Recently, after resuming my Vista laptop from hibernation, I was greeted with a rather strange wait, followed by a blue screen of death. Analysis of the dump yielded the following:
THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (ea)
The device driver is spinning in an infinite loop, most likely waiting for hardware to become idle. This usually indicates problem with the hardware itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly.
If the kernel debugger is connected and running when watchdog detects a timeout condition then DbgBreakPoint() will be called instead of KeBugCheckEx()and detailed message including bugcheck arguments will be printed to the
debugger. This way we can identify an offending thread, set breakpoints in it, and hit go to return to the spinning code to debug it further. Because KeBugCheckEx() is not called the .bugcheck directive will not return bugcheck
information in this case. The arguments are already printed out to the kernel debugger. You can also retrieve them from a global variable via
"dd watchdog!g_WdBugCheckData l5" (use dq on NT64).
On MP machines (OS builds <= 3790) it is possible to hit a timeout when the spinning thread is interrupted by hardware interrupt and ISR or DPC routine is running at the time of the bugcheck (this is because the timeout's work item can be delivered and handled on the second CPU and the same time). If this is the case you will have to look deeper at the offending thread's stack (e.g. using dds) to determine spinning code which caused the timeout to occur.
Arguments:
Arg1: 870246b8, Pointer to a stuck thread object. Do .thread then kb on it to find the hung location.
Arg2: 00000000, Pointer to a DEFERRED_WATCHDOG object.
Arg3: 00000000, Pointer to offending driver name.
Arg4: 00000000, Number of times this error occurred. If a debugger is attached, this error is not always fatal -- see DESCRIPTION below. On the blue screen, this will always equal 1. Debugging Details:
------------------
PEB is paged out (Peb.Ldr = 7ffd800c). Type ".hh dbgerr001" for details
PEB is paged out (Peb.Ldr = 7ffd800c). Type ".hh dbgerr001" for details
FAULTING_THREAD: 870246b8
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: GRAPHICS_DRIVER_FAULT
BUGCHECK_STR: 0xEA
PROCESS_NAME: Ati2evxx.exe
CURRENT_IRQL: 0
LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 89c2a825 to 81cace97
STACK_TEXT:
a53d7704 89c2a825 000000ea 870246b8 00000000 nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x1e
a53d7748 89c22bfa a53d7794 00000000 89c1d786 dxgkrnl!TdrTimedOperationBugcheckOnTimeout+0x2b
a53d7770 8b5785dc a53d7794 00000000 00000000 dxgkrnl!TdrTimedOperationDelay+0xc9
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
a53d77c0 8b576468 8b670040 a53d785c ffffffff atikmdag+0x255dc
a53d77dc 8b66782c 861bd000 a53d77f8 00000014 atikmdag+0x23468
a53d7838 8b670101 86a58008 8b670040 a53d785c atikmdag+0x11482c
a53d7868 8b6cd9da 8685b0e8 00000000 00000001 atikmdag+0x11d101
a53d7888 8b59f159 88340000 00000000 00000001 atikmdag+0x17a9da
a53d78a8 8b59505c 86a58000 86a61974 00000000 atikmdag+0x4c159
a53d78dc 8b5973e3 00000000 86a611e0 00000001 atikmdag+0x4205c
a53d7904 8b5b3be0 00000001 00000001 00000001 atikmdag+0x443e3
a53d7960 8b5b80ab 86a58000 00000000 00000001 atikmdag+0x60be0
a53d7980 8b58e38d 86a58000 a53d799c a53d7ba0 atikmdag+0x650ab
a53d79b8 8b554e80 86a58000 a53d7ba0 00000030 atikmdag+0x3b38d
a53d79dc 8b55a7de a53d7ba0 00000030 a53d7bd4 atikmdag+0x1e80
a53d7a00 8b55af33 0011000e 00000030 a53d7bd4 atikmdag+0x77de
a53d7a24 8b56bdeb 00000030 a53d7ba0 00000000 atikmdag+0x7f33
a53d7a54 8b56bf8a 00000000 a53d7b1c a53d7ba0 atikmdag+0x18deb
a53d7a74 89c4a7b2 8640a648 a53d7ab4 000000b8 atikmdag+0x18f8a
a53d7a94 89c4a455 a53d7ab4 a5b4b811 0012e910 dxgkrnl!DXGADAPTER::DdiEscape+0x3b
a53d7d38 81c4607a 0012e910 0012e94c 77940f34 dxgkrnl!DxgkEscape+0x4af
a53d7d38 77940f34 0012e910 0012e94c 77940f34 nt!KiFastCallEntry+0x12a
