Please help!

When I connect to the internet and type in a word in the Yahoo search field(tried google and AltaVista) and press enter, I immidiately get the Page Not Found error. But when I bring something back from the Favourites list, it connects normally. Someone, please!

Hmm. It might be a problem in your end...did you try calling you local provider?

I live in a land where Tech-Help people blame viruses for pop-ups. So, no, I did not call the ISP.

Run Adaware...

Uhhh... Jorath, his problem isn't the pop-ups, he was using that as a reference to how bad the tech support in his area is.

Bozos, as to your issue, I haven't a clue. Hope you can get it resolved. I wouldn't mind seeing my own issue resolved, but since it doesn't hinder performance, I'm not in the biggest rush.

Try clearing out your internet cache files. All of them! Could be that the return search page is saved as a "page not found" page. Clearing out the cache should take care of that.

Deleted Internet Files and History, but to no avail. I'm growing desperate.

Strange. I doubt they have any weird or complicated scripts on their site. Are you using you local google? Try the global site and see if that works.

I know it sounds funny, but try typing in http://www.yahoo.com instead of just www.yahoo.com
I have to do that at work, otherwise I get the same issue. Not sure if it's because of a setting they have here at work or a M$ security setting.

Have you done the Spybot S&D and AdAware steps?

I still have my google problem, ie the google url leads me to this HTML page that says "There is no website configured at this address"

The page belongs to this outfit called cPanel, there is a link on the top left. Clicking that link brings me to http://www.cpanel.net/

Any ideas? This happens only on my office PC, home PC I can access google just fine.
*Insert creepy Twilight ZOne type music*

OK I just happened to browse around the cPanel website, there was a FAQ that suggested that users who ahd been redirected to their website whilst trying to use a search engine may be infected with a Trojan called Qhosts.

More info here: http://securityresponse.symantec.com...an.qhosts.html

[ 10-16-2003, 09:22 PM: Message edited by: Hayashi ]

Yes I had a similiar problem like this before. It can either be a trojan or a form of spyware. Like the guys suggested do run Ad-Aware,

Well, I just removed the pesky Trojan manually from my system. Strange thing is that neither Norton AV nor Ad-Aware picked it up, and using Norton's Trojan removal tool for Qhosts didn't catch it either. I keep the definitions updated.

I found the information on this site useful. It gives a description of the Trojan, symptoms (that's how I could tell I was infected) and manual removal procedures.

CAUTION: Manual removal involves editing your registry!! Always backup your registry first before attempting to edit it.

But the process is quite simple, registry editing involved changing the values of one value back to its original, and deleting another entry. In addition, you'll need to look for 2 files and a folder to delete. The Windows search function came in useful.

Google now works again! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Btw, If you keep your MS updates enabled (or check them daily) you will most likely avoid this problem in the future.

Any idea if a virus, trojan or other form of program could stop my disk clean up function from operating? Or could I have a link to a site that would scan for such a thing for free?

What do you mean by disk clean up? Are you talking about defrag? If so, make sure your power options are disabled while it's running, or that can cause it to restart in some cases.

There is someone who offers on-line virus scans.... I forget who, but a search through the GD archives from the past several weeks would probably find it. OR the person who posted it last time will bring it up again.

Ok heres the specifics. I have windows XP Pro fully updated.
I try to run "Disk Cleanup" The thing that looks like a broom over a drive icon. The one that gets rid of all the excess files in temp folders and the compress old files type stuff. Last time I tried to run it I disabled all the power saver settings in my computer including the monitor shut off. When I run the program it loads and starts, I'm gonna guess inventorying, all the temp and compressed files that can be safely removed and are not needed. It starts on the Compress old files section and then does nothing. I check the task manager and it says the CPU is running 100% capacity. The last time I had a situation like this some files necesary for the windows restart managed to disappear. I didn't find out until I tried to restart my computer. I ended up reinstalling windows from scratch. (that's right I'm the dummy who doesn't make system restore disks because he's too lazy) Anyways I let the program run overnight last time and it did nothing. When I woke up I saw the same thing that was there when I went to bed.

just an addnote: you could reinstall your other drivers, modem, lan card etc.. in case it got corrupted or anything..

Harkoliar, I'm just curious but how might that be effecting the issue with my computer? I mean I'd try it if there were also issues related to those, but my only problem is the Disk Cleanup function not working. The Disk Cleanup, not the Defrag. I could tell the difference between the two by the time I was in 7th grade.

Firestormalpha read this linK
I didn't read through it all but it says
so I believe it is what you are looking for. It involves editing your registry so beware. Good Luck

P.S. Although I do dislike microsoft it took all of two minutes for me to find this in their knowledge base. I got there by doing a "Disk cleanup winXP error" search in google (it was the very first search result). I wish the problems I get with winXP could be found in the knowledge base.

