RL
December 26th 03, 10:23 PM
I am running Windows XP Home.
By way of background, this morning, Norton AntiVirus notified me that
I had a virus on my computer ("backdoor.litmus"), and that it could
not repair, quarantine or delete the affected file.
Based on some advice on a Norton web page that deals with this virus,
I then reinstalled Windows XP Home, using the Reinstallation CD that
came with my computer. I chose the "Update Reinstallation" rather
than the complete reinstallation, in order to preserve my programs,
files, settings, etc.
The Windows reinstallation did not get rid of the virus, but I then
got help from someone at Microsoft's special virus help number, who
helped me to eliminate the virus by running Windows in safe mode, then
starting Norton AntiVirus. In safe mode, Norton AntiVirus was able to
quarantine the file affected by the virus. So my computer is now
virus-free.
However, the Update Reinstallation of Windows XP seems to have
resulted in another problem, which can be summarized as follows:
1. On bootup, my computer hangs at the blue Welcome screen, and I hear
a little beep at this point.
2. If I then press Alt-Tab (which is suggested in one of the Microsoft
Knowledge Base articles that I refer to below), I get a message saying
"Your system has no paging file, or the paging file is too small."
The message goes on with instructions on how to adjust the paging
file.
3. If I then click on OK, bootup continues to completion, although it
takes much longer than it used to.
4. If I then click Start, right-click My Computer, click on
Properties, click the Advanced tab, click on Settings under
Performance, and click on the Advanced tab, I get a message from
System Control Panel Applet, which reads "Windows created a temporary
paging file on your computer because of a problem that occurred with
your paging file configuration when you started your computer. The
total paging file size for all disk drives may be somewhat larger than
the size you specified." If I now click OK, and then click on Change
under Virtual Memory, I see that I DO have a paging file (initial size
768 MB, maximum size 1536 MB) which certainly seems adequate (I have
512 MB of physical memory). Furthermore, I am able to change the size
of the paging file to whatever I like, and the change does appear to
take effect upon reboot (at least based on what the Virtual Memory
window then reports). However, on subsequent reboots I continue to
get the hanging at the blue Welcome screen (which I can get past only
by pressing Alt-Tab), as well as the two messages quoted above
concerning problems with my paging file.
Upon searching the Microsoft Knowledge Base, I have found two articles
that may be relevant.
The first is Article 315270. This basically advises giving the system
and Administrators accounts full control of the NTFS volume on which
the paging file is configured, and explains how to do this. I have
gone through the procedure suggested in this Article. In the course
of it, I found that the system and Administrators accounts already had
the necessary permissions, but just to be sure, I re-instituted them,
as directed by this Article. I then re-started my computer, but the
problems described above have persisted.
The second possibly relevant article that I found is Article 316528.
This basically advises downloading and running an application called
Intel Application Accelerator, which replaces certain drivers that
come with Windows with drivers optimized for desktop and mobile PCs
using certain Intel chipsets (including mine, Intel 845 chipset). I
have downloaded the Intel Application Accelerator from Intel's
website. However, I have not yet run this application, since I would
like to first seek advice from this group as to whether this seems
like the right thing to do, or whether anyone has any other possible
solutions to suggest. (Another reason I have not yet run the Intel
Application Acceleration is that it seems odd that I would need this,
given that, after my Reinstallation Update of Windows XP Home, I
presumably have the same drivers I had in the first place, and yet I
never had the problems described above.)
I might add that I have also searched, through Google Groups, previous
postings to this group that might be relevant, and have reviewed many
of them. At least one poster who had a problem that sounds very
similar to mine seems to have used the Intel Application Accelerator
successfully, although he was running Windows XP Pro rather than
Windows XP Home.
I am very reluctant to do a clean reinstall of Windows XP Home, since
it would require a laborious manual reinstallation of many programs
and the re-setting of many settings. I would also be very reluctant
to make changes in the registry.
I would be most grateful for any advice.
