Windows security update causes 'blue screen of death' for some

Blue Screens No Responses »
Aug 112010

Windows users reported receiving the “blue screen of death“ on their computers after installing Microsoft’s latest security updates released in February.

Most of the people complaining on a Windows forum said they had the problem on Windows XP, but one person also reported problems on Windows 7.

Users posted a fix on the site that they said seemed to work, but that didn’t necessarily quell the anger.

“Where at Microsoft do I send my invoice for hours spent fixing this BS?” one person wrote.

The problem appears to be with one specific update, which addresses a vulnerability in the 32-bit Windows kernel that could allow elevation of privilege that was disclosed in January.

The fix requires users to have an installation CD, but not all computer manufacturers ship systems with a disc for re-installing the operating system, according to the Krebs on Security blog, which first reported the problems.

In addition, Netbooks do not have CD-ROM drives, making the problem even more difficult for them to fix, security blogger Brian Krebs wrote.

Several people reported on the Windows forum site that Microsoft told them the company would not be providing a fix for Netbooks and that Netbook users would have to get support from the equipment manufacturer.

Microsoft is investigating the reports to determine the cause of the problems, according to a statement from Jerry Bryant, senior security communications manager lead at Microsoft.

Anyone believed to have been affected can visit: https://consumersecuritysupport.microsoft.com, the statement said. Those in the United States can contact Customer Service and Support at no charge using the PC Safety hotline at 1-866-727-2338 (PCSAFETY). Those outside the United States can find local contact numbers at http://support.microsoft.com/international.

Update

Microsoft published a blog post later in the same day with this additional information:

Our initial analysis suggests that the issue occurs after installing MS10-015 (KB977165). However, we have not confirmed that the issue is specific to MS10-015 or if it is an interoperability problem with another component or third-party software. Our teams are working to resolve this as quickly as possible. We also stopped offering this update through Windows Update as soon as we discovered the restart issues. However, those using enterprise deployment systems such as SMS or WSUS will still see and be able to deploy these packages.

While we work to address this issue, customers who choose not to install the update can implement the workaround outlined in the bulletin. CVE-2010-0232 was publicly disclosed and we previously issued Security Advisory 979682 in response. Customers can disable the NTVDM subsystem as a workaround and we have provided an automated method of doing that with a Microsoft Fix It that you can find here.

The Fix (copied from link above). Note: Step 2 has been modified NOT to have a space between the KBXXXXXX and following $ as was in the original post.

Follow these steps:

1)      Boot from your Windows XP CD or DVD and start the recovery console

Once you’re at the Repair Screen:

2)      Type this command: CHDIR $NtUninstallKB978262 $\spuninst

3)      Type this command: BATCH spuninst.txt

4)      Type this command: systemroot

5)      Repeat steps 2-4 for each of the following updates provided by FindMeFollowMe:

  • KB978262
  • KB971468
  • KB978037
  • KB975713
  • KB978251
  • KB978706
  • KB977165
  • KB975560
  • KB977914

6)      When complete, type this command: exit

Your computer should restart and everything should be back to normal.

This apparent fix to the problem was posted on a Windows forum.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Posted by Nerie at 4:29 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Who is Your PC’s Worst Enemy?

Newsletter No Responses »
Jul 082010

In an ideal world, all PCs would have exactly the same hardware configuration, and it wouldn’t matter what you do on your PC, how much hardware or software you load, what software you download from the internet, what you install on the computer, what you remove and uninstall, or how many different programs you launch concurrently. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world. And you don’t have to use a PC for very long to know that things don’t always work the way they should. In fact, in the real world, if you buy the exact same PC as your friend, with the same operating system, you are likely to have two completely different computers in a very short time.

In today’s  insecure internet environment, you are also very likely to quickly catch some viruses or malware. So you purchase an antivirus, find the contaminating little creature, delete it, and applaud yourself for winning this battle.  Antivirus software is a nice tool, but since they find and delete only the virus, you are still left with the damage that already has been done to your PC. Congratulations!!  You are not contaminated any more, but your PC is still very sick.

