why wont my pc go restore to any point?

[Nigel Pugh]

Go here http://www.lavasoft.de/ and down load the free home user version of Ad-Aware.

Most things my normal anti this and anti that software cannot find this program seems to find.

Good Luck

Nigel

Oh meant to add, and gets rid of it too 😀

[Lorraine Clinch]

Oh er, sounds scary! Especially as you are THE computer queen (in my books, anyway!) If you don’t know what is, I wouldn’t stand a chance 😳

Hope you get it sorted soon Marcella. I’m just sorting out a programme to stop all the junk emails I get.

[Nigel Pugh]

Have you a Dell computer Marcella, reading into this it does appear to be part of the hotkey functions on a Dell keyboard, but I have also read that it can be a security issue for computers too.

There is a fair bit to read if you Google

[Nick Minall]

Marcella, have you done the usually stuff… defrag, disk clean up and have clrl alt delete to see what progs are running and are any using up all your PC resources?

[Micheal Donnellan]

Get the Ad-aware as suggested and Spyware blaster and look for Hijackthis which is excellent for finding every thing on you computer. the log it generates can be posted on problem forums to help fin the answer. If you have active x on turn the bloody thing off unless you really need it as it can down load a lot of rubbish without asking you do you want to. 👿

[Marcella Ross]

Helloooo! Eventually back on again!
Thanks for that Nigel. I’ll download it and give it a go. I’ve got McAfee running it’s spyware too at the minute….. taking ages. I had googled this Netropa hotkey to see what it was – I don’t run a Dell system – god knows how it got there. Damn thing won’t go.

Nick – I did a degfrag first of all and when I ctrl alt delete, that’s where I found the hotkey. That’s the only thing running when I first boot up.

I’ll get this adaware downloaded and run that too. Hopefully one of these programs will pick something up that will make a difference.

Lorraine – you nutter! How was Kefalonia?

[Nicola McIntosh]

have a look here marcella 😀

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist … list_n.htm

scroll down to nhksrv

nik

[Nick Minall]

Marcella, you can try deleting it in safe mode, may help! (if your sure you don’t need it!)

[Marcella Ross]

thanks Nik. 😀 I’ve disabled it now. I had found that file on my hard drive already but didn’t manage to get rid of it. However, it’s now disabled. Apparently it can eat up 90% of the cpu usage!!!!! Hopefully that will be the problem.
Now that it’s disabled…. I’ll need to see if I can toss it in the bloody bin now! 😀

[Marcella Ross]

:cheer: woo hoo!!!!! I’ve got rid of it!!!!!! What a little bugger of a program that is.
I disabled it …….. it started itself up again. So I changed it to a manual start up and switched it off. When it was off I was then able to send the file to my recycle bin and get it deleted out of my system! Before when I was using ctrl alt delete and shutting it down, it was obviously restarting itself immediately again.
Anyway ….. that’s made a difference. Pages are refeshing and opening much quicker already. 😀

thanks folks!

[Nick Minall]

Well done. maybe an idea to delete all the restore points as well, just in case its got put in one.

[David Rogers]

Hi Marcella,

being a bit of a geek I keep my PC’s VERY clean & tidy! I’ve been using this software (paid for) for about 4 years now – including solving IT problems & cleaning PC’s.

Download this: http://www.innovative-sol.com/uninstaller/index.htm

run EVERYTHING in sucession.

Look round the STARTUP MANAGER for anything untoward – just disable it.

1. QUICK CLEANER – tick ALL the boxes.
2. UNISTALL PROGRAMS – gets rid of stuff windows doesn’t
3. REGISTRY CLEANER – agree to everything
4. REGISTRY OPTIMIZER – run & it will prompt for re-boot.

This can work wonders, even on a fresh machine straight out of the box.

Give it a go anyway, I must have used it 100’s of times on my own PC’s…and a few hundred more with PC repairs.

Also good to have AD-AWARE – it’s only useful if you run it weekly though.

Dave

[Marcella Ross]

quote Nick Minall:

Well done. maybe an idea to delete all the restore points as well, just in case its got put in one.

that’s an idea Nick.

Dave – you, a bit of a geek? Never!!!!! :lol1: I’ll download that too, can’t be too careful I suppose.

[Gordon Forbes]

There are quite a few other places it can lurk and keep starting every time you boot if you look in the registry.
Run run once etc etc which is why it reloaded I would do a search and see if you can find a tool to un instal it see if it is in the add remove programs list and get rid of it completely at present it isn’t.
Don’t go to the registry and start deletin things unless

A – you do a back up first
B – You know what you are doin cause you can kill your puter from there.

Goop

[Marcella Ross]

It wasn’t in the add/remove programs list, I looked there earlier hoping to find an easy solution. I found it in Administrative Tools in the control panel. It does have other names too so there is a chance it’s lurking about with an alias!!!!!!!! Just waiting on me rebooting again! If it does at least I’ll know how to delete it again.

