BIG problem with my peecee (Please help me)
- Thread starter Templar
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The only virus software, beside mcafee in the dos days* I have actually kept running was AVG. Because unlike the most commercial pest control suits, its not that intrusive, and doesn't bog the computer down. But I never liked having to run such things anyway. Probably why I never used Windows on my home computers for a longer period of time. Now I only have macs.
But I recently had a faulty hard drive myself (had a full backup, thank god), and the computer kept freezing up and sometimes crashing. After replacing that, the system works without a hitch.
*I recall having the Ping Pong virus on my fathers XT, a bounching character-ball that kept on hitting the limits of the computer screen. Quite funny somehow, but not as funny as my friends prank with a "virus emulator" of the cascade virus that he put in the boot sequence of his mothers, who was a teacher, computer. I wish I was there to see the look on her face when the characters on the assignment she was writing started falling to the bottom of the screen in an age where viruses were almost unknown.
It is a misconception that Macs don't get virus or trojan attacks. It's why the Mac has its own virus checkers after all and viruses, worms and trojans for it to catch. Just google iBotnet if you don't believe me.
Same is true for firewalls. Just cause you are on a Mac doesn't mean you can live security free. Hackers can still get in. Keyloggers can still be added to your system.
Using a Win98 Boot Disk, at the DOS Prompt:
Format MBR, Boot from XP CDROM & Re-install the OS using the Format NTFS option.
Whilst all this is going on, consider not using AVG again. It killed my 875 Chipset based Rig in a similar manner & was not even repairable in any instance. It only takes an hour to re-install & if you've already been clever by partitioning your hard drive, you won't loose any Data.
Kin
Format MBR, Boot from XP CDROM & Re-install the OS using the Format NTFS option.
Whilst all this is going on, consider not using AVG again. It killed my 875 Chipset based Rig in a similar manner & was not even repairable in any instance. It only takes an hour to re-install & if you've already been clever by partitioning your hard drive, you won't loose any Data.
Kin
Interesting to see you have had similar issues with AVG Kin. I've found loads of things it conflicts with in the past. Stopping systems booting, certain processes from loading at startup. Conflicting with USB memory card readers... etc. Not worth it.
There are so many other better free virus chechers out there. And as I said before I highly recommend Comodo.
However, before going to the extreme of nuking the whole OS install and starting again, which is the default PC support procedure for many companies, it is much better to actually track down what the actual cause of the problem is. If it is a failing HDD or software issue these will all be logged in the system logs and easy to spot. Just reinstalling the OS can mask the problem for the short term, but if it is some failing hardware it will only be a matter of time before it returns.
There are so many other better free virus chechers out there. And as I said before I highly recommend Comodo.
However, before going to the extreme of nuking the whole OS install and starting again, which is the default PC support procedure for many companies, it is much better to actually track down what the actual cause of the problem is. If it is a failing HDD or software issue these will all be logged in the system logs and easy to spot. Just reinstalling the OS can mask the problem for the short term, but if it is some failing hardware it will only be a matter of time before it returns.
Can you blame Bill? Virus, trojan and worm infections are written to target the widest audience for maximum effect. Windows being the dominant end user OS, it is the one being focused on.
The Mac doesn't have many virus or other infections in comparison because of its small market share, so it isn't of that much interest to hackers.
In the Amiga days we needed virus checkers. It was just the software delivery that limited its spread to floppy disks. If Amiga's had the internet back then I think it would have been very different. Even the ST had them too, but we didn't care much about them getting infected now did we?
Linux servers need just as much security software running in the background as Windows based PCs. Firewalls even more so due to server attacks looking for code injection exploits or other ways to break into and obtain or corrupt data.
Instead of governments and big business focusing all their efforts to attacking home users using P2P and wasting money on it, they should instead be putting all of their efforts into targeting the hackers and malicious code writes. They after all are normally also behind the larger pirated software rings. This would in turn help remove the sources of these malicious code attacks on our computers and servers and make everyone's life better.
There was quite an extreme statement issued by the founder of Kaspersky last month. He wants countries that are common sources of internet attacks to have their whole internet access blocked from the rest of the world. Basically firewalling whole countries. Nigeria for example was mentioned. Others obviously didn't take kindly to this suggestion saying those in Nigeria need some way of reaching the outside world, and it would just lead to the internet becoming split into two. The good policed internet, and the bad underground blacklisted internet where all the corruption took place.
The Mac doesn't have many virus or other infections in comparison because of its small market share, so it isn't of that much interest to hackers.
