Have to agree that the matter of the dual monitors is down to the drivers. I have an Ati Radeon with dual monitor support. It worked fine under windows 98, but when I upgraded to Xp professional additional drivers were required

Only really confirming what others say!

Tiny/Time modem problem

I have cracked it, used new modem and new browser ( AvantBrowser). accessed windows downloads and reinstalled IE6 which was corrupted or sabotaged.

Now working fine

Bobcolby

"....used new modem..."

Did you have to buy a new modem then?

DocProc; yes used external usb modem

Heeeelp - I keep getting pop ups! Where from? Yesterday was ok and today is not. I haven't visited anywhere strange or unusual or pornographic, just usual morning checklist. I ran Adaware and it said I had various dataminers and trackers and something called purity scan. I got it to delete them all but I'm still getting all these bloody pop ups, some for credit cards, some for porn sites and some general stuff. How can I find the program that is generating them? I've never encountered this problem before? I have xp home, use the xp firewall and NAV2003 which is up to date.

And one just now saying "click here to get a pop up stopper" very f&*king witty!

Robb

Check here for info on purity scan http://sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/adware.purityscan.html

It looks as though puriy scan is an Adaware program

Thanks optimist. I remembered that someone had a similiar problem and Spaceman and DocProc gave some advice about dealing with these programs. Adaware6 seemed to get rid of the purity program but I'm still getting pop ups so I'm downloading spybot and then I'll do webroot. Bloody things. How the hell did it get in is want I want to know!

Robb, I use both adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy as often one finds stuff that the other doesnt. In this case I think Spybot can remove purity.

By the way Adaware upgraded their free scanner in such a way that you could miss a major upgrade and end up with very out of date spyware info, make sure you have build 6.181 which should show at the bottom left of the main Adaware scree when the program is started.

Spaceman

Thanks. I have run both adaware6.181 and SpybotS+D and adaware identified and sorted purityscan but I am still getting the pop ups. Clickspring.net seems to be the problem. Have you ever heard of Panicware? They advertise a free popup stopper that will kill the program. For the moment I have put clickspring.net in the restricted sites list in Tools-InternetOptions-Security. That seems to have stopped it for the minute but obviously I want to kill and double kill the b&st&rd program wherever it is hiding!

Thanks
Rob

Robb

Panicware works well at stopping IE popups but if these are bing generated by a program running on your computer you need to get it sorted rather than let Panicware sweep it under the carpet as you don't know what other info it will send out.

If you have got a trojan running then it could be started by an entry in your startup groups but more likley by an entry in these registry keys:-

HKEY_LOCAL_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
and
HKEY_LOCAL_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

Check what have you got listed under these keys and do a google search for them. If you are sure that an entry is unwanted then delete it and the program it referes to.

Always be very careful when using the registry editor. You can do serious harm to your system and there is no undo. Export the keys that you are working on first and then make a note of changes as you do them.

The trojan could also be called by a dll entry which only the scanning programs will be able to find.

Robb, clickspring.net isnt one I have heard of and I cant find out much about it. spywareinfo forums probably have info but they are still offline following the DOS attacks on them recently. This sort of trojan hijack is a real pain.

I agree with Optimist installing a blocker is not sorting the problem just the symptoms.

2 short term things that might help, if clicksprings.net is being contacted to sent the ads block that site in either IE settings or your firewall.

Also if ads are being delivered via messenger stop the messenger service.

Sorry this isnt much help. I will have another search later this evening.

Ok chaps, I'm now in the registry and I can see a file(?) Purity Scan - do I just delete it? Is it that simple or do I have to check anything before i do.

NOTE - I really appreciate your help and will not be umpty if things go wrong :-)

Rob, just found this which might help, I cant test it so your on your own but it does sound sensible.

First delete the program Purity scan from your system and follow these steps:

Next, for XP Professional (should work for standard XP / 2000),

go to windows explorer program via, start button, program files- accessories- explorer.

Click on Windows, then double click the system 32 folder.

Scroll down and find the file: "winservn".

The icon has a large 'P' on it. Don't try to delete it yet, it won't let you. Keeping the folder on your desktop, press alt+ctrl+delete, at the same time to bring up the Task Manager.

Click on Task Manager, then on Processes.

In the Processes list find "WINSERVS.EXE".

Right click on this and choose "end process tree". Don't worry about the warning box, just do it.

There will be some more duplicate "WINSERVS.EXE" so scroll down and find them all and end them all.

Once you have done this you can delete "winservn".

Not got this problem.Just VERY Impressed with the quality of assistance you can get here.Top stuff!

Iain,

B

Spaceman/Optimist

Thanks for your help, it is very much appreciated. I've done everything - cleaned the start up menu, restricted the sites, done adaware and spybot scans, inspected every program and cookie file created today and deleted where applicable, edited the registry and done the above delete ref winservn although the b*gger had changed its name to wcpsvit but I recognised it because of the "P" icon and the fact that it was created this morning and a new item in the start up menu.

As an aside it looks like AOL are going to sue the people who are behind this adsoftware - Good!

Still no idea how I got it though.

Now I've rebooted it is "So far so good" :-)

Thanks again.
Rob

Robb, glad you got rid of it.

Order "obsolete" item from Dabs.com bargain basement. They debit my Credit Card on day of order. Item does not arrive. Status of order remains "awaiting packaging". Chase order over past week. Dabs cancel my order. Turns out that they had no stock!

They are impossible to communicate with. Mail to Customer Services takes over 24hrs to get replied.

Still chasing a refund.

Beware of Dabs.

Trader2, I agree but when things go well they are excelent, this is the nature of deling with these large internet based companies. I have had similar problems with ebuyer but I still use them as their prices are som good.