Archive for January, 2008

Computer issues: When drivers go bad

Published by Sean Et Cetera on January 30, 2008 in Computers & Technology. 0 Comments

To start with, I’m not quite sure how this particular incident happened. The explanation from the student was that their computer was on, they left the room or went to sleep, and when they next went to use the computer, the USB keyboard an mouse suddenly no longer worked, and that they had to restart the computer a number of times before they were recognized. This was the computer that was given to me. However, I hadn’t initially heard the explanation of what happened; I just had a computer that wouldn’t connect to the network for some unknown reason.

When I began to work on the computer, I could not get the USB keyboard and mouse I have for desktops that come in to work either. At first, I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the computer, as they would work fine when I was using the UBCD, but when booting up normally, the keyboard and mouse would go unresponsive sometime after POST as the Windows XP Professional loading screen/progress indicator appeared. Then, for no apparent reason what-so-ever, the keyboard and mouse suddenly worked. I’m not sure why, nor do I really care at this point. I was able to get to the login screen and actually take a look at why the comptuer couldn’t connect to the network. It had to be something with the system, as the UBCD could connect just fine.

Between using the UBCD and logging into the computer, I knew that formatting and re-installing Windows was not something I wanted to do; there were far too many programs installed to want to try and find every directory that needed to be backed-up. I tried some of the same things my staff had tried, only due to the fact that sometimes, things just work for me when they didn’t for others, but such was not the case. The issue seemed to be that Windows had something corrupt that was affecting it’s ability to connect to the network. The biggest indicator that something was fubar was the following message (or something very similar) when you tried to use ipconfig:

Windows IP Configuration

An internal error occurred: The request is not supported.

Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services for further help.

Additional information: Unable to Query host name.

However, as far as error messages go, it really isn’t helpful. As I said, I had tried stuff my staff had already done, such as the winsockfix we use, but to no avail. When using a USB NIC, the same error occurred and I could not connect to the network. Not surprisingly, that meant that I was going to have to do some research and keep throwing fixes at it until it worked.

I noticed the the 1394 Net Adapter in Device Manager was not correctly installed, which is when I started to suspect it was a driver issue, as the firewire port is on-board, and I would find it odd that Dell would ship an XPS 200/5150C without it correctly installed, or the drivers for it. Every time that I tried to update it, it would fail. I really didn’t want to deal with drivers, but apparently I had to.In the process of trying to resolve the issue, I attempted to boot into safe mode, but never succeeded at doing so. Part of this was due to the system very quickly telling me to press escape to bypass loading sptd.sys, and if I didn’t, it would hang. I decided to check this driver out first. I knew that Daemon Tools was installed on this system, and that this process is related to it, so I tried to update this file from the distributor. That didn’t seem to do the trick.

After goign to one of the sites listed at the end of this post, I eventually started to review services that were running, and found that DHCP was not. When I tried to start it, I got the following error:

Error: Could not start the DHCP Client Service on local computer

Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start.

Searching for the first line of the error brought me to an article of the same name, which listed a number of ways to trouble shoot this issue. It was during step 3 in that article (Verify that the dependency service/components are running) that I found a number of issues with this computer. When I ran Device Manager and set it to show hidden devices, a number of the items in the Non-Plug and Play Devices section had exclamation marks on them. I tried to delete/re-install AFD (the first item listed with an exclamation mark, as well as the first listed in that step) when I couldn’t get it to start, but I could not get it to come back once it had been deleted. While that component was not working before, I knew it needed to be there, so I went looking for how to get it back.

That’s when I came across the article Fixing Winsock on Icrontic.com. As a resource for dealing with winsock, it seems to be rather complete. From the article, they listed a number of issues and fixes, and I went down the list. The abbreviated items, and my conclusions are as listed.