In the Amiga days we needed virus checkers. It was just the software delivery that limited its spread to floppy disks. If Amiga's had the internet back then I think it would have been very different. Even the ST had them too, but we didn't care much about them getting infected now did we?
Linux servers need just as much security software running in the background as Windows based PCs. Firewalls even more so due to server attacks looking for code injection exploits or other ways to break into and obtain or corrupt data.
Instead of governments and big business focusing all their efforts to attacking home users using P2P and wasting money on it, they should instead be putting all of their efforts into targeting the hackers and malicious code writes. They after all are normally also behind the larger pirated software rings. This would in turn help remove the sources of these malicious code attacks on our computers and servers and make everyone's life better.
There was quite an extreme statement issued by the founder of Kaspersky last month. He wants countries that are common sources of internet attacks to have their whole internet access blocked from the rest of the world. Basically firewalling whole countries. Nigeria for example was mentioned. Others obviously didn't take kindly to this suggestion saying those in Nigeria need some way of reaching the outside world, and it would just lead to the internet becoming split into two. The good policed internet, and the bad underground blacklisted internet where all the corruption took place.
Yes, there are threats to OS X as well, but just as in Linux the chance of catching them are rather slim unless you really try. (like download illegal software from untrusted sources). There are also threats in form of vulnerable applications that has open ports like ssh, apache etc (which OS X is shipped with, but only ran if user has configured it to do so) so one have to have a firewall and preferably know what has open ports, there are also threats if you use unknown (wireless) networks (you don't need a college degree to monitor the network traffic or spoof known websites when people surf on your wireless network) etc. Still, compared to windows it is a whole different ballgame.
avg
avg
Used it a couple of years ago, do not recommend it.
If you have a legal XP, like most people by know, "microsoft security essantials" is light, not very very good, but you can still have a responsive system.
As an addon you can install free-av without the realtime to do a manual check once and a while..
avg
Used it a couple of years ago, do not recommend it.
If you have a legal XP, like most people by know, "microsoft security essantials" is light, not very very good, but you can still have a responsive system.
As an addon you can install free-av without the realtime to do a manual check once and a while..
Harrison again...
Harrison again...
Antonis
Post #15 by Harrison is good. Good Karma for him.
Now, usb cards and wificards are notorious for freezing systems.
A mate of mine was working with a sound studio PC, and when he taxed the sound card, the USB wifi dropped network, his shared disks dissappeared and his computer freezed until it sorted it self out (timeouts and retries).
These are the kind of things you will see in the system logs.
Look for the word "timeout" combined with a driver identificator. It will most likely unveil the culprit.
My own freezing PC experience recently was also due to a bad driver.
Often upgrading drivers are reccomended as an approach, as it will in most cases eliminate problems.
But users in forums like this isn't most cases, as we all have up to date and correct drivers, right? ;-)
Harrison again...
Antonis
Post #15 by Harrison is good. Good Karma for him.
Now, usb cards and wificards are notorious for freezing systems.
A mate of mine was working with a sound studio PC, and when he taxed the sound card, the USB wifi dropped network, his shared disks dissappeared and his computer freezed until it sorted it self out (timeouts and retries).
These are the kind of things you will see in the system logs.
Look for the word "timeout" combined with a driver identificator. It will most likely unveil the culprit.
My own freezing PC experience recently was also due to a bad driver.
Often upgrading drivers are reccomended as an approach, as it will in most cases eliminate problems.
But users in forums like this isn't most cases, as we all have up to date and correct drivers, right? ;-)
I managed to check the primary HD drive where Windows is installed (C:, not Amiga's C: ).
Everything is clean, as it stated at the end. I want to check the other two HD drives I have, which they have archives, music, videos etc files.
But I believe that it might be the PCI Wireless card. I'll try to buy another one.
Everything is clean, as it stated at the end. I want to check the other two HD drives I have, which they have archives, music, videos etc files.
But I believe that it might be the PCI Wireless card. I'll try to buy another one.
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If you have more than one hard drive in your Pee Cee, I'd highly recommend you get the Swap File off C: & put it to another physical hard Drive. Also, tweak the Swap File size by using the rule 2.5 x System RAM total & set Minimum & Maximum vales to the same calculated total.
Max swap file size under XP32Bit is 4GB, so set to 4084Mb to avoid problems. Also be sure to set the C: files size allocation to "blank" in both boxes & check the box saying "No Swap File".
Also be sure to set your actual Swap File sizes on your other pysical hard drive before you re-boot.
By doing the same size for Minimum & Maximum, the swap file area on your hard drive becomes a Static & Fixed size, thereby saving fragmentation.