Soon your PC starts behaving strangely. It is much slower, it takes its own time now, there are DLL and other errors, and it freezes once in a while, and even decides to reboot itself right in the middle of your winning poker game.

Every new thing that you attempt to do with our PC: a new program that you download, an email attachment you open, a new game you try to play, changes your PC, forever.

You are officially your computers worst enemy!

So you say, “I’ll find what the problem is online!” Well, after trying to read some tech forums and blogs, you know you won’t find it.

You are more likely thinking now to call a technician and say goodbye to a few hundred dollars just for him to tell you that you need to re-install your PC.  In fact, technicians can’t go file by file and find the corrupted ones, then look them up online, download and install them.  On average, a PC has over 250,000 files that make it run efficiently.

How about an online solution? Since you are the worst enemy of your PC, and you will continue to download files, open emails, etc., a fast and easy solution is what you need. Online service is the answer.

When considering an online repair service, consider an online repair tool that you can run yourself without any loss of data or applications.  There are major advantages to an online repair, the main one being the ease of use and the speed (it’s fast!!!).  You really don’t want to unplug the machine, lug the heavy thing into your car, drive it to a shop, and pick it up days later. Online repair service can be very easy and very fast, there is no data loss, you don’t lose the applications you downloaded, nothing changes in your settings, personal conveniences stay the same and automatic passwords still work.  Online repair can also cost much less. On average, online repair is 150% less than a technician, and 500% less than buying a new computer.

What To Look For In An Online Repair Service

When using an online repair service, make sure that all changes can be easily “undone”.  In other words, if you don’t like the outcome of the repair, then you can simply revert back to the previous state, before those changes were applied.  A free scan is always important to have in order to see what the utility will actually fix.  Make sure the utility can take care of the issues you are frustrated with such as a slow computer, crashing and freezing, virus damage, and error messages.  Most likely to prevent error messages and really fix it , it does not only need to delete or remove files, it also needs to have the ability to fix and replace bad files in your system with fresh, new, original ones.

Don’t forget support. You may need some support if you encounter problems during the repair, or if you wish to have help while running the repair.  Also check for a 100% money back guarantee.  This is also a good indicator of the integrity of the PC repair company, and that they stand behind their product.

Now that you have fixed your computer, you are ready to start again with a clean slate.

Maybe you should have signed up for a lifetime subscription with that online repair service?


Posted by Amit Daliot at 3:07 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

Early Detection Can Prevent Major PC Damage

Automated PC Repair, PC Repair Experiences No Responses »
Jun 272010

Just like in the medical profession, all PC problems that are detected early will be sure to save time, money and major frustration issues.

Viruses and Early Detection

The first viruses were written for nothing more than pranks. Today, viruses are meant to cause major damage to the Operating System, your personal data, and to even steal your identity.  This makes it imperative to do early detection of viruses in order to minimize the extent of the damage and/or theft of identity factors.

A virus will download on to your computer without your authorization.  This virus can be Malware, Spyware, a Trojan, or many other types of malicious and unwanted software.  Since you did not authorize it to download, your probably don’t even know it is there, until it starts rearing its ugly head.  This would be in the form of pop ups, error messages, alerts, missing files, crashing, and freezing.

It is a rather easy process to detect viruses on your computer.  Most software programs on the market today have free scans that can actually detect the viruses you have on your computer.  If the scan detects a virus, I will decide whether to delete it with a repair key or not.  Don’t forget to fix the damage that was done to other files on the operating system, and not just delete the virus itself.

Any other favorite viruses scan software out there?  Please post a comment with the name so we can all benefit.

Stability and Early Detection

When you first get your computer, everything runs nice and smooth.  As you work and play on your computer, you begin to move things around, download different programs, quite an update in the middle, “Undo” programs, and maybe even deleted files you think are unnecessary.  On a Windows Operating System, this creates stability problems that you see as crashing and freezing.

