Hi, I've been sent here from the malware board because something odd is happening and the scans show clean. Hoping someone here can help.
Here is the link to the problem as described on the other board. Right now, the biggest thing that is happening is at start-up. Something appears to be loading prior to the Windows Firewall and keeps it turned off until it loads. When I start up in the morning, I get a message that the firewall is off, when I click on the balloon to remedy it, I get messages saying the settings can't be opened or changed; then all of a sudden the firewall comes on by itself.
The other thing that is/was happening comes across like a "magnetic" mouse. When the mouse pointer gets close to the edge of the screen, it gets 'sucked in' and then disappears! Then notices start to flicker as if I am right clicking everywhere and I have to press ctrl/alt/del until the task mgr comes up then the mouse appears again and I can close things out. I do have to say that today it has only happened once though, so I'm not sure if things got cleared up or not.
Can someone help me to see what could be loading before the firewall loads or what running processes may not need to be on?
Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.
If no, boot to Safe Mode again, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.
Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system.
Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.
Okay, I did everything you said, and I found the culprit and deleted it. The problem of something loading before the Windows Firewall is now gone and my start-up is fine. Haven't had the mouse problem yet today, so don't know if that took care of it or not - I did install a new mouse though, just in case it had something to do with a short in the wire. BUT…now I think I've created a new problem.
The culprit was in the Services portion, and of course it was the last four that I turned back on. The services were all "Roxio" which I recognized as the files that were associated with the program for my Blackberry that I just installed recently (about the same time I started getting the 'warning' about the firewall). So I deleted the blackberry program and watched as it deleted it and the Roxio files. There was one file that remained in the processes as listed both in the msconfig listing and on the Hijack This list of processes. It was Live Share P2P Server. When I tracked what folder it was in and went to the folder, it said the folder was empty - so I deleted it. Being happy as a lark that I found the problem, I went on about my business today, which included dumping some files (picture) to a CD. I have two drives, both are CDRW drives. Since my NERO program is out of date and not compatible with XP, I normally just do the copy/paste command. I just used it in this manner last month to back up some excel files onto CD. Today it doesn't work. Says that one of the drives is not accessible, and the other just says it cannot complete the writing process. When I went to the Windows site and when through the "fix-it" install it tells me that neither of my drives are capable of writing. When I got the message that the 'wizard' cannot complete the writing process I notice that "Roxio Inc." is the software program that is listed. I think I may have uninstalled the writing software that came with the CDRW drives??? I don't get it because the only program that I uninstalled was the Blackberry program - and I did it through the Add/Remove programs in Control Panel….if there were shared files, wouldn't Windows have kept the original files??? I was writing perfectly fine until today.
Roxio is a CD/DVD burning program, like Nero. It has other uses but that is it's main use. I don't know why uninstalling Blackberry software deleted Roxio software, unless it was somehow bundled with it.
Try reinstalling the Blackberry software, see if the Roxio stuff comes back and you can write to CD/DVD again. You may get the instial problem back but that is less painful than not being able to burn a CD or DVD.
It is definitely part of the Blackberry bundle, because it took an extended amount of time (for the Roxio portion) when I uninstalled the Blackberry program. The Blackberry program provides sync of the media files between the computer and the phone.
Anyway, I reinstalled the Blackberry program and the problem with the firewall being disabled and re-enabled is back; and it didn't fix the CD writing problem. I have a feeling that I might have to do a repair of the XP OS; and since the OS was in my computer when I got it, I will have to use the 6 recovery discs right?
I printed out the article that you linked and I see he has a way to manually edit the Registry using the instructions in a Knowledge Base article - but I'm not sure that the issue is calling for this because when I ckick on the properties of each of the drives, both are set up according to his discription, and the "recording" tab IS present. I don't know what to do, I need to have the drives write files, but I also don't like this munipulation of my Windows Firewall. I posted the problem on the Roxio discussion boards but don't have a reply yet.
4:18 p.m. est. Thought I would add an update since maybe you are on Pacific time and won't be able to get back to me until later.
I got two responses from the Roxio board, but neither of them had heard of the problem before. They both suggest that the problem is with whatever BlackBerry software is installed, not the Roxio part. However, there is no "division" that I can see. There is nothing that separates them in the program files, or the start-up, and there is not listing of Blackberry in the Services list. When I did the disable/enable that you suggested, the four Roxio files were the last four on the list, so I am positive that I didn't confuse them. I don't mind taking out the Blackberry Desktop program from this computer because at this point I don't need to sync anything other than music and pictures with the phone - I'm not planning on using it to "run my life" or coordinate with my document and calendar files. However since the two CDRW drives worked fine last month, and now they don't, I am guessing that the uninstall took out some shared Roxio files and didn't restore them with the re-install of the program. From what I get from the article that you suggested, whatever drivers I had in my computer for the CDRW drives are now gone, and since they are both at least five years old it is going to be difficult to find them. The article suggested I go to the Windows site and check out the Hardware compatability list, but neigher manufacturer is listed. One Drive is "Creative" the other is an "LG". LG I think is under SONY now??? When I go to the properties of the two drives it says that the Manufacturers are "Standard CD-ROM" drives even though it gives the actual names at the top. Doesn't that mean that I need different drivers??
Am I out of my league here?? Do I need to call someone to physically help?
Thank you Rich, sorry I took so long to respond, but I am not here on the weekends. Anyway, I had already been there since it is the site that is mentioned in the article that you directed me to. But, I went there again and tried it again after re-installing the Blackberry software. The "fix-it" program says the following: "Drive is not capable of burning" then it showes the CDRW drive - " LG CD-RW CED-8081B" Then when I did the other drive it said the same thing, but said the drive was Creative CDRW. I don't get it. I uninstalled both drivers through the system maintenance and then did a restart so that windows could find them, but they still don't work. I went to the LG website to try to get the drivers for the LG but they weren't listed because the drive is older. When I did the on-line chat with them they said that their drives are designed to work with the windows standard; that's why I did the uninstall and re-install. But Windows is only picking up as a CD ROM. When I do the update driver tab, then tell it I want to pick from the list, I don't know which standard to pick, so I just left them alone.
Try the manual steps listed in that article for Widows XP:
Windows XP
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
4. In the right pane, click UpperFilters.
Note You may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click UpperFilters only. If you do not see the UpperFilters registry entry, you still might have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry. To do this, go to step 7.
5. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
6. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
7. In the right pane, click LowerFilters.
Note If you do not see the LowerFilters registry entry, unfortunately this content cannot help you any further. Go to the "Next Steps" section for information about how you can find more solutions or more help on the Microsoft Web site.
8. On the Edit menu, click b.
9. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
10. Exit Registry Editor.
11. Restart the computer.
That was easier said than done. There are 24 listings in the regedit navigation pane with that exact 'call out'. Of the 24 listings on the left side navigation pane, there are three that list Upper Filters in the right pane, and two that list Lower Filters in the right pane. Needless to say, I didn't delete anything for fear of really messing things up. I've called an IT guy to come in today to try to clean up this mess. Hopefully we can get things straightened out without having to purchase new drives.
There are 24 listings in the regedit navigation pane with that exact 'call out'. Of the 24 listings on the left side navigation pane, there are three that list Upper Filters in the right pane, and two that list Lower Filters in the right pane. Needless to say, I didn't delete anything for fear of really messing things up. I've called an IT guy to come in today to try to clean up this mess. Hopefully we can get things straightened out without having to purchase new drives.