Researchers at eEye Digital Security have built a Conficker detection software that can be installed and run on your machines and network to see if any systems are compromised or vulnerable to Conficker. Be sure you download and run this utility on your system as an extra precaution. Download the software here (http://www.eeye.com/html/downloads/other/ConfickerScanner.html)

There is no beginning or ending date identified that a system could be infected; so it’s imperitive to always have your system up to date. The most frequent time to update a system is, if not daily, then weekly. By visiting here, you can obtain a discount on BitDefender on our main site at (http://www.snapjag.com).

Microsoft, as of February 2009, is offering a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the conviction of the people that have built and distribute this virus. This is a great incentive to signal to the technical community to find out who is doing this. If we all take the initiative to find out what we can and let the authorities know, we can help make the digital community much safer, reliable, and fun.

I consider virus’ to be the graffiti of the real world. It’s sick, wrong, and dirties the environmental experience that draws so many people to the internet. If you need assistance to rid yourself of this or any other virus’, or you have any other technical computer problem, contact SnapJag and you’ll receive a discount on our services. Mention the Ad code “snapjag_av_discount15″. If we can’t help you get rid of your virus and get your system back up and running, whatever it takes, you don’t have to pay for the services. Ever! We feel that when you pay for a service, you should receive to your expectations, or you won’t be charged.

To recreate the issue, follow these instructions:
* Create a new GridView control on your page
* Set the DataSoruce to an ObjectSource control (there is more work to do here, but won’t be explained here)
* Set the GridView height to 100px (arbitrary number), or resize it in height to be at least this number; again, this is a high arbitrary number for maximum visual effect. If it’s any smaller in height, you may not see the dramatic effect.
* Add ONE and only ONE row to the ObjectSource
* You will see that the GridView vertically aligns the row to the middle of the control.

To fix the issue, do this:
* remove the Height value in the property

By default, there is no Height value so the problem doesn’t present itself. In my situation, I placed a GridView on my form inside of a Panel with a Vertical scroll on so I can scroll through the gridview rows. There are, I’m sure, other ways to accomplish this, but it was all that was required for the project.

When adding 5 or more rows to the GridView ObjectSource the rows were their optimal height and top-aligned. However, if I add 5 or less rows, the rows are expanded in height and are spread evenly across the height of the GridView. Especially when there is only one row … the row will show in the middle of the GridView vertically. I want it to be top-aligned. I tried everhthing, I changed properties, I added CSS styles and alignment attributes, but nothing changed the effect.

It dawned on me that the rows were expanding to fill the vertical height of the GridView. I checked the Height property and it was set to 88px (bolded to show that it wasn’t the default value). I changed it to 1px (again bolded, so I knew it wasn’t the default) and the problem went away. But knowing this wasn’t the default, I could possibly run in to other problems. I then assumed that a NULL Height value was the default. I erased any value in the Height property, tried it again, and it worked. I have thus left it at this value.

Lesson learned, when I created the control in the first place, I resized the GridView to fill the expanse of the Panel in it’s width and height. The Height property was set and the grid was trying to fill the height of the control automatically. An undesireable effect.

You may want this effect to exist, but just know it happens so it’s done on purpose and not by accident.

This happened to me and I wanted to do what we do best, get all the information together and provide a solution. I truly read through about 15 to 20 blogs where there were no less than 20 entries to try and find a solution. Some people supplied solutions. I tried almost all of them, but didn’t fix it, at least not my problem.

I’ve spent the night figuring out a solution to this issue. This problem has had a ton of people up in arms. There’s nothing but flaming comments for Microsoft not having a solid solution; myself included. What a sour experience. And I’m usually in a favorable mood with MS.

All because of a patch that’s gone “bonkers”. Patch article number KB938371 is the purported problem. The update is a pre-requisite hotfix, which by the way, cannot be removed once it’s installed. Even after I performed Windows updates and having restored back to the original point through the Restore Points I still had the problem.

In a few words, it has to do with the drivers, plain and simple!

There are many ways to resolve this issue, but I soved the problem through a third-party application. I purchased the DriverCure software by ParetoLogic. It immediately found low-level drivers (for the HID and USB and Bluetooth components) that were out of date including a few others; it downloaded and installed them. After rebooting the machine, my USB ports worked and the devices were active!

Now this was the easy way, but it cost me $49.00. Although I’m positive the solution can be done without cost. It might be an arduous task to go through. You’ll have to sift through all the HID devices in the Device Manager, identifying all the manufacturers, find their websites, finding the installation packages, making sure they are the latest drivers, installing them, and hoping all that was right. =)

There are other techniques too; sometimes they are more complex and not so straight forward. At SnapJag.com we want to put together solutions that are “Geek Speek to Plain Talk”(TM) threads.

I’m no noobie but I like giving support to people offering a solid, simple solution even if it might cost a few dollars without much headache. If you’re up for trying on your own, then follow the instructions at this link.

• Workaround for dead USB ports in Vista after update

Another article vaguely refers to this issue here.

Summary

I’m very confident of this solution because I bought the laptop brand new from Costco on Saturday, and I immediately started working on the computer. And everything worked. I performed the updates and started having the problems. I restored back to the original Restore Point but the problems still existed.

