Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Geek Culture / XP issues with saving images from web

Author
Message
Phaelax
DBPro Master
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 02:57 Edited at: 9th Dec 2010 02:59
Link
When I try to save an image from the web (right-click) the browser will freeze for about 20-30 seconds after I click save. I also noticed that if I don't actually save the image and hit cancel when the save location dialog window opens, it'll still hang the same. It only does this with images, as I can right-click a link or other stuff and save them without any freezing. And it can't have anything to do with the actual saving since it does it when I cancel. It's gotta be something to do with the file explorer when the save window pops up. In the case of Chrome, I can drag the image onto the desktop and that works fine as no save window is opened.

The folder location doesn't seem to make any difference. FF3 does it also. I just tested Opera, which upgraded itself when I ran it, and it also does it. I updated Chrome and it made no difference. IE at first to not be affected, but after saving several pictures it eventually started behaving the same as the others. So the issue affects FireFox, Chrome, and Opera, and IE6.

As far as troubleshooting, I have the latest XP updates as of the other day. I ran malwarebytes and cleaned up anything it found, and I've rebooted. To be honest, I'm not sure if this problem existed prior to doing the Windows updates. This desktop has been offline for a year, and when I got cable last week, I did the update almost immediately before doing anything else. But I don't recall having this issue before, so I think an update possibly broke something.

The really weird thing is IE started out only doing it sporadically, and while it was frozen for the 30sec, I switched over to Opera and it had no trouble saving images now.

I'm going to do a defrag(if it even needs done) and a virus scan, but other than that I'm very perplexed.

I'm running XP Pro 32-bit SP3.


Opera eventually hung up again, so I switched over to IE and it's now running fine but I imagine that will stop after Opera begins responding again.

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
PAGAN_old
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2006
Location: Capital of the Evil Empire
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 05:00 Edited at: 9th Dec 2010 05:02
Link
theres your problem windows update. NEVER do a windows update because the people who program them... well they dont exactly know what they are doing so the updates come out buggy. and factor in custom settings you have and software/drivers and stuff and this update may really screw up your computer. its better to just install the latest SP3 from the start. not sure what you can do, because whenever an update screwed up my computer i didnt want to waste time trying to figure out how to get it fixed and just reinstalled the whole thing. You can still try running CCleaner, clean oout all the unwanted crap, clean out the registry (always back up your .reg files). myabe if you want you can do a complete system cleaning as in uninstall all the software drivers, and reinstall everything altho i d just reinstall the system. You might not be aware of any other things this update might have screwed up

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Phaelax
DBPro Master
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 14:21
Link
I usually don't have any problems with updates. The only other time I had an issue is when I let it install that malicious software removal tool or whatever it is. I let it install this time too, so who knows.

I ran my suite of Auslogics tools; reg clean, defrag... I was at 17% on my main system drive. I then ran a full deep scan with Symantec(not norton). A lot more showed up than I was expecting, 31 risks to be exact. Quite a few trojans showed up, but mostly in old compressed archives from over a decade ago. And some of those I know contained them but posed no threat as they were mine from highschool days.

One in particular did catch my eye, "Trojan.Zefarch". Once in awhile, I'd find a dll named with random letters on my system. Google search never returned any results because at the time I wasn't aware that they were random names. Apparently that's that Zefarch does, and registers itself with browsers and injects JS into webpages. It could be a possible culprit.

About to reboot and see if cleaning all this out made any difference.

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 14:54
Link
Yeah, something's messed up. Clear up the virus or reinstall windows.

Always do your windows update, unless you want to be infested with viruses

[center]
Join the TGC Group!
http://tehcodez.groups.live.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
PAGAN_old
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2006
Location: Capital of the Evil Empire
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 17:25
Link
I personally am against doing windows updates. a good antivirus software should keep your computer safe without any updates. as i said before windows updates are pretty buggy and sometimes they screw up your system. i would just install sp3 and you wont have to bother with updates at all. i had numerous occasion when windows updates screwed up my system. Personally i use AVAST its a great antivirus automatically updates every few weeks and keeps my system safe

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
Back to top
Profile PM Email
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 17:26 Edited at: 9th Dec 2010 17:27
Link
Quote: "i had numerous occasion when windows updates screwed up my system."


You and me both, but it's extremely dangerous not to run with the most up-to-date patches, even with a good a/v. (I'm not talking about driver and non-security related patches, I'm just talking about security patches).

That said, in vista and 7 I've never had a problem with any patches. So definately update there as they come.

[center]
Join the TGC Group!
http://tehcodez.groups.live.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Indicium
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th May 2008
Location:
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 18:50
Link
Quote: " well they dont exactly know what they are doing so the updates come out buggy"


I've got a lot of respect for you, but come on, of course they know what they're doing!

