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| A low-tech but ingeniously distributed E-letter by Mr. E Vol. I, No. 8 - June 17, 2001 (Trimmed August 22, 2004) To read previous issues of The E-List, click here. Send comments about The E-List to: elist@aumha.org Please see Legal Notice. |
This newsletter tracks new information, and improvements in existing information, on www.aumha.org, my website supporting Windows desktop systems and leading application software. I also include small, useful items that might not find a permanent place on the site, but that I would like to pass along.
Click here to subscribe. If you subscribe, you will receive email notification when there is a new edition of the newsletter. (You will not receive the newsletter itself by email. That’s why I call it low-tech.) My intention is to provide a new and further way to serve the 50,000 people per month who visit my site. Previous newsletters are available online, and their content searchable through this site’s search engine. Enjoy! — Jim Eshelman
CONTENTS of this Issue
KUBRICK FUN IN FLASH
This has nothing to do with my site, and the only computer involved is named HAL. My friend and fellow MS-MVP, Julian Peris, forwarded this week a link to Kubrick2001: The Space Odyssey Explained. Someone has put a lot of thought and work into this site, which is a Flash presentation of “2001: A Space Odyssey” with the site author’s philosophical interpretation of it. If you are a fan of the Kubrick-Clark classic, or if you just want to see some things that can be done with Flash, I consider this site as “must-see HTTP.” Browse over to it when you have about 20 minutes to spend enjoying it.
GIBSON & ESHELMAN: OnComputers’ GUEST GEEKS
Do you listen to the OnComputers show? If not, you might want to check it out. (Details at the end.)
Nathan Garcia’s OnComputers is the longest-running Internet-broadcast computer show. During much of its lifespan, its Internet broadcast was complemented by conventional radio broadcast, propelling one of its hosts into the limelight as ABC’s network computer commentator for several years. (I haven’t seen Gina recently, so I think she moved on to other things.) I used to be responsible for the “Geek Speak” section of the program — a concentratedly techy segment dropped into a fascinating mix of computer news, special guest interviews, and spots aimed at a more popular, less geeky public. (About half the time, I did the “Geek Speak” segment. About half the time, I scheduled another member of the OnComputers A-Team to do it.) But life moves on, and a couple of years ago I stopped doing that.
But they asked me back last week (June 10) as a guest, to be interviewed along with Steve Gibson. The topic, of course, was DDoS attacks. If you missed the show, I’m told you can listen to it from the archives available here. We started at about one hour into the three-hour show, and ran for most of the two hours following.
With the passage of time, the OnComputers show has “moved on,” as well. For the time being, Nathan Garcia (it’s passionate heart during the entire run of the show) is taking some time off from the Sunday broadcast (though still doing the Tuesday night technical chats). In the interim, definitely for love rather than money, Alaska Joe and his wife Sue have taken over the Sunday show. You can get information and links for the OnComputers broadcast at www.oncomputers.com. You can access the live broadcast with either Windows Media Player, Real Player, or WinAmp (Sundays, 10 AM to 1 PM Pacific Time) and learn about the other OnComputer offerings here. Concurrent with the Sunday broadcast, there is a well-populated live chat room that you can join: Using mIRC or Pirch, the server is chat.mindprobes.net, port 6667, and the chat name, #OnComputers; or, at www.mindprobes.net/chat.htm you can click #OnComputers to open MS Chat.
IE 6 CREEPS PAST NETSCAPE 4.x IN POPULARITY
At least, on my site this is true — and, historically, my site stats have tended to be close to those reported from other sources.
Internet Explorer 6 is still in Beta. It isn’t yet a fully released product. But a lot of people are using it. We will be seeing a lot more use of it in the next 30 days, too, because it is part of Windows XP — and the Win XP Public Preview is kicking into high gear this week with the anticipated release of RC1 (Release Candidate 1).
Since February, the six most popular browsers on my site have been: IE 5.x, Netscape 4.x, IE 6, IE 4.x, Netscape 6, and a group of “Mozilla 3.01 compatibles” probably dominated by Opera. Since April, the first five have ranked in the order just given. But, as of this week, IE 6 crept past Netscape 4.x. IE 6 isn’t drawing its popularity from the IE 5.x pool but, rather, from the pool of Netscape users. And it’s doing this as a Beta product with admitted flaws!
