SVCHOST Finale

Well, I don't have svchost errors anymore.  

Disabling the "server" service stopped the errors from happening, but it also stopped a bunch of other stuff that I wanted.  So, I was going to do a repair install of XP and brought a CD home to do it with.

I have two types of WinXP CD's lying around; I usually keep them labeled appropriately.  One type is just a basic, standard CD that is slipstreamed with current patches (at this time, up to SP3), and the other is my "rebuild the PC and get it on the floor CD" that automatically boots, reformats, installs, and configures everything to our desktop standard so that when the install process is done in about an hour it can go straight to the floor.  As I said, I try to keep them labeled, but I grabbed an unlabeled XP CD and it was my auto CD.  Most of the data is backed up to about 2 months ago, so it isn't a total loss, and it is probably better this way anyways, clear up a bunch of junk.

Had a great Turkey Dinner yesterday at Jon and Patty's place.  After dinner Jon showed me a book he got recently; an Anthology of Dragon stories.  The first story was by Anne McCaffrey.  I've just never gotten around to reading any of her writing, but after reading that short story (the beginning of the Pern saga) I realized that I've been missing some great reading.   I'm going to have to get the "Dragonflight" book and start reading about Pern.

Jon and Patty gave me the latest Mannheim Steamroller CD, "Christmasville".  From the Mannheim Steamroller Website:

"This record was born out of a once-in-a-lifetime project: Universal Theme Parks commissioned Chip Davis to create music WITH vocals-- for a holiday show called 'Grinchmas'. Thus, for the first time, you'll hear Mannheim Steamroller with voice as the final instrument"

I'm afraid it's not one of the better Mannheim efforts.  Actually, it's the worst Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Album yet.    It's very short, about 30 minutes.   Only two (I think) of the tracks are actually Mannheim Steamroller, the rest are some kind of a bastard Mannheim/Universal cross.

Chip, I really hope that this is indeed a "once in a lifetime" album.

Gotta remember to pick up the head for Stripez at the machine shop today.

Gas in Bemidji was 1.719, in GR 1.899 on T-Day.

 

 

 

SVCHOST errors cont.

I'm continuing to have problems with the svchost process crashing, so I continued my research. So far, the most helpful website I have seen is http://www.huguesjohnson.com/svchost.html. I took a hint from his writing and disabled the System Event Notification Service. Well, that didn't stop it (didn't really expect it to). In reading the event logs I did see that the errors followed the successful load of "Performance counters for the WmiApRpl (WmiApRpl) service". I'm not using WMI so I have disabled that. Also, one (just one!!) of the errors references the acgenral.dll; all the rest say "unknown module". AcGenral.dll is part of Application Compatibility, not sure what the connection is. I also updated to the current Java since it seemed as though the errors would come up on certain web pages, no change yet. I have disabled System Restore and it's services, we'll see what happens.

Gas in GR was at 1.899 when I got off work yesterday 11/24.

Hip O Select is the online store for Universal Music Group. I wanted to order a limited edition album from them, the website said (still does) it was in stock for immediate shipment. Well, two days after I ordered it I got a backorder notice (but the website still says it is in stock for immediate shipment!!). I've seen enough of that crap, so I asked them to cancel the order. It took 3 days, but they have finally acknowledged and canceled the order. It's a lousy website. I guess I'm spoiled by Amazon.com and its wonderful Customer Service.

Well, it still crashes. I've rebooted twice since the last entry. For entertainment I' have disabled the server service. I typically disable it on workstations, but it is enabled here because this PC shares resources. If that doesn't work I need to remember to bring home a copy of UBCD4Win.  I should bring it home anyways just to see if it shows me anything.

Codex Alera

Received an email late last night from Amazon telling me that my copy of Princeps Fury is on the way, expected arrival date 12/1. Cool!

Now, back to fighting with the home PC. After about 15 minutes online some process related to dial-up networking crashes and I lose my Internet connection. The funny thing is that everything looks OK but nothing works. Playing with the Sysinternals Process Monitor trying to track it down now.

I thought that it might be a problem with Firefox. The last thing I did before the problem started was upgrade to Firefox 3. So, I uninstalled that and re-installed Firefox 2. That didn't help. It doesn't matter whether I use IE or Firefox, I lose communication. Although, I did notice that while examining the event logs that M$ Help and Support Center still had Internet access.

Watching Process monitor, I noticed that the last thing to happen before the crash was that Firefox was making calls to WMP. I looked thru the Firefox options, and Firefox was set to call QuickTime dll's for nearly all Media functions. I changed those to Irfanview and WinAmp, we'll see if there is any difference.

