work right and it becomes a never ending cycle. This is why you are having these problems really. This thing likely changed so many things in the registry that the likely way to get it working again is take it all back to the beginning.
This is my own personal opinion of course but if it were my computer then that is what I would do.