For those who are interested in such things, the Aumha.org Site Statistics page is updated daily. As you can see, since the first of this year, Internet Explorer has been used by 86-89% of my visitors and Netscape by 10-12%, while 1-2% use “other.” (Comparing to statistics on other sites, there is probably a 3-5% bias toward IE in the visitor pool for my “Microsoft Desktop Systems” support site, compared to the Internet overall.) But, that’s the past. Here are more detailed figures, as of the present time, to show where some trends are going:
- IE 5.x - 77.0%
- IE 6.x - 8.7%
- Netscape 4.x - 8.6%
- IE 4.x - 3.3%
- Mozilla 3.01 compatibles - 1.4%
(Probably mostly Opera)- Netscape 6 - 0.7%
- Netscape 3.x - 0.2%
- Opera 5 - 0.2%
I just don’t understand why those who favor Netscape are not moving up to Netscape 6. We would expect a bias of more N6 migration showing on my site stats, since N6 works with this site dramatically better than N4.x (and I provide a high-profile link to the N6 upgrade). But we aren’t seeing that. That’s too bad. Some of my personal preference is obviously showing, since I have always seriously disliked Netscape 4.x, and would do more or less anything to get away from it myself; and Netscape 6 is really a dramatically better browser! But, on a more practical level, web site optimization targeting Netscape users, especially pre-N6, is becoming a thing of the past. Many busy commercial sites are instructing their web development teams to forget Netscape exists and do all site optimization for Internet Explorer. Netscape doesn’t support the more efficient web technologies that are increasingly in use — that is, until Netscape 6. They’ve come a long way (even under AOL’s ownership!), and have begun building a significantly improved product. It’s quite too bad that it isn’t catching fire among Netscape fans.
WINDOWS SUPPORT SITES
HERE’S THE BEEF!
Henri Leboeuf’s Home Page by Henri Leboeuf
Henri’s page is loaded with valuable information. I should have included a link long ago. Many people regard his site as the first place to look if they have a Windows problem. He may even have more itemized information on Windows error messages than I do! The alphabetical topical arrangement is useful for some purposes, especially given the large mass of data; otherwise, it makes the page difficult to use. (He could benefit from a site search engine.) But a little extra digging is usually quite worthwhile, considering the gold nuggets one can find.
NAME THAT COLOR!
Web page designers, working directly in HTML, know that colors are commonly referenced by six-digit RGB numbers, but that some colors can be referenced by name. A few names are obvious. For example, you can use the color name “red,” or the code #FF0000. Which way to do it is partly a matter of preference, taste, or style; but also, different browsers may treat a color specification differently, depending on how you code it.
Generally, to the extent that it makes a difference, conventional wisdom nudges the HTML coder toward using the RGB numerical designation to exercise greater control. However, as time passes, this is becoming less of an issue. Many excellent HTML coders use named colors whenever they can; and there are a lot more named colors than most people know! Frankly, once you get a color (or combination of colors) that you like to use, if they fit one of those for which most browsers recognize a name, it may be easier to remember the name than the code. Remembering “royalblue” is surely easier than remembering #4169E1, yet they are the same color. If you want a red a bit deeper and hotter than the #FF0000 color produced by the name “red,” you might code it as #DC143C — or you might simply use the name “crimson.”
To my HTML Resources & Tutorials section, I have added a new table of Named Colors in HTML. The default is against a black background — the backdrop that best distinguishes most color representations without distortion. A link is provided to an alternate white backdrop page. If nothing else, it’s rather fun to scroll down the list! Also, I’m not sure I’ve located all named colors, and have a friend doing some more digging for me. Meanwhile, this tool may prove useful to you.
KB ARTICLES: Error Messages
RPCSS caused an Invalid Page Fault in OLE32.DLL Win98 + Office 97 SP1
RPCSS is the Windows Remote Procedure Call endpoint mapper. Newsgroup inquiries about RPCSS error conditions are on the rise. So far, I don’t have a primary “plan of attack” for helping people address these problems. There is very little in the MS Knowledge Base on the subject. This article seemed worthy of note, though. It describes an error condition that arises under a complex set of conditions. All of the following must be true:
- Windows 98 is installed.
- Office 97 Service Pack 1 is installed.
- An ISP connection is configured through dial-up networking.
