Computer Help » Technical

totalcodec.com hijacks mediaplayer

Computer Help — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:58:19 +0000

This laptop was running slow, seemed infected, and playing any media caused the totalmedia.com website to open.

I remove the totally ineffective trend, and install Microsoft security essentials. A scan with MSSE finds and removes some nasties.

But after removing the infections, I find that media files still start the totalmedia.com website.

I decide to try running fixwmp, but that didn’t fix this problem.

As a fall-back, I decide to try using a different media player.

I try Gom player, but it still doesn’t play videos, but at least it doesn’t open up the totalmedia.com website.

My next option was VLC player, and it seems to do the trick… I can watch DVDs, and play any other media file.

I’d still like to know how to get media player working correctly, but given the time constraints on this problem, this was the best I could do.

cannot defragment inbox.dbx

Computer Help — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 06:43:52 +0000

As part of tuning a PC, I did a defragment, only to find that one file would not defrag.

The file was inbox.dbx… that means its the inbox file for outlook express.

inbox.dbx was about 1GB in size, and it had about 1000 fragments.

Now that will slow outlook express!

So how do I fix this if the defrag tool won’t work.

I could try the contig tool from sysinternals, but given the time I had available, I found the quickest way to achieve a similar result was:

Make sure outlook express is shut down (you might need to restart your PC to be sure)
open windows explorer (make sure you can see all hidden files (tools -> folder options -> view -> “show hidden files and folders” , “hide protected OS files”, “display the contents of system folders”)
navigate to: c:\documents and settings\{user}\local settings\application data\identities\{long hex number}\microsoft\outlook express
right click on inbox.dbx -> copy -> right click on the “outook express” folder ->paste. This will create a copy of inbox.dbx (called: Copy of inbox.dbx)… this part can take many minutes.
delete (or, to be safe: rename) inbox.dbx
rename “copy of inbox.dbx” to “inbox.dbx”

You will find that the “new copy” of inbox.dbx is much less fragmented than the old one.

Once you are sure everything is working correctly, you can actually delete the “renamed” inbox.dbx.

Lokitek.com.au (Jamie Russell Krisanski)

Computer Help — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:01:24 +0000

At the end of 2009, I had some problems with a company called Lokitek.com.au

I purchased some software, it wasn’t in stock, so I was asked to provide an account so I could receive a refund.

But then nothing happened.

After countless emails, I then noticed that the lokitek.com.au website was “closed for upgrades”… this is looking very suspicious!

I eventually wrote off the debt, but I decided to do some digging.

I found out that LokiTEK is a business registered in Queensland by Jamie Russell Krisanski, but the registration was cancelled from 30 Jun 2010…

This is a guess, but it looks to me like Jamie has either gone bankrupt, or has decided to just abandon the business.

Either way, it looks like many people have been left high and dry, with no way of getting a refund without a lot effort.

Maybe Jamie can comment on this and let us all know what happened to our money?

Flash Player cookie (LSO) problems in your browser

Computer Help — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:23:29 +0000

Adobe’s Flash player is now very common (reports are that 90% – 99% of all browsers on the internet have flash player installed).

So, security and privacy concerns are now starting to appear with Flash Player.

In particular, are Flash “super cookies”, also known as Local Shared Objects (LSO).

Compared to normal browser cookies, these objects can store a huge amounts of data… the objects are not cleared, and can be used to “re-create” normal cookies that you thought you removed…

As far as I can see, it just takes a Flash security flaw to enable virus writers to create websites that will infect your PC via LSO… and then keep re-infecting it.

So I’ve decided to play it safe and install a firefox plugin called: BetterPrivacy

This will not block LSO from being installed, but it does remove them once you exit the Firefox.

You can get BetterPrivacy from: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623/

Reset / clear a forgotten windows password

Computer Help — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 06:32:51 +0000

This is something that can happen to many people:

You think you entered your windows password correctly, but then you realise it wasn’t what you thought it was… and you have tried all combinations you can think of.

Or: Your 7 year old son decides to change the password, but 24 hours later (about a 10 years in child-time), he has forgotten it!

So what do you do?

I have found 2 utilities that work well at clearing the password, so that you can, once again, login to the computer.

Of course, you must have access to another computer, in order to create the CD/USB-Drive that will allow you to reset the windows password.

These techniques rely on starting the computer from a CD or a USB drive, so that the password can be cleared from the main windows drive… while windows is not running.

The best utility I have found to reset passwords is: Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

Negatives: It does require more technical skills to use, as it does assume you understand something about your computer.

Positives: It can clear the password for any Windows system: from windows NT, up to Windows 7. The user interface is text-based, so it will work just about any type, speed and age of computer.

The default settings are worked out intelligently, so that you don’t really need to think too much about what to do… but if you stray too far from the defaults, then you run the risk of corrupting your windows system.

Another utility I have found is: PC Login Now

Negatives: The Graphical User Interface will fail on some of the more modern PCs… since there is no text-based fall-back, you will not be able to clear the password using PC Login Now in these cases (and it happened to me!)

Positives: The Graphical User Interface means just about anyone can use this, with a minimal risk of stuffing up.

My favourite is Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

Your mileage may vary.

cannot start XP CD by pressing any key (check the backplate)

Computer Help — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:20:52 +0000

Customer got a used PC… installed a new hard drive, but then couldn’t install windows XP.

I tried it myself, and found I couldn’t hit “any key” to start the XP install process from CD.

I know the USB keyboard works, because I can press del to get to the bios.

The system was reasonable: P4 3Ghz, 3Gb RAM, a Sonata case and PSU, 250Gb drive.

So I started UBCD4Win, and I got a bluescreen (stop 0x000000A5)… and a message about the bios not being fully ACPI complient.

Since I couldn’t select the memtest option from the ubcd4win startup screen, I created a standalone memtest CD, and it found some faulty RAM.

I fix the RAM, but I still cannot start the XP setup…

The PC doesn’t have any PS2 plugs, just USB… So I can only use USB Keyboards and mice.

I try a few different keyboards, but none seem to help.

After a lot of searching around inside the case, I’m just about to say “its a faulty motherboard”, when I notice a green reflection on the rear backplate, inside the PC.

I think: no, it can’t be!

Yep: the 2 PS2 ports are covered over by an “incorrect” backplate!

On closer inspection, its obvious that the backplate really doesn’t match some ports on the back, and parts of it had been cut to expose more ports.

I really don’t want to disassemble the whole PC, just to get the backplate out. And since the backplate was already damaged and had some loose steel flaps, I just carefully pulled at the flaps & gradually ripped out the whole backplate from the back of the PC.

I didn’t have a matching backplate, so I just left the PC without one.

Once I could use a PS2 keyboard, XP installed without any problems.