six-h
Distinguished Member
Hi Guys, I hope I find you all fit and well!
Before I get on to my current and possibly terminal problem, a couple of odd things happened when I accessed your site today.
First:
Following a link to this page that I have in my "favorites", all my desktop icons reverted to the generic placeholder type blank icons and there was much HDD activity....the icons returning to normal one by one over the next minute or so.
This is not peculiar to your site, it happens on a few sites and it's not important, I just wondered why; and I just know that someone here will have the answer! :lol:
Second:
Entering my username and password (which I have in a secure list so I know it's right!) was not accepted!
Thanks to Gmail search, I was able to trick the system into letting me in to one of my old threads!
I don't recall changing my password and can't seem to get to it in my details.
suppose I'll have to click the "forgotten password link" to change it back to what I have in my list!
OK, now to the REAL problem:
Briefly: I allowed iTunes to update following a nudge from their update reminder.
After it had completed I was asked to re-boot and that's where my problems began!
My PC has hitherto been quite sprightly on boot up, especially considering it's running a seven year old install of that old dog, Vista!
I can usually get from pushing the power button to a working Desktop and fully populated sys. tray in around two minutes.
The initial re-boot after the update was installed never completed and I had to do a hard shutdown as the machine had no GUI and I could not communicate with it.
Re-booting in safe mode, I did get a GUI and opened iTunes..it complained a bit that this that and the other were not present but it eventually opened.
I restarted in normal mode and after a long wait, the desktop appeared...but it was in four segments, none of which matched...bit like a jigsaw that wasn't put together properly....that also eventually resolved it's self out and I tried a Sys. Restore to a point before the update.
(I was annoyed to note the arrogance of Apple, in not triggering an automatic restore point for their updates.:lup
That completed, I hoped to have my machine back to the previous undamaged state...alas no!
Now it takes a full 15 minutes. to build a complete dektop with fully populated Sys Tray.
A couple of minutes after that, I get the following "Message Window":-
From "57xx SteelVine Manager":-
Which says:-
"Could not connect to host 'localhost'. port 51116"
This is acompanied by a yellow triangle with a black "!" and an "OK" button.
On clicking it the message goes away and I'm not aware of any side effects!
Having remonstrated with Apple support in Ireland, they say it's impossible that their software could have done this as it has no access to these files.
Their only suggetion following this weak defence, is to remove iTunes completely and see if the problem persists, then to use the MS "FixIt" site to correct the problem.
Such child like faith is alarming considering this is the face of Apple Support!
My suspicion is that the MBR has been corrupted.
(I know that sounds as if I know what I'm talking about, but trust me, I don't! :lol
Is there some process by which I can find out if that is the case and maybe repair it? :scared:
If it helps, I could talk you through the boot up "events" giving details of the screen, times to next change of screen, amount of HDD activity etc.
Hope someone can shed some light!
Before I get on to my current and possibly terminal problem, a couple of odd things happened when I accessed your site today.
First:
Following a link to this page that I have in my "favorites", all my desktop icons reverted to the generic placeholder type blank icons and there was much HDD activity....the icons returning to normal one by one over the next minute or so.
This is not peculiar to your site, it happens on a few sites and it's not important, I just wondered why; and I just know that someone here will have the answer! :lol:
Second:
Entering my username and password (which I have in a secure list so I know it's right!) was not accepted!
Thanks to Gmail search, I was able to trick the system into letting me in to one of my old threads!
I don't recall changing my password and can't seem to get to it in my details.
suppose I'll have to click the "forgotten password link" to change it back to what I have in my list!
OK, now to the REAL problem:
Briefly: I allowed iTunes to update following a nudge from their update reminder.
After it had completed I was asked to re-boot and that's where my problems began!
My PC has hitherto been quite sprightly on boot up, especially considering it's running a seven year old install of that old dog, Vista!
I can usually get from pushing the power button to a working Desktop and fully populated sys. tray in around two minutes.
The initial re-boot after the update was installed never completed and I had to do a hard shutdown as the machine had no GUI and I could not communicate with it.
Re-booting in safe mode, I did get a GUI and opened iTunes..it complained a bit that this that and the other were not present but it eventually opened.
I restarted in normal mode and after a long wait, the desktop appeared...but it was in four segments, none of which matched...bit like a jigsaw that wasn't put together properly....that also eventually resolved it's self out and I tried a Sys. Restore to a point before the update.
(I was annoyed to note the arrogance of Apple, in not triggering an automatic restore point for their updates.:lup
That completed, I hoped to have my machine back to the previous undamaged state...alas no!
Now it takes a full 15 minutes. to build a complete dektop with fully populated Sys Tray.
A couple of minutes after that, I get the following "Message Window":-
From "57xx SteelVine Manager":-
Which says:-
"Could not connect to host 'localhost'. port 51116"
This is acompanied by a yellow triangle with a black "!" and an "OK" button.
On clicking it the message goes away and I'm not aware of any side effects!
Having remonstrated with Apple support in Ireland, they say it's impossible that their software could have done this as it has no access to these files.
Their only suggetion following this weak defence, is to remove iTunes completely and see if the problem persists, then to use the MS "FixIt" site to correct the problem.
Such child like faith is alarming considering this is the face of Apple Support!
My suspicion is that the MBR has been corrupted.
(I know that sounds as if I know what I'm talking about, but trust me, I don't! :lol
Is there some process by which I can find out if that is the case and maybe repair it? :scared:
If it helps, I could talk you through the boot up "events" giving details of the screen, times to next change of screen, amount of HDD activity etc.
Hope someone can shed some light!