Sampson

There used to be a BHO page with all of the info on these things. Apparently there is now a program: http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/bholist.zip

A browser helper object (BHO) does not always appear as a toolbar but does get invoked whenever you bring up IE or those browsers that use IE components. Download BHODemon2.0 (it's free) and it will tell you what BHO's exist (and you can disable them). It will also tell you if something is changing your homepage or writing a value in your registry. Spywareguard (also free) also protects your homepage. SpywareBlaster (also free) will load dozens of sites known to infect systems and keep them from running. Finally, PestPatrol (not free but reasonable) will do a better job than most in finding pests, spyware, and the like. It runs in memory after installed and will alert you if something is being installed. Spyware Stopper is "free" until you need to update virus definitions. You get one free update, then you will have to pay a yearly subscription.

One more suggestion found from someone who is running 2k3 with and ATI card. This was his full message when he had the overlay problem: "For all the people who are having the same problem, i hope that this can help you out. I had installed w2000 server with DVD software and it worked fine, so i installed dual boot W2003 server and now suddenly i get the subject error in InterVideo WinDVD 4. So for all those people, it isn't a hardware issue. So i update directx, windows updates, screen resolutions, full accelaration and that didn't work. But the solution is in your video adapter software, i reinstalled the ATI rage family w2k-j5-30-1-b02.exe adapter and problem solved."

Have two alternative suggestions but they are a little in left field: 1)Go into regedit and check to see if the timeout value is set to 7 Hexadecimal. This is the standard timeout for XP HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\DCI\Timeout value to 7 (hex). 2)2k3 may include a driver called darpan.sys which is really a Novel driver. If it does have it, this has been known to create and overlay that conflicts with WinDVD.

Virtual does not mean the same. XP has a lot of video related subsystems that 2000 doesn't.

Went to intervideo's error page (which should work also for WinDVD) and these are the things suggested with the overlay message: Step 1 (Microsoft Windows NetMeeting): If you are using Windows XP or 2000 then check to see if you have NetMeeting running. Click start, programs, accessories, communciations, and open the NetMeeting software. Now go to tools, options, and go into the video tab, uncheck the video options in the sending and receiving video box. Apply the settings by clicking OK. Now, restore the previous settings, you currently unchecked, and re-apply everything by clicking OK. Exit NetMeeting, and make sure its icon is still not showing in the system tray (found in the lower-right corner of the screen). Now try running a DVD title with WinDVD. Step 2 (video card driver): Upgrading the graphics card driver to the latest version shown on the video card vendor website. Do not assume you have the latest video card driver in your system without checking. Step 3 (verification of DirectX version currently installed): Go to start, run, and type in dxdiag and press enter. A diagnostic tool will open then click on display and under display you will see DirectX Features. There are 3 acceleration settings (DirectDraw, Direct 3D, and AGP Texture). If they are indicated as Not Available and Disabled then this is another reason why you are getting the error message when playing WinDVD. Try downloading DirectX 9 if you have an older version on your system. Step 4 (other applications that can corrupt the video overlay): If you are running PC Anywhere, or the Microsoft Windows XP Remote Desktop, make sure you turn that off before running WinDVD. Step 5 (hardware acceleration): Go to Start then open the control panel, open Display. Under the settings tab click on advanced, under the Troubleshoot tab make sure that the Hardware Acceleration slider is set to full. If not you will need move it to full then click Apply.

Ok. It is possible that your Direct Draw Function may not be working. Try this: Click on Start / Run/ dxdiag /click OK Click on Display Tab at the top..(after inital test which takes a few seconds) Click on the Enable Button next to DireceDraw Acceleration