0012e94c 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0x77940f34
STACK_COMMAND: .thread 0xffffffff870246b8 ; kb
FOLLOWUP_IP:
dxgkrnl!TdrTimedOperationBugcheckOnTimeout+2b
89c2a825 cc int 3
SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 1
SYMBOL_NAME: dxgkrnl!TdrTimedOperationBugcheckOnTimeout+2b
FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner
MODULE_NAME: dxgkrnl
IMAGE_NAME: dxgkrnl.sys
DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 46899fd6
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0xEA_IMAGE_dxgkrnl.sys
BUCKET_ID: 0xEA_IMAGE_dxgkrnl.sys
Followup: MachineOwner
Seems that the hardware was messed up, as I had to force the laptop to power down twice during subsequent boots, in order for Vista to make it to the logon prompt.
»
Written by «/\/\Ø|ö±ò\/»®© on December 10th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on BugCheck and THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER and bsod and debugging and vista.
Written by Joe on December 10th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on and Boot and News and Performance and partition and sp1.
Earlier this month I listed the
top video games for this Christmas holiday. Now I bring to you the hottest variety of games for 2008.
This list covers various versions of video games for the PC, Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and DS some are available now in certain versions, others to be released in 2008. Some of these you can pre-order aswell (see links below).
Wii Fit
(
Wii)
Currently available only in Japan, it was launched on the 1st of December and copies were all
sold out in 2 days!
The kit features the
Wii Balance Board which enables gamers to interactively head soccer balls and ski jump while partaking in other activities like yoga and aerobics typically thought to be cigarette-free.
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Assassin's Creed (PC)
Ubisoft has done a great job of keeping Assassin's Creed in front of gamers during the run-up to its release, whether by its secrecy about the game's sci-fi storyline, its long-time silence on whether or not it would appear on the
Xbox 360, or by the somewhat controversial decision to set the game in real cities of the Middle East during the Crusades.
Ghostbusters The Video Game (PC,
Xbox 360,
PS3,
Wii, PS2,
DS)
The game will serve as a direct sequel to the first two Ghostbusters films, with Ramis, Aykroyd,
and Bill Murray all signed on to reprise their roles. When Manhattan is once again overrun by ghosts and other supernatural creatures, players will take on the role of a new recruit joining the famous Ghostbusters team.
Soul Calibur IV (
PS3,
Xbox 360)
Namco's Soul Calibur IV has a lot of hype going on. It started with the Sega Genesis release of Soul Edge. The game evolved, developing new guard breaks, tactics, a mass majority of replay value and just the overall content is a thrill. Many are looking forward to the new guest characters present for the
Xbox 360 version in comparison to the
PS3 version and the new fighting style of online gameplay.
Mario Kart (
Wii)
Mario and friends once again jump into the seat of their go-kart machines for the first
Wii
installment of this popular franchise. New features this year are an online racing mode, new motorbike vehicle types, a special balancing system for new and veteran players, and (in its initial release) a special Mario Kart wheel packaged with the game. As of now, Nintendo is still calling this a 16-player online multiplayer endeavor, and the inclusion of motorcycles is still being decided. This could be the best Mario Kart yet.
GTA IV (
PS3,
Xbox 360)
Grand Theft Auto IV The Grand Theft Auto series, which starts you off as Niko Bellic, an immigrant from Eastern Europe who was persuaded (by his cousin, Roman) to move to Liberty City in order to live the "American Dream." However, it soon becomes apparent that he was misled, and the nice life that Niko was expecting is not there...
