Warning: off-topic response to off-topic request for help. Delete this now if you aren't interested.
Steve: I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. Perhaps the "persistent infection" of your machine may be due to some rather nasty software copy protection? I don't know about Roxio software (all I have are old versions of Adaptec software before it got bought by Roxio), but perhaps it uses the same or similar copy protection as the new version of TurboTax. I have heard a great many bad things about TurboTax's C-Dilla (Macrovision) copy protection - it evidently writes some info into the boot sector of your hard disk. This makes it impossible to remove without reformatting the hard disk, or at least overwriting the boot sector with some kind of utility. Other s/w uses this scheme also - I hear that Autocad does, and...viruses! I steadfastly refuse to use any application s/w that fools with the boot sector. The boot sector is for, well, booting, and not for use by company X to protect their profits. Too bad the s/w came pre-installed on your Dell. This is one reason why I no longer buy brand-name PCs. I buy white box PCs built either by myself or a local PC shop. This way I can control exactly what s/w gets installed on the PC. If you can find a local PC shop where the folks know Linux and build servers as well as desktop machines, you will be reasonably assured of quality parts and technical competence. I say Linux server expertise, because even if you want a Windows machine, at least you know that it's not being built by a bunch of gaming freaks who don't really know much about PCs, and spend their time talking about Warcraft III cheats instead of tweaking Samba. Another problem with Dell and other big-name (Compaq, HP, Gateway, etc.) PC makers is that their h/w is always proprietary in some way. Even if it's totally s/w compatible, it has different mounting holes, different power connector pinout, etc. Or it is an OEM version of a retail item, having different drivers or not quite compatible, etc. Why let yourself get screwed that way? In 2001 I bought a dual-PIII 1GHz from my local PC shop, and it has been awesome. No problems with Windows 2000 on it (using SP2, I won't upgrade to SP3 because of heinous EULA and spyware issues). It actually cost about the same as an equivalent Dell at the time, and I got exactly the h/w and exactly the s/w I wanted (top notch video and sound cards, PCMCIA slots, etc.). Since then I've had a Linux server upgraded by the same shop, and it's been rock stable. I tell you, man, a good local PC shop is the way to go. For me, at least, the future is Linux, not Windows. Reasons: 1) When I buy a white box PC, I can buy it without paying the Microsoft tax (Windows is not pre-installed by default). That way I am not forced to buy something I don't want or need. 2) Linux s/w isn't loaded with spyware, adware, and doesn't pollute any "registry" with a million little tidbits of junk. It's usually just one text file in the /etc directory 3) Linux s/w can be prevented from corrupting areas of the disk it has no business being in. In fact, this is the default operation of Linux - a program with user permissions cannot corrupt directories where root permissions are required. 4) Linux is less susceptible to viruses because of (3). 5) Most corporate s/w has effectively no support, as evidenced by your bad experience with Roxio support. Linux s/w has no support line, either. So which is a better value, paid s/w with no support, or free s/w with no support? 6) You cannot force a company to fix bugs in their s/w. You also cannot fix the bugs yourself, since you don't have the source. You can fix the bugs in Linux s/w yourself since you have the source. Most of us would not want to actually do this, but if we were in a pinch, we could, or find a consultant who could. 7) Linux s/w is easy to remove, just type "rpm -e pkgname". It's gone... 8) Microsoft s/w keeps going up in price, with little or no improvement. Exception: Windows 2000 was a big improvement over 9X/NT. But XP is a no-go. 9) Microsoft is trying ever harder to lock users' data into their s/w with proprietary formats and no publicly available specs. I don't want my data held hostage by them. 10) Microsoft is forcing upgrades whether or not users' want them. Example: the new version of Office (11, I think) will use DOC formats that are incompatible with previous versions. When someone sends you a v11 DOC file, you won't be able to read it unless you buy Office 11. But Office 11 requires Windows XP, so you have to upgrade to XP. If your machine is an older machine it won't run XP, so you have to upgrade your h/w. Madness! I'm sorry that I don't really have any advice to help you out of your current situation. All I can do is point out the sorry state of affairs in the PC world, and suggest some future approaches to avoid problems. As for me, my household, and my company, we are transitioning to Linux in every way we can. Altium, where is that Linux version of Protel? I can't keep this dual-PIII going forever! When it craps out, it's not getting replaced by another Windows box... Best regards, Ivan Baggett Bagotronix Inc. website: www.bagotronix.com ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2003 6:23 AM Subject: [PEDA] Roxio, Nero, Virii and crashes > HELP!!! In attempting to uninstall DirectCD, I've gotten my system into a > state where it won't boot! Sorry if I'm off-topic, but I'm desperate and > these lists are the best resource I've found for help. Others may save > themselves much grief by learning from my experience. I'm cross-posting to > the DXP list as well. > > My recent queries on the web encouraged me to buy Ahead Nero to replace > Roxio's DirectCD. Thus far, that advice still seems to have been good - Nero > is far superior to DirectCD, and far more stable. > > I had them both installed and peacefully coexisting. On advice that I should > not have two CD burner packages installed, and the realization that I'd never > use DirectCD again, I uninstalled DirectCD. I've since learned that Roxio's > DirectCD is in and of itself the worst virus infection I've ever seen. It > won't uninstall cleanly, their "tech support" is no help, and now my system > won't boot. When I boot into Windows 2000 Pro, it appears to boot normally. > In searching the web I've found that many others have come to similar grief, > but no solutions to my specific problem. First sign of trouble is that while > my auto-start apps are still getting settled in, a box appears saying > "Preparing to install...." with no appname. Its cancel button does nothing. > About ten seconds later, the box goes away - and then comes back. Total of > about 6 times or so, and then the system does a normal shutdown and reboots > Again, and again, and again. > > I've killed almost a full day on this so far, with no end in sight. > Spelunking in the registry finds many hundreds of entries sprinkled all over > the place, referring to Roxio, DirectCD, etc. I spent a couple hours deleting > absolutely every registry entry which looked remotely related. This was only > a "crippleware" version of DirectCD that could just barely write a data CD; > any other operation took me automatically to Roxio's website to buy the full > version. Thus I'm not only pretty ticked at Roxio, but also at Dell. Dell > preinstalled this on the machine, and the sales pitch implied I was getting > the full version. Thus I consider this to be bait-and-switch, plain and > simple. So Dell is now on my blacklist too (it wouldn't have taken much after > their fiasco with proprietary power supplies, but that's another whole story). > > I've tried unplugging the CD drive and rebooting, unplugging all the USB > peripherals on the theory that something there is trying to install, etc., > all to no avail. I've already run the Win2K Repair from the CD; no joy there > either. So I'm getting ready to reinstall Win2K, and cringing at the thought > of all the drivers etc. that I'll need to set up again. > > There is a slim chance that this might have been precipitated by a virus > other than Roxio, because one of my clients had a particularly nasty virus > infection last week. But I haven't downloaded any executables from them, and > I'm well-guarded against other forms such as macros. And the problem showed > up right after I ran Ahead's driver clean utility. > > My best guess at present is that Roxio left something around which now > detects that the rest isn't installed, and it's trying to repair the > installation. But that's only a guess. > > I can get to the Windows recovery console, and also to Safe mode. but haven't > had any luck repairing things that way. Any and all tips gratefully accepted!! > > Steve Hendrix > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