Moving it to another Physical hard Drive means whislt your programs are being accessed from the Hard drive with the C: Partition on it, the Swap File can be utilised on another IDE/SATA channel, making operations much faster.
If only one hard drive is a Computer, it still pays to set the Swap File values to equal amounts on the 2.5 x System Ram total Basis, as this helps stop chaotic fragmentation which all Windows based systems are just stuningly bad at.
My advice would be to pull all internal Add in cards, but un-install them from Add Remove programs if they have an installation entry. You can also hold F8 after the Verifying DMI Pool Data prompt to pull up the Windows startup options screen. Choose Safe Mode & get the swap file set up from there, once @ the desktop. You should not be dragged down with the normal Startup mayhem.
Also, go to the run command & type msconfig. Click the startup TAB & Uncheck everything for faster boot times & a whole lot less crap in your SYS Tray. This buggers up most Pee Cees's before they can even get going. A word of warning on this though:
If you rely on certain things being resident such as Virus Scanners etc, you could be stopping this services from being enabled. Expand each entry to see what programs you are disabling if you are
unsure.
Look in add remove programs & remove anything that looks dodgey. Some examples are Google ToolBar; Ask ToolBar; Any-fricking ToolBar; Remove them all & re-boot with a hard reset once they are all gone. If any suggest you need to re-boot becuase of shared .DLL's or such, follow it precisely or you could shaft the entire system.
Kin
Max swap file size under XP32Bit is 4GB, so set to 4084Mb to avoid problems. Also be sure to set the C: files size allocation to "blank" in both boxes & check the box saying "No Swap File".
Also be sure to set your actual Swap File sizes on your other pysical hard drive before you re-boot.
By doing the same size for Minimum & Maximum, the swap file area on your hard drive becomes a Static & Fixed size, thereby saving fragmentation.
Moving it to another Physical hard Drive means whislt your programs are being accessed from the Hard drive with the C: Partition on it, the Swap File can be utilised on another IDE/SATA channel, making operations much faster.
If only one hard drive is a Computer, it still pays to set the Swap File values to equal amounts on the 2.5 x System Ram total Basis, as this helps stop chaotic fragmentation which all Windows based systems are just stuningly bad at.
My advice would be to pull all internal Add in cards, but un-install them from Add Remove programs if they have an installation entry. You can also hold F8 after the Verifying DMI Pool Data prompt to pull up the Windows startup options screen. Choose Safe Mode & get the swap file set up from there, once @ the desktop. You should not be dragged down with the normal Startup mayhem.
Also, go to the run command & type msconfig. Click the startup TAB & Uncheck everything for faster boot times & a whole lot less crap in your SYS Tray. This buggers up most Pee Cees's before they can even get going. A word of warning on this though:
If you rely on certain things being resident such as Virus Scanners etc, you could be stopping this services from being enabled. Expand each entry to see what programs you are disabling if you are
unsure.
Look in add remove programs & remove anything that looks dodgey. Some examples are Google ToolBar; Ask ToolBar; Any-fricking ToolBar; Remove them all & re-boot with a hard reset once they are all gone. If any suggest you need to re-boot becuase of shared .DLL's or such, follow it precisely or you could shaft the entire system.
Kin
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How is the device boot sequence setup on your system? Is the DVD-Rom in the boot sequence before the HDD? Which SATA port is the DVD-Rom connected to? Most motherboards SATA ports are laid out in a sequence, numbered from 1 upwards, and more recommend connected the main boot HDD to port 1, and any optical drives further down the port numbering. It shouldn't make much difference, but it has from previous experience.
Are the motherboard drivers and SATA drivers correctly installed, and are the SATA ports showing correctly in device manager? And also is the DVD-Rom running in the correct DMA mode and not PIO?
Could it be a PSU issue? If the system is randomly freezing for a few seconds the DVD drive might be dropping out of the system and the OS is trying to locate it. Just a guess.
Are the motherboard drivers and SATA drivers correctly installed, and are the SATA ports showing correctly in device manager? And also is the DVD-Rom running in the correct DMA mode and not PIO?
Could it be a PSU issue? If the system is randomly freezing for a few seconds the DVD drive might be dropping out of the system and the OS is trying to locate it. Just a guess.
The LG DVD-ROM was connected via SATA port #3. The first two are the hard disk drives.
If connected it's working, but after that I get random freezes.
I don't believe it's a PSU issue, the LG DVD-ROM it's being disconnected one month now and I hadn't a single freeze.
Just a note: This LG DVD-ROM I had it first installed in my AmigaOS 4.1 machine (Sam440ep Flex). I don't know if this means something. I don't know if the SAM BIOS settings changed something (for example, DMA or PIO mode?).