- Version 6.0 of at least one of the following is installed: Visual Studio; Visual C++, 32-bit Edition; Visual Basic (Learning, Professional, or Enterprise Edition); Visual InterDev; or Visual J++. (Some other products may cause this also.)
The error condition arises from a bug in these programs. Microsoft doesn’t provide a solution, but does provide two work-arounds. See the article for a lot more information on the problem and working around it.
MSGSRV32 caused a General Protection Fault in USER.EXE Win98
I like this article, because it is an excellent example of troubleshooting basics. Even if you don’t have this particular problem, I suggest you read it for what it teaches “between the lines.”MSGSRV32.EXE — Windows’ 32-bit “message server” — is another module commonly heading error messages reported by users. The standard response to a MSGSRV32 problem begins with emphasizing that the “message server” is only the messenger! It isn’t the cause of the problem itself. We need to track down what the underlying problem really is.
In this case, the underlying problem is rather serious. In the situation described by this KB article, the above error message occurs either during Windows startup or shutdown, and arises either from damaged or otherwise flawed computer hardware; damaged Windows core files; or a damaged driver or program. Obviously, we’d prefer these in reverse order!
The article describes how to determine whether the error condition has a hardware or software cause (using a Safe Mode reboot as the primary test). Troubleshooting methods are then given for addressing each of the resulting possibilities.
As with all Knowledge Base articles cited in The E-List, you will find these links added to the respective Knowledge Base Articles pages on my site. In some cases, the article link will appear on more than one page (from my effort to try to anticipate how people might look for the information). In all cases, though, the articles also can be accessed through my site search engine or, of course, by clicking on their links above.
KB ARTICLES: Hardware & Drivers
Win 98/ME System Devices Categories
This is another of those wonderful “categories” KB pages that Microsoft has been generating of late. The page provides links which, in turn, launch a Knowledge Base query that returns a list of all KB articles on a particular topic. This “system devices” page has links to all the KB articles on Advanced Power Management (APM), batteries, CPUs, Direct Memory Addressing (DMA), motherboards, Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) devices, and Plug-and-Play — all sorted between Windows 98 and Windows ME.
Fatal Exception Error Message or USB Devices May Not Work After You Insert PC Card Win98, Win98 SE, WinME
It was hard for me to decide where to put this one on the site. The problem described in this article has several possible causes, and they are all a little vague — so it was difficult to guess how people might search for it. I solved the problem by putting the same article on several different pages of the site.Here are the symptoms. (I think you will agree that they are all a little vague, and rather broad.) You might get a Fatal Exception error message on a Blue Screen of Death. (Please notice that I didn’t specify any particular Fatal Exception error message.) Or, one or more USB devices might not function. (This is hardly a rare or specific problem either!) Or, when you press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the Close Program box, MSGSRV is listed as “not responding.” (That one is pretty common too!)
The cause? Any of these almost categorical symptoms can be produced in Windows 98 (either version) or Windows ME if you have inserted a PC Card into your computer, and the insertion causes a rebalance of system resources for the USB host controller. This KB article gives a work-around that usually will work. The alternative, of course, is to pull the PC Card.
Error Message Using CTRL+ALT+DELETE to Shut Down with USB Keyboard Win98, Win98 SE, WinME
With a USB keyboard, if you press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice to shut down Windows, you may get a “Fatal Exception 06” error message. You may think this is a problem. In fact, it isn’t. It’s really the solution! You see, pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del twice is very much not the recommended way to shut down Windows. It forces Windows to instantly suspend processes that need to go through a specific shutdown sequence if you don’t want to risk data loss and other problems. Normally, you should use other methods, such as clicking Start | Shut Down, to close Windows. You can also use a shutdown shortcut, or press Alt+F4 after clicking on the desktop to make sure it is “selected.” In abnormal circumstances, where none of the above works and you have to press Ctrl+Alt+Del, use the Shut Down button on the Close Program box.
Common Win95 or Win98 Printing Questions & Answers
This is a short FAQ page of nine common questions that arise from actually using a printer — and having it not quite work right. Not a bad place to start with basic printing problems.
Floppy Disk Drive Is Active When Opening or Saving Files Win95, Win98, Win ME
The title is pretty descriptive: When you open or close files on your computer, and the files are not on the floppy drive, the floppy drive still may blink and whir like you are trying to use it. Or, this may just happen randomly, even when you aren’t trying to open or close a file that isn’t on the drive! The fix is simple: find and remove a problematic line in a .PIF file. The article tells how, step-by-step.