Burnout Paradise (
PS3,
Xbox 360)
Burnout Paradise gives players license to wreak havoc in Paradise City, the ultimate racing battleground, with a massive infrastructure of traffic-heavy roads to abuse. Gone is the need to jump in and out of menus and aimlessly search for fun like many open world games; in Burnout 5, every inch of the world is built to deliver heart-stopping Burnout-style gameplay
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (
Wii)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a brawling, battling, action-packed video game that features a varied roster of characters for four-player simultaneous melees! Use your
Wii remote and Nunchuck controls to deal serious damage to your opponents and win the game! This Wii entry in the popular series features a number of new additions, including an Adventure Mode (with co-op play), a wealth of new characters and stages, and online combat for multiple players to face off against each other from anywhere!
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (
PS3,
Xbox 360,
Wii, PS2, PSP,
DS, N-Gage)
This Star Wars saga casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice", unveiling new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Fallout 3 (PC,
PS3,
Xbox 360)
Fallout 3 is set in an alternate future, where the imagined nuclear war of the 1950s has occurred, leaving the world scarred and pockets of survivors that hid from the blasts in ‘vaults’ deep underground. The gamer plays from the first person perspective and will slowly build up special talents depending on their favoured style. Although it looks like a first person shooter in the style of Doom or Half Life 2, this is a very different animal, with accuracy dependent on the level of skill rather than the mouse ability of the player.
Resident Evil 5 (
PS3,
Xbox 360)
Your life is in danger as you strive to complete your most dangerous mission yet in a sweltering
desert colony where a new breed of evil has been unleashed. Swarms of marauding evil beings will charge at you when your pulse is racing at a heart-shattering pace. Environments will play a bigger factor than ever here, using the power of next-gen systems to create a world where terror might lurk in any alcove or shadow. Powerful lighting effects overwhelm the player with mirage movement and blinding brilliance, and even in the light of day, there is no safe haven in this Resident Evil.
Metal Gear Solid 4 (
PS3)
The game is a story-driven adventure, with seasoned hero Solid Snake drafted for one final
mission. Set across stages including the Middle East and South America, the now aged Snake has been asked to assassinate his old adversary, Liquid Ocelot. To do this, however, he must make his way through a series of battlefields, using his legendary stealth abilities and all-new OctoCamo suit to avoid detection and to reach his target.
Postal 3 (PC,
Xbox 360)
The Postal series continues in this third installment, using the Source Engine from Valve (makers of the popular Half-Life 2 game) is a action horror filled game that promises to deliver a new and advanced technical level of social satire and politically incorrect virtual violence. Yikes!
Written by PCWizKid on December 10th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Xbox 360 and console and ds and nintendo and pc games and playstation and ps3 and toys and video games and wii games and xbox live.
Trojan.Win32.agent.akk (also know as Trojan.Win32 or Trojan.Win32.Obfuscated.gx) used to be a real virus, now fake anti-spyware software like IE Defender will display Trojan.Win32.agent.akk as their scan result to trick user to buy the fake anti-spyware program. The fake anti-spyware program usually get installed onto your PC without your permission, through Trojan, malware and virus (or you could get it by installing a fake video codec). fake anti-spyware will display the Trojan.Win32.agent.akk fake system alerts or fake security alerts to trick user to buy the Paid Version of the fake anti-spyware program.
