Electrofreak
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 1,080
Hi guys. I'm a Computer Science student and I do computer repair in my spare time.
I've run into a problem and I'm stumped. Maybe one of you guys will be able to figure this out.
A client came to me with a laptop that has a strange issue. He's been using Vista Service Pack 1 and IE7 and when he downloads any kind of binary file, after the download completes, it tells him the download is corrupt. IE won't allow any ActiveX controls to be downloaded, even after you allow a control to run. It fails silently, with no error message.
First thing I did was clear out the temp files, update him to IE8 and point him towards Firefox. Firefox will download files, but certain files (such as a manual download of the ActiveX control I was looking for) still refuse to run, stating the file is corrupt. I downloaded the file (which is used for Facebook.com's photo album creation) from a different source, and still no go. And this was attempted with both the updated IE8 and Firefox 3.5
OK, so maybe it's bad RAM? I did an extensive test of his RAM and came back with no errors. I scanned his hard drive, (nothing but a few orphaned files), defragmented his drive (was only at 2%), scanned for viruses and malware (finding 4 fairly common malware files), ran SFC scan, scanned and error-checked the registry, uninstalled his out-of-date McAffee that had run out of its subscription, and installed AVG.
AVG refuses to download updates. And this is on my own wired network. It provides an error message which is it's own version of "corrupt file" that fails every time. I even reinstalled AVG and it persisted. The customer reported that his iTunes won't update either.
I upgraded him to Vista Service Pack 2, downloading the standalone file and running it without any issues through Firefox. Now why would this work? Firefox will download and run the ActiveX Controls automatically, but wouldn't do it when I did a manual download, with a corrupt file error. IE still refuses to, and any 3rd party application that downloads updates fails.
Repair install of Vista isn't really an option since the OEM Gateway Vista CD has the feature disabled, and the client doesn't want a clean install performed.
Google hasn't helped me much; all the threads that describe this issue have been dead ends, and the people posting them have all posted obvious "solutions" such as bad RAM, bad router, etc. I know my network is just fine... this problem is PC-specific.
Then I decided to try activating the ActiveX Installer service (disabled by default in Vista), and it isn't on the list of Add/Remove Windows Features where it should be. Strange. I figured that the reason Firefox can install ActiveX controls automatically through the browser is because of some integrated ActiveX installer, while IE would have to use the Windows AxInstallService. This would also explain why a manual download of the control and attempt to run it would fail, but doesn't explain why an automatic download of the control fails silently in IE, an automatic download of the control succeeds in Firefox, and a manual download of the control in either IE or Firefox produces a corrupt file error. I think the only reason regular file downloads like the Vista SP2 file succeed is because of Firefox's download manager. If a download manager is not involved, Windows will always report that any file downloaded is corrupt. For example, I can use Firefox to manually download the AVG virus definition and install it, but the AVG updater cannot successfully download and install the definition file, and for that matter, neither can IE.
Not sure what to tell my client at this time other than, "you're going to need a fresh Vista install." I get this strange feeling that this is some sort of local PC network settings or port issue, but I can't find anything wrong. I've updated the NIC driver and there are no device problems. I don't have any duplicate devices or anything like that. Maybe it has something to do with a Windows file checksum issue?
So, assume that I'm not an idiot, I've been doing computer troubleshooting and repair for a few years now, and unless I missed something glaringly obvious (which I don't believe I have) then there's something more complicated going on here that I'm overlooking. I've even done a few things out of desperation, like a winsock fix, reset all services to default settings, and double-checked for missing service dependencies.
I've run into a problem and I'm stumped. Maybe one of you guys will be able to figure this out.
A client came to me with a laptop that has a strange issue. He's been using Vista Service Pack 1 and IE7 and when he downloads any kind of binary file, after the download completes, it tells him the download is corrupt. IE won't allow any ActiveX controls to be downloaded, even after you allow a control to run. It fails silently, with no error message.
First thing I did was clear out the temp files, update him to IE8 and point him towards Firefox. Firefox will download files, but certain files (such as a manual download of the ActiveX control I was looking for) still refuse to run, stating the file is corrupt. I downloaded the file (which is used for Facebook.com's photo album creation) from a different source, and still no go. And this was attempted with both the updated IE8 and Firefox 3.5
OK, so maybe it's bad RAM? I did an extensive test of his RAM and came back with no errors. I scanned his hard drive, (nothing but a few orphaned files), defragmented his drive (was only at 2%), scanned for viruses and malware (finding 4 fairly common malware files), ran SFC scan, scanned and error-checked the registry, uninstalled his out-of-date McAffee that had run out of its subscription, and installed AVG.
AVG refuses to download updates. And this is on my own wired network. It provides an error message which is it's own version of "corrupt file" that fails every time. I even reinstalled AVG and it persisted. The customer reported that his iTunes won't update either.
I upgraded him to Vista Service Pack 2, downloading the standalone file and running it without any issues through Firefox. Now why would this work? Firefox will download and run the ActiveX Controls automatically, but wouldn't do it when I did a manual download, with a corrupt file error. IE still refuses to, and any 3rd party application that downloads updates fails.
Repair install of Vista isn't really an option since the OEM Gateway Vista CD has the feature disabled, and the client doesn't want a clean install performed.
Google hasn't helped me much; all the threads that describe this issue have been dead ends, and the people posting them have all posted obvious "solutions" such as bad RAM, bad router, etc. I know my network is just fine... this problem is PC-specific.
Then I decided to try activating the ActiveX Installer service (disabled by default in Vista), and it isn't on the list of Add/Remove Windows Features where it should be. Strange. I figured that the reason Firefox can install ActiveX controls automatically through the browser is because of some integrated ActiveX installer, while IE would have to use the Windows AxInstallService. This would also explain why a manual download of the control and attempt to run it would fail, but doesn't explain why an automatic download of the control fails silently in IE, an automatic download of the control succeeds in Firefox, and a manual download of the control in either IE or Firefox produces a corrupt file error. I think the only reason regular file downloads like the Vista SP2 file succeed is because of Firefox's download manager. If a download manager is not involved, Windows will always report that any file downloaded is corrupt. For example, I can use Firefox to manually download the AVG virus definition and install it, but the AVG updater cannot successfully download and install the definition file, and for that matter, neither can IE.
Not sure what to tell my client at this time other than, "you're going to need a fresh Vista install." I get this strange feeling that this is some sort of local PC network settings or port issue, but I can't find anything wrong. I've updated the NIC driver and there are no device problems. I don't have any duplicate devices or anything like that. Maybe it has something to do with a Windows file checksum issue?
So, assume that I'm not an idiot, I've been doing computer troubleshooting and repair for a few years now, and unless I missed something glaringly obvious (which I don't believe I have) then there's something more complicated going on here that I'm overlooking. I've even done a few things out of desperation, like a winsock fix, reset all services to default settings, and double-checked for missing service dependencies.
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