XP General question - wrong ng though?

[PopRivet]

Hi all,

I haven't frequented this specific ng much but have
been lurking for a bit. So if I'm right church-wrong
pew, please, don't hesitate to send me elsewhere. I've
searched several archives, MS KBs, etc. to no avail but
it's likely I don't know what specifically to ask.
Any help with anything related would be a pleasure
at this point.

Gateway 2.6 GHz, 512 RAM, dual 80 Gig hds, XP Pro, Home
LAN, one laptop client, this desktop Server.

PROBLEMS:
-- HISTORICALLY: ALL worked fine for last 7 months,
up to about a week ago.
-- LAN not an issue (yet); that can come later. It
works, but only in half duplex, allows data collisions.
-- PRINTERS: Two. One Epson Stylus C82, one HP
Laserjet 6P.
-- PROBLEM: Neither printer will print. Well, more
accurately, about an hour ago both were working
perfectly, then they quite - again!!
A reboot got the Epson working again, the HP only
prints garbage whether fed text or graphic.

RECENT HISTORY:
I'll try to keep it Readers Digest style: I'm only
looking for leads, I understand there isn't likely any
one size fits all answer here.

-- First I noticed a svchost.exe trying to access the
net (dialup connection). I denied it, but didn't
create a rule 'cause I wanted to know what it was. I
just disallowed it whenever it popped up since there
were no other noticeable problems.
-- Upon cold or warm boot, started getting boot error
about Epson Printer Port errors. Boot time seemed
long, I thought because of searching/looking for the
drivers it needed. Don't think that's true though,
now.
-- Even Viewer showed the Epson driver eplpdx02 was
failing to start. This has been consistant.
-- Updated (several times & also use Live Update) NAV
and ran - nothing.
-- Spyware, virus scans, degrag, firewall running,
nothing found anything wrong - all logs looked fine
too - no Security Warnings.
-- Researching, I discovered on the hd: SK9910DM.EXE
I went to Symantec & got the removal instructions.
It's a worm, forget the name. It could have been the
reason for the svchost.exe outgoing attempts though.
Anyway, I removed what I could find of it - registry,
sys files, hd, etc.. it appeared to be incomplete as a
worm though, unless it was an undiscovered variant. I
don't recall when for sure becuase I was ill for a day
or so, but the outgoing svchost.exe outgoing requests
are gone.

ASIDE: I'm a foster parent. Kids did use the machine,
in fact caught one at rotten.com. No more kids - they
have a "special" machine of their own now out in the
laundry room to play their games on. No internet
connections.
So, I can see how my protection may have been
compromised. Yes, I've changed passwords, etc etc etc:
Even usernames/machine names except for one account.

-- Then printers stopped working, LAN gave up, and
"funny" things started to happen. Long story short,
ended up using Install disk to do the "upgrade"
process. Went thru the re-activation process, did all
the updates, & nothing changed.

-- Redid the install, this time using Repair Console -
the "funny" things stopped happening, but still no
printers working.
-- Fiddled, resintalled printers, drivers, etc etc,
after doing all the updates again, of course, including
the office updates by the way.

-- Suddenly Epson printer started working.
Eventually, had them both working A-OK this morning,
Even Viewer clean except for the LAN startups, and it
seemed to work good. Did a couple cold and warm boots,
left to have lunch.
Came back from lunch, the HP quit working again!!
Epson quit, too!
A Restart brought back the Epson, the HP is still
out to lunch. Yes, I've reinstalled the drivers many
times, deleted the LPT port with Device Manage and put
it back, several times for all. All the HP will print
is garbage again.
Oh, and yes, I've been to the Epson and HP sites to
update drivers: No matter what I download, including
the XP compatible HP driver, it says the driver isn't
compatible and of course is unsigned. BUT IT WORKED
ORIGINALLY! IT'S GOTTA BE ABLE TO WORK AGAIN! YES, I
AM THE ONE WHO DID ALL THE INSTALLS ORIGINALLY TOO!

SO: My nexty step is here, and/or a MS tech. I was
hoping that someone here may have some advice that
might help me make more sense to a MS tech, or maybe
point me in a direction that will let me pin things
down a little better.
It's like the HP isn't compatible with XP, but it
WAS working, for several months, so I know th ere is a
way to get it going.
I'm no guru and no MVP by any means, but I am fairly
computer literate - at least to the point of knowing
the buzz words and how to get around the system files -
e g enough to be dangerous!