Windows was originally created as a file sharing system. The shared library concept allows your Windows operating system to cooperate with other programs, share resources and allowing the same library to be used by multiple programs at the same time.  This makes your system very functional when all the pieces are in the right place.  Start changing the locations, and the system stops responding properly.

In order to find unstable programs, you can also run a free scan.  Just make sure that the scan will detect application errors, and not just registry errors.  For instance, you should find out exactly which programs are causing the problems, and how often they crash.  Also useful would be a chart for crash history which details the frequency and severity of the crashes.  The more crashes, the severe your stability issues.  The more severe your stability issues, the more likely you are to lose data and your entire operating system if left untreated.  The sooner you detect and fix stability issues, the less likely you are to lose information on your computer (this includes photos, music, documents, games, passwords, favorites, and more).

Any other recommended scans for stability issues?  Please post them in comments.

It is all in the early detection of viruses and stability issues.  Once you know what’s there, you will know what to do with it.  So do some early detection, and avoid major PC damage in the future.

Posted by Amit Daliot at 9:29 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Buy A New Computer - or Repair The One You Have?

Automated PC Repair No Responses »
Jun 062010

If you’re like most consumers, your computer is now more than a year old.  You have come to love it, as you spend most of your wakeful hours working and playing on this machine.  You have become comfortable with the organizations of your browser favorites, like the shortcuts on your desktop, and fully enjoy the applications you downloaded and use every day.  But yes, the performance has slowed down, and yes, there are pop-ups and error messages now and then, even crashing and freezing has started to become more frequent – and in the middle of a chat session.

Could that mean the end of the road for my computer? What do you do:  Buy a new computer?  Or fix the old one?

When Buying a New Computer

If you buy a new computer, there are many factors to consider.  Besides the direct out-of-pocket expense for a new computer, there are major inconveniences and time factors that should be considered as well.  First, you will have to get used to an entirely new system, without all the personal conveniences that it took you so long to set up.  This may take up to one month before all of the buttons, gadgets, widgets and data are in the same place you’ve grown familiar to find.  Also, you will have to make sure you that you’ve backed up all of your old computer programs and files.  A complete backup can take up to eight hours, so be sure to leave yourself enough time for this.  Most of your personal programs will need to be reinstalled.  Make sure you have all software disks and registration numbers handy to re-enter and activate your reinstalled application on the new computer.  Try to save your browser favorites in order to have them available on the new computer.  Your passwords for protected sites (banking, memberships, social media sites, etc.) will not transfer to the new computer so make sure you have those written down somewhere in order to enter them again.  You may find yourself needing to create all new user IDs again if you can’t remember the passwords.  Also remember that all of your personally located Email data won’t move to the new machine by itself, saving your PST file and exporting your entire address book is also recommended.

Finally when your new computer is up and running, it may still take you a few weeks to get used to it and love it again.

When Repairing a Computer

When considering a repair option, you can choose between a technician that will most probably re-install your entire operating system, and an online repair tool that you can do yourself without any loss of data.  There are major advantages to an online repair, such as not having to unplug all the cables from the back of your computer (and remembering exactly where you disconnected them from).  Also, you don’t have to lug the heavy thing into your car, drive it to a shop, and pick it up days later.  What will you do without a computer for all those days?  Online repair can be very easy and very fast, there is no data loss, nothing changes in your settings, personal conveniences stay the same and automatic passwords still work.  Online repair can also cost much less; On average, online repair is 150% less than a technician, and 500% less than buying a new computer.

What To Look For In An Online Repair Product

When using an online repair product, make sure that all changes can be easily “undone”.  In other words, if you don’t like the outcome of the repair, then you can simply revert back to the previous state, before those changes were applied.  A free scan is always nice to have in order to see what the utility will actually fix.  Make sure the utility will take care of the issues you are frustrated with such as a slow computer, crashing and freezing, virus damage, and error messages.    Don’t forget support, you may need some support if the repair utility starts doing strange and unfamiliar things to your computer.  And most importantly, make sure there is a 100% money back guarantee.  This is also a good indicator of the integrity of the repair company, and that they stand behind their product.

