Activation/Wireless Service problems/Windows Update not working/smss.exe stops

[Kolin Tregaskes]

Hello,

I've been able to get logged in (after disabling UAP to authenticate Vista -
do I need to enable this now?). I find everytime I log in that the Windows
Wireless Service is not running. So I go to manage network connections,
right-click and select diagnose on the connection set-up for my wireless
router (which I had to set-up manually). Once I have started the Wireless
Service, when I select to activate Vista it tells me that a change has
occurred in my license and I need to restart. This happens every time. If
I try and activate Vista before I start up the Wireless Service then it
tries to connect without an error, but then, of course, I have to start it
up and then get the license error (so basically stuck in a loop). I also
receive a license error: 0XC004D401.

I cannot update Windows Update either. RealPlayer and ZoneAlarm don't run
or work and I canot update Windows Defender.

And I eventually receive an error telling me smss.exe has stopped and been
closed.

Any ideas?

Kol

 

[Kolin Tregaskes]

Sorry perhaps I should have posted all these in separate post.

Kol

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Did you do a clean installation or an upgrade?

 

[Kolin Tregaskes]

Upgrade, I currently don't have the capacity to do a clean install, though,
yes I'm sure it's the best option.

Kol

 

[Kolin Tregaskes]

Can anyone help?

Kol

Upgrade, I currently don't have the capacity to do a clean install,
though, yes I'm sure it's the best option.

Kol

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

That's the problem with the upgrade scenario right now. The Upgrade Advisor
is beta too. You probably should have removed Real Player and Zone Alarm
especially before upgrading.

Can you connect to a router by ethernet cable and forget wireless until you
get straightened out? How about through a desktop with ICS? How about a
friend's house to at least get activated?

 

[Kolin Tregaskes]

ICS never seems to work for me. I'll have to get out my 'bloody-long-lead'
again and see if that helps. Thanks, Colin.

Kol

 

[Ben Salisbury]

Kolin-

When you boot up, can you search for smss.exe, and report back where all
locations of the file are?
As you described the steps to reaching your problem, it smells more like an
infection (carried over from your XP machine) than a botched upgrade.

A while back, there was a trojan that distributed a fake smss.exe file that
acted as a backdoor. It runs at startup.
from the HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run in the registry
(I'm not at my test machine so could someone else verify if this is still
the same location in Vista for the autoruns?)

From XP, you could check by going to Start>Run>Msconfig and click on the
startup tab....if smss.exe showed up here...it's the bad one.

The real smss.exe gets invoked from system processes. and it controls the
starting of winlogon and crsmss.

-Ben

 

[Kol Tregaskes]

Hi there,

I've been able to get Windows Update to work and got the latest updates installed.
Once I rebooted I also got Vista activated. So thanks for everyone's help.

Kol


Kol Tregaskes
mailto:[email protected]

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

You're welcome.

Hi there,

I've been able to get Windows Update to work and got the latest updates
installed. Once I rebooted I also got Vista activated. So thanks for
everyone's help.

Kol


Kol Tregaskes
mailto:[email protected]