Back to top
Profile PM
Benjamin
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Nov 2002
Location: France
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 19:11
Link
No AV is going to patch security holes in the OS, that's why updating is necessary.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
PAGAN_old
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2006
Location: Capital of the Evil Empire
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 19:26
Link
its better to just get sp3 than patch up an imperfect version.
as for "they dont know what they are doing" comment, Come on guys its Microsoft. of course they dont know what they are doing. the people who develop the updates dont necesearly know all the original sourse code of the OS. even as i programed in DBpro, very often when i try to fix one bug, i end up creating another bug. and sometimes i dont even know that i made another bug after fixing the first one untill i run into an obstacle and realise that my previos bugfix is really gonna screw up the next thing i am gonna do. and thats just in DB. yes i am not a very good programmer but OS is like 500x more complex than what i did in DB. then as i mentioned before you may have other stuff like drivers and your own settings that the developers overlooked that may also screw up your OS or even other soft you have installed. i agree that covering security holes is important but you might as well get the latest service pack and save yourself the trouble.

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Phaelax
DBPro Master
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 9th Dec 2010 20:45
Link
I already had SP3, there's still updated security patches to obtain after it was released how many years ago? Am I suppose to skip them and wait for a SP4 that will never come?

I run Win7 on my laptop, but I'm not ready to upgrade my desktop just yet.

So far, everything seems ok for now. I had to make a few manual registry deletes, but the saving appears to work fine now. Probably was just a virus.

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 00:16
Link
The service packs are just patches rolled up into it. They're a little more than that, but that's the jist of it.

The majority of viruses I remove from desktops don't have all their security patches. How can you know if it's the antivirus or the OS that's causing it if you don't stay up to date? I bet most of the time, it's the fact that they aren't up-to-date with their security patches.

Windows, and any large project, has procedures in place to mitigate one bug causing another bug problems. Yes it happens, but that's why there's unit testing. In general, when you roll out a patch, you run unit tests to make sure everything still works.

If you want a good upgrade policy, you should always mirror your drive, update, and rollback if needed. Me? I just keep a running backup and reinstall as needed. That said, I haven't received a bad patch since probably SP1 on XP.

[center]
Join the TGC Group!
http://tehcodez.groups.live.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Phaelax
DBPro Master
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 06:56
Link
I ran into one bad patch so far with Win7. I forget what it was but I had to remove several new registry entries that was keeping something from working. I try to keep up to date, but usually waiting about week after an update is released just to see if anything bad creeps up for others first.

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
PAGAN_old
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2006
Location: Capital of the Evil Empire
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 09:35
Link
at least service packs are not as buggy as ifyou try to patch them. i have sp3 on my laptop with an AV and i never have any problems with viruses or malware or anything

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 12:23
Link
Phaelax

You mentioned earlier in your thread about a particular Trojan. The symptoms seem similar to ones I'm experiencing on my XP laptop - however, I have no idea how to check for its presence. Norton doesn't seem to find it. I'm experiencing two symptoms which I suspect have the same cause:

1. While I'm browsing, IE will suddenly open up a completely unrelated web page. Norton sometimes gives a warning about the page but not always. The page is usually advertising garbage of some sort.
2. At frequent intervals Norton warns me that it has blocked an attack on my computer. When I check the log it's often the same group of IP addresses.

These problems are only happening on one machine.

I've tried Norton Power Eraser - but that identifies dozens of files as "suspicious" (including most of my exe files , plus dozens of .msi files that I don't recognize, plus lots of what seem to be system files) and just one as "bad" (ms3d.exe in fact!). I decided not to erase any of the supposed culprits.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 13:46 Edited at: 10th Dec 2010 13:47
Link
I found spybot is the best at finding stuff that most antiviruses miss. I'd say it fixes 99 percent of problems I come across.

Install spybot, update it, run it, it's bound to fix your problem.

If you have trouble installing or running it, the virus might be messing with you. Try doing installing and running it from safemode if you can't get it to work normally.

[center]
Join the TGC Group!
http://tehcodez.groups.live.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 16:56
Link
Do you mean "Spybot - Search & Destroy"? If so, I'll try it and report back.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 17:02
Link
That's the one

[center]
Join the TGC Group!
http://tehcodez.groups.live.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
PAGAN_old
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2006
Location: Capital of the Evil Empire
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 17:29
Link
i tried spybot once, it ended up screwing up my system. now that i think of it, many antiviruses screwd up my system. sure i proboly had a system full of viruses but it was working fine, never froze up or anything, didnt show signs of any problems or anything. as soon as installed an AV immediatley my computer becomes insanley slow, buggy and BSODs. Then again, AVs are for perventing viruses not for destroying them. sometimes ignorance is bliss

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 18:14 Edited at: 10th Dec 2010 18:24
Link
Quote: "That's the one"


Thanks. Installed, updated and run.

It found a few things but nothing recent and I'm still getting the Norton messages about blocking attacks. In fact the main thing it complained about was a registry cleaner I tried a couple of years ago.