  1. Norton Internet Security or other bloatware installed. - Not an issue from what I could tell. McAffe Security Center was installed, but this was not causign any issues.
  2. Winsock is corrupt. - It wasn’t, and I ran the fix an extra time to be sure.
  3. Protocols need to be re-installed. - Nope, they were there and it didn’t help.
  4. Issue with Non-Plug and Play devices. - As listed previously, there were issues, but I couldn’t delete all items, and there wasn’t any way to bring them back.
  5. Replace C:\WINDOWS\INF\ and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ - YES!

I got a hold of the two directories from an installation of Windows XP my co-worker had up and running at the time I was doing this. After I backed up the current files, I copied the copies over the existing ones and rebooted. Once the computer started up again, running ipconfig from the command prompt returned not just information, but the correct IP it should have as well. After updating Windows and McAfee, the system was still connected and running fine.

Additional Notes

In the process of researching this issue, I came across a number of sites that seemed like they could help, but the issues were either just a little bit different than what I was facing, or the resolution to the problem did not, well, resolve the problem. They are listed below in case others need them.

Learning something new: re-installing Windows XP with I386

Published by Sean Et Cetera on January 30, 2008 in Computers & Technology. 3 Comments

Recently, I worked on a student’s computer, a Dell desktop of some kind, that had issues starting up. It could begin to load Windows XP (Professional I believe) but would hang prior to the login screen. After some malware cleaning and whatnot, I managed to get past that point, only to then hang at an empty desktop. After reviewing the system even more, I found plenty of remnants of previous malware infections (100s of files) and decided that a format/reinstall would be the best option to make sure everything was taken care of. The big issue, of course, was that the student couldn’t find the installation discs that came with their computer.

Previously, this hadn’t been much of a concern, as we would direct students to the bookstore to purchase a new copy of Windows XP Professional (if they hadn’t already purchased a copy) and then use that to reinstall the operating system. Now that Vista is out, there are either very few or no copies of XP to be found at the bookstore, and some computers come to us that installing Vista on is simply not an option.

I thought I was out of options, but then I recalled that the UBCD has a program that could be helpful, Windows XP Setup Launcher. What it does, is allow you to pick a path to install Windows XP from. You cannot pick the Windows directory itself, as these are the post-installation files, but the computer did have an I386 directory, which has the compressed files that are used in installing Windows. I copied that directory to an external hard drive and ran Windows XP Setup Launcher. Using another UBCD program, Keyfinder, I got the computer’s Windows product key, which I needed to complete the setup process.

There were some issues along the way of course.

At one point, I was getting an error message of some kind because mstask.ini could not be found in the I386 folder. Now, for creating the UBCD, I have the contents of a Windows XP installation CD stored on my computer, and it just so happened that mstask.ini was already there. The contents were simply:

[.ShellClassInfo]
CLSID={d6277990-4c6a-11cf-8d87-00aa0060f5bf}

However, in case this was a file that was or needed to be different per computer, I searched for the entire second line shown above. While there were a number of sites that came up, this was the first site listed, and the inline comment for that CLSID of “Makes the task folder work” was enough for me to assume that this was something standard that could be copied over. Sure, most of the information that initially comes up is for Windows prior to XP, but it my assumption was correct, as I was able to continue on to bigger and better errors.

The next error was a pain to deal with, as the installation would through the following message at me:

Windows cannot load internet configuration utility ICFGNT.DLL. The specified module could not be loaded.

This is where I, unfortunately, get forgetful. I wasn’t taking exact notes on this, and as the case was, there were multiple errors going on at the same time that I was trying to resolve. Always remember: fix one thing at a time. In regards to this, I’m sure I did the following, and as listed later, I tried some of these multiple times:

  • I will say that this site/forum post offered the most assistance. I applied the edits to txtsetup.sif that are listed, even though I was not using the exact software listed. It didn’t appear to harm the system and I do believe it helped. These were as follows:All added to the [FileFlags] section of txtsetup.sif
    BNTS.DLL = 16
    TSHOOT.DLL = 16
    SNIFFPOL.DLL = 16
    SSTUB.DLL = 16
    SSDPSRV.DLL = 16
    SSDPAPI.DLL = 16
    UPNP.DLL = 16
    UPNPHOST.DLL = 16
    UPNPCONT.EXE = 16
    UDHISAPI.DLL = 16
  • I downloaded a copy of icfgnt.dll, as I could not really found a copy in the I386 folders I had access to.

