Thanks guys. Fairly new install of XP wrecked by installing Charity Engine; thunderbird wrecked, dreamweaver wrecked, winamp wreaked, open office wrecked.
Great idea. Implementation FUBAR. Chances of re-installing none.
Don't tell me - my fault for installing beta software?
Can you describe exactly what happened? The software (BOINC) is currently running on over 200k PCs without any trouble. It's fully sandboxed too, so it cannot affect - or even see - any other programs or files on your PC.
The BOINC software at the core of Charity Engine has been around for a decade and has been used by some 2 million users. It also runs sequestered in its own small corner of your filesystem and does not have access to the rest of your system.
If your entire system has been destroyed, I'd suggest the more likely culprit is either a catastrophic hardware failure or an awful virus.
o maybe a dogie install of XP -.- odds of charity engine screwing up and full system are tiny (e.g iv never heard of it hapening)
now it it possible
1.the computer has beed stressed to much and caused a failure of a system
2.doggie download of XP with a virus
3. you installed something else with a virus
4. youve been naughty and not bought an antivirus (there not to expencive and id recommend kaspersky at £15 a year for 1 computer
but honistly id put it down to a hardware failure due to the fact that its very rare to get a virus that makes a system unusable as that defeats the purpose of most viruses
If you do need help theres always 1-3 of us on here every couple of hours and in most cases with me all day as i get the email alerts buzzing on my phone every time a comments made
My XP install is about 2 months old and was peachy until CE was installed.
I run avast anti virus and comodo firewall, both free but auto updated and never previously caused any problem.
dreamweaver cs5 will not now load at all, giving errors on start up so I'll need to reinstall it.
thunderbird now repeatedly downloads duplicate messages from one of my servers
xp logon at start up scared me afer installing CE and didn't disappear after uninstalling CE. I've now manually deleted the new users so problem should be resolved.
Around 5 times, while CE was installed, different simple actions (moving files, opening documents etc.) locked at 50% cpu usage and everything else stopped responding. Since uninstalling CE this has not happened again.
There is no way on God's green Earth that a BOINC install can make thunderbird download duplicate messages. Or mess with any other user files, for that matter.
Your machine is messed up, true enough. And the clue is 'XP logon' which has apparently not disappeared after uninstalling Charity Engine?
Reason it's a clue: Charity Engine doesn't change your xp logon in any way. Therefore, something else did.
it sounds to me like the system was bottle necking with CE running but just to make sure its not a virus id go to here first
http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/virusscanner
its a free download and in my opinion much much better than Avast (sorry but i really dont like them)
if that dosnt detect any viruses id look at checking your harddrive for problems (CE sometimes picks up harddrives just before they start to fail the SMART check using something like seatools from seagate would tell you if theres any problems with the harddrives or if you know the maker of the harddrive try there website for diagnostic tools.
also CE will not make any new user profiles at all its not got the security clearnce to do it nor does it have the programing to do it.
hope some of this helps but with dreamweaver not running at all somethings either in your PC or going wrong with you PC as CE can not affect any other programs at all it dosnt even change setting the ONLY main setting CE can change is the screen saver
What kind of hardware are we dealing with, here? It's possible that the hard disk is on its way out (as vm1990 is alluding to, as well). It sounds like your filesystem may be corrupt, which is not uncommon with a failing disk. CE is not terribly disk intensive, though, so it would be a loose correlation.
CE is primarily going to tax your processor, but processors are by far the most durable component of a computer, so it may be that the increase in heat output from the processor is bringing to light underlying disk or motherboard issues. Has it been especially hot where you are as well in that past month or so?
Just like exercise (especially on a hot day) can bring out hidden health problems in a person who isn't regularly active, CE could be stressing your computer just enough to make underlying symptoms appear.
"Charity Engine doesn't change your xp logon in any way" 2 users were added when CE was installed both named boinc [SOMETHING]. These having been added made XP ask me to log on at start up. The users were not removed by uninstall but have now been removed manually.
Mark and vm1990 both say users should not have been added but they were, with boinc names. What gives?
It's not been hot here unfortunately. I'm running an intel core 2 duo processor with 2 gig ram. I'll run a full disk and virus scan and get back with info.