Any thoughts/comments will be humbly appreciated.

TIA

Pop

 

[Sharon F]

Came back from lunch, the HP quit working again!!
Epson quit, too!

Do you use standby? If yes, perhaps a recent system change has caused a
problem between standby and the printers/printer drivers. Even(t) viewer is
noting other problems with the Epson driver too. Looks like that is one
place that needs attention. Checked for updated drivers yet?

 

[Pop Rivet]

Do you use standby? If yes, perhaps a recent system change has caused a
problem between standby and the printers/printer drivers. Even(t) viewer is
noting other problems with the Epson driver too. Looks like that is one
place that needs attention. Checked for updated drivers yet?

No, I do not use Standby. I have in the past used Hibernate but at the
moment I don't use any of those: I also have no hd spin-down, no monitor
kill, etc etc.. Only thing running is a text screen saver with a small
letter t on it so I know the computer has blanked the screen and isn't
turned off.

Yes, I downloaded the latest drivers for Epson and HP both. HP was
interesting; they have one driver set for XP and one for the 'rest'.
However, the XP drivers don't seem to be any good - XP refuses to use them.
Still waiting for an answer from HP.
The 'old' XP drivers however, have been working for several months so
it's not a driver issue unless it's corruption, AND I've reloaded the
drivers from the CD twice and the HP CD once - and XP refused to install the
HP's.

I had visions of making a boat anchor out of the whole system for a few
minutes this am, but then senility took over so I'm still looking for
solutions ;-[. As I mentioned, I've used the R console once and the XP CD's
"upgrade" (doesn't destroy data, just recopies files) and nothing changed.
AIDA32 exposes no problems, nor do any diagnostics or Maintenance logs
show anything useful. When I click the Report at the End Program and get
the MS link to go to, all I get is one of those -yeah, we know about the
problem and are working on it- stupid responses.

I do seem to have the Epson printer working, as long as I have it connected
and turned on before the computer starts. Otherwise I get the Epson driver
didn't load message and the epxld02 error in Sys View log.

I suspect now I have a bigger problem and that all this is really just
chasing a symptom, not the source. The LAN new connection wizard now
consistantly fails and cannot complete. The Report dialog for the error
only gets me another of those MS "working on it" messages at the MS link it
provides.

I now-think- the problem is likely more major :

-- Booting takes between 4 and 5 minutes. What happens during boot changes
around, but the complete boot is well in excess of 4 minutes and consistant,
whether the Epson is on or off and I get the Epson error message. Sys View
only shows errors for the Epson if it isn't turned on, AND two warnings, one
about the LAN assigning what looks like the right IP to me, and another that
it failed something, I forget what right now.

-- The boot time delay is always AFTER the POST. The delay starts after
the Welcom screen appears. I -think- the delay starts with the painting of
the Welcome screen. If I just let the screen sit there, the disk goes
clunking away and if after several minutes I sign on, the wait is a little
shorter, by maybe about half.
The screen may or may not paint with icons or sit there dark, and
sometimes touching anything causes disk activity to increase.
When the icons paint first, it appearsto be working, and the system tray
is mostly populated, but nothing can be done w/r to starting any programs.
At this particular time, the task bar will not pop up for about three more
minutes. Sometimes ti's there right away. Doesn't matter though 'cause the
machine won't take any human input until it finishes its 4+ minutes of work.

This long delay started within the last few days: It was long before,
but nowhere near this long. In the pre-problem past, a normal boot time,
everything turned on and loaded, took a little over 60 seconds from a cold
boot, less from a Restart command.
Once it's booted, all the software seems to work fine. Peripherals
though are a different matter - haven 't tried them all yet; afraid to now!


I'm beginning to think a backup/fdisk/format/reload is in order. I'm the
kind of guy loves to know "why", but I'm getting way behind without the
computer working right, and I've already been thru reactivation once, so
what's one more time?

What do you think? I'm not afraid to do a clean install - the time will be
wellspent compared to waiting for this tentative boat anchor to get rebooted
every time!!

TIA

Pop

 

[Sharon F]

What do you think? I'm not afraid to do a clean install - the time will be
wellspent compared to waiting for this tentative boat anchor to get rebooted
every time!!

