ending program - sample???

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas as to what is wrong with my computer. Everytime I shut windows down, a message pops titled "Ending Program - Sample" in the box it says that windows is trying to shut down the program any unsaved data will be lost. Next is status bar that fills up slowly and below that two option boxes "End Now" and "Cancel ". Clicking cancel keeps the computer running and clicking end now brings up another identical window except when you click end now in this one, the computer shuts off as it is supposed too. Does anyone have any ideas? Any help would be apprieciated. Thanks,

The Shovel Guy

 

The thing is I can't find it anywhere. It doesn't appear on my task manager list, it is not located on my startup list, I can't find it on my start up log, I can't find it on my hard drive. It has to be a automatic program cause I don't manually start it. I am not sure what to do. Any ideas?

 

XP-home or XP-pro?

I want to get some information from tasklist.exe but XP-home does not have the utility at all. You can download it but only some of the switches/features work and I'm not really sure which do and which do not.

 

I am using XP home, but here is a task list from a start up tracker i downloaded:

System Idle Process
System
smss.exe \SystemRoot\System32\smss.exe
csrss.exe
winlogon.exe winlogon.exe
services.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
lsass.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
ati2evxx.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost -k DcomLaunch
svchost.exe
svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
spoolsv.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
ZCfgSvc.exe ZCfgSvc.exe
explorer.exe C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
StartupGuard.exe "C:\PROGRA~1\iolo\SYSTEM~1\StartupGuard.exe"
RegSrvc.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\RegSrvc.exe
wdfmgr.exe
uphclean.exe "C:\Program Files\UPHClean\uphclean.exe "
alg.exe
iexplore.exe "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
wuauclt.exe "C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe" /RunStoreAsComServer Local\[444]SUSDS1071ca55badec34ca132f26f58bf7683
StartupTracker3.exe "C:\DOCUME~1\Chris\LOCALS~1\Temp\Temporary Directory 2 for StartupTracker3[1].zip\StartupTracker3.exe"
wmiprvse.exe

is this what you asked for? if not, if you could explain what exactly I could do to get the info, I will...thanks anyway!!!

Shovel Guy

 

You need a tool like Spy++ or Systree++ to walk your windows to look for a window or process named 'Sample'.

http://members.brabant.chello.nl/~h.vanoosterhoutbos/SysTree++.zip

Give this a whirl. If its not there, please post back soon, as this would be indicitive of some code running on your machine that is hiding itself, and this is NotGood.

 

thanks for that program as well. I still couldn't find a "sample" process running, though. I hope I don't have to nuke my computer to get rid of this problem. What would be my next step?

Thanks

Shovel Guy

 

sent you a PM

 

Newt--I do not know if it really will help shovelguy find Sample, but you can run Tasklist in WinXP Home. First download it from here
http://www.computerhope.com/download/winxp.htm
Then Run it. Then from command line (MS-DOS) at C:\> type in tlist\tlist -s|Enter.

 

shovelguy--Long shot. Look into the Registry at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
and see if you can find anything called Sample, or a process that you do not recognize.
Here is reference that discussed the problem, but at the end (and several ideas that sounded good) the problem was still there.
http://www.pcbanter.net/archive/index.php/t-657991how-to-fix-

 

Due to some operator error in using the Systree tool, it was missed that a program named Zcfgsvc.exe has a hidden/notvisible window named 'Sample'.

This utility is the intel ProSET wireless stuff. found some hits on google that say its not essential to operation and that you can safely rename the file. I dont know if that is true, but worth a test and easy enough to undo if it breaks stuff.

 

After renaming the file, the error has went away. Thanks a bunch Joe for your help. Cheers!