Sampson

Cookies are a whole other headache. You can install SpywareBlaster (free) and it will stop a number of Spyware cookies. There are two programs (both shareware) that allow you to control what cookies are admitted to your system: CookiePal and CookieCrusher. You can write rules for both or you can eliminate them adhoc. They work entirely differently, but they work. CookiePal uses less resources and tells you what the cookie is that wants to be planted on your system. It works with IE and Mozilla, but you have to configure derivative browsers for them to work. CookieCrusher requires .Net to be installed on your machine. It will tell you what kind of cookie it is and is therefore a lot more informative, which means it is a lot more of a headache when things go wrong. For example, when installed it will use Proxy settings and if you already have a proxy setup, you will have to go a few steps to fix them. They both run in memory. Once you have eliminated certain cookies, you needn't bother with them again.

You could have a hard disk failure, but it sounds like your registry has become corrupted. You will first want to get into your bios to see if it is recognizing all of your drives. If it is recognizing everything, then, whatever virus you picked up has not infected it. If it is askew, replace the battery. If it is still not seeing the drives properly, you may have to flash the bios. My guess is that you won't have to go to those extremes. To fix the registry is way too complex because you don't know what parameters have been altered. Also, there are a variety of .ini files that may also have new lines of code in them from the virus. Finally, you don't know if this virus has caused sectors on the hard disk to become corrupted. The only way you will have confidence in your computer is to clean install windows. This means formatting the hard drive and reloading the operating system.

Sorry. Don't forget to go back into msconfig to reset the computer to come up normally if it doesn't load all the regular drivers.

Scandisk in XP does a lot of work and it may be that a lot of the processes normally loaded get in the way. So try this: Go to Start then Run then type msconfig. Under the General tab click on - 'Diagnostic Start Up-load basic devices & services only'. Don't reboot yet. THEN go through the procedure you nomally do to run XP's disk error checking. When prompted reboot and it should run it all the way through this time. I don't know if you have ever seen XP's scandisk run before, but it may take a long time.

I looked all over the place and could not find either Spyware or a Trojan that fits that designation. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist; I just couldn't find it. I don't know if this will help, but WMI is a scripting component for API's and .NET and Corona was the code name for the streaming technology for WMP 9.0. My guess is that this is the log that contains the error of why WMP was unable to stream some sort of video you requested. This is only a guess. You asked how to delete it. I know that there are elegant ways, but the "frustatrated I am going to delete you way is": be sure you know where the file is. 1) Run a dos window; make sure it doesn't cover the whole screen. Then, 2) click on to the desktop. 3) Bring up Windows Task Manager (CTRL-SHIFT-ESC). Click on Explorer.exe. Then, click on End Process button. (I know it will mess everything up on the desktop, but ignore it. 4)Click into your Dos window. If the file is in the root directory as you indicate type cd\. Make sure that it is there by typing dir Coro*.* . 5) Then del coronawmilogfile. If it's gone, type exit and hit return. Back at the desktop, you can Run explorer.exe or Reboot. This is probably not the best way to delete a file when the system says that some other process is using it, but when you're frustrated enough you'll try anything.

You should include a few more details. 1) Did you clean install XP or did you install it over a previous version of windows? 2) Is the soundcard onboard or is it card independent of the motherboard? 3)If it is a standalone card, what kind is it?

Since this is an "intermittant" problem and because it is a notebook, finding the gremlin may not be easy. So ... did this start gradually happening or did it start to happen after you may have installed some new software? While there is clearly a problem with the video card and/or the drivers, notebooks are funny creatures. I had one once where the TCP/IP protocols got messed up, but the communications still worked. The A:\ drive instead got lost and wouldn't function. When all else fails with notebooks, it is time to backoff the data and either use the crash disk (or whatever Dell gave you)to reformat and start with a clean install . This is radical, but in the end you may have to do it anyway and it might save hours of tinkering. Dell has an awfully good tech crowd. If this happened to you, it happened to others and they may have a quick fix. About Nvidia drivers and Dell. It has been my experience that leaving the original drivers alone is the best policy. Those are the drivers that were tested with the notebook. While gaming on notebooks has become more and more popular (and this is what the "new drivers" are generally meant for) I think it a kind of unspoken assumption that notebooks are for business applications. Sorry for being long winded.

Until you can get the Bios to see a hard drive greater than 8 meg, don't believe so. Seagate and Maxtor have programs that enable older computers to do this. It is possible (and there is often a lot of luck involved) if you know the parameters of the 40 gig hard drive, to slave it to the 2 gig drive, go into the BIOS and configure it with the magical 46, set your own parameters option for the secondary drive. (It has been so long that I have done this forgive me if this seems foggy.) If the machine sees the drive after it boots, shut it down. Make the 40 gig the Master and see if it recognizes it.

