I think I'm cursed when it comes to PC's. My own computer dies a few months back (still not repaired!) and I've been borrowing the folks' laptop (running Windows XP) to tide me over. My Tiscali Broadband package arrived and I installed it and all was well but now I'm starting to have a few problems. It started disconnecting a lot, which I thought might be something I just have to put up with, but now when it disconnects it also closes down all the windows/programs I have open so if I'm writing anything I lose it! Not sure if this is a problem with the computer or the phone line, my landline has also started cutting out occassionally...:(

Also, got rid of some viruses and spyware the other week but for some reason whenever I boot up the computer it always opens Windows Media Player! :confused:

I'm not very good when it comes to these things so if anyone can offer any advice that would be great! :)

 

Cheers,

 

Leigh.

Where you from mate? If your not too good with PC's you might need a kind hearted person to take a look at it for you who does know about them.

 

Sounds like you may have some stuff on the PC that needs removing and maybe some updates put on it and a registry edit or two.

I think I'm cursed when it comes to PC's. My own computer dies a few months back (still not repaired!) and I've been borrowing the folks' laptop (running Windows XP) to tide me over. My Tiscali Broadband package arrived and I installed it and all was well but now I'm starting to have a few problems. It started disconnecting a lot, which I thought might be something I just have to put up with, but now when it disconnects it also closes down all the windows/programs I have open so if I'm writing anything I lose it! Not sure if this is a problem with the computer or the phone line, my landline has also started cutting out occassionally...:(

Also, got rid of some viruses and spyware the other week but for some reason whenever I boot up the computer it always opens Windows Media Player! :confused:

I'm not very good when it comes to these things so if anyone can offer any advice that would be great! :)

 

Cheers,

 

Leigh.

 

 

Leigh,

 

It counds familiar! Drop me a line on 07768 065781, and i'll see what I can do.

 

Phil

Sounds a bit like the old MSBlast virus, which is probably still out there in t'internet. Does "msblast" show up as a process in your task manager?

I had it, and it kept rebooting my PC and causing strange behaviour. Hope your're not just using the XP firewall!

get a fire wall installed.

 

Media player is probably loading up because its in the startup menu or told to start up in the regestry some where.

Cheers guys, spent a good 15 minutes just trying to post this as it keeps booting me off! :rolleyes:

 

Leigh,

 

It counds familiar! Drop me a line on 07768 065781, and i'll see what I can do.

 

Phil

 

Thanks for the offer mate, really appreciated! Whens best to call bud?

 

Sounds a bit like the old MSBlast virus, which is probably still out there in t'internet. Does "msblast" show up as a process in your task manager?

I had it, and it kept rebooting my PC and causing strange behaviour. Hope your're not just using the XP firewall!

 

msblast isn't showing up and yeah, stupid me, I'm just using the XP firewall! :(

 

get a fire wall installed.

 

get a fire wall installed.

Which one would you recommend Stu? Like I said, I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to these things really!

 

Which one would you recommend Stu? Like I said, I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to these things really!

 

I use Zonealarm. Its simple to use and has done me well. I have the paid one becasuse I use internet sharing and such and I need the pro version.

 

They also do a free version link below

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?lid=zaskulist_download

 

Very simple to use and of course is free.

I suggest that if all you doing is normal surfing and not using connection sharing.

 

If you need a virus checker, AVG do a free virus checker. Again does the job but its not customable, ie scan what you want or set schedules. All it does is live check or a while disc scan.

Link below

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

Cheers Stu. I use AVG already and it's been a lifesaver. Trouble is I do use P2P sharing through edonkey so I guess I should shell out for the pay version?

I haven't really got on with the latest version of Zonealarm, using it with XP. I used to love it because it's so easy to use, but when I upgraded to XP it causes my system to freeze up, and my father in laws PC as well. Replaced it now with Sygate Personal Firewall (also free) and no more probs.

 

Some people here have also noticed problems with it on XP:

 

http://www.download.com/3302-2092_4-10306241.html

 

Think it depends strongly on which release of Zonealarm you get.