Computer May Not Hibernate with More Than 192 MB of Memory Win ME
On a Windows ME computer with more than 192 MB of RAM, there is a known problem with hibernation. Windows miscalculates the amount of memory needed for the hibernation. The computer screen turns black for a few seconds, then returns to the desktop as if nothing had happened. Microsoft now has a supported fix for this problem. The article tells how to get the patch. In the meantime, a work-around is to close some programs before attempting hibernation (or reduce your RAM to 192 MB or less).KB ARTICLES: Recycle Bin
“Error Deleting File Cannot Delete INFO2...” Win98; IE 4.01 SP1 or SP2
If you have “view as web page” enabled and use the “restore all” link in the Recycle Bin, then delete an item, then go back and attempt to empty the Recycle Bin, you may get the following error message:Error Deleting File
Cannot Delete INFO2: Access is denied
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.It’s a bug in Win98 and those particular versions of IE listed above. There’s no fix for it (though one can, of course, upgrade to a later version of Internet Explorer). This is a relatively rare scenario, and the work-around isn’t too bad: You need to reboot between the Restore All and the subsequent Empty command. (The biggest problem is how to remember this little detail on the one occasion in the rest of your life when you might need it!)
KB ARTICLES: Shutdown & Restart
FATAL EXCEPTION ERRORS DURING SHUTDOWN
In recent months, an entirely new class of shutdown problem has emerged. Being previously almost nonexistent, it now has become one of the most commonly reported shutdown problems. This problem consists of a Fatal Exception error condition (usually 0E) at time of shutdown. Although it has taken a while to get a handle on these, it now seems clear that these usually are hardware issues. Most of the time, they are video driver issues, but this is not invariable.
The articles below not only explain specific shutdown errors of this type. They also give us an overview of the type of conditions that create these problems.
Error Message on a Blue Screen (BSOD) When Shutting Down or Restarting Windows Win95, Win98, Win98 SE
On a Compaq Presario, if you upgrade to Windows 98 (either edition), and if you have an FX500 or FX700 monitor with an incompatible monitor driver, a BSOD error condition may exist at shutdown. The solution is to get a new driver from Compaq. The article gives a link for this, plus a list of the computer models that are involved.Exception 0E at 0028:C00082CD in VXD VMM(01) Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
Similar to the foregoing. If you have an incompatible or early version of a Matrox video driver installed on your computer, you may get the above error message at shutdown. The solution is to download and install the latest video driver from www.matrox.com.Errors When Shutting Down Windows with Compaq FX-Series Monitors Win98
The USB support software included with some Compaq FX-series monitors is not fully compatible with Windows 98. This may cause an error condition at shutdown: A Fatal Exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C001AEEB. The solution is to get and install updated USB support software from Compaq.
OTHER SHUTDOWN ISSUES
Computer Stops Responding When You Attempt to Shut Down Win ME
Windows ME needs an updated driver for the HP ScanJet 3300C USB scanner. Otherwise, at least on upgrades from Win98 to Win ME, the computer may hang at shutdown.This isn’t a huge surprise. A majority of Win ME shutdown issues have been due to device driver problems. This is simply one more documented example of particular hardware that has this problem.
Shutdown Problems When Auto-Protect Is Enabled in Norton AntiVirus Win98, Win ME
This isn’t new information — just a new KB article. Previously, we’ve relied only on the Symantec KB link. Now MS has its own article on the same subject.
Changes to Your Computer Not Saved After Incorrect Shut Down Win95, Win98, Win ME
OK, we’ve all done it. We change some setting on our computer, don’t reboot immediately, and before we get around to rebooting, the computer crashes, or otherwise gets shutdown incorrectly. It could be as simple as a desktop color change, or making a new desktop toolbar; or it could be something more serious. Either way, when you restart the computer, the change wasn’t saved.The reason is that some Windows changes only get permanently written to the system during the shutdown process. If you don’t shutdown properly, they don’t get written where they belong. This is specifically true if the change you made includes Registry settings, since registry settings for system changes are among those details that are not saved until you shutdown Windows.
