New to XP pro Weird

[dolluper]

Hi Guys
I bought a computer with xp pro {still learning it} and some strange things are happening
1 when you open explorer7 you have to do it twice,then when you close and shut the computer off,the router light shows it's still connected,if restart it and then shut it down without logging in ,the computer will shut down and the light on the router will then go off....strange By the way the mouse is set up opposite for the wife and normal for me go figure,also when logging off a user there is an error but way to fast for me to catch it
Any ideas....thanks

 

[dolluper]

Re: New to XP pro Werid

Re: New to XP pro Werid

I went to event log viewer,it seems the registry was completing a function when shuting down....guess i should throw a little more ram at this thing as it's running 0nly 512 any other thoughts out there

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: New to XP pro Werid

Re: New to XP pro Werid

More ram never hurts.I take it this was a used machine being it is XP?
What version and service pack?

 

[dolluper]

Re: New to XP pro Werid

Re: New to XP pro Werid

It's XP Pro sp2,still doing the shut off ,light on router as if still connected,restart then shut off light on router then goes off...changed ethernet cable,slot in router,checked e -card in devise mananger still the double shut off that's all that works....did the same on a windos 2000 pro machine ,my other one shuts down and router light goes out ...Getting a little confused now.Change the card maybe have spares lyin around.....Hey JB more sp errors
Got to run back later

 

[i386]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

I don't see what this has to do with XP. If it's off it's not running any operating system. Just make sure if it's off and not "asleep". If you do start -> shutdown, it's off. If you're pressing the power button to shutdown it could just be asleep. It just depends how you have that configured in your power options. If your NIC has WOL (Wake on LAN) it might have a link light when the system is off but again, that's a hardware thing. Other than that I don't have any other suggestions at the moment.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

Now that i think about it my older machine with XP does the same thing with the modem,the light stays on.
I haven't had that one up and running for awhile.
I386 hit the nail on the head though...

 

[dolluper]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

The part that doesn't make sense is I log off/hit shut down the router light stays on wait 3 minutes or hours come back restart the computer when the welcome screen comes up hit shut down/it shuts down and the router light goes off......now my other machine with win 2000pro hooked up to the same router shut it down the router light for it goes out right away......anyways going to check the card set up,if ok ,i'll throw another card in and see what happens

 

[v1_0]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

There will usually be administrative (ICMP & hardware based) traffic between the modem and computer - lights on both should blink, even if you are not accessing the internet.

Depending on how your computer is setup, this may even occur when windows is shut down (the network card may be getting power).

Also, I have seen a lot of corporation computers do an awfull lot of I/O when they shut down - closing connections, that sort of thing. I'm suspecting that this is not the case with yours, but there may be programs you have that finish 'dialing home' when you shut down. Hopefully they are not the bad sort that are sending passwords/accounts/identity information to their masters..

Have you scanned your PC for viruses, malware, rootkits? You could go to www.spywarewarrior.com and run the hijack this tool and post the log, they will analyze it and walk you through anything you may need to do.

-V

 

[Bass Man Bruce]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

I'm in over my head here, but is the router wireless and could somebody else by running through it?

 

[Coors]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

It's that damned Microsoft checking to make sure you actually paid for the os;I hate xp, 2000pro is so much better.
Xp does weird things, and tries to take over your lan.

 

[dolluper]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

Bass Man good thought ....it is wireless .....but I shut that off since it's too cold outside to sit on the deck with the laptop .Wifee is playing with it now OHHH No, more things to fix tomorrow oh my

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

It could be something in the BIOS thats keeping the mother board powering the LAN card...If the machine is off i would not worry about it.
The machine i have that does the same thing is a P-4 built on an Asus mother board.

 

[i386]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

^^^ If your motherboard has an integrated NIC you may be able to disable the WOL feature in the BIOS (if it has it). That might help rule out that theory.

*** WOL is typically used in a managed network environment where workstations can be powered up remotely. I use this feature on my LAN at work but I've never noticed if there's a link light or not.


If your computer is off and the hard drive isn't spinning, nobody's accessing your data, link light or not.

 

[ThumbPkr]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

I imagine that the wireless router might show activity even if the signal was coming from a cordless phone in that frequency range and who knows where that could be coming from.Ron G

 

[dolluper]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

Funny you say that Gary...because this only happens on the 2 ASUS boards I'm running the IBM never does it ...even with the same exact e-card,humm bios have to check that thanks i386

 

[v1_0]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

Funny you say that Gary...because this only happens on the 2 ASUS boards I'm running the IBM never does it ...even with the same exact e-card,humm bios have to check that thanks i386

As before - just shutting down Windows dosn't mean that some of the *hardware* isn't still powered. This depends on the motherboard. In fact, the on/off button on the front of some computers is *soft* on/off as well, more like a request unless you hold it down for 3 seconds. The motherboard processes the request and sends an inturrupt back to windows. In addition, when the MB shuts down it may just be shutting down the CPU/memory/etc. *but* may keep power available to the LAN card, or whatever the designer wanted to do. This allows the computer to be 'woken up' (started) by a LAN command. (Wake On LAN). OR the computer can be started when you wiggle the mouse, touch the keyboard, etc. There are usually settings for this in the MB's BIOS.

Bottom line: off dosn't mean totally off in these cases.

Now, if your power supply has a switch on it (usually on the back of the computer case, but again this varies), then that should turn off all power (hard on/off button) immediately (and totally - the NIC won't have power even when windows is off).

The only way to know for sure what communication is going on when your computer shuts down would be to put a "sniffer" between the computer and modem, and monitor the exact traffic when the computer shuts down.

-V

 

[dolluper]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

Humm look what I found on the 3com site for my e-card.....my driver is from Billie 2001 date ,this one is from 2003 and see the note about it
Note
UNSUPPORTED. 3Com does not provide Technical Support for UNSUPPORTED drivers. This driver is only intended for Microsoft Windows XP users experiencing CPU utilization spikes when Software Cable Detect is enabled and the TCP/IP Protocol is not loaded.

 

[Coors]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

Humm look what I found on the 3com site for my e-card.....my driver is from Billie 2001 date ,this one is from 2003 and see the note about it
Note
UNSUPPORTED. 3Com does not provide Technical Support for UNSUPPORTED drivers. This driver is only intended for Microsoft Windows XP users experiencing CPU utilization spikes when Software Cable Detect is enabled and the TCP/IP Protocol is not loaded.

WTF is that?

 

[dolluper]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

Could be wrong on this but I think it means when you hit something like your e-mail program {software cable detect} and your cpu spikes since you are not connected to the internet{ tcp/ip not loaded} now we can hear from the real experts on what it really means

 

[dolluper]

Re: New to XP pro Weird

Found the answer to this problem PM me since this system won't let me show how; I'm totally confused '' nowthat's real strange no commerical ties at all
A certain mouse driver came bundled with software that caused a dwwin error {DR Watson}so it is dumped and everything is fine