Not got XP SP2 UPDATE have you, :mad: what a load of cack that mother ****er is,have just spent sat night,all day sunday/nigh sorting my pc out,that has never as much given much trouble,machine slowed,programs opening/shuting all over the shop,Broadband connection tits up,a fookin mess,was on the phone to my ISP,level 2 engineer,after many hours with him turns out its Service Pack Two,the Firewall that comes with it needs to be turnend off,but heres the thing,even if you turn it off(its on by default)its STILL fookin on,screws up everything,then my brothers come over and they,ve had same kinda shit,i ended up doing another install after deleting SP2,even dleting it left all the damge,fook off Micrsoft,turning into amateurs and ****ing up my weekend,at one point was told to ring them direct in the US,as its got a lot of people fooked,i said yea sure at £1 a minute piss off. :xxx: :rolleyes: :( :mad:

 

Tony

My system with SP2, Mcafee Security suite & spysweeper is as sweet as a nut, never had a single problem. :confused:

 

Apparently Zonealarm poses little or no defense against hackers. If you rate them 1-10 in ability, anyone above 3 can bypass Zonalarm without any probs. Just what I heard from some proper crackers that I know.

 

You definetly have a virus of some sort, there are several variants of msblast and you wont see the process as it will have some obscure name.

Right, made sure AVG was up to date and ran a complete scan: no viruses.

Went over to Symantec and downloaded the fix for the different versions of MSBlast. Followed the instructions and ran the fix twice (once after reboot): no viruses. Used Symantecs free checker while I was there: no viruses.

Ran Hijack This and this was the resulting Log File if anyone can decipher it!:

 

Logfile of HijackThis v1.98.0

Scan saved at 11:58:12, on 15/09/2004

Platform: Windows XP SP1 (WinNT 5.01.2600)

MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106)

 

Running processes:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\Ati2evxx.exe

C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG6\avgserv.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\LaunchAp.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\HotkeyApp.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\CtrlVol.exe

C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\Wbutton.exe

C:\WINDOWS\LTSMMSG.exe

C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPLpr.exe

C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Works Shared\WkUFind.exe

C:\Program Files\OutLaster\shhost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\vsrunner.exe

C:\Program Files\SAGEM\SAGEM F@st 800-840\dslmon.exe

C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Digital Imaging\bin\hpohmr08.exe

C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Digital Imaging\bin\hpotdd01.exe

C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Digital Imaging\bin\hpoevm08.exe

C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Digital Imaging\Bin\hpoSTS08.exe

C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG6\AVGCC32.EXE

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\hijackthis\HijackThis.exe

 

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.tiscali.co.uk/

F2 - REG:system.ini: Shell=Explorer.exe monitor.exe

O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\AddOn\AcrobatReader\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.ocx

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {243B17DE-77C7-46BF-B94B-0B5F309A0E64} - C:\Program Files\Microsoft Money\System\mnyside.dll

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\PROGRA~1\SPYBOT~1\SDHelper.dll

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {FDD3B846-8D59-4ffb-8758-209B6AD74ACC} - (no file)

O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\msdxm.ocx

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ATIModeChange] Ati2mdxx.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LaunchAp] C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\LaunchAp.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HotkeyApp] C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\HotkeyApp.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CtrlVol] C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\CtrlVol.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Wbutton] "C:\Program Files\Launch Manager\Wbutton.exe"

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LTSMMSG] LTSMMSG.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [synTPLpr] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPLpr.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [synTPEnh] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Microsoft Works Update Detection] C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Works Shared\WkUFind.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG_CC] C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVG6\avgcc32.exe /STARTUP

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [adiras] adiras.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [shhost] C:\Program Files\OutLaster\shhost.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [eDonkey2000] C:\Program Files\eDonkey2000\eDonkey2000.exe -t

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [syncManager] C:\WINDOWS\vsrunner.exe /i

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [monitor] monitor.exe

O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Gamma Loader.lnk = ?

O4 - Global Startup: DSLMON.lnk = C:\Program Files\SAGEM\SAGEM F@st 800-840\dslmon.exe

O4 - Global Startup: hp psc 1000 series.lnk = ?

O4 - Global Startup: hpoddt01.exe.lnk = ?

O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OSA.EXE

O9 - Extra button: Money Viewer - {E023F504-0C5A-4750-A1E7-A9046DEA8A21} - C:\Program Files\Microsoft Money\System\mnyside.dll

O12 - Plugin for .mov: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\PLUGINS\npqtplugin.dll

O12 - Plugin for .mpeg: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\PLUGINS\npqtplugin3.dll

O12 - Plugin for .spop: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll

O16 - DPF: {11120607-1001-1111-1000-110199901123} - ms-its:mhtml:file://C:\path.mht!http://64.200.26.76/d1/arctal.chm::/AWM123.exe

O16 - DPF: {2BC66F54-93A8-11D3-BEB6-00105AA9B6AE} (Symantec AntiVirus scanner) - http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/SharedContent/vc/bin/AvSniff.cab

