PoSmedley PoSmedley

Computer Won't Shut Down

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Computer Won't Shut Down

from WinCustomize Forums
I don't know what is happening. First..Photoshop started getting a little buggy. Then when I went to shut down the computer, it wouldn't. It wouldn't restart or shutdown, so I manually shut it down. When I rebooted i got this message instead of my logon screen...
parse error ';' at line 173

I had to click on it a few times to get to logon and when I did, it was WindowsXP's regular logon.

I tried to do a system restore, but again, it will not shut down or restart.
92,812 views 40 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thx much to Majic7 & Starkers : in attempting to assist Po I ended up helping myself with a troublesome, awkward, uneven & corrupted boot process during sys tray load; I thought it was due to customizing my Control Panel w IP but after running the SureDelete all glitches are history & the boot process smooth as silk
Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Starkers, that's got to be annoying... The only way I can think that Avast would be able to do that is if it walked the entire surface of your HDD looking for the beginning of a file and then scanning each next section because deleting the file should remove it's record from the FAT table at the very least which is technically the way programs like Avast should be finding files to scan. Anyway, I guess all I'm trying to say is it would annoy me to no end if my A/V scanner decided to scan files I've deleted and are no longer in my recycle bin. Anywho, my A/V proggy of choice NOD32 does not seem to have this habit so I'm happy about that because my file server has over 1.2 TB of HD space and it would take a week to scan all the files I've deleted and then rewritten on those drives..
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #28 from JoeUser Forums Top
You OS might be corrupted at this point. I read that you did a repair, is that correct? Did you put the XP CD and boot your computer with it and then when Windows XP ask you to full install, you selected yes? From there, XP asked if you want to do a repair and you select yes?

Before you do this (but it might save time if you do a repair first), back up all data important to you and do the following... it might help. (By the way, you shouldn't loose anything by repairing the OS, but just in case save important files).


Get these programs:
Process Explorer
HiJack This
Object Desktop Drive Scan
Spybot Search And Destroy
Microsoft Defender Anit Virus

Boot in safe mode.

Run these utilities from the START >> RUN box:
services.msc
msconfig.exe
regedit



Any setting, folders, names that look odd, check them out. Check them from from automatically starting up, make sure windows messenger is disabled (in the services.msc app).

Run HijackThis

Again, any names, entries or what have you that look odd, make a note of it.

Run Stardock Drive Scan and see any wierd looking folder names... then delete them (or rename them). The ones that DON'T allow you to are the prime suspects

Run Process Explorer:
This should tell you every process that is running on your computer. Sometimes these virii have 2 (two) proceses that basically restarts the other proces if you delete or end the other process. So you actually would have to stop BOTH.


ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR LIST OF CRAZY NAMES, DELETE THEM. Delete them from HiJack This, delete them from regedit (also use regedt but deleting will be done in regedit). You might have to actually stop (not delete, just stop from the seervices window or from Process explorer) a microsoft svhost in order to delete the alien process but leave that as a last hope.




Now run Spybot and delete some more
Now run MS anti spyware and remove whatever else
Now run one anti virus software (do not have 2 or more anit virus software platforms installed at one time)

If your system still isn't running properly, repair it with the XP boot CD again.
Reply #29 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm sort of tired so maybe my instructions are a little off... but the repair option is a good bet.

You might want to read this eWeek article -
Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1945808,00.asp

Backing up your computer has just become a burden like spam email.
Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Starkers, that's got to be annoying... The only way I can think that Avast would be able to do that is if it walked the entire surface of your HDD looking for the beginning of a file and then scanning each next section because deleting the file should remove it's record from the FAT table at the very least which is technically the way programs like Avast should be finding files to scan.


According to feedback from family and friends I told about this issue, it seems Avast is not the only AV proggie that scans deleted files. My sister still uses Norton and cut her scan times considerably after running Sure Delete....my niece uses AVG and reports the same result, scan times reduced by half after cleaning her drives of old data.

This is an explanation from the makers of Sure Delete.......


Sometimes "delete" means "kinda sorta delete." When you drag a file to the Recycle Bin, you only move it to a new location. Even when you empty the bin, your files are still retrievable by Undelete utilities. Sure Delete permanently deletes that data from your drive. Whether you want to shred sensitive information or free up resources on your hard drive, this program ensures that it's done permanently. Rather than simply deleting file references on your computer, the program actually destroys the data itself. Sure Delete offers a wizard-style interface that guides you through the process of deleting files, cleaning up your hard drive in minutes. Sure Delete supports the FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS disk formats.