The start up problems indicate a possible hardware problem. Since the
network printers and the LAN have exhibited troubling symptoms - I think a
new NIC card is an inexpensive experiment. It may even end up being a
possible solution. Have seen a lot of good setups go wacky due to a
problematic NIC.

If you decide to bite the bullet and try a clean install, you could do
what's called a "parallel" install first. It means running two copies of XP
on the same hard drive. Not something you want to do permanently but if
that install works without a hitch than you know the problem is something
in the old configuration. If it's flakey too, then you would concentrate
more on hardware solutions.

 

[Pop Rivet]

Sharon,

Thank you much; never thought about "parallel" installs before, but after
a little research, it sounds like a good idea to me. I DO want to learn,
but need to get things running again soon, so I think I"ll try it.
I also have a spare NIC card - so I can try that too. Makes sense.

Thanks for sticking with me. That's just the kind of "general" advice I was
looking for and describing things wasn't an easy task. It's hard when one
can't even figure out which question/s to ask.

One final question if I may:
The boot delay is so long and pretty obviously waiting for "something" to
time out, are there any machine logs I can look at to see if there are any
error or warning messages that might point to what the delay is waiting for?
I have all the logs except packet monitoring turned on & set to default
sizes; 512k if I recall, but it's sort of an information overload since I'm
new to them all except Event Viewer.

By the time you read this I'll have already installed, parallel or not,
something, but I have archived all the logs I can find for later study and
analysis. I'd really like to figure out what's up and how to "see" the
problem as though I knew what to look for!

Pop

 

[Sharon F]

Sharon,

Thank you much; never thought about "parallel" installs before, but after
a little research, it sounds like a good idea to me. I DO want to learn,
but need to get things running again soon, so I think I"ll try it.
I also have a spare NIC card - so I can try that too. Makes sense.

Thanks for sticking with me. That's just the kind of "general" advice I was
looking for and describing things wasn't an easy task. It's hard when one
can't even figure out which question/s to ask.

One final question if I may:
The boot delay is so long and pretty obviously waiting for "something" to
time out, are there any machine logs I can look at to see if there are any
error or warning messages that might point to what the delay is waiting for?
I have all the logs except packet monitoring turned on & set to default
sizes; 512k if I recall, but it's sort of an information overload since I'm
new to them all except Event Viewer.

By the time you read this I'll have already installed, parallel or not,
something, but I have archived all the logs I can find for later study and
analysis. I'd really like to figure out what's up and how to "see" the
problem as though I knew what to look for!

Check Event Viewer. It logs the startup process and reports on problems.
Another tool, System Information, can give you a report on hardware
configuration and potential conflicts. MSCONFIG can be used to disable
startup programs. Troubleshooting startup problems is very similar to
troubleshooting shutdown problems. The issues are very much the same, just
the "when" is different. The following site is well known for its extensive
coverage of shutdown issues for all versions of Windows, including XP:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

Packet logging can take time. If your security is in place - firewall,
current antivirus program and regular checks for spyware - it is an
additional load that's not really productive in a home setting.

There is a program called "boot-vis" that was around when XP was first
released. Microsoft has pulled it from their site but it can still be found
if you look around the internet. I think MVP Kelly Theriot has it at her
site still (or at least a link to it): www.kellys-korner-xp.com.

It basically does the same thing that the builtin XP housekeeping does but
it has a feature that *could* be helpful: It creates a tracelog of startup
and shows a graph of how long each component takes to load. By noting the
items that take up huge chunks of time, it can guide you to troublesome
drivers or problem areas in the configuration. There is an Optimize
function - this portion produces the same results as XP's builtin
mechanisms but it happens a little "faster."

IMPORTANT: If you try boot-vis: When analyzing, keep in mind that network
always takes a bit more to initialize at startup. Also, don't forget to
disable the tracelogging before uninstalling it! If you forget, the
tracelog keeps growing and growing and it's a nasty experience working
backwards to get the logging disabled (Yes, I forgot this the first time I
used the program. BTDT). Uninstall bootvis after getting one or two
readouts. Disable logging before uninstalling.

For consideration if you do a new install:
One of the things that I do on my systems, after a clean install and
everything is setup, I change the "started" services to the "Automatic"
startup type. They are only loaded if needed - many load, do their thing
and drop back taking no further system resources. The rest are just needed
so why not get them loaded and move on. I think this is an efficient
approach instead of the system waiting to start a service that is needed
and then proceeding further with the boot.