Ghost in my HTPC...

[Marbles_00]

Okay here's a strange one.

I put together an AMD setup for my HTPC. It's running WinXP w SP2 (recently found out there was a fix for AMP platforms running WinXp wSP3, but I haven't upgraded yet). Well I had a temporary hard-drive in it a few months ago, and noticed that every once and a while Outlook Express would just open up. Be watching a DVD, and O Express would just open...etc. I also noticed that Zoom Player movie properties would open too.

Well, since then, I upgraded the drive to a newer SATA drive, which meant the system was all re-installed. The OS and all applications were re-installed from scratch. The only thing copied over was Xlobby, and the Mirage skin. Well Outlook Express continued to open randomly. So I un-installed it, as it is not needed on this machine. Well now, Window's calculator now opens randomly. And I'm still getting the issue of Zoom Player's video properties window opening randomly. I also have had Zoom Player automatically adjust the video size on the fly for no reason.

I've done virus checks, and they all come up negative. The system does not access the internet except for dragging DVD artwork from the DVDEmpire.com site (via ANT). Other than that, all other installed software, if downloaded, is done from another computer, so I'm pretty confident that there isn't a trojan or virus. The only thing I can figure what is different between this system and all others is the fact that this system is AMD based, whereas all my other systems are Intel...running various Win OS platforms, but I don't understand why that would cause this random issues.

[samgreco]

I have had many AMD PCs and have NEVER seen THAT happen.

So the only commonality between installs is xLobby and hardware? I would say, just as a troubleshooting exercise, backup the xLobby installation and remove it. Then see if it happens again. It sounds as though something is triggering a file open of some kind in the OExpress/Notepad thing. But I have no idea what would trigger Zoom Player to change it video resolution.

I would almost want to look in the system bios, except, I can't for the life of me think of anything in bios that would cause this.

[lpg]

All of my systems are AMD and none of them exhibit that problem. Are there any schedulers running? It seems now every program has their own schedular with online checking for updates. By the way I updated almost all on my machines (except my media server) to sp3. I only had problems with one machine which was related to a specific ASUS motherboard.

[lar282]

Replace the keyboard. MAYBE keys are stuck or its broken so it presses down win key + other key

I know long shot, but if it isn't a virus, I have no clue


//Lasse

[scottw]

Replace the keyboard. MAYBE keys are stuck or its broken so it presses down win key + other key

I know long shot, but if it isn't a virus, I have no clue


//Lasse

That was going to be my suggestion.

[Marbles_00]

Replace the keyboard. MAYBE keys are stuck or its broken so it presses down win key + other key

I know long shot, but if it isn't a virus, I have no clue


//Lasse

That was going to be my suggestion.

Actually, that is a good suggestion. I am using a cheap wireless keyboard/mouse on that system. Something I never thought of...maybe the reciever is picking up some interference, and automatically runs some executable. I'm going to swap them tonight with a generic wire keyboard/mouse set. Unfortunately, since it is so seldom and random that it happens, I may not have anything to report on for the next little while.

[Marbles_00]

Well, it's been a few months since I swapped out the cheap wireless keyboard/mouse, and the ghosts appear to have left my HTPC alone...go figure. So much for the cheap stuff.

[dalanik]

yes, computers sometimes seem to be "posessed" Right now, my HTPC has started misbehaving, and the worst thing is that I'm soooo lazy to do anything about it.... it's been working fine for several years now... At first I was suspecting my kid that he does something wrong but you know the kids today, he is even more technologically minded than I am I suspect XWeather, but am not sure. What happens is that SOMETIMES, only ometimes, like 20-30% of the time, on startup XLobby starts or during loading, it displays message that Xlobby alpha has crashed. Then I run it again and all is fine. Guess I should be moving plugins out of the plugins folder to see what's causing it

D.

[P3rv3rt B3ar]

D, because u mention years, it might be good idea to run speedfan and note the fitness value of HDD, they sometimes wear out with odd side effects...

[dalanik]

I'm running speedfan and I noticed the fan is running like crazy (I actually don't need speedfan, I can hear it), so I suppose it's that time of year where I must disconnect everything from HTPC and open it and vacum-clean it

[vaporhat]

This is crazy.. my PC was doing the same thing last night!!!

I think there is some conflict the the mouse or HID drivers. I reinstalled my wireless keyboard drivers and that didn't help. I could try another keyboard?

I think I am going to make an imagine of that machine as is, reformat the driver and install Windows 7 on it. I'm just a little scared..
I have a copy of it running on my daily machine and I am loving it.

I guess if the waters get too deep I can always go back to Windows XP Pro using that image disk...