Posted by Elad Levin at 12:35 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

What You Should Use to Fix Your PC: Registry Cleaners vs. Anti-Virus

AntiVirus, PC Repair Experiences No Responses »
May 172010

If you’re computer is crashing and freezing all the time and some funny looking blue screen pops up every once in awhile, you may have some problems with your PC. Even if you don’t think you have problems with your PC, you probably still do. When your Internet Explorer shuts down every once in awhile while you’re browsing or you get an error message when you try to run a program, something is wrong with your PC. At this point, you have a couple options. You may want to choose a registry cleaner or you might want to use an anti-virus service. What happens if you need both or something completely different? Let’s clear up some confusion, in case there is any.

Registry Cleaners

Registry cleaners work much like industrial lubricant for machines; kind of like oiling the cogs so that the machine will run better, this is a function which comes as regular maintenance and doesn’t provide any long term assurance for functionality of actual files or components within your machine. The actual technical purpose is to remove obsolete links to orphaned files, let’s say for instance that you’ve created a link on your desktop to a file on your hard drive, after you’ve deleted that file the link still remains but points to a file which doesn’t exist on your machine any longer – this is called an orphaned link.

Sometimes there is certain software which installs a new version of a DLL on your machine, but instead of deleting the old link referring to an obsolete version it just creates a new link to point at the new DLL – and this happens for many files on each install of new software, which means the old remaining links stack up and can cause a slowdown which won’t be noticed by a human being on a singular incident but might cause a general slowdown in the long run.

Anti-Virus Software

Anti-Virus software prevents, detects, and removes viruses, Trojans, malware, spyware, and the like. They help protect your computer against hackers and identity theft. Anti-Virus programs are usually more updated to be able to protect against the most updated viruses. You also need to be careful when choosing your Anti-Virus/Spyware software because if it isn’t designed well it may also mistake important files for viruses (and like Registry Cleaners) accidentally delete important files or essential components that allow your computer to run properly. **Let’s not forget that in most cases, these programs don’t reverse the damage that has been done to corrupted and damaged files.

Now what happens when you need to use a service that will both “tune up” your PC and remove malware? More often than not, it isn’t just one problem that’s slowing your computer down. If you have error messages and your computer is slower, it might be a combination of problems that will require a program that removes anti-viruses and fixes bugs within the registry. If only there were a product out there that could do everything. Actually, this is the idea behind the Reimage software. It’s one program that you use one time to remove viruses, Trojans, malware AND to clean the registry AND determine hardware issues. The product also repairs and reverses the damage done by replacing deleted, missing, or corrupted components of essential files with new and updated files stored in Reimage’s online warehouse (a database of over 25 million essential components/spare parts to replace those that were damaged on your PC ).

If you are choosing between a registry cleaner and an anti-virus program, you need to know what is actually causing the problem on your computer, otherwise if you choose the wrong solution, you might make the state of your computer even worse. If you have a program that deals with all the problems, all you need to focus on is letting the program fix your PC.

Posted by Amit Daliot at 8:58 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Latest PC Repair News

Tech Industry News 1 Response »
Apr 192009
Here are the latest news in the PC repair industry that we have posted lately:
Posted by Nicholas Black at 2:22 pm Tagged with: ,

Is Windows XP Dead?

Automated PC Repair, Market Trends No Responses »
Apr 122009

Time has finally ran out for Windows XP owners with Microsoft replacing free support of the operating system with a paid one. Users with a dysfunctional XP system will have to pay per incident, per the hour. This makes this manual repair process an expensive ordeal, while up until now it has been merely a cumbersome one. 

Windows XP Support(ed)!

Happily, Reimage is still here to help with our state of the art automated PC repair technology and PC booster.

Reimage.com automatically reinstalls an operating system and does not touch user data or applications, the repair takes an average of 22 minutes. You will never have to reinstall your XP again.

Reimage’s PC Repair Resources

Additional resources exist for those looking to repair their PCs, such as:

Posted by Nicholas Black at 11:44 am Tagged with: , , ,
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