Just happened, "Faulting application svchost.exe, version 5.1.2600.2180, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x001f1cb0." But Firefox is still functional to some degree, or at least it says that it saved this post. Guess I'll find out in a moment.

The only way I have found so far to recover is to reboot the PC. The svchost crash takes out a whole list of services; I still haven't figured out how to manually restart them.

Yah, it is still functional. I feel fairly certain that when I click the "Close" button on the error message my connection will die, here goes

Later:
Had to go spend some time deer hunting. Now I'm back at the PC. Matt and I need to make a bunch of sausage. I bought a $30 sausage stuffer at L&M that was a piece of garbage. It was so poorly made that all the sausage would blow back out the back instead of going into the tube. THEN I started to do a little research, looks like to get a decent sausage stuffer (i.e., one that works) you need to spend a couple hundred bucks. Ouch. Maybe we will continue making sausage patties. I did find one sausage stuffer that looks neat for under $200, it includes parts for making Jerky as well. It's water powered, hook your garden hose to it and go. Although, in searching for reviews it sounds as though many people have modified theirs to work with air pressure instead, not as messy. I haven't seen any complaints about it yet. www.dakotahsausagestuffer.com.

Well, I'm still waiting for the connection to die. This time I have been on for 35 minutes and my connection is still alive, I'm rather surprised. Too good to be true? Maybe.

I really should get busy helping Matt. Temps are now (11:30 AM) pushing 30ºF, and we have been storing the venison in the back of Stripez for the last couple of days. Don't want it to thaw before we can finish cutting it up and get it into the freezer.

Matt's screaming at me know, better go. 40 minutes and haven't lost connection yet.

It crashed at almost exactly 45 minutes, suspiciously close. After reboot I will log on with a different account and see if it does the same thing.

I'm trying to upload a jpg of the error messages. The first came at about 45 minutes, the second one appeared at 60 minutes. I have not totally dropped the connection, but just now at 75 minutes the first error has come up again. DUN appears to still be functional and I have not yet totally lost the connection.

Connection is still going. I have not closed any of the three error messages, I just moved them off the side of the screen. So far I'm at 90 minutes.

Well, I'm going to "ok" the error messages now. bye-bye!

Deer

I couldn't pass this up. I haven't been sleeping, but I wish.


see more pwn and owned pictures

Finally

Gas in GR dropped to 1.999 yesterday.

9°F this morning.  Single digits.  At least it's not negative yet, and I don't see any negative temps in the next week.  Maybe another light dusting of snow.

But I still haven't seen any deer, and the season ends Sunday afternoon, and I still have two tags left to fill and Matt has one tag left to fill.

Saw something on the BNSF track in La Prairie this morning on the way to work, I'm guessing it was a work train of some sort.  It was lit up with flood lights all around, so it was hard to see in the dark, but it looked to be an engine and maybe 8 cars.  It was just sitting on the track in La Prairie, not moving.  Maybe it will be there still when I leave work early to go hunting.

Winter's (almost) here

Gas in Bemidji Saturday was at 1.919 while GR was at 2.199; today gas in Bemidji is at 1.869 while GR is at 2.069.

Whatever.

'Bout 1/2" snow last night, quite chilly. Just enough to make everyone slide around the street.

Got the (correct) Alternator swapped out on Vger. O'Reilly's kept trying to sell me the NipponDenso alternator when mine requires the Chrysler Alternator. Slight differences in the mounts. Afterwards we realized that it has been noisy for a very long time. It sounds so much quieter now. I hope to see some increase in fuel mileage as an incidental byproduct.

Finally got the living room put back together after completing the inside part of the Window Project.

Got Evan's Tempo here (Saturday's project). The cable that runs from the shift lever to the auto trans is broken. Dealer-only item, about $250. Here's another instance where I will need to decide what we want to do. I've already got close to $2K in it and it needs the shift cable, driver's seat belt mechanism isn't working properly (about $800), and I don't yet know what else might be wrong. Oh, and it needs new front tires ($120) and maybe an alignment ($50). Is it worth it?

I'm getting ready to migrate our old DHCP server to a new (recycled) (temporary) box. Our current DHCP server is also the AD controller for a domain no longer used, and it is also our primary SQL server. I need to demote the server and join it to our current domain. I figure the SQL auth might be my biggest problem, and if I can get the DHCP moved to another box that will be one less item to worry about. Time to start writing the plan for the migration.

