WinMX causing my new PC problems

[Riceloft]

Ok.  I just built myself a brand new PC about 2 weeks ago.  I'm running a Core 2 Duo intel processor, 8800GTS video card, 600W PSU.

I have 2 Hard Drives.  Both 320GB.  One has XP installed.  The other has a 60GB partition with Vista installed, and a 2nd partition which is where I'm directing all downloads and store my other music.  I'm running winmx from Windows XP Pro SP2, fully updated.

Now, the only other software that I've added thats running all the time is AVG AntiVirus Free Edition.

I generally run WinMX overnight, so I'm not sucking down bandwidth during the day.  Whenever I leave WinMX on though, I wake up to some strange issues.  First, I get all kinds of errors from AVG.  No programs are fully functional.  Like I'll open My computer, and the window will pop up, but it sits there with the search light forever.  I can use the shut down/reset buttons and restart that way, and then everything works fine.  But no applications work otherwise.  Its almost as if my hard drive has stopped, and the computer is running off of whats still stored in memory.

When I boot the machine back up, and open WinMX, it makes me go through the winMX setup process all over again.  Choosing a name, connection speed, etc.  No settings are stored.  I've rebooted more than a few times since i origionally had WinMX installed, and that changes nothing as far as this.  EVERY TIME I have to go through the installation settings again.

So far I've tried turning off the automatic scanning schedule on AVG and stopping every other piece of software from starting with my PC.

My previous PC also had XP Pro on it, and basically everything was set up the same way, and WinMX worked perfectly.  I didn't have Service Pack 2, and otherwise the hardware is the only difference here.


Help?

[KM]

are you running mxmonitor? if so try leaving it on overnight without it see if that's causing the problem (if it is then this patch from microsoft might help)

failing that, try leaving the computer on without winmx running - that would confirm if it is winmx related, or something else on the system

[Riceloft]

I have left the PC on without WinMX, and it doesn't happen.  I'm not using Mxmonitor.

[KM]

are you running winmx with a primary or secondary connection?

[Bearded Blunder]

With regard to what KM said about MxMonitor, the same applies to leechammer, for the same reasons & has the same solution.

with regard to the setup wiz running every startup..I've run across something like this myself in the past, the solution that worked for me was actually quite simple, open the winmx program folder (winmx closed) & DELETE the file settings.dat, then start up.. the setup wiz will run, but hopefully just the one last time, having created a brand new copy..
with luck next time it doesn't run, some circumstances such as crashes seem to corrupt it sometimes & cause this.

[Riceloft]

are you running winmx with a primary or secondary connection?

Secondary connection.  I'm not running any 3rd party apps with WinMX, mxm or otherwise.

I'll try your suggestion for the setup wiz issue portion.

[Lagerlout666]

Also fresh installs aint always that bright. Ive just done a fresh install of xp pro and i was having shut down problems.

After a quick scan using sfc /scannow it fixed it and al worked well.

To do the scan is simple:

Click start,
Click run
type:       sfc /scannow       or copy and paste that if ya lazy like i did lol.
You will need your XP disk or the I386 folder stored on your computer.(disk is best, i just save my I386 folder as i always seem to need the disk when i cant rememebr where ive put it lol)

Basicly what that does is scans all the crytical files on the computer, making sure they are in their original form i.e undamaged, and checks them off against new updates and the disk versions, Its a handy thing to do say monthly as part of yout routine maintanance and very little documented on.

This cured my new installation blues an hopefully it might cure yours. An cant do any harm to rule out XP being mis installed

[SamSeeSam]

Mabyr avg might be preventing winmx from making the settings.dat somehow. or mabye deleting the settings.dat for some reason
Disable AVG for a test and see if it helps.

Also check if that file is there in your winmx folder.

Cheers

[Riceloft]

Well, I've already tried disabling AVG's updater and daily scanner.  Tonight I'm gonna try just completely killing AVG.

I ran that sfc /scannow ... nothing.  I also disabled my screen saver.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

[Bearded Blunder]

if Killing AVG does the trick Avast! is a good alternative..

if not run online virus scan (in case something slipped past or compromised AVG) & something like spybot or adaware to look for non viral malware to see if anything odd turns up, you might also consider some windows & registry checking utilities, sfc is good as far as it goes, but third party utilities often find things windows ones missed.

[Riceloft]

I can say with 100% certainty that it isn't virus or spyware related.

I've had the PC for 2 weeks, and have not installed any software that I didn't have on my last PC, nor have I visited any sites that I hadn't been to on my previous PC.

[Bearded Blunder]

I couldn't say the same thing with total certainty in your situation, unless you can tell me the content of all those sites has also not changed at all in that time.. (which would beg the question why are you going back?)

however, assuming for now that checking reveals nothing, that still leaves my other suggestion that you check out the windows installation with some 3rd party tools, i know from personal experience that windows frequently installs with errors, as occasionally do service packs and updates..

[Riceloft]

I figured it out.

The day I set up my PC, I was installing the drivers for my motherboard.  I decided to check out the "Tools" they offered as well.  One of them is the Gigabyte "C.O.M." tool.  "Computer Online Management" I believe it stands for.  It required me to install Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and had some app running in the background.  I looked at it, and decided that I'd uninstall it (and SNMP) after I was done configuring everything else.

Well, I forgot.  I uninstalled both last night, and all is well.

As far as saying with certainty, its because I ran scans the day after it first happened, which found nothing.  I also ran HijackThis!, which found nothing.  I haven't had any significant (read: non tracking cookie) spyware or virus on any system I've been the only one using in over a year and a half.