Something there did the job, as I was able to get the computer up and running. I had also saved the drivers and dell directories to the external drive so that I would be able to install the hardware Windows couldn’t, and fortunately, everything was there as needed. You’d think that would be the end of it, but you would be wrong; so very, very wrong.

Sure, the computer was running, but one of the Windows Security Alert balloons that pops up after a fresh install caught my eye. If I’m correct, it may have been telling me that the computer did not have any antivirus software installed. I don’t know for sure, as the message was not in English; in fact, it was definitely a Middle Eastern language, but I’m not sure which. For the purpose of listing it, I’m going to say it was Arabic. I didn’t think this was going to be an issue, but then I started to use Windows. Here’s what I remember finding in Arabic:

  • All of the Windows Security Center
  • The Start menu item for setting default applications and settings
  • The Hardware and Remote tabs of System Properties

So, I try the re-installation process again, making sure to do an attended install and not an unintended one, which of course, did not solve the problem. This was starting to bother me, as I could find no real reason why it was happening, then it hit me: everything that was showing up in Arabic was something that had been changed with Service Pack 2. I grabbed one of the SP2 discs we have from a couple years ago and “installed” it on the computer. One reboot later, and all but one item (default applications and settings) was in English. I connected to the Internet and initiated an update of 90-some items, and following that reboot, the computer was, as far as I could tell, all in English again.

Was this computer a pain to deal with? Yes. Did I enjoy working on it? You better believe it. It was nice to have a computer come in that was fubar and find a unique way to solve the problem, which I can now tuck away as an option for further issues I may face. Also, since nothing jumped out at me when I was searching for this, I’m more than glad to add it to the collective knowledge of the web. Just be sure to leave a comment if you find this useful.

Computers and Wintereenmas

Published by Sean Et Cetera on January 25, 2008 in Computers & Technology. 1 Comment

Over the last ten days, I’ve been working on a number of computer issues. More accurately, I’ve been working on a number of computers since the beginning of the year, both at home and at work, and I’ve been busy as a result. It just seems like there have been a number of issues.

My downstairs neighbor got a new computer, and there were a number of issues stemming from it, such as her cable Internet not working (because, despite what she was told, it was never activated, which does make it kind of difficult to use) or connecting a webcam that came (kinda) with the computer. It helps if they send one that works though, because after an hour or so, I found out that the second one worked no problem. Good thing it was a double pack.

My computer died sometime in the middle of last week. Meghan tried to connect her iPod and it wouldn’t work correctly. I tried mine and ran into similar issues. After reinstalling iTunes, and then having dinner and going for a walk, I came back to find my computer off. Unfortunately, it had been on when I left. Press the power on button: power on then off. Again; on-off. Again; stays on and everything gets power, but the lights that should come on, don’t. Now, a new motherboard, video card, PSU, and stick of memory later, I’m ready to wipe my hard drive and re-install everything.

The above wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that the next day Meghan’s computer died as well. It would be easy to fix if it was a software issue, but it was the (45GB) hard drive; it was making a lovely click-click-click sound. All her school work was on there. Surprisingly, this occurred on the same day that I thought “I need to back up her hard drive” while considering recovering the data from mine before wiping it. (On that note, I’m going to have to look into raiding my HD, or review commercial home back-up systems.) Fortunately, her Window’s installation went stupid back in October, so I had a back-up of then on my hard drive. (I think it now sits on 3 or 4 different hard drives I have access to, just to be safe.) Also, since our downstairs neighbor got a new computer, I took the old one so I could eventually take it to Environmental Recycling, which also recycles computer equipment. Despite running Windows 98, it had an 8GB HD in it, which, when paired with the extra 6GB HD that was already in her computer, gives enough storage to at least get a basic XP installation up and running with what she needs.