I hear that a lot of folks on Face Book are getting scammed by people hi-jacking the account of a friend then asking for money to help out "hey, I need $100 for ??". Don't fall for it!

Did you see the news item about the Oregon woman that was scammed $400K in a Nigerian scam? I still can't believe that someone is stupid enough to do that. http://www.katu.com/news/34292654.html.

Gas Redux

Gas in Bemidji dropped to 1.959 yesterday, gas in GR dropped to 2.199.  I see on www.minnesotagasprices.com that some Twin Cities stations are at 1.859.  Whoa.

While it's a good thing at the moment, I'm not certain that it is a good idea long term, but I guess we will find out.

Uh-oh PII

Yep. the alternator bearings on Vger are dying. Pulled it out last night, can barely turn it by hand. $127 exchange.

According to the Rock Auto website the 92 Voyager and 88 Voyager alternators are the same part number. Accorning to the O'Reilly's website they are different part numbers. Will find out tonight. Drove the Gladiator today. Temp was 10°F this morning, Gladiator interior (and windows!) were just starting to defrost by the time I got to work. That big box takes a lot longer to thaw than the small box.

Brrr.

Rain, Sleet, Snow arriving here in the next couple of hours, better get moving.

Later: No, they are NOT the same.

Computer-Aid.com.au

Found an excellent resource at http://www.computer-aid.com.au/.   Good blog with lots of technical expertise, and well written also.

Uh-oh

Pretty sure the alternator on Vger is dying.  $150 for a new one.  I think it is just the bearings that are going, it's VERY noisy when it starts, less so after a few moments of running.  Bearings are about $10 ea for front and rear bearings.  Wonder if I have the tools for it?  I need to dig through my pile of parts and see what I can turn up.  I'm not certain, but I think that all my other alternators like this died electrically.

Might have to tear into it and drive the Gladiator for a few days while I sort it out. brrrr.

Deer Season

Well, Deer Season came in with a BANG!! Sitting out on my stand, about one minute after my watch said "time", from all around I heard bang! bang! bang-bang-bang-bang! bang!

I haven't seen anything yet. Matt, hunting with his friends a couple of miles away, tagged a nice doe and a button buck first thing this morning. He took the button buck with one perfect shot through the lungs; it dropped and never moved. Should be some good eating there.

Thursdays rain was part of a large system centered down near Sioux City. The center stayed there most of Thursday, wrapping Gulf moisture and warm air up and around onto us. Overnight Thursday it moved East across MN and Friday we continued to get some rain and drizzle as the temps began to fall. Saturday (Deer Season Opener) started out with some mixed snow and drizzle, but the ground was warm enough that the snow disappeared right away.

Today, Sunday, the ground has cooled enough that the snow is staying. We are only getting a few flakes at a time, and the puddles aren't frozen solid yet, but it's about 20 degrees F out right now and that North wind is coold.

Gas is at 2.259 this morning.

I tried to buy a pair of 195/75/R14 Winterforce tires at L&M on sale, but they were sold out Thursday night. Said they would transfer a couple from another store and I could get them Friday afternoon. Stopped by Friday afternoon and then later that evening, still haven't arrived.

Decided to pull the pair of Winterforce tires off Stripez. They don't have many miles on them since Stripez blew the head gasket soon after it got the new tires. They are on Vger now. While I had the front drivers tire off Vger I checked the trans oil, it was down nearly 2 quarts. Trying to remember when I checked it last and topped it off, hopefully I blogged it (no, I didn't.  September?). Still have a funny noise under the hood anytime the engine is running, suspect that I'm about to lose the alternator or waterpump soon; or perhaps the timing belt idler? Hope not. Too cold to mess with it right now, it needs to keep running until we can get Stripez back together.

Need to pickup the head for Stripez from the machine shop, $220.

Need to pickup the starter for the Allis-Chalmers from the rebuild shop, $195.

Need to put a pair of Winterforce tires on the front of the red Horizon, $100

Got a bit of a shock Thursday afternoon. My current Auto Insurance policy was due to be renewed Friday, and I asked my insurance agent to check around for a better price, was paying $900 every 6 month's for 5 vehicles and 4 drivers.

Well, Evan's car is titled in his name, he is not a student, and he lives in Bemidji. Jon has his own family, is not a student, and lives in Bemidji while driving Betty's LeMans. Turns out that, although we have been paying for the insurance coverage, if they had an accident they wouldn't have been covered. So Betty gave the title to the LeMans to Jon and they are not on our new policy, which dropped the price a bit.