For the ezula problem. First uninstall the "Toptext", "HotText", or "ContextPro". If you are using Kazaa, this shouldn't affect it. Some suggest rebooting. Others don't. Nonetheless, you see if you have stub.exe or ezstub.exe on your system. Do a search on you hard drive for 'stub.exe ezstub.exe'. You'll find it in Windows' System or System32 folder. ezstub.exe can be found in the Program Files folder. If there's no file like that, about 52K in size, you don't have the downloader/installer. (Some may find a 'stub.exe' in the CuteFTP folder - don't delete that one!) Open a command prompt (aka DOS window) and go to the directory stub.exe or ezstub.exe is in. Type this (hit enter at the end of each line): stub.exe -UnregServer del stub.exeOr if you found ezstub.exe: ezstub.exe -UnregServer del ezstub.exe Then, to kill its installer you see if you have ezulaboot.dll on your system. Do a search on you hard drive for ezulaboot.dll. You'll find it in Windows' Downloaded Programs folder. If there's no file like that, you don't have the Web downloader/installer on your system. You'll need regsvr32.exe for removal. Do a search on your hard drive for regsvr32.exe. You'll find it in Windows' System or System32 folder. Take note of its path. Open a command prompt (aka DOS window) and go to the directory ezulaboot.dll is in. Type this (hit enter at the end of each line, the path to regsvr32.exe may differ if you're not on Windows NT/2000): C:\WinNT\system32\regsvr32.exe -u ezulaboot.dll del ezulaboot.* To see if you have a browser object helper, use BHODemon. Some of the taskbars that are added to IE can contain spyware. Install BHODemon to show you if any BHO's are attached to IE that may be causing the problem. Look at the text in appcompat to see what program or .dll is being accused of the failure. If it is a task running in the background, see what it is associated with. If it is not standard windows and you don't know what it does, use Google to see if you can find its function. If you find it is associated with something unnecessary, end it as a task, and try running the game once more. Because you are running an ATI card, I would go to one of their boards and see if this problem comes up for any of them. OpenGL seems to have more problems with ATI cards. There may be a workaround.

Folks may be reluctant to answer your query because it can lead to a war of words about who's got the best printer. So, I'll keep it general. What do you print the most? If you use your printer for final copies, keep it simple. Get a printer that does nothing but print. Stay away from multi-function printers unless you like multi-function headaches. The software for these things just mess up so more easily. Lexmark is a good example, but it isn't alone. If you are going for economy - get a laser printer. The cost per copy is a lot cheaper. If the printer lies dormant, you won't have to put up with the dreaded dried cartridge syndrome. Ink jet printers, especially if you like to use multiple special fonts will drain your cartridges faster than a Hummer will empty a gas tank. If you want to play with photographs, unless you want to shell out the money for a Xerox laser color printer, you will normally have to use an inkjet with two sets of cartridges. Epson has gotten high marks for their color jet; so has HP, but both have quirks and basically it comes down to living within the limitations of the printer. There is no real reason that you necessarily have to tank the old printer to add a new one unless it has quit functioning. You can use different printers for different tasks on the same computer. You've probably heard this before, so I will only add that when a company starts adding gizmos (like cameras) to sell a specific printer, don't be surprized if that printer is about to be phased out of production; which generally means that the drivers for it will not be updated all too quickly (if at all) as will the latest and greatest new printer taking its place.

Might be a Codec problem. There is a new Windows Media Player ver 10 which is a beta. It is meant for XP but it may also work with 2K3. This is the page: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/default.aspx

I believe that appcompat.txt is that which is produced to be sent to Microsoft when some program crashes the system. In the text is the dll which is considered responsible. It may very well be an activeX component, but I have also read that certain popup stoppers and IE itself are also candidates. There does seem to be a correlation with some file sharing programs that use ezula components. These components are supposed to be limited to the file sharing folder but find themselves in the \windows\system and \system32 folders where they are not supposed to be.

You could reformat and that will fix the problem. It will also be a monumental headache. You asked for software that might fix the problem. I would suggest PestPatrol. None of these programs are infallible. It seems to do the best job however often finding things that Spybot and Ad-aware do not. Two examples: 1) eAcceleration software. If perchance you have some of its components put on your system and you Uninstalled it, it writes itself into a text that re-installs itself again, but this time does not appear in the Install/uninstall software. PestPatrol really has to work to dig out all the places it is imbedded. But, it does clean it out. 2) clientsniffer.js (and vb_sniffer.js). All these littles piece of javacode are supposed to do is figure out what kind of browser you have. Several webpages stick this into your IE tempfiles - sudhian and anantech. By themselves, they do nothing hurtful, but let some unscrupulous hacker find this on your system (and some webpages wanting to install a spybot), they are the perfect backdoor.

Download and run the programs that Alec suggests. As to WindowsUpdater it really doesn't need any help in mucking up. The standard way of trying to fix it is to go into IE, Tools, and Delete the cookies, Files, and History. In addition if you have added any toolbars to IE, they may also be a problem. Use a program like BHODemon to see if you have any programs that run when IE is brought up (browser helper objects. When you go to Windowupdater, be sure that you know what is running in the background. Norton's (because it intrudes on the system intermittently) used to be famous for messing up the comunication.

