Ghost in my HTPC...

Speak your mind

Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby Marbles_00 on Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:11 pm

Okay here's a strange one.

I put together an AMD setup for my HTPC. It's running WinXP w SP2 (recently found out there was a fix for AMP platforms running WinXp wSP3, but I haven't upgraded yet). Well I had a temporary hard-drive in it a few months ago, and noticed that every once and a while Outlook Express would just open up. Be watching a DVD, and O Express would just open...etc. I also noticed that Zoom Player movie properties would open too.

Well, since then, I upgraded the drive to a newer SATA drive, which meant the system was all re-installed. The OS and all applications were re-installed from scratch. The only thing copied over was Xlobby, and the Mirage skin. Well Outlook Express continued to open randomly. So I un-installed it, as it is not needed on this machine. Well now, Window's calculator now opens randomly. And I'm still getting the issue of Zoom Player's video properties window opening randomly. I also have had Zoom Player automatically adjust the video size on the fly for no reason.

I've done virus checks, and they all come up negative. The system does not access the internet except for dragging DVD artwork from the DVDEmpire.com site (via ANT). Other than that, all other installed software, if downloaded, is done from another computer, so I'm pretty confident that there isn't a trojan or virus. The only thing I can figure what is different between this system and all others is the fact that this system is AMD based, whereas all my other systems are Intel...running various Win OS platforms, but I don't understand why that would cause this random issues.
Marbles_00
 
Posts: 1867
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:44 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby samgreco on Mon Feb 02, 2009 4:58 pm

I have had many AMD PCs and have NEVER seen THAT happen.

So the only commonality between installs is xLobby and hardware? I would say, just as a troubleshooting exercise, backup the xLobby installation and remove it. Then see if it happens again. It sounds as though something is triggering a file open of some kind in the OExpress/Notepad thing. But I have no idea what would trigger Zoom Player to change it video resolution.

I would almost want to look in the system bios, except, I can't for the life of me think of anything in bios that would cause this.
samgreco
 
Posts: 246
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:04 am
Location: Villa Park, IL

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby lpg on Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:23 pm

All of my systems are AMD and none of them exhibit that problem. Are there any schedulers running? It seems now every program has their own schedular with online checking for updates. By the way I updated almost all on my machines (except my media server) to sp3. I only had problems with one machine which was related to a specific ASUS motherboard.
lpg
 
Posts: 296
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2005 8:17 pm
Location: Chicago

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby lar282 on Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:26 pm

Replace the keyboard. MAYBE keys are stuck or its broken so it presses down win key + other key

I know long shot, but if it isn't a virus, I have no clue


//Lasse
lar282
 
Posts: 1624
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby scottw on Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:33 pm

lar282 wrote:Replace the keyboard. MAYBE keys are stuck or its broken so it presses down win key + other key

I know long shot, but if it isn't a virus, I have no clue


//Lasse


That was going to be my suggestion.
scottw
 
Posts: 774
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:21 pm
Location: Glen Burnie, Maryland

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby Marbles_00 on Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:21 pm

scottw wrote:
lar282 wrote:Replace the keyboard. MAYBE keys are stuck or its broken so it presses down win key + other key

I know long shot, but if it isn't a virus, I have no clue


//Lasse


That was going to be my suggestion.


Actually, that is a good suggestion. I am using a cheap wireless keyboard/mouse on that system. Something I never thought of...maybe the reciever is picking up some interference, and automatically runs some executable. I'm going to swap them tonight with a generic wire keyboard/mouse set. Unfortunately, since it is so seldom and random that it happens, I may not have anything to report on for the next little while.
Marbles_00
 
Posts: 1867
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:44 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby Marbles_00 on Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:02 am

Well, it's been a few months since I swapped out the cheap wireless keyboard/mouse, and the ghosts appear to have left my HTPC alone...go figure. So much for the cheap stuff.
Marbles_00
 
Posts: 1867
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:44 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby dalanik on Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:21 am

yes, computers sometimes seem to be "posessed" ;-) Right now, my HTPC has started misbehaving, and the worst thing is that I'm soooo lazy to do anything about it.... it's been working fine for several years now... ;-) At first I was suspecting my kid that he does something wrong but you know the kids today, he is even more technologically minded than I am ;-) I suspect XWeather, but am not sure. What happens is that SOMETIMES, only ometimes, like 20-30% of the time, on startup XLobby starts or during loading, it displays message that Xlobby alpha has crashed. Then I run it again and all is fine. Guess I should be moving plugins out of the plugins folder to see what's causing it ;-)

D.
dalanik
 
Posts: 885
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:35 pm
Location: Prague, Czech Republic

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby P3rv3rt B3ar on Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:56 pm

D, because u mention years, it might be good idea to run speedfan and note the fitness value of HDD, they sometimes wear out with odd side effects...
P3rv3rt B3ar
 
Posts: 1364
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:52 pm
Location: West Coast Funland

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby dalanik on Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:20 am

I'm running speedfan and I noticed the fan is running like crazy (I actually don't need speedfan, I can hear it), so I suppose it's that time of year where I must disconnect everything from HTPC and open it and vacum-clean it ;-)
dalanik
 
Posts: 885
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:35 pm
Location: Prague, Czech Republic

Re: Ghost in my HTPC...

Postby vaporhat on Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:36 pm

This is crazy.. my PC was doing the same thing last night!!!

I think there is some conflict the the mouse or HID drivers. I reinstalled my wireless keyboard drivers and that didn't help. I could try another keyboard?

I think I am going to make an imagine of that machine as is, reformat the driver and install Windows 7 on it. I'm just a little scared..
I have a copy of it running on my daily machine and I am loving it.

I guess if the waters get too deep I can always go back to Windows XP Pro using that image disk...
vaporhat
 
Posts: 208
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:56 pm
Location: CT, U.S.A.