[Peter Normington]

run this security test from gibson reasearch, It may give you a clue as to how nasties can infiltrate, loads of good security stuff here, mostly free also.
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

[Marcella Ross]

😥 👿 😥 👿 😥 👿 😥 👿 😥 👿

it’s back ……… I did ALL of the above and it was running sweet. At the end of the registry clean up and optimizer I was prompted to reboot. I did and now the little fucker is back!
Now it’s taken me 40 minutes to boot up and log on!!!!!!!! Cant find the file this time …. must have a new name. (:) (:) (:) (:) (:)
I feel like I could kill …………… 👿

[Nick Minall]

Have you seen this?… http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297331/EN-US/

[Marcella Ross]

Nick,
I had a look at that. Couldn’t find the file in question so I must have deleted it. I had found it earlier under a different name and got rid of it…. again.
But when I reboot, it’s still very slow and then I get an error message reading;

‘Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem’

any ideas what this is?

There seems to be no sign of the Netropa Hotkey anywhere now, I found 5 different file names linked with and searched for them all.

marcella

[Nicola McIntosh]

just ‘F’ it marcella 😉

nik

[Shane Drew]

quote Marcella:

😥 👿 😥 👿 😥 👿 😥 👿 😥 👿

it’s back ……… I did ALL of the above and it was running sweet. At the end of the registry clean up and optimizer I was prompted to reboot. I did and now the little (oh, im a bad boy!) is back!
Now it’s taken me 40 minutes to boot up and log on!!!!!!!! Cant find the file this time …. must have a new name. (:) (:) (:) (:) (:)
I feel like I could kill …………… 👿

Have you read this Marcella? http://www.auditmypc.com/process/nhksrv.asp

[Nick Minall]

quote Nicola McIntosh:

just ‘F’ it marcella 😉

nik

May be the quickest way to sort it out, if you have everything backed up!

[Darren Mooney]

Would have went for the safe mode route too…

have you tried "ctrl-alt-sledgehammer"? 🙂

A story I love (somewhat on topic yet miles away!) about a helpcentre caller..

"Ridge Hall computer assistance; may I help you?"

"Yes, well, I’m having trouble with WordPerfect."

"What sort of trouble?"

"Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away."

"Went away?"

"They disappeared."

"Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"It’s blank; it won’t accept anything when I type."

"Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out?"

"How do I tell?"

"Can you see the C: prompt on the screen?"

"What’s a sea-prompt?"

"Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?"

"There isn’t any cursor: I told you, it won’t accept anything I type."

"Does your monitor have a power indicator?"

"What’s a monitor?"

"It’s the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it’s on?"

"I don’t know."

"Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it’s plugged into the wall."

"Yes, it is."

"When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one?"

"No."

"Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable."

"Okay, here it is."

"Follow it for me, and tell me if it’s plugged securely into the back of your computer."

"I can’t reach."

"Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is?"

"No."

"Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over?"

"Oh, it’s not because I don’t have the right angle — it’s because it’s dark."

"Dark?"

"Yes, -the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window."

"Well, turn on the office light then."

"I can’t."

"No? Why not?"

"Because there’s a power failure."

"A power… A power failure? Aha, Okay, we’ve got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in?"

"Well, yes, I keep them in the closet."

"Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from."

"Really? Is it that bad?"

"Yes, I’m afraid it is."

"Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them?"

"Tell them you’re too stupid to own a computer."

[Marcella Ross]

Good morning All!!!!!!

I think I’m free……. Netropa has well and truly gone (Shane – I had read that earlier yesterday, I found that same page when I googled it) Anyway all these suggestions can work EXCEPT none of them mention any of the other file names.
nhksrv.exe, mmkeyb.exe, 3ylv.exe, dellmmkb.exe or even m1mmpti.exe

Anyway I ran a search on ALL of these and found another netropa file here. So I killed that and thought my problems were over.
This morning however it took 1 hour and 10 minutes to get up and running. NO Netropa anywhere but eventually found that a spooler was using masses of cpu usage, which was slowing my pc up big time. Did a google on that which said do not remove as it was a Microsoft file. So I stopped it and the pc ran through the rest of boot up in seconds!
Don’t know if the netropa started the spooler off……. but anyway. Fingers crossed it’s A1 now.

[George Elsmore]

Anyway all these suggestions can work EXCEPT none of them mention any of the other file names.
nhksrv.exe, mmkeyb.exe, 3ylv.exe, dellmmkb.exe or even m1mmpti.exe

huh (?) all these were mentioned on the first page i opened after googling it!!!! must be a secret google i use glad to see its sorted Marcella hope its been exterminated completely

G

[Marcella Ross]

I didn’t bloody find those at first …… ! Wish I had. Got them last night after hours of swearing! :shutup:

I feel like I’ve got a new pc now! 😀 It’s lightening fast! Must have been that program that Dave mentioned, I ran all those steps and it’s obviously tidied things up a good bit.

[David Rogers]

quote Marcella:

I didn’t bloody find those at first …… ! Wish I had. Got them last night after hours of swearing! :shutup:

I feel like I’ve got a new pc now! 😀 It’s lightening fast! Must have been that program that Dave mentioned, I ran all those steps and it’s obviously tidied things up a good bit.