That particular motherboard might use NEC's USB drivers. In any case, (and you probably have done this), this page will take you to Microsoft's driver support page: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/bus/USB/default.mspx . Since Gigabyte defers to Microsoft's implementation for 2.0. Would have liked to have helped more. As I said, I recall there being a difficulty between Microsoft and NEC over 2.0 but that was some time ago.

Toshiba has a pretty extensive support webpage for its computers. Try here first: http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/...kceghdgngdglj.0 . Or, are you asking for PCMCIA driver?

You may have a virus infection. Download one of the free antivirus programs like AVG or AntiVir and scan your machine. Or, you can go online to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp to be scanned. You must have an old version of Spybot since it now comes with a component that alerts you when your Homepage is being changed. A program that works well with these kind of "takeovers" is Pest Patrol. While it is a subscription product, it runs in the background and protects you from your own curiosity when you go to Webpages that use the ActiveX vulnerabilities to implant programs that do more than spy on you; they change the registry entries and make IE open to a variety of attacks - some of which are very vicious. Until you isolate the bug that bit you, download and install Mozilla and use it as your browser.

Boot into safe mode. Using control panel go to uninstall software. Uninstall the Nvidia drivers. Reboot. When it comes up Windows should popup and tell you it has found new hardware and to hit "Next" to get the appropriate drivers. Hit cancel instead. Use Windows Explorer to manuever to where you downloaded the new drivers. Double click the file and it will install them. Then, it will want to reboot. When it comes up you can reset the Screen Resolution to your liking. However, if you want to really be thorough read this link as to how to get rid of every inkling of nvidia bits left over before you install the new drivers: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?s=61946bfd784126c3674fed49ccdbfe32&threadid=67799

No. Not when you use a router. We have two computers connected to one switcher/hub in turn connected to a second switcher/hub (with some several computers hung of of it) separated from one another by some 200 feet close to the limits of ethernet's reach. This second switcher/hub is then connected to router in another building some 50 or so feet away from the switcher/hub. There are two computers attached to the router in addition to the wire from the switcher/hub. The modem is attached to the router. All machines are recognized in the system. No crossover is necessary. The router assigns and tracks the IP of each individual computer.

Connecting your Modem to the router and the two ethernet cables - one from your hub and the other to your computer through which you previously made the connection - will be a breeze. You will wonder why you didn't do it before.

Our setup is similar to yours. Because we were using older software on some Win98 machines where certain subdirectories had to be designated as drive letters is how we found the anomalie. Normally, when you plug in the disk onkey device, it would grab the last drive letter not yet assigned. In this example, it should have mapped itself to L:\. But, the Gigabyte machine wanted to grab the first drive letter after the last drive on its own hardware. In your case, this would be drive letter F:\. However, drive letter F:\ was already designated for another computer on the network. If you isolate the Gigabyte machine by removing it from the network (and rebooting it so that it clears any drive devices not found) so that it becomes a standalone machine and plug the disk onkey device in, does it still freeze on you? Or does it work recognize the device as a drive?

There was a post in this forum here: http://ntcompatible.com/thread24999-1.html about running resident evil 3 (applicable also to 2).

It really just depends. Since this is a company copy and was probably part of a "wholesale" package, their keys are sometimes special allowing one copy to be put on several machines using the same CD or slipstreaming across a network. In that case it might be a no-go. On the other hand, many of the telephone operators at Microsoft are very helpful and courteous, and just may provide you with a key. Call them and give it a try.

You really need to give us a lot more information like type of processor, its speed, how much ram. Then, these types of crashes are also due to the video cards, the video drivers and the like. Go here: http://www.sigames.com/sibase.php?type=subsection&id=6 This is a forum for the game you are playing. This particular section deals with random crashes with Championship Manager.

Ok. See if this works; it is specific for the CD version: http://home.amis.net/lkslavi/WC4Fix.zip The problem is apparently in the way 2K reads variables differently from XP.

Try what peterh suggested, but don't force things. When it comes to power outtages and "corrupt" files, you are sometimes looking at hard disk failure. Trying to access the disk too many times will make it fail worse (if this is an indication of a disk failure.) If you have another hard drive and can use Norton's Ghost, make an image of the failing drive. If the image is completed, you can make the imaged drive the master and try to boot from it. If it works, you are on your way. You can reformat the failing drive and Ghost it if you want. There is no guarantee as to its dependibility however. If Ghost fails, then the failing hard drive is truly failing, back up your data and get ready for a long install.