Microsoft makes the same prudent recommendation I’ve been making for five or six years: When you make a change to your system settings, reboot at once. This ensures that everything gets saved correctly.
KB ARTICLES: Speed & Performance Issues
Computer Performance May Decrease After You Download Programs From the Internet Win95, Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
If everything was working just peachy on your computer until you downloaded and installed some new software from the Internet — you guessed it — odds are that you have contracted a computer virus.This article discusses the W32/Msinit Internet Worm and the Bymer.Scanner Trojan, both of which can cause serious slowing down of your computer’s startup, normal operating performance, network connectivity, or shutdown.
KB ARTICLES: Startup
THE STARTUP AXIS by C. Quirke
This isn’t a KB article, but I put it at the top of my Startup & Boot Log KB Articles page anyway because it’s such a great information resource. Chris Quirke, well known to those who frequent microsoft.public newsgroups, describes the six startup phases of a Windows PC, from power supply checking to final load of Windows and all startup program loading. Lots of information here, and a tremendous resource for troubleshooting startup issues.By the way, you may also want to visit Chris’ valuable and unpretentious technical home page, A Windows 9X Page: Yesterday’s News Tomorrow. I haven’t added it to my Windows Support Sites page yet, mostly because I haven’t figured out where to put it. “General Windows Support Sites” doesn’t quite do it justice. (But, by the time you read this, I may have added it over there somewhere.) Anyway, I suspect you’ll want this one among your bookmarks.
KB ARTICLES: Windows 2000 & XP
Description of SVCHOST.EXE Win 2000 (Win XP)
Technically, this is a Windows 2000 article. However, with the shipping of Windows XP Release Candidate 1 (RC1) in a few days, formally kicking the Public Beta process into high gear, I have added this article to my site especially for those who will be using some version of Win XP in the near future. Remember, Win XP is technically “Windows 2000, Second Edition” (NT 5.01), though with a much greater difference between the two than between Win98 and its Second Edition. This means that most Knowledge Base articles targeted at Windows 2000 will apply to Win XP Professional, and a significant subset will apply to Win XP Home Edition.In the next few months, XP surely will be added to some of the existing KB articles, and we’ll also see a flood of new XP-only articles. Microsoft’s KB team gives every indication that they’re “getting their house in order” in preparation for this.
Why did I include this article? One of the first things to greet new Win XP users who are not familiar with Windows 2000 — visible the first time you press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up Windows Task Manager and click the Processes tab — is the presence of many running processes titled simply SVCHOST.EXE. One immediately wonders what these are. The name, SvcHost, apparently stands for “service host,” since SVCHOST is a generic host process name for services that are run from DLL files. At startup, SVCHOST checks the Windows Registry to build a list of services that it needs to load. Then it loads them. Several copies of SVCHOST may be seen running at the same time because each group of services listed in the Registry triggers a separate SVCHOST session.
KB ARTICLES: Windows ME Setup
Computer Stops Responding While Upgrading to Windows ME
After upgrading to Win ME, if you have the STB Velocity display driver installed, you may get the following error message:There is a problem with the system files. Windows might not be able to run correctly. You might be able to fix the problem by running a system restore. If this does not fix the problem try reinstalling Windows. VxD dynamic link call: NV3(04)+00000022 to "32DC", service 8
Follow the steps given in the KB article to remove the driver.
KB ARTICLES: Other
Information about TCP/IP Port Assignments Win95, Win98, Win NT 3.1-4.0, Win 2000, etc. This article provides information about port assignments for various TCP/IP ports. This was previously documented in RFC 1700. Includes a link to the periodically updated “living document” giving these specifications.
Happy computing, everyone!
Jim Eshelman
THE NECESSARY LEGAL STUFF
DISCLAIMER: Any information given in this newsletter, or on any other part of the www.aumha.org website, is researched by me and believed to be accurate. However, I cannot guarantee, and do not guarantee, that all the information provided will work on all computer systems, for all users, all the time. Also, I sometimes make mistakes (that’s life!), and it is possible I made one or more of them here. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. In other words, I rely on the best information sources I can, and do my best to get it to you accurately; and, thereafter, you take your life in your own hands if you trust me on it. Neither James Eshelman, this site, outside contributors to this site, people quoted on this site, nor my cat is/are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from application of any information presented here.
The E-List. Copyright © 2001 by James A. Eshelman. All Rights Reserved.
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