Did you make sure that the suspend functionality for power management was not checked. Sometimes USB Root Hubs default to this being on. But it can cause a device that does not have that functionality to cause the computer to seize. This is found under Properties of the USB root Hub Power Management tab.

Have you gone into Hardware device manager and looked at the USB controller to see if there was a conflict, or, updated the driver through it?

Ok. Have you actually gone into the BIOS and looked to see if the BIOS recognizes that 40 gig hard disk? If it isn't then it is probably bumping the CD off the chain of devices.

To have windows recognize the CD there are several files it needs: The four files needed for Win95/98/Me are the following: (example: WIN95 is the Windows95 home directory) WIN95\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\APIX.VXD WIN95\SYSTEM\WINASPI.DLL WIN95\SYSTEM\WNASPI32.DLL and ONE of the following two files WIN95\SYSTEM\ASPIENUM.VXD (this is the file that comes from Adaptec) WIN95\ASPI2HLP.SYS (this is the file that comes with Win95) This is like Catch22; these are on the Install CD for WindowsME in the cab files. Since the CD doesn't work, you can download the Adaptec version of these files from: ftp://ftp.adaptec.com/software_pc/aspi/aspi_v472.exe and install them.

Symantec's upgrades are generally based upon how long you've owned a product. They inform you based on the version of your product if the upgrade is free, discounted, or for an appropriate amount. I really don't believe they have made all that many upgrades for Ghost though they have several flavors of it. If there is an upgrade, each is handled differently. Sometimes they only let you go through their liveupdate; other times they provide a file to download and run. If it is the latter and you know your version, you can download it to any computer, burn it to a CD and install it on you W2K machine. This is just me, but if you have used Ghost and it works, leave it alone.

The problem is probably in the BIOS. Go to Hitachi's webpage and see if there is an updated BIOS for your machine. The BIOS is not recognizing your drives probably because those devices did not exist when you bought it. You don't need any software drivers as with sound cards and video for CD's and hard drives if the BIOS recognizes that they are there.

It really depends on the application. Some require 95/98; others W2K. Then, you have to experiment with memory settings.

Straight from the mouth of Microsoft: To set up compatibility mode (if it is not installed): To run the Program Compatibility Wizard 1. Start the Program Compatibility Wizard. (Click Start, click Help and Support, click Fixing a problem, click Application and software problems, under Fix a problem click Getting older programs to run on Windows XP, and then click the Program Compatibility Wizard link in the instructions.) 2. Follow the instructions in the wizard. Or manually As an alternative to running the Program Compatibility Wizard, you can set the compatibility properties for a program manually. To set the compatibility properties for a program manually • Right-click the program icon on your desktop or the shortcut on the Start menu for the program you want to run, and then click Properties. • Click the Compatibility tab, and change the compatibility settings for your program.

If your motherboard has its sound device directly on it, you could try either of two things. 1)Uninstall the device driver for the sound, reboot, and let the hardware device manager find the sound as a new device and have it find the driver over the internet Via Microsoft. or 2) Go to the motherboard's home page and download the sound driver from it and install it.

Right click on My Computer. From the Menu, choose properties. From the window that pops up, click on the Hardware tab. Then click on the button that says Device Manager. Another window will pop up. Click on the "+" sign next to icon which has the text IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. You should see a Primary and Secondary IDE Channel. Right click first on the Primary channel and choose Properties. Then click on the tab that says Advanced Settings. You want DMA if available. Do the same for your Secondary Channel. If either said PIO only (depending on whether or not you have an old CD Rom drive), this was probably your problem. You will have to reboot for it to take effect. (If you have never played with this before, just look and don't change anything, just report back what it says.) While you are there, you can check on your CD/DVD drives to see if there are any conflicts. Click on the "+" and then right click and select properties on the drive you want to see. If you have 256meg of Ram, this is probably just good enough. Try defragmenting your hard drive however. Usually, a manufacturer supplies you with the Software for the drive. Actually, I think Nero is supplied with the Yamaha drive. This is supposed to one of the faster drives on the market and they may have a special configuration of Nero for it.