I have not installed on Windows XP in a few years the BOINC software which Charity Engine is based upon. I ran it for over 6 years on my XP machine and ran into little issues here and there, but it always was fixed with updating another part of my computer. Some of my thoughts about this specific issues are as followed:
The additional users created if my memory is serving me correctly is an expected behavior when the 'application execution preveition' in the installation is used (Charity Engine uses this method) two low permission accounts are created. The additional accounts are described here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/ClientSetupLogicWinSix
If you initially only had one user account on the machine and had the auto login enabled you would not noticed these other accounts. After installing it is likely that Windows XP default behavior to ask you to sign in was invoked as a second account was present. The auto login to your account I believe could be enabled in preferences. While the wrecked programs have not been reported before.
The double download in thunderbird is a known behavior of POP3 method of downloading email files... if you use POP3 instead of IMAP the double download can happen. Off the top of my head I do not remember the way to resolve this.
As for the remainder of the issues a repair installation of OpenOffice, Winamp, and Dreamweaver may resolve these errors. Tristan's theory of hardware failure, file corruption, or virus seem in line with the symptoms.
Kapersky full scan found no computer protection problems, no malware, 8 "vulnerabilities" and 11 "other issues". The predictable solution to all these unspecified woes is to buy their software. Which I am not going to do.
I have re installed dreamweaver, which now seems to work correctly. I've followed instructions to stop Thunderbird downloading all my messages again and, thus far, it seems to be working.
So. All the responses I've had to this have basically said "our software is perfect, the problem is with your machine". Thanks.
Iain, I do sympathise - and no software is perfect - but BOINC is working fine on over 200,000 other PCs. Has done for many years now, that's why we use it for CE.
Your PC is indeed reporting very strange behaviour, so let's see if we can help you find the cause. I recommend you try these free scanners first (each can catch malware the others miss):
Thanks guys. Fairly new install of XP wrecked by installing Charity Engine; thunderbird wrecked, dreamweaver wrecked, winamp wreaked, open office wrecked.
Great idea. Implementation FUBAR. Chances of re-installing none.
Don't tell me - my fault for installing beta software?
Can you describe exactly what happened? The software (BOINC) is currently running on over 200k PCs without any trouble. It's fully sandboxed too, so it cannot affect - or even see - any other programs or files on your PC.
The BOINC software at the core of Charity Engine has been around for a decade and has been used by some 2 million users. It also runs sequestered in its own small corner of your filesystem and does not have access to the rest of your system.
If your entire system has been destroyed, I'd suggest the more likely culprit is either a catastrophic hardware failure or an awful virus.
Ah, sorry for stepping on your toes, Mark!
No worries, thanks for a more comprehensive answer.
o maybe a dogie install of XP -.- odds of charity engine screwing up and full system are tiny (e.g iv never heard of it hapening)
now it it possible
1.the computer has beed stressed to much and caused a failure of a system
2.doggie download of XP with a virus
3. you installed something else with a virus
4. youve been naughty and not bought an antivirus (there not to expencive and id recommend kaspersky at £15 a year for 1 computer
but honistly id put it down to a hardware failure due to the fact that its very rare to get a virus that makes a system unusable as that defeats the purpose of most viruses
If you do need help theres always 1-3 of us on here every couple of hours and in most cases with me all day as i get the email alerts buzzing on my phone every time a comments made
My XP install is about 2 months old and was peachy until CE was installed.
I run avast anti virus and comodo firewall, both free but auto updated and never previously caused any problem.
dreamweaver cs5 will not now load at all, giving errors on start up so I'll need to reinstall it.
thunderbird now repeatedly downloads duplicate messages from one of my servers
xp logon at start up scared me afer installing CE and didn't disappear after uninstalling CE. I've now manually deleted the new users so problem should be resolved.
Around 5 times, while CE was installed, different simple actions (moving files, opening documents etc.) locked at 50% cpu usage and everything else stopped responding. Since uninstalling CE this has not happened again.
There is no way on God's green Earth that a BOINC install can make thunderbird download duplicate messages. Or mess with any other user files, for that matter.
Your machine is messed up, true enough. And the clue is 'XP logon' which has apparently not disappeared after uninstalling Charity Engine?