Download SpyHunter* Spyware Detection Utility
Manual Trojan.Win32.agent.akk Removal Instructions:
Unregister Trojan.Win32.agent.akk DLL Files:
(Learn how to do this)
windivx.dll
stream32a.dll
vipextqtr.dll
ecxwp.dll
Find and Delete these Trojan.Win32.agent.akk Files:
(Learn how to do this)
windivx.dll
stream32a.dll
vipextqtr.dll
ecxwp.dll
awtqqpq.dll
tufxleqe.dll
sstts.dll
nsn2B.dll
argosqaf.dll
tuvurst.dll
pmnlk.dll
fcccdbc.dll
qbbrqqde.dll
Avipra.dll
jspubsbm.dll
bpingscm.dll
VSAdd-in.dll
blopenvtok.dll
werbetxdp.dll
werbetpql.dll
blopenvtlv.dll
wvuus.dll
xxyxxwv.dll
vtuuuuu.dll
ddabc.dll
ddccawv.dll
vipextqtr.dll
prosearchsite.dll
Remove Trojan.Win32.agent.akk Registry Values:
(Learn how to do this)
7a329404de21925daacbbbee093ff6dc
bb5be1c92c299a1c6bcfe67655b0a0c7
9a9f57899a28547b04fc2da3700c95cf
7d4b39e4cab018496e2fe9bf9c3234b2
93591057eb39ad5595a7c54dd5fd787c
e06e0cb0b3756a20f13ddb2d93169f22
03d7e175712a6eff950e451a18d9ee30
05c505be23642e3b1e47bb4ae46ceb37
92905c5ce0362c7bb9dfdb4cb43fc17f
9687aa2905b44b5408ad0a4f096c67be
5f38f4ae4b183ba77968253c0f3535ea
b63686b961dc9dfda5747a9be4c690f3
e8b5519049041fc5873011b0aead14a4
2126467f121c1ffe191bbe826b21b381
d156c98b1cb9a5cf6aff715560ecdef7
03386f07b805557af3fe10d2ae47e9da
ddc6494ca6f8a20b0a0437c943ef04bb
a7b78cdc5256e7bd5224357ff5e727a7
1992b9dd72fd15434a43763134d89c75
2482fb7608d53577a51772477bda458a
2482fb7608d53577a51772477bda458a
f51df1399d591f3b741518694f9f9345
39d36d9a908aa2073344c55fc40289fb
4aaa70b2d8990ff8c003d02c3450df58
Download SpyHunter* Spyware Detection Utility.
Variant: Trojan.Win32, Trojan.Win32.agent.akk and Trojan.Win32.Obfuscated.gx
Written by Karen on December 10th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Spyware Removal.
A couple of people, dozen at max, have expressed interest in testing out the soon-to-be-public Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate release. There are many ways of installing and testing operating systems and even more so service packs so it can be rather confusing and cumbersome experience for some people out there. Out of all the possibilities, I do myself and recommend everyone to always start fresh, but that doesn’t always mean from the command prompt.
Whilst release candidate will be a very good representation of the final product early next year, it still means you’ll have to forfeit this release sooner or later so it is not recommended you replace your existing Windows installation with it. Especially with all the problems people have been running into uninstalling their service pack betas which itself sounds like a really bad idea anyway, it’s ideal to set up a fresh install. And the most convenient fresh install is on a separate partition on existing disks.
Formerly the process of ’splitting’ a partition involved third-party software which is time-consuming and sometimes unreliable, however a less-known disk management function in Windows Vista will simplify all that.
Preparing your new partitions
Step 1. Open the Computer Management tool by clicking Start and search for “computer management”.
Alternatively for the mice enthusiasts, you can right click on your “Computer” icon and click “Manage”.
Step 2. Select “Disk Management” from the left task pane.
Step 3. Select the “Volume” you want to split. You can either click on the volume name in the table or select its graph below. Ideally you would want to pick a drive that’s not your primary Windows installation with adequate free space. Here, I’ve picked my media drive (D:) where I keep all my 100% legitamate media downloads.
Step 4. Right click the volume, and click “Shrink Volume”.
Step 5. Input how much megabytes (MB) you want to remove from this partition, thus will also be how big your new partition will be. For Vista SP1, I recommend 10GB+ to allow for installing and testing suites of third-party applications.
Click “Shrink” when you’re done.
Step 6. Almost instantly your new partition (black) should be created.
You need to make it accessible by right clicking it, and clicking “New Simple Volume“.
Step 7. Click “Next” in the welcome. And you would be crazy not to maximize the new volume size. “Next” again.
Step 8. I would recommend you to assign a new drive letter to make file management easier, click “Next”.
Alternatively, you can also mount this volume to a folder path (ex. “C:\WindowsSP1\”) if you wanted to.
Step 9. It’s useful to label your new volume to something like “Vista SP1″ to make sure you don’t format the wrong drive later on. But more importantly, you want to select “Quick Format”. Even if you think you have a lot of free time, this is not time you want to waste. They didn’t invent quick format without reason. “Next” and “Next” again to confirm.