LOL. Glad you’re up & running. Read through all the posts just now…..all the while thinking "Marcella’s gonna kill me!" and going "Hmmm, it’s never done THAT before…" 😕

Yup, it is a good program – gets run daily (The QUICK CLEANER) at home & work, and I clean my registry about once a fortnight. It’s truley amazing what junk gets hidden on a machine.

Dave

[David Rowland]

at least im not the only geek around here.. 😮 :lol1:

[Steve Morgan]

Took Dave’s advice and decided to do a clean-up on my PC.
Bought a copy of Advanced Uninstaller and was quite impressed until today when I found it had removed about 2 years of files from one of my folders. Could it be that I did something wrong? it doesn’t look like I’ll get any of them back, unless they’re hidden somewhere.
Has anyone else used the same program and had that happen?
Steve

[Marcella Ross]

quote Steve Morgan:

Took Dave’s advice and decided to do a clean-up on my PC.
Bought a copy of Advanced Uninstaller and was quite impressed until today when I found it had removed about 2 years of files from one of my folders. Could it be that I did something wrong? it doesn’t look like I’ll get any of them back, unless they’re hidden somewhere.
Has anyone else used the same program and had that happen?
Steve

oops …… 😮 ….. ask Dave!

[Gordon Forbes]

Looks like you didn’t check what it was cleaning before you clicked yes.
Depending on how much work you have done since you may still be able to recover them with a programe that can scan your disc for "deleted Files" ie hidden (from windows) as that what happens to them and they may not be re written over. Bound to be freebies on the net that do this or I Norton has one. Worth a try if they are valuable.

Goop

[Steve Morgan]

I’ve been through the list of remove/don’t remove and I couldn’t see an incorrect selection, the files I’ve lost were all different types pdf’s, mp3’s cdl’s etc. Bit of a mystery really. Hopefully Dave might read this and offer a clue.
I’ll look for a file retrieval program – any recommendations?
Steve

[David Rowland]

to be quite fair here… i would never use any unistall programs or registry cleaners… far quicker to backup and then format and reinstall every 1 – 2 years.

i do have file recovery programs… http://www.active-undelete.com/
I use this and works however you need two harddrives and there is a demo that tests it on the site, if it doesn’t show any results then its gone.

[David Rogers]

quote Steve Morgan:

I’ve been through the list of remove/don’t remove and I couldn’t see an incorrect selection, the files I’ve lost were all different types pdf’s, mp3’s cdl’s etc. Bit of a mystery really. Hopefully Dave might read this and offer a clue.
I’ll look for a file retrieval program – any recommendations?
Steve

I use this program DAILY at home to clean up my temp files & weekly at work, (and on everybody’s PC that I come across!) NEVER lost anything of value – ever. And my home PC is crammed with all manner of files – stashed in a millon directories. And I’ve seen some horrors of PC’s.

em, you didn’t run the ‘duplicate files’ function did you?!? (BAD idea)

The only thing the cleaner gets rid of is temp files, history files (what you last accessed), broken data, cookies, internet temps etc….all the stuff that can be safely be ditched. Just automates a process which you can do manually with most programs – ‘clear history’.

Do a SEARCH of your drive C: and try looking for them incase it was just the quicklinks it deleted. I’d think the chances of the software ‘picking-on’ the files in one folder is a bit slim, and maybe (sadly) a coincidental loss.

Dave

[Steve Morgan]

Dave, what did you say about running the duplicate files function – er yes I ran it and maybe that was what did the damage. That said, I did read through all the lists and I didn’t see anything that suggested what was going to happen.
Found a, free for 28 days, recovery program earlier but I need my back-up drive to run it, so maybe I’ll find some lost files tomorrow

Steve

[David Rowland]

my advice, if the files are deleted… you must not use the computer to do anything with or you will loose the files from being recovered.
The files are actually renamed to ?oblambie.cdr which is ignored by windows as it thinks its gone.

[David Rogers]

quote Steve Morgan:

Dave, what did you say about running the duplicate files function – er yes I ran it and maybe that was what did the damage. ………….Steve

That said if it WAS that program that ‘did it’, you should obviously STILL have a copy of each file somewhere….but that function WILL prompt you with a list of files that you have to agree to ditch, and the chances of it emptying a folder are as I said…remote.

ps I’ve ‘text’ one of my mates (uber geek / microsoft engineer) to see if there is still the old DOS ‘undelete’ function stashed somewhere in XP that finds deleted files & can restore them…

[Steve Morgan]

I tried a, free for 28 day, recovery program this morning, running it from an external drive. It found all the files ok. I’m not loosing sleep over this because I backed up the whole system only a week ago.
I’m now pretty convinced that it was the fleshy parts involved in the process that caused the the problem. I suspect it could be ‘Quick Cleaner’, but I’m not sure why, probably a setting. I’m keen to find out so that it won’t occur when it’s important.