Reason it's a clue: Charity Engine doesn't change your xp logon in any way. Therefore, something else did.
it sounds to me like the system was bottle necking with CE running but just to make sure its not a virus id go to here first
http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/virusscanner
its a free download and in my opinion much much better than Avast (sorry but i really dont like them)
if that dosnt detect any viruses id look at checking your harddrive for problems (CE sometimes picks up harddrives just before they start to fail the SMART check using something like seatools from seagate would tell you if theres any problems with the harddrives or if you know the maker of the harddrive try there website for diagnostic tools.
also CE will not make any new user profiles at all its not got the security clearnce to do it nor does it have the programing to do it.
hope some of this helps but with dreamweaver not running at all somethings either in your PC or going wrong with you PC as CE can not affect any other programs at all it dosnt even change setting the ONLY main setting CE can change is the screen saver
What kind of hardware are we dealing with, here? It's possible that the hard disk is on its way out (as vm1990 is alluding to, as well). It sounds like your filesystem may be corrupt, which is not uncommon with a failing disk. CE is not terribly disk intensive, though, so it would be a loose correlation.
CE is primarily going to tax your processor, but processors are by far the most durable component of a computer, so it may be that the increase in heat output from the processor is bringing to light underlying disk or motherboard issues. Has it been especially hot where you are as well in that past month or so?
Just like exercise (especially on a hot day) can bring out hidden health problems in a person who isn't regularly active, CE could be stressing your computer just enough to make underlying symptoms appear.
"Charity Engine doesn't change your xp logon in any way" 2 users were added when CE was installed both named boinc [SOMETHING]. These having been added made XP ask me to log on at start up. The users were not removed by uninstall but have now been removed manually.
Mark and vm1990 both say users should not have been added but they were, with boinc names. What gives?
It's not been hot here unfortunately. I'm running an intel core 2 duo processor with 2 gig ram. I'll run a full disk and virus scan and get back with info.
That's bizarre. So you ended up with three xp users (admin, + two called boinc)?
.Yep that's right
I have not installed on Windows XP in a few years the BOINC software which Charity Engine is based upon. I ran it for over 6 years on my XP machine and ran into little issues here and there, but it always was fixed with updating another part of my computer. Some of my thoughts about this specific issues are as followed:
The additional users created if my memory is serving me correctly is an expected behavior when the 'application execution preveition' in the installation is used (Charity Engine uses this method) two low permission accounts are created. The additional accounts are described here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/ClientSetupLogicWinSix
If you initially only had one user account on the machine and had the auto login enabled you would not noticed these other accounts. After installing it is likely that Windows XP default behavior to ask you to sign in was invoked as a second account was present. The auto login to your account I believe could be enabled in preferences. While the wrecked programs have not been reported before.
The double download in thunderbird is a known behavior of POP3 method of downloading email files... if you use POP3 instead of IMAP the double download can happen. Off the top of my head I do not remember the way to resolve this.
As for the remainder of the issues a repair installation of OpenOffice, Winamp, and Dreamweaver may resolve these errors. Tristan's theory of hardware failure, file corruption, or virus seem in line with the symptoms.
Thanks Jon. My XP install always worked as you describe, so I never noticed that.
Sorry for previous wrong answer, Iain - guess the moral here is 'leave tech support to the tech team...'
*facepalm*
Kapersky full scan found no computer protection problems, no malware, 8 "vulnerabilities" and 11 "other issues". The predictable solution to all these unspecified woes is to buy their software. Which I am not going to do.
I have re installed dreamweaver, which now seems to work correctly. I've followed instructions to stop Thunderbird downloading all my messages again and, thus far, it seems to be working.
So. All the responses I've had to this have basically said "our software is perfect, the problem is with your machine". Thanks.
Iain, I do sympathise - and no software is perfect - but BOINC is working fine on over 200,000 other PCs. Has done for many years now, that's why we use it for CE.
Your PC is indeed reporting very strange behaviour, so let's see if we can help you find the cause. I recommend you try these free scanners first (each can catch malware the others miss):
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
Ad-aware (the free version)
Nope, my PC was reporting strange behaviour, now that I've removed CE it's working fine again. Problem solved.