Here is what we learned. If the driver is a full time student and/or lives at home, they can be covered under our policy. If the title to the vehicle is in mine or Betty's name, it can be covered under our policy. Otherwise, NOT.

So, when Matt gets his truck running, we leave the title in my name, and he is living at home, then he and the truck will be covered under our policy. When Matt titles the truck in his name he will then need to get his own insurance. When Matt leaves home, he will need to title the truck in his name and get his own insurance.

OK. Didn't know that. And we've been paying for Jon and Evan's insurance that wasn't going to cover them. Thank God they didn't have any accidents.

rain rain rain rain

It's raining/drizzling/tstorming outside, take your pick. Very dark also.

Gotta break down and buy tires for Vger today. 2 blowouts in two weeks and I'm out of all my spare tires from all the other vans. The spare I'm running on now has a STRONG pull all the time, have to fight to keep it on the road. I'd like to buy WinterForce if I can find a good enough deal on them, we'll see.

I'm hearing reports of 1+ ft of snow in North Dakota, we are supposed to get hit starting tomorrow night. We'll see, I haven't seen a flake yet although measurable snow has been forecast several times in the last 3-4 weeks. But, with deer season starting day after tomorrow I guess we are overdue for some snow.

Suiburban Tailights (and Chevy/GMC/Yukon/C-series/K -series 1988-2008) Was working on a neighbors 1997 Suburban the other day. Brake light burns out every few days. Sometimes it might last a couple of weeks, but usually a couple of days.

I was talking about it at the parts counter, when the counterman showed me that they keep 4 ea R/L socket assemblies in stock at all times. "Some people replace them every year, sometimes twice a year." Wow. So, I grabbed a pair and installed them on the neighbors Suburban, problem fixed. Then I took apart the unit to see what was wrong. I STILL can't believe that GM engineering is SO STUPID to come up with this idea and use it for so long and NO-ONE has forced them to fix it???? This should be a warrantable engineering/manufacturing defect, and GM deserves to go out of business for perpetrating this kind of CRAP on their customers.

Here is a photo of the unit I removed from the Suburban. I have cut off the plastic retainers so that I can lift the board covering the connections.

Here I have removed the board. You can see that it is just a very simple circuit board, and the socket assembly has contacts on it.

Here is where one of the brake lamp contacts meets the circuit board. See the corrosion? You can also see it in the above photo if you look closely. The matching contact also has a spot of corrosion on it.

It would appear that what's been happening is that moisture gets into the socket assembly and eventually corrosion starts eating at the contacts. When the light goes out and you replace the bulb, I guess that the movement is enough to give some continuity for a brief span of time until the corrosion catches up.

But what can be done? Well, in the first place, GM could have done several things when this was originally designed. They could have used soldered connections instead of the circuit board. Or, they could have sealed the interior of the socket assembly to keep the moisture out.

What can be done now? I'm going to solder wires to the connectors and swap and rotate the L/R circuit boards so that the conductive side faces toward the bulbs and the non-conductive side faces toward the wiring circuit. Then, when i put it together I will use a silicone glue in a dry atmosphere to seal the moisture away from the connections.

I will then put the modified socket assemblies away and when the neighbors lights quit working in a few months we can try my modified ones. We'll see what happens.

Something I wouldn't mind trying if I had the opportunity would be to take a pair of new assemblies and, in a dry location, place a thin bead around the circuit board, just enough to seal out moisture. My guess is that they should work fine for several years with just that slight mod done.

Gotta have a Lafff

Gas at 2.299 since Sunday 11/2

I'm writing this a week later; I forgot to blog it at the time.

Halloween night the window mechanism on Vger broke.  In the ChryCorp minivans of this age the crank drives a gear approx 8" diameter that moves a flexible rack gear bolted to the bottom of the window and running on a track inside the door.  The plastic rack gear broke about 6" below the window.

Well, I've tried replacing these mechanisms before and it is a regular PITA, so I wanted to avoid that if possible.  I figured OK, I have two other vans, so I'll just swap this door with the driers door from the Turbo Caravan.  In the meantime, I stuck a piece of wood in the door to hold the window up.

So, Matt's going to help me swap the doors.  I had forgotten, but we parted out an 88 Caravan a year ago, and the drivers door was in pretty good shape.  So, Matt dug it out of the barn and installed it.  Vger now has a white drivers door and a working window.

The door we took off is in excellent shape, I don't think it has any rust on it, so we put it aside as a spare.  When we get around to it we'll replace the window mechanism.