O16 - DPF: {644E432F-49D3-41A1-8DD5-E099162EEEC5} (Symantec RuFSI Utility Class) - http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/SharedContent/common/bin/cabsa.cab

O16 - DPF: {74D05D43-3236-11D4-BDCD-00C04F9A3B61} (HouseCall Control) - http://a840.g.akamai.net/7/840/537/2004061001/housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/xscan53.cab

O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{5CD67899-6409-432A-ACE9-876EB4148D67}: NameServer = 80.225.250.178 80.225.250.186

 

The one thing that stood out on this Log File (not that I know anything about this type of thing!) was the Outlaster file. No idea what that is. Had some trouble a couple of weeks ago as well, kept getting an error message on start-up saying monitor.exe could not be detected but this seems to have disappeared! Did a search on Google for this and found out that it is a problem associated with XP...

It's so annoying to keep getting randomly booted off! :mad:

Agreed - that OutLaster thing doesn't look right at all. Have yourself a gander in add/remove programs and see if it appears on the list. If so, nuke it. If not, give me a shout and we'll find another way of getting shot of it.

Congratulations you have a virus :o :D

 

Look here for removal: http://www.sophos.com/support/disinfection/jeefoa.html

 

I suggest your copy of Grisoft is either not updating or not functioning correctly.

Some time ago i had other probs with pc,downloaded SPY SWEEPER ,it sorted it,no other program would!,good idea to run it see what you get,bet you get something that should not be there.

 

Tony :)

C:\Program Files\OutLaster\shhost.exe

 

is definetly a Virus.

Congratulations you have a virus :o :D

 

Look here for removal: http://www.sophos.com/support/disinfection/jeefoa.html

 

I suggest your copy of Grisoft is either not updating or not functioning correctly.

 

Ran this and it turned up nothing :(

Had a look in add/remove and Outlaster is not listed either.

Now this is the bizarre thing: just performed another scan with Hijack This and Outlaster is not coming up in the log anymore! :confused:

I also use PAL Spyware Removal, Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware 6.0 but they haven't turned up anything either. Arrrgh.......

Weird, ok, maybe you got rid of it. Do you know what's being called in startup in the registry?

Weird, ok, maybe you got rid of it. Do you know what's being called in startup in the registry?

Please excuse my dense-ness mate, not sure I understand :confused:

From the log file posted, it was HKLM\..\Run: [shhost] C:\Program Files\OutLaster\shhost.exe

 

Have a check in the registry HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\current version\run (or do a reg search for shhost.exe) to see if it has gone for sure, if not delete the key.

 

Then have yourself a look in C:\prog files\ for the Outlaster dir (make sure you're set to view hidden files and folders). If you find one, then delete it.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, it's really appreciated!

From the log file posted, it was HKLM\..\Run: [shhost] C:\Program Files\OutLaster\shhost.exe

 

Have a check in the registry HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\current version\run (or do a reg search for shhost.exe) to see if it has gone for sure, if not delete the key.

 

Then have yourself a look in C:\prog files\ for the Outlaster dir (make sure you're set to view hidden files and folders). If you find one, then delete it.

Did a reg search and it came up with both shhost.exe and outlaster so deleted both of them. Checked for the Outlaster dir (with hidden files viewable) and it's not there...now going to reboot and see what happens...fingers crossed!

Arse! :mad: Still disconnecting randomly, sometimes every few minutes, sometimes up to half an hour and 1 in 4 of those times it closes all open windows/programs! If this was my computer it would be a very expensive and elaborate jigsaw by now! :(

Have you got the filters plugged into all of the phone sockets?

Have you got the filters plugged into all of the phone sockets?

The landline I use for Broadband is seperate from the main house landline and only has one socket...did go through my mind that it could be a faulty filter?

I would be suspecting a possible line fault in this case now - have you noticed voice calls being disrupted on that line?

 

If you have a dial-up modem in the laptop, try connecting that through the socket and see if you're disconnected that way too.

I would be suspecting a possible line fault in this case now - have you noticed voice calls being disrupted on that line?

 

If you have a dial-up modem in the laptop, try connecting that through the socket and see if you're disconnected that way too.

 

Definately thinking along the same lines myself now. The past couple of weeks I've had voice calls on this landline cut out with no warning. Unfortunately there's no built in modem to try in this laptop. Looks like I'll be on the phone to BT tomorrow then :rolleyes:

Thanks mate :) Will have to put up with it for the time being I guess!