My new computer make and model is a HP Pavilion dv7-1273cl Entertainment PC with the following specifications:

• 500 GB (5400 RPM)
• 4 GB Ram
• Duo Core Intel Centrino
• 17″ HD display
• Blu-Ray DVD+-/CD+-RW
• Bluetooth and Wireless LAN
• Windows Vista Home Premium

Problem

I haven’t had my USB devices since my computer drivers update. I could certainly use the touchpad on the laptop, but I am a programmer and DBA and need to work fast. So using an external mouse (either corded or bluetooth) is essential but totally useless.

HP has nice registration and setup screens that I went through in about 10 minutes. I decided to turn off the pre-instaled Norton Security and install my favorite BitDefender. I did that. Then, my curiosity got the better of me, and this is when all heck broke lose … I bought two Blu-ray discs at Costco (since this is my first Blu-ray player) and would watch them while I setup them machine. The DVD player came up and said that the firmware, software, or some-rather-annoying message appeared. I decided the next step was to update the system. So, I did a Windows update and sought a repair of the DVD problem. About 20 updates were available, and I ran throught those.

Let me say at this point that as of right now, 12 hours later, I haven’t revisted the issue about the Blu-ray. But can’t fix it still. Will work on and provide a solution if others are having the same problem. =(

After restarting the machine and finishing the updates my external Microsoft miniature mouse wouldn’t work. I thought that was odd. Now and again I would turn off the wireless so I didn’t have any compromises while installing virus protection and had seen initialially that the Wireless and Bluetooth statement would appear in the bubble that would appear because of toggling them off and on. But now I didn’t see those either. It’s as if the Bluetooth and the USB interfaces and shut off. Which in actuality, they had done.

Solution

I used DriverCure from ParetoSoft and it found the underlying drivers that according to Microsoft were up todate, but because Microsoft keeps a different versioning system than the vendors, it appears to be bassackwards.

I understand it costs money to use ParetoSoft to find and correct the problem. But it was the best $40 I’ve spent because I could move on and get work done without having to individually investigate, find, and install each of the 25 driver inconsistencies.

The delete key would execute when pressing Print Screen, a Screen Snapshot would occur if pressing the Up Arrow key. And more.

I checked out the System/Preferences/Keyboard Shortcuts, but nothing there was wrong. After some frustration, I finally solved the problem. Having checked in System/Preferences/Keyboard, I found that my Layout was not set correctly. I happen to have a DELL keyboard, and  decided to go through the following steps for a successful resolution:

1. Access from the menu System/Preferences/Keyboard
2. Choose “Generic” vendor
3. Select “Evdev-managed keyboard”
4. Click OK
5. Logout and log back in
6. Confirm it’s working by pressing the Up Arrow key.

This worked for me. I hope this helps for you.

Just a little while ago, I’m not quite sure when, I started to experience a problem when where when I upload the changes and the progress reaches between 5 or 50 files, out of hundreds, the upload stalls. I either use my website publishing software or straightforward FTP client and I have the same results. This has been very frustrating because I haven’t been able to upload my own or any of my clients websites.

I contacted my hosting company without improvement. I also contacted my internet provider without improvement.

I decided to take the Linksys WRT54GS router out of the equation and hardwire to it and voila. It worked uploading the entire site. Listed below are the attributes of the wireless router and equipment.

• MacBook with MAC OS 10.4
• WRT54GS Wireless Router
  • Firmware version: 7.50.2 (get updates here)
  • Rest from hard-reset (pressing the Reset button in the back for more than 10 seconds)
  • Connect to the router (http://192.16.1.1)
  • Supply at least the Router Name
  • No other changes except clicking on the DHCP Renew to be able to connect to the internet through hard-wire.
  • Wireless has been disabled temporarily.
• Secure FTP or Filezilla

I took a number of steps to resolve the issue and find out what is going wrong. Here’s what I eventually figured out.

First, GoDaddy.com was broken. When I called them, they denied anything being wrong. A few days later. It was working.

Second, I swapped out my WRT54GS for a Mac Airport. Awesome! If you haven’t changed to a Mac Airport wireless N, you’re missing out!!

Find and Replace

A friend of mine offered to replace the sensor at Bank 1 Sensor 1 and I took his offer. So he replaced it, we disconnected the battery and the check engine light went off for about a day; then it came back on. After another couple of months of procrastination, I went to Autozone and had them check the computer codes. The code results where these (to see the descriptions click here):

• P0036, and
• P0141

This time, it was Bank 1 Sensor 2 O2 Sensor. Unfortunately though, Autozone didn’t have it in stock. In fact, their vendors didn’t even have it in stock. So, being the computer guru I am, I’ve headed to the internet to find the part. A couple of places that I’ve been successful at are these:

1. www.rockauto.com
2. www.autobarn.net

These are two great places that I found what I was looking for. I’ll return to these sites soon enough. Of course don’t forget to visit this site to get some discounts.

So, what happened!?

I read in a forum where a guy found that his harness was dangling from the lower part of his car and instead of trying to reattach it he bought a new O2 Sensor and harness and installed it. Thinking to myself, I’m going to see what mine looks like. Low and behold, I see a slight crimp in my harness wire where months previously, while traveling to Sun Valley, Idaho, from Salt Lake City, I had hit something in the road. I had no idea what it was and never found it. But it sounded big. I stopped on the side of the road and the “thing” had pulled a portion of my bumper off the back of the car. Ouch. I reattached it because it was the little “clip plugs” and all was well.

But now I know why my light came on a few days later. The “thing” had hit the O2 Sensor harness and having revealed the wires under the sheath, I found that some of the wires were oxidized. Time to replace the Bank 1 Sensor 2 O2 Sensor.