Possible hardware bug.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry Woodworth
  • Start date Start date
L

Larry Woodworth

I've got an interesting problem (and LinuxGirl can keep
her opinions to herself - I've been using Windows longer
than she has). After install on my home computer, the MS
AntiSpyware runs, sort of. The service loads and runs,
the program apparently runs, but the UI only partially
loads. I get the window for the UI and the menu items,
but there is never any detail in the window. Every
morning I get the report that the software has detected a
couple of threats, but I can never get any details to
come up. The software acts like nothing is wrong and I
should be seeing what I asked for. I can close the
program and re-start it and I can uninstall it and re-
install it. The problem with displaying the details
remains, however. A second machine here with a different
hardware config is running properly.

Both machines are running WinXP SP2.

Any ideas? Should I be sending this into Redmond for
evaluation?
 
You aren't the only one reporting this issue. I doubt that it is hardware
related, although it could be in the sense of perhaps relating to some
driver issue that would be hardware related.

Have you tried running the program in safe mode? See if 1) the UI presents
properly while in safe mode, and 2) whether it then behaves properly after
restarting.

I believe I've seen several instances of both those things being true, but I
can't promise anything.

I s'pose that should tell us something--along the lines that some service or
startup item not present in safe mode is interfering with the completion of
some process that enables the display of those UI items, but I haven't tried
to dig any deeper into that--and I haven't found a machine that does this to
look at first hand.
 
The problem remains in Safe Mode and after I return
to "normal" mode. The computer with the problem is using
an ATI Radeon video card, the computer that works is
using an nVidea card (both video cards are using the AGP
slot). The one not working has a Gigabyte motherboard,
the one that works is using an ASUS motherboard. Sound
cards are different, memory types are different, etc. All
drivers have the latest patches and updates installed.
The only thing common between the two machines is that
they are running WinXP SP2.
 
On the one with the display problem, if you look in errors.log located in
the directory Microsoft Antispyware is installed in, do you see any errors
referencing problems with a particular file

Consider wiping or renaming this file, and doing just one start/stop of
Microsoft Antispyware--what do you get in the file, in terms of errors
referencing particular files?

(install is in c:\program files\microsoft antispyware for many folks)
 
OK, I cleared the errors.log file and started/stopped MS
AS.

After starting, the following two lines appeared in the
errors.log file:
0::ln 0:::GIANTAntiSpywareMain:ctlMain:LoadData::2/8/2005
10:21:52 AM:XP:1.0.501
0::ln 0:::GIANTAntiSpywareMain:ctlMain:LoadData::2/8/2005
10:22:09 AM:XP:1.0.501

When I shutdown MS AS (both the program and the service),
the following line was added to the log:
438::ln 0:Object doesn't support this property or
method::gcasDtServ:modMain:ShutDown::2/8/2005 10:23:52
AM:1.0.501
 
I'm afraid that isn't giving me any clues. Some users for whom the program
fails to give any UI at all, sometimes after weeks of successful operation,
have found that re-registering (and probably reinstalling) a particular OCX
file contained in the original install does the job. I believe there are a
couple of those OCX files, and that's what I was hoping would turn up in the
log file--a pointer to the name of a file or DLL which wasn't properly
registered.

Since it did not--the best suggestion I can come up with is control panel,
add or remove programs, Microsoft Antispyware, change, update--which is akin
to a repair install.

However, I note that you've already tried uninstall/reinstall so this
doesn't seem likely to work!

Yet another option for the really adventurous is:

The download is a zip file. Inside the zip file is an executable. Expand
the zip folder to a normal folder, then run the executable with a -a switch,
giving a directory you can navigate to later--a new one.

The files involved in an install of Microsoft antispyware will be expanded
into that directory--there is a structure--an MSI file, and 2
subdirectories, as I recall.

Check out the system subdirectory and look up the OCX files found there.
Check for their existence in System32 on your machine, and check whether the
versions in system32 are properly registered.

(regsvr32 ????.ocx <enter> at a command prompt--replace the question marks
by the name of the OCX file.) You should be at a command prompt in the
system32 subdirectory when you do this.

May be more work than you want to get into!
 
Back
Top