As has been pointed out before, many websites stash javacontrols into the temp files of both IE and Mozilla. One of the most common is clientsniffer.js and vb_sniffer.js . All the script does is determine what kind of browser you are using. Anantech, Sudhian, and even Cnet's download.com does it. But, once it is on your hard disk, it can be exploited. As far as I know no anti-virus detects it, nor does Spybot or Ad-aware. Bring up windows explorer and search for clients*.js or vb_*.js to see if you have it. It is not harmful and you can leave it on if you like. But, it can be exploited. This is not necessarily the control that Alec is speaking about, but it is something as innocuous as this that seems to causing concern. In IE there is a hosts file. It seems that this gets re-written and one is sent to an address where you don't want to go. This exploit has occured before, but apparently it is more stealthy.

There is a buffer overrun patch that was issued by Microsoft last year in relation to the RPC interface. You may not necessarily have lost it when you went back to SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-026.mspx At this point I am wondering if you aren't being hacked.

Look at this url: http://www.pestpatrol.com/Search/default.asp?qu=RPC&sc=%2F&Action=Go You asked what other ones give this "RPC" message? Here are ten to start with 1. PestPatrol Pest Info - Exploit.Win32.DCom.e http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/e/exploit_win32_dcom_e.asp size 11068 bytes - 6/24/2004 4:07:03 PM GMT 2. PestPatrol Pest Info - Rpc-cmsd.c http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/r/rpc-cmsd_c.asp size 10138 bytes - 6/21/2004 8:00:51 PM GMT 3. PestPatrol Pest Info - RPC portmapper set/unset http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/r/rpc_portmapper_set_unset.asp size 10895 bytes - 6/21/2004 8:01:03 PM GMT 4. PestPatrol Pest Info - Rpc Bind 1.1 http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/r/rpc_bind_1_1.asp size 13136 bytes - 6/21/2004 8:00:54 PM GMT 5. PestPatrol Pest Info - Sadmind Solaris RPC tiny Scanner http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/s/sadmind_solaris_rpc_tiny_scanner.asp size 10740 bytes - 6/21/2004 8:02:45 PM GMT 6. PestPatrol Pest Info - RPC Program Scanner http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/r/rpc_program_scanner.asp size 10091 bytes - 6/21/2004 8:01:04 PM GMT 7. PestPatrol Pest Info - Rpc scanner by console http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/r/rpc_scanner_by_console.asp size 10496 bytes - 6/21/2004 8:01:04 PM GMT 8. PestPatrol Pest Info - Prout.c abuse of pcnfs RPC program (version 2 only) http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/p/prout_c_abuse_of_pcnfs_rpc_program__version_2_only_.asp size 10864 bytes - 6/21/2004 7:48:28 PM GMT 9. PestPatrol Pest Info - Pscan2.c TCP/UDP/NIS/RPC scanner http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/p/pscan2_c_tcp_udp_nis_rpc_scanner.asp size 10735 bytes - 6/21/2004 7:48:41 PM GMT 10. PestPatrol Pest Info - Unknown Flooder http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/u/unknown_flooder.asp size 16544 bytes - 6/21/2004 9:07:42 PM GMT

Maybe you could be more specific. Tell us the Motherboard, the CPU speed, amount of Ram, kind of hard drives. Did you put this unit in yourself or did it come with the machine? Is it showing up as UDMA-2 and DMA has been selected? Did you use the Nero software that came with the unit or are you trying to burn your disks with something else? Does it just stop or does it crash the system when it stalls?

Program BHOList.exe comes from Merijn Bellekom, the developer of Startuplist and Hijack This! It downloads and displays the BHO Collection in a searchable & sortable list. It will contain the name of some nasties which may have set off your virus scan, ali, but I doubt that it actually contains any trojans. I use both AVG 7.0 and EZTrust and neither gave me an indication of a problem.

Thought of one other thing you might try. In IE, go to Tools, then click on the Security tab, then click on the little green logo with the check mark that says Trusted Sites, then click on the button that says Sites and add two entries: http://*.windowsupdate.com and http://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com

I am not sure if you read what was written. BHO's are attachments to IE. They are not always picked up by anti-virus software or spyware removers. Spyware Cop and BHODemon do. It may definitely be a windows problem. If it is, there is nothing you can do about it. But, if you have things running in the background, even antivirus software, how do you know any one of those are not causing the problem unless you systematically exclude them? Here is a list of program from Microsoft that cause windows update to stall: Anti Virus Software Norton Anti-Virus McAfee Anti Virus PCCILLIN Web Accelerators or Download Assistants Netzip At Guard Ilexia Netgo Get Right Internet Boost 99 Web Cellerator Net Sonic Pro 2.0 Micrografx Flowcharter 7 Fast Net 99 Web Turbo Internet Boost 99 Web Early Bonzi Buddy Micro Surfer No More Ads Turbo Explorer Did you delete the files, cookies and history from within IE? We'll keep trying to help, if you'll keep trying also.