Ok, It no longer sticks, but it also no longer has the compress old files section. Does that mean it simply won't compress the files any more? And would this hinder my computer performance in any way? If yes, it's ok, I still have the registry entry backed up. At anyrate the Diskcleanup had a nice 200+KB of Temp files to get rid of. I'm thinking somewhere along the line it would have eventually caused some issues.

I'm not sure why you now longer have the compress old files section. By compress old files section you mean after it scans the drive it comes up without the compress.. entry in the "files to delete:" list correct?

The way I understand it (I haven't looked in the registry) is windows lost track of where the compress old files data was and so went looking somewhere else and got confused and hence hung. It only compresses old files after a certain time of disuse. Mine is set for 50 days (by default) and the only way I know of to change that number is through that disk cleanup entry. Assuming it fixed the problem, which I'm not sure it did, it might very well fix itself and the only way to tell if it did is to try it again in 50 days.

Try to do another disk cleanup on the same drive as you just did. Perhaps it recreated the old files database or something.

Another thing that it could be is you now have the data compression disabled on that drive. I asked a friend (who does this stuff for a living) about it and he gave me this. I'm not sure how to put it back on. It's not the check box right off of the drive properties box. That compresses all the data on the drive.

Compress Old Files doesn't appear in the list and it is not scanned when I start the Disk Cleanup. As far as I can see removing the registry entry causes windows to become oblivious to it's existence. I could try restoring the old registry file, but I don't know if that would fix it or simply replace the previous complication.

I was just looking through the knowledge base. There are two pages which basically say the same thing. One says to back up the registry key which you end up deleting and the other doesn't. Guess which one I found first and gave to you. I'm glad you backed up your registry. I would definitely hold onto it. You might try to restore the registry and then save only the VolumeCaches section of it since there is no need to keep the whole registry backup.
I'm looking at the registry key right now and it doesn't seem to say much so I'm figuring it just turns that part right off when you delete it.
If it was me I'd try restoring the registry and see what happens. You know how to fix it now so I don't think there is anything to lose. But before you do check to see if windows has added that key back into the registry. This would indicate that it has set it back up and perhaps it will start working again. My opinion is that it has been turned off and that's all we can do about it.

FYI my registry has three keys in Compress old files
(default) REG_SZ {B50F5260-0C21-11D2-AB56-00A0C9082678}
Priority REG_DWORD 0x0000012c (300)
StateFlags REG_DWORD 0x00000000 (0)

I have no idea what these values actually do and I can't recommend you change yours to these (especially the default one) seeing as I have no way to tell what effect they'll have (but if you're feeling crazy go for it).

Well restoring the reg file only puts the problem back. But I did check the values. Noticed some differences, and I also have one more field than you have.

Yours:
(default) REG_SZ {B50F5260-0C21-11D2-AB56-00A0C9082678}
Priority REG_DWORD 0x0000012c (300)
StateFlags REG_DWORD 0x00000000 (0)

Mine:
(Default) REG_SZ {B50F5260-0C21-11D2-AB56-00A0C9082678}
Days REG_DWORD 0x00000032 (50)
Priority REG_DWORD 0x0000012c (300)
StateFlags REG_DWORD 0x000000001 (1)

There diferences in the values but I haven't a clue what changes would cause what effects. Anyone out there who knows registry editing? In the meantime I'll delete the Compress old files entry and leave the backup in my documents.

P.S. Thumper you have a double post.

[ 10-17-2003, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: Firestormalpha ]

That's interesting. Well the days must be how many days a file has to remain unused before it is considered for compression. Have you thought about changing the last one to zero? Let me know if you do since now I'm curious if it will do anything.

P.S. I removed the extra post. For some reason when I posted my last message it told me the wait 50 seconds and try again message.

On a side note, I personally don't believe in compression... of any kind. If I want it compressed, I'll ZIP it myself. Trusting the OS to manipulate what it considers to be useful or un-useful files is prone to problems and poor performance.

If it were me, I'd turn off the compression. Last time I used it was when I had a 420MB hard drive... I now have more than that in a swap file.

Bungleau, I just checked and I'm thinking of the same compression option your talking about (the one under properties when you right click the hard drive?) Then it's been disabled as long as I can remember, and more importantly it still is now.

IAmThumper, I am hesitant to change any of the values in my registry without full knowledge of the consquences. I didn't save for 4 months to buy this computer only to mess it up with one fatal, albeit well-intended, key stroke.

Oh yeah, just a wild guess but would the values I'm seeing in the registry be in hexadecimal format? Just out of pure curiosity on my part.

I was just curious. I think not having compress old files isn't so bad. I'm picturing one day I'll fill up my drive and then try to access an old file just to have windows say too bad not enough space. Heck I'm thinking about deleting the registry key myself. LOL.

But anyway the entries are in hexadecimal and the decimal value is displayed in the parenthesis soo
0x0000012c (300) -> 1*16*16 + 2*16 + 12 = 256+32+12 = 300