Step 10. Almost immediately again your new volume should be created. Now it’s ready to install SP1.
From here, you can either install directly using the slipstreamed ISO which is the most convenient as you’ll be installing a fresh version of Windows with SP1 already embedded. Alternatively you can also install Vista RTM and apply the executable patch or Windows Update download that way.
When you’re done, packing up is even easier.
Removing your new partition and restoring your volumes
Step 1. Open the “Computer Management” tool again and click to “Disk Management“.
Step 2. Right click on your SP1 volume and click “Delete Volume“.
Click “Yes” to confirm you want to delete the volume, but confirm this is the right volume cause there’s no undo.
Step 3. Right click the volume you want to merge with your now unallocated space, and click “Extend Volume“.
Step 4. Click “Next” in the welcome screen, and then “Next” to confirm the default choices, then “Finish” to complete.
Step 5. Now your volume should be restored to its former glory.
Written by Long Zheng on December 10th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on blog.
In the discussion of the environment variable problem, BryanK posits that the real mistake was allowing batch files to
modify their parent environment in the first place .
Instead, they should have run in a sub-process. Try saying that when your computer Read More......(
read more)
Written by The Old New Thing : History on December 10th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on History.
DioCleaner is counterfeit anti-spyware software. DioCleaner usually installed itself onto your PC without your permission, through Trojan and virus. DioCleaner will display fake system alerts or fake security alerts to trick user to buy the Paid Version of DioCleaner. (You could get DioCleaner by opening an infected message in myspace or installing infected or fake video codec)
Download SpyHunter* Spyware Detection Utility
Manual DioCleaner Removal Instructions:
Stop DioCleaner Processes:
(Learn how to do this)
DioCleaner.exe
Find and Delete these DioCleaner Files:
(Learn how to do this)
DioCleaner.exe
Remove DioCleaner Registry Values:
(Learn how to do this)
EA201C93-F34A-47A5-B65D-AA7C95068E92
2A6154EF-9718-4A2D-BCC7-CCCF9F751A0B
CD3E4611-2A72-44A8-A929-0AAF2AC14A92
C913F213-1D69-4CD2-B7BD-71BFD8C8D6B1
Download SpyHunter* Spyware Detection Utility
Written by Alex on December 10th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Spyware Removal.
Windows Vista SP1 release will be in a few days so maybe its time we knew the expected changes and hotfixes, even security changes for Windows Vista. With loads of added hardware compatibility, better system reliability, and even better performance, energy saving for laptops and a whole lot more.
- Adds support for Direct3D® 10.1, an update to Direct3D 10 that extends the API to support new hardware features.
- SP1 addresses issues many of the most common causes of crashes and hangs in Windows Vista, as reported by Windows Error Reporting. These include issues relating to Windows Calendar, Windows Media Player, and a number of drivers included with Windows Vista.
- Adds support for exFAT, a new file system supporting larger overall capacity and larger files, which will be used in Flash memory storage and consumer devices.
- Enhances support for high density drives by adding new icons and labels that will identify HD-DVD and Blu-ray Drives as high density drives.
- Improvement of power consumption and battery life.
- Improvement the speed of adding and extracting files to and from a compressed (zipped) folder.
- Improves the speed of copying files, folders, and other media.
- Improves startup and resume times when using ReadyBoost.
- Users can control which volumes the disk defragmenter runs on.
Via DownloadSquad
Written by PC Freak on December 10th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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Microsoft has released a set of documents for Vista SP1.
This is the most comprehensive amount of information released so far. There are 5 documents in total. They are:
-Deployment guide for Vista SP1
-Enterprise Guidance for Application Compatibility Testing
-Hotfixes and Security updates
-Notable Changes in Windows Vista
-Overview of Windows Vista SP1
Download and open the hotfixes document. I had no idea it would contain almost 70 pages of hotfixes. Haven't had a chance to read through the whole thing...so I am not sure if they have zapped some of my major pet peeves.
They all can be
downloaded from here
Written by Steve Wiseman on December 10th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Uncategorized.