I don't know wheher Spybot has stopped the random web pages appearing - there weren't any today either before or after so it's hard to tell yet.

Edit Here's the info that Norton records about a typical "attack" - these happen several times a day on this machine.

Attachments

Login to view attachments
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Benjamin
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Nov 2002
Location: France
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 20:06 Edited at: 10th Dec 2010 20:06
Link
I'd recommend doing a scan with Ad-Aware and Avast! if you're getting many false positives with your current AV.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 20:41
Link
I've just uninstalled Ad-Aware today as it happens.

For some reason it wouldn't work - but I've used it successfully in the past. Perhaps my latest Ad-Aware download was corrupt? I'll try again.

Quote: "if you're getting many false positives with your current AV"


How can you tell? I'm only getting those alerts on one machine - which happens to be the same machine that was getting the random web pages popping up I mentioned earlier. Coincidence or unrelated?
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Phaelax
DBPro Master
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 10th Dec 2010 22:10
Link
Quote: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\"


Check that location in your registry and see if any DLLs with random names are listed, likely to be located in the Windows directory.

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 11th Dec 2010 00:27
Link
Just checked and there's virtually nothing there - the main entry is something called Adobe ARM and all the files look OK, i.e. AcrobatUpdater etc.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 11th Dec 2010 15:28
Link
What you're seeing is your firewall blocking traffic into your computer. It's totally normal and nothing you can do about it (except run a firewall like you're already doing)

[center]
Join the TGC Group!
http://tehcodez.groups.live.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 11th Dec 2010 17:28
Link
Quote: "It's totally normal "


I hope you're right.

Odd that what is "normal" is happening on only one of our three machines though, don't you think? But then it is the only XP machine - the other two are Vista and Windows 7.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 11th Dec 2010 19:56 Edited at: 11th Dec 2010 20:15
Link
Do you have the firewall running on the other computers?

Hmm, it looks like it's coming from server port 447 (generally the port assigned to https communication), so maybe your laptop is initiating the communication and your firewall's blocking it. Could be a virus on your laptop.

[center]
Join the TGC Group!
http://tehcodez.groups.live.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 11th Dec 2010 20:59
Link
Quote: "so maybe your laptop is initiating the communication"


So why is the IP address different?

Quote: "Could be a virus on your laptop"


Any other way of finding it? It's what I've suspected all along.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Phaelax
DBPro Master
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 12th Dec 2010 09:59
Link
Quote: "But then it is the only XP machine - the other two are Vista and Windows 7. "

Shouldn't matter. If someone is trying to establish an incoming connection to your PC, they wouldn't know what OS you have. At least not until a connection is made.

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
bitJericho
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 12th Dec 2010 13:22
Link
Well you're making me think. Your router is performing NAT translation. Here's why it's only affecting your laptop, your laptop is the one initiating the communication. In your screenshot, your laptop chooses random port 2237 to communicate with IP 193.27.232.72 port 443 (traditionally the port used for https communication, but really it could be for any type of communication). The server replies from port 443 to your public ip assigned to port 2237, and your router knows that port 2237 was started by your laptop and forwards the packet to your laptop (this is PAT, port address translation, which is a subset of NAT, network address translation) See here for more info.

To me, it looks like you're trying to visit an https site at that ip address and your firewall is blocking this communication.

My bet is that if you're not browsing the internet at this time, that it's likely a virus causing this issue. If you are browsing the internet at this time, it could be something on the website you're browsing that's starting communication with this IP address.

By running an IP lookup I found that it's a russian IP address owned by an ISP.

http://www.whatismyip.com/tools/ip-address-lookup.asp

Pop in the IP to that site and it gives you some info.

Since it's a russian IP, I doubt it's being called during legitimate website calls, though it's still possible.

It's more likely there's software on your pc automatically calling out to that IP, which is either a virus or some other nasty thing.

My verdict since you can't kill it, wipe XP and reinstall, or ubuntu (if that's an option for you) and pretty much not worry about viruses ever again.

[center]
Join the TGC Group!
http://tehcodez.groups.live.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 12th Dec 2010 15:51 Edited at: 12th Dec 2010 15:52
Link
Quote: "If you are browsing the internet at this time, it could be something on the website you're browsing that's starting communication with this IP address."


It happens when I'm just browsing this site like now and when I'm not browsing at all like earlier today.

Quote: "By running an IP lookup I found that it's a russian IP address owned by an ISP."


Yes, I noticed that when I checked a while back. I blame RUSSIA.

Quote: "My verdict since you can't kill it, wipe XP and reinstall"


I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. I'll send Norton all the details and see what they have to say. I tried once before but didn't get a helpful response - probably because they have a policy of not opening screenshots. I'll try typing out all the details. Thanks for your advice and help.

It's just happened again while I've been typing this message:



Attachments

Login to view attachments
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2025-05-30 07:32:20
Your offset time is: 2025-05-30 07:32:20