I'm not tech savvy enough to explain why some AV proggies scan deleted files, but I do know that the OS cannot completely remove them from the drive, even after reformatting, so if an undelete proggie can locate and retrieve them, then I suppose AV proggies, which are designed to scan all files for virii, would also locate and therefore scan them.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge than I can shed more light on this.....but Sure Delete most certainly removed the remnants of previously installed files, OSes and recylcers to cut my AV scan times by more than half.
Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm trying it out right now. It sure takes a lot of time to run. I wonder how often it's necessary to use it. (I left it on the default setting of 3 passes & am trying the 3 block sizes of small, normal & big).
Well, you can see I haven't exactly shut down as much software as possible, as I am sitting here online...
Reply #32 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I did a full recovery. Reformatted the drive and everything. Whatever had been going on was just spreading into everything. Thanks for all the help though, to everyone. I love this site.
Reply #33 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I love this site

Just don't give it your diseases
Reply #34 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Just don't give it your diseases

I let it slide when you bashed Tony Orlando...but now you're getting personal. I'm gonna have to add a dragonfly swatter to my Troll thumping club.
Reply #35 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The only thing left to do is invest in a 2nd hdd and using a ghost utility make a copy of your primary hdd, i use ghost 2003 ,nothing better than making a balls up and having a backup hdd to put things right again in under 1 hr > (to copy 100 GB of Data ) , the spare hdd can be smaller so long as the data does'nt exceed it's overall capacity , you'll find this site useful , if the link don't work just google for radified forums , http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi
Reply #36 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm not tech savvy enough to explain why some AV proggies scan deleted files, but I do know that the OS cannot completely remove them from the drive, even after reformatting


Who knows, maybe I'll check out this Sure Delete and see what it finds on my PC.

Now, as far as Norton is concerned chances are she has the Norton Recycle Bin app installed on her computer which does keep copies of deleted files around even after you delete them from the Recycle bin. Also, when re-installing an OS if you choose the quick format option for your partition then you really are only overwriting the FAT table on the partition which does leave the actual data on your drive. After that the only thing that will really get rid of the file is if some or all of the file parts are overwritten by new data, which on a really large HDD could take some time. I'm guessing that what Sure Delete does is what's called a destructive delete, in which is overwrites all of the data with either garbage data or 1's and 0's to ensure that nothing can come back and read the previous data. OK, well I'm off to find Sure Delete and see what it's all about.
Reply #37 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Now, as far as Norton is concerned chances are she has the Norton Recycle Bin app installed on her computer which does keep copies of deleted files around even after you delete them from the Recycle bin. Also, when re-installing an OS if you choose the quick format option for your partition then you really are only overwriting the FAT table on the partition which does leave the actual data on your drive


As for my sister's machine, she does not have the Norton recyle app enabled because she had problems with it earlier on in the piece, so I don't think it's that. As for the quick reformat option, I've always use the full reformat option because it makes for a better clean install, yet the old data remained because an OS cannot completely erase a HDD. I guess that's why govt and others selling their machines use proggies like Sure delete to ensure their data is unrecoverable. I don't know how it removes old data or how it works, I just know that it did what I required of it.


I'm trying it out right now. It sure takes a lot of time to run.


aimzzz.....sometimes, if there is alot of old data, Sure Delete will take a bit longer to run as it will go back and forth during each pass to erase more efficiently. However, on drives where you can move your files to say your OS partition, reformat prior to running Sure Delete, it seems to run faster that way. Once complete you can return your files to their original position. Then, when all the other partitions are done, you clean the OS drive, which can take longer than the others as it would have contained all that additional data and cannot be refomatted without rewriting Windows. It may seem like alot of time and effort, but it's worth it as frees up resources for a more efficient PC. As for how often, well every 2 or 3 months should be adequate unless you do alot of deleting/file moving/rewriting, etc.
Reply #38 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If your wondering what Win32.Backdoor.CiaDoor is I know exactly what it is ive used it in the past, its a hacking tool that can be used for all sorts of things including file transfer, desktop viewing, password stealing and users of the program can even watch you through your web cam, the program itself is called CIA Cruel Intentionz and was made by the hacker Alchemist, although CIA itself no longer exist many people may still have the program used to connect to victims, and many people may not even know that they are infected as Alchemist used to sell undetectable versions of the program, Alchemist looks to have gone underground and all CIA website have been done for some months now.
Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Okay. I have done a complete reformat and all that. Everything was fine. Until today. I think I 'may' have narrowed things down a bit, but I am not sure, so I'm posting.

There are no viruses or adware, my system, to the best of my knowledge is clean with a fresh install of everything.

There are 2 wb skins that are the only ones that bring up these 'parse errors'.

With Joseph's Live I get.."Parse error ';' at line 173". This occurs when I boot while running ONLY that skin. (so far)

With Evgen's ClearOne v1 and v2 I get..."Parse error '<' at line 1". This occurs when I try to open my control panel with just this skin, so far.
I've tried about 8 other skins to test this and so far these 2 are the only ones giving me these Parse Errors.

I recently upgraded my memory and video card. Here is the WB info..
WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have one monitor in total.

(COMPAQ FS7600 Color Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500

Wblind.dll 2006/03/21 13:33:46
Wbsrv.dll 2006/02/05 12:58:22
Wbconfig.exe 2006/03/19 14:33:44
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:12
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26

Is this a 'skin' problem, 'wb problem', or is it my PC?
Reply #40 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for the thread, Po', and everyone. Some really impressive input. #28, JK, I will try some of this asap on my 2 borked PCs. What a community!