Tech Help Part Deuce

[Schmeltz]

Right, so my hard drive up and died on me last week, but it was OK because my warranty's still good. So I got a new one put in for free, and got them to install the recovery CDs that came with it. Everything's working great except I'm constantly receiving little grey pop-ups in the middle of the screen. Here, I'll quote one up for you.


Message from System to User on 3/21/2007 10:36:47 PM
CRITICAL ERROR MESSAGE! REGISTRY DAMAGED AND CORRUPTED.

To FIX this problem:
Open Internet Explorer and type: www.registrycleanerxp.com
Once you load the web page, close this message window

After you install the cleaner program you will not receive any more reminders or pop-ups like this.

VISIT www.registrycleanerxp.com IMMEDIATELY!


There's about four or five different ones that cycle through, all of them have the same sort of message, but different websites. What the hell does this mean? Are these sites trying to fuck with me? They'll regret it.

[Schmeltz]

Here's a different one that makes me think something's not quite kosher.


Message from FROM to TO on 3/21/2007 10:48:26 PM

STOP! WINDOWS REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ATTENTION.

Windows has found 55 Critical System Errors.

To fix the errors please do the following:

1. Download Registry Update from: www.helpfixpc.com
2. Install Registry Update
3. Run Registry Update
4. Reboot your computer

FAILURE TO ACT NOW MAY LEAD TO SYSTEM FAILURE!


It's the last line that's not quite right - starting and ending a sentence with the same word? I just... don't know.

[The Notorious LOL]

download a spyware/malware cleaner. Lavasoft Ad Aware being the one I use.

[faz]

So was this your main hard drive? The one that windows runs off? I think your problem is that your xp isnt up to date. Download the updates here (http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/)

[cosmo105]

if you're having computer problems i feel bad for you son
i got 99 problems but spyware ain't one

[Schmeltz]

I done got some Windows Updates. If I still get them pop-ups I'll seek out some spyware cleaner. Thanks for the tips all.

[TurdBerglar]

yeah just some spyware

[faz]

Yeah, I don't think it was spyware in the traditional sense. I think it may of been misuse of that message feature microsoft put into xp. Suffice to say that feature was removed in the updates, due to all this misuse.

[Schmeltz]

Dammit. I downloaded and installed the Windows updates, and I downloaded and installed and ran Lavasoft Ad Aware, and I downloaded and installed and ran Norton Antivirus, and I'm still getting these messages. What's the dilly yo?

[The Notorious LOL]

if it pops up separate from a browser altogether...like when you arent running anything, it'll require modifying your registry and shit. My roommate had a virus like that once. Its not that hard to fix actually but Im too lazy to search for it.


Just google those two websites

[Schmeltz]

Honestly I can't tell if it pops up when I'm not running any programs because it's so random. Sometimes I won't get any for an hour, and then I'll get six or seven. Sometimes it gives me one a minute for five minutes. And I'm just not patient enough to sit here staring at my desktop waiting for one to appear.

Gah! There's another one! And another right afterwards! That's the first I've seen of them in maybe 20 minutes.

[Schmeltz]

Oooh, I think I fixed it. (y)

[na§tee]

i'm glad you got your computer problems fixed :( can you fix mine? my cd drive has gone missing as well as my internet being shafted up the arse. repeatedly.

[The Notorious LOL]

check the drives connections inside your computer. hows the internet messed up?

[na§tee]

oooh! thanks for the interest! (y)

uhm, uhm. well. it connects to the wireless connection, easily. fine. excellent, it says. but it refuses to upload any web pages. sometimes it will connect, for maybe 8 minutes at a time, but then it will stop loading teh interwebs. so, it is connected to the network, it just doesn't, er.. work. and it's not just wireless, when i connect, er, wired, it still doesn't work.

does that make sense to you?

it says it is a dns error, i think. but the primary and secondary dns numbers are correct according to my ips. i tried some opendns ones but that only worked for, like, 30 seconds. i don't understand if it's a problem with my router or the isp. imma call them tonight.

it is incredibly, incredibly frustrating :(

[The Notorious LOL]

try clearing your DNS cache


Start, Run, type "cmd", then in the command window type


ipconfig -flushdns

[na§tee]

yeah, i did that last night. and registered it again, too. have to remember that. hah!

i am really at a loss. i reduced security and everyfink. it's nothing to do with a firewall. i've tried different dns-ing. no love for claire.

[na§tee]

er, don't know if that makes a difference but when i registered it again i didn't let it 'finish the operation'. it was only meant to take 15 minutes but i was there for, like, a hour. so i just shut down. i did ipconfig /all though after and the dns, er, stuffs was still there though. humm. i suck at this.

[The Notorious LOL]

if you havent already done it, update your version of whatever browser you use to the newest and apply all newly available microsoft security patches to your machine. Also, update your routers firmware.

[na§tee]

yeah, i will. thanks so much for the advice. god knows you and google are 100x more helpful than the technical support desk with my isp.

obviously i can only download the security patches etc if i manage to successfully hijack someone elses wireless, lolz. so i'll test this out tonight. fingers and toes crossed.

[na§tee]

big shout outs to nLOL and synch! (y)

because it seems (fingers crossed) to be working now.

i installed every update under the sun and restarted my laptop about a bazillion times, but everything is fresh and new, now.

also, i did a system restore to about 2 weeks ago before all this bizness started happening.

so, for now, it is working. here's hoping it doesn't cut off after 9 minutes like it has in the past. agh. pre-emptive panic!

YESSSSSSSS i can spend my entire weekend in my underwear, er, uploading, um.. stuff and, like, posting and.. yeah.. doing internet.. things.

[The Notorious LOL]

big ups to doing nothing productive (y)

[synch]

In case anyone is wondering (or cares) those messages are spam that are sent through the "messenger" service. If you stop that service it will stop allowing messages.

start -> settings -> control panel -> administrative tools -> services -> Messenger

Set "startup type" to "disabled" and click "stop".

[Schmeltz]

^Jep, that's what I did. Gracias as well for the help, fellows.

[jackrock]

My turn!

I'm having trouble updating Fx to 2.0.0.3. Every time I restart the browser it begins the update... moments later a message will pop up telling me that an error occurred, one or more files couldn't be updated, to make sure I'm allowed to update files (which I am). I've tried downloading it altogether, that doesn't work.

[The Notorious LOL]

save your bookmarks and uninstall and reinstall it.

[jackrock]

I gave it another try through help>check for updates (which didn't work yesterday) and it worked. Thanks anyways.

[befsquire]

my burner drive doesn't want to work properly anymore. i put a blank cd in and go to burn, and it tells me the media is full and to put in a blank cd. it sucks.

i'm betting nlol, synch or tal will be able to help me fix this within 3 posts.