Robert Lawrence
Please reply to this newsgroup only.
By way of background, this morning, Norton AntiVirus notified me that
I had a virus on my computer ("backdoor.litmus"), and that it could
not repair, quarantine or delete the affected file.
Based on some advice on a Norton web page that deals with this virus,
I then reinstalled Windows XP Home, using the Reinstallation CD that
came with my computer. I chose the "Update Reinstallation" rather
than the complete reinstallation, in order to preserve my programs,
files, settings, etc.
The Windows reinstallation did not get rid of the virus, but I then
got help from someone at Microsoft's special virus help number, who
helped me to eliminate the virus by running Windows in safe mode, then
starting Norton AntiVirus. In safe mode, Norton AntiVirus was able to
quarantine the file affected by the virus. So my computer is now
virus-free.
However, the Update Reinstallation of Windows XP seems to have
resulted in another problem, which can be summarized as follows:
1. On bootup, my computer hangs at the blue Welcome screen, and I hear
a little beep at this point.
2. If I then press Alt-Tab (which is suggested in one of the Microsoft
Knowledge Base articles that I refer to below), I get a message saying
"Your system has no paging file, or the paging file is too small."
The message goes on with instructions on how to adjust the paging
file.
3. If I then click on OK, bootup continues to completion, although it
takes much longer than it used to.
4. If I then click Start, right-click My Computer, click on
Properties, click the Advanced tab, click on Settings under
Performance, and click on the Advanced tab, I get a message from
System Control Panel Applet, which reads "Windows created a temporary
paging file on your computer because of a problem that occurred with
your paging file configuration when you started your computer. The
total paging file size for all disk drives may be somewhat larger than
the size you specified." If I now click OK, and then click on Change
under Virtual Memory, I see that I DO have a paging file (initial size
768 MB, maximum size 1536 MB) which certainly seems adequate (I have
512 MB of physical memory). Furthermore, I am able to change the size
of the paging file to whatever I like, and the change does appear to
take effect upon reboot (at least based on what the Virtual Memory
window then reports). However, on subsequent reboots I continue to
get the hanging at the blue Welcome screen (which I can get past only
by pressing Alt-Tab), as well as the two messages quoted above
concerning problems with my paging file.
Upon searching the Microsoft Knowledge Base, I have found two articles
that may be relevant.
The first is Article 315270. This basically advises giving the system
and Administrators accounts full control of the NTFS volume on which
the paging file is configured, and explains how to do this. I have
gone through the procedure suggested in this Article. In the course
of it, I found that the system and Administrators accounts already had
the necessary permissions, but just to be sure, I re-instituted them,
as directed by this Article. I then re-started my computer, but the
problems described above have persisted.
The second possibly relevant article that I found is Article 316528.
This basically advises downloading and running an application called
Intel Application Accelerator, which replaces certain drivers that
come with Windows with drivers optimized for desktop and mobile PCs
using certain Intel chipsets (including mine, Intel 845 chipset). I
have downloaded the Intel Application Accelerator from Intel's
website. However, I have not yet run this application, since I would
like to first seek advice from this group as to whether this seems
like the right thing to do, or whether anyone has any other possible
solutions to suggest. (Another reason I have not yet run the Intel
Application Acceleration is that it seems odd that I would need this,
given that, after my Reinstallation Update of Windows XP Home, I
presumably have the same drivers I had in the first place, and yet I
never had the problems described above.)
I might add that I have also searched, through Google Groups, previous
postings to this group that might be relevant, and have reviewed many
of them. At least one poster who had a problem that sounds very
similar to mine seems to have used the Intel Application Accelerator
successfully, although he was running Windows XP Pro rather than
Windows XP Home.
I am very reluctant to do a clean reinstall of Windows XP Home, since
it would require a laborious manual reinstallation of many programs
and the re-setting of many settings. I would also be very reluctant
to make changes in the registry.
I would be most grateful for any advice.
Robert Lawrence
Please reply to this newsgroup only.