This week, my mother called me regarding an issue she was facing with Google. Apparently, Google keeps track of what IPs go to what regions, so that google.com redirects to the correct localization. Apparenty, Google thought that the IP my mother had should redirect google.com to google.es. I won’t lie; I found this to be incredibly amusing. My brother, upon hearing this, choose to start IMing her in Spanish. Aside from the humor of the situation, this is something that’s common enough to require a Google Help Center article regarding it. All that can be done now is wait for the issue to get resolved, and have her use http://www.google.com/intl/en/.

Perhaps I’ll post about the computers I’ve had at work some other time.

Wintereenmas is upon us, starting today and going until January 31. Wintereenmas is a holiday to celebrate gaming, and was started by the comic Ctrl+Alt+Del. I may not be able to play LotRO on my computer this Wintereenmas, but at least I have the Wii and my work laptop, so I’ll be able to do some celebrating. May pwnage be with you all, and to all, a good frag.

Dragonlance DVD: Initial comments

Published by Sean Et Cetera on January 16, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Last week, a co-worker told me about the Dragonlance DVD that was goign to be released on January 15. I called my wife, who works part time at Finders to see if it could be ordered. Following the not-so-great day yesterday, when she got home, she gave it to me since it came in. Since the guys at work knew at least of it, I figured I would bring it in and start watching it over lunch. I first had to wrestle with my laptop to play the DVD since it is “protected content” and neither PowerDVD or Medi Player wanted to play it. Fortunately, I found AVS DVD Player (courtesy of this blog), and it works much better than what I had before.

So, once that was taken care of, we (my boss and I) started watching it. As I expected, it was a combination of 80s-style cartoon and CGI, best summed up in the intro when a CGI Takhisis and a cartoon Paladine “fight”. Maybe “80s-style cartoon” is a bit of a bad descriptor, as it looked more polished up than that, but it certainly was not anything like anime. Some of the shots were best summed up by my boss when he said “at least they’re keeping with the theme that all women in roleplaying games are scantily clad.” Initially, that comment was made when it was showing peasants being attacked by goblins, so both men and women were wearing torn clothing. Ok, I’ll accept that. However, after just 22 minutes of watching, there were a number of shots that can only be described as “gratuitous”, “over the top”, and “laughable”. Here’s some quick samples. To get the full effect, imagine that all movement has addition animation to help accentuate what the character is doing.

Dragonlance: Beer delivery

I’m hoping that I’ll either start not noticing when they happen or that I don’t get annoyed when they do happen. Really, they were that bad, like something I would expect from a B-movie. I guess this technically counts as a B-movie though. Because of the combination of cartoon and CGI, it seems like they’ve been working on it for the last 10 or 15 years and just decided to compile and publish what they had.

I didn’t mean to make this post be about the failed attempt at sexy animation, but I didn’t watch the entire thing yet; I plan on watching it all the way through. I just found it all rather amusing thus far, that, and the story hasn’t quite taken off yet.

And why not: here’s another example of the laughable “sexiness” they try and instill in a female character:

Dragonlance: Ordering potatoes

Omnipternet

Published by Sean Et Cetera on January 11, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

My brother is convinced that due my time surfing, I’ve come across many bits of knowledge which I’ve managed to recall when needed.  When I mentioned this to a friend, his response was simply a word that might describe the concept: omnipternet.  While it may not follow the correct way the word should be formed, the definition is “omnipotence gained by the existence and use of the Internet”.

Surprisingly (or not) the word “omnipternet” cannot be found by a Google search.  Really, this post is being done to alleviate that problem.

On the down side, another definition of omnipternet could be “see Skynet“. That’s a lot less comforting, but fortunately, August 4, 1997 has come and gone.

Bad Behavior has blocked 302 access attempts in the last 7 days.