Re: USB - unreliable?

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

Or maybe never mind that download for the trojan and stick with the online
scanner. Should have checked more closely, it's a full download of
SpywareDoctor.

"RalfG" <itsnotme@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uRoRJgg%23HHA.5464@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I only shut off the drive after the PC has unloaded Windows and not yet at
the point of reloading it. Any lockups I've experienced after disconnecting
or turning off a USB device were all related to a driver for a USB WiFi
adapter. More likely to happen when unplugging USB devices. I haven't lost
any data on my drives though. If they aren't already I'd suggest you turn
of caching on the external drives. That's a likely cause of your data
loss... ie. data that has not been written to the drive yet and is still in
RAM when the lockup/disconnection occurs.

You might be using the wrong tool to get rid of the trojan infection.
According to Symantec and Counter Spy, win32.ranky is a backdoor trojan
that opens a proxy server on your computer... ie someone is using your PC
over the web. There may be more than one version of the trojan, but
according to the link below it does the following:

Allows remote user connection
Sends out logs by FTP or email
Logs keystrokes
Connects itself to the internet
Hides from the user
Stays resident in background

Nasty stuff. There is a remover for the trojan at this link:

http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-trojanspy-win32-ranky.html

You also might want to scan the PC with an online virus scanner in case
yours has been compromised already and is not working as it should. Trend
Micro is a good one:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/




"msnews.microsoft.com" <j.poyntonREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:%23dwBXVd%23HHA.1184@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hmmm. Trouble is, when this happens I often find the PC freezes; couple
of times when I've had to hard shut it down, or switch off an external
drive, it's suffered files system damage. So I then spend 2 days putting
the disk back together again, only for it to happen again. Have to say I
am getting majorly pissed off with it - they were fine for ages.

I thought maybe I have malware on the machine. Spybot S&D detected
"win32.ranky.gn", claims to get rid of it, but when I reboot it's there
again. Can't find anything about how to get rid of it anywhere. Then I
ran Spybot with system restore OFF, and it seemed to go, then reappeared
the same day - know not when, got no warning.

Spybot claims it's not there any more, so maybe the hanging and loss of
drives was not related to whatever that was, but I have to say I'm
thinking of reinstalling XP so 'effed off with this am I

Thanks, anyway

Jeremy


"RalfG" <itsnotme@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23D%232Bct9HHA.1168@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the case of a USB connected external harddrive I get the same thing.
It is hit and miss whether the port that the drive is connected to will
enumerate properly on boot or reboot. When it doesn't, the port goes
into error state and Windows installs an Unknown device on the port.
These are dual ports, both USB1 and 2 and in this scenario the attached
port tries to enumerate as USB1 but fails.

In order to avoid rebooting what I do is to turn off the harddrive, go
into Windows Device Manager and uninstall the Unknown USB device. You
might have several of these unknown devices on your various USB ports by
now. When I subsequently turn on the harddrive it functions normally
again, showing as being attached to a USB2 port. My boot configuration
does have a line added to always enable showing non-connected devices,
so when I select "show hidden" devices in Device Manager all of the
hidden Unknown device and other entries show up.

The only way I've found to avoid the error completely is to have the USB
harddrive turned off whenever booting the computer.

"msnews.microsoft.com" <j.poyntonREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:OX21rMq9HHA.600@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a Dell Precision 370; 4 gb memory, 3 fixed SATA hard drives, four
external IDE and one external SATA. As well, my Creative external
soundcard hangs off a USB connection, as does my mouse and keyboard, and
I have an external DVD drive on USB as well.

I have 7 on board USB ports, and 2 x 4 port PCI cards.

What I experience intermittently (sometimes) & frequently
(occasionally) is the loss of a USB device. Mostly a hard drive, but
sometimes the mouse or keyboard.

Usually, swapping the connection to a different socket wakes the device
up again. Sometimes however, I have to reboot.

This is extremely frustrating, and my conclusion is that the USB
drivers are not all they are cracked up to be.

Anyone got any ideas on this?

Jeremy Poynton (j.poyntonREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)









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