Windows 10 Troubleshooting: Task Host is stopping background tasks

My windows button (the one between CTRL and ALT on the bottom left side of the keyboard) was not working. Neither did clicking on the windows button at the bottom left corner of the screen. When I tried to use CTRL-R to run stull like msconfig, it wouldn't work either.

Tried to reboot by using CTRL-ALT-DEL. Was getting this error when shutting down. One of the tasks preventing shutdown was...

Task Host is stopping background tasks
\Microsoft\Windows\Plug and Play\Device Install
Reboot Required

I restarted anyway and did some research and found a working solution on this site by Hebbe C.

Regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnUserService
Double click on the value (DWORD): "Start"
Change the "Data" to 4 then OK.
Reboot

It works! Start button is functional again. CTRL-R is also functional. Data's original value was "2" for my system. (0x00000002 to be exact but when you double click it, the value is 2) . Thanks Hebbe C.

Transfer Multiple Photos from Alcatel U5 to Windows 8 Laptop

For some reason, Windows 8 wasn't recognizing the Alcatel U5 Smartphone when it was being connected to any USB port even after swapping USB cables.

There's also the option of transferring files from the Alcated U5 to your Laptop via Bluetooth, but I haven't been able to do this for multiple files after the devices were paired. So, I kept looking for a multiple photo transfer solution.

Device Manager was showing the Alcatel U5 under Portable Devices with a yellow question mark. This means that the device was not properly recognized.

Tried updating the drivers automatically by searching online. It found an MTP driver, but was saying something about an INF error.

Looked for an alternative solution and found a video which was recommending that the MTP USB driver be installed manually from the C:\Windows\inf folder.

Changed the browse directory option and then chose the "Let me pick a list of drivers on my computer option".

Was looking for an MTP or MTP USB device option but initially, there were none. If you see a bunch of numbers with a USB icon, try that. I guess I got lucky. The next time I tried this option, it now gave me two options, MTP and MTP USB device. Choose MTP USB device.

If all goes well, you should now see the Alcated U5 as a portable media device along with your drives on Windows explorer. Right click on it and select import pictures and videos. There are settings which you can configure to streamline this process, but basically, what happens is the PC searches all the android phone folders and directories for all photos and videos and imports these to the computer. I initially found 1000+ pictures on the phone, and this might seem inefficient. But if you are using the same directory on your PC to store all photos, you can skip copying duplicates the next time you go through the process. Yes, searching through all the photos the second time or nth time around is inefficient, but it should only import the new ones.

Personally, I still prefer the old way of going through the DCIM folder and only selecting the photos that are new based on the date they were created. But this wasn't possible in my current situation, thus the workaround above. Hope it helps you out.

Windows 8 Forget Network Connection

When the repair guy for our Internet connection checked our modem, he surmised that it had no power possibly due to a lightning strike. He mentioned that another customer's modem was replaced because of the same issue.

After making sure that the Internet connection was alright, I decided to replace the security password for WiFi. One of the users of our WiFi network was using a laptop with Windows 8. She couldn't connect. I told her to "forget the old network connection" so that she could replace the password. She was having a hard time figuring out how to do this so I tried to do it for her, and I, too, had a difficult time.

The key is to right-click on the network connection you are trying to forget. That's when the "forget this network connection" option shows up. Afterwards, when you try to connect to that same network connection, it prompts you for the new WiFi security password.

Hope this helps out Windows 8 users having a hard time figuring out how to "forget" their network connection.

AVG Error: UI Failed to load.

Got this error early today when I tried to open AVG Antivirus:

UI Failed to load.
This is really embarassing.
AV service is not responding.

There were two buttons afterwards, EXIT and RESTART SERVICE.

I tried the RESTART SERVICE button but still ended up with the same result.
Tried to REPAIR AVG via Uninstall programs in Control Panel. Still no go.
Tried to disable AV service from my startup items using MSCONFIG. Still no go.

So, I uninstalled all AVG programs via Uninstall programs in Control Panel. I also downloaded the latest AVG installer, ANTIVIRUS_FREE_1856, as of this writing.

After restarting, I installed AVG using the installer. Then updated my virus definitions and ran a DEEP SCAN. All seems to be working well. I restarted my PC just to be sure that the same error no longer comes up. All was well. Hope these steps help you out, too, in case you're getting the same error message above.

Skycable Digibox HD - USB Videos Have No Sound

In case you've tried to play video files on a USB drive using the USB port of your Skycable Digibox HD, you might notice that your videos have no sound. To play a video file, go to MENU > MUSIC / PHOTOS > VIDEOS and if your storage device is recognized, you should be able to see a list of files that you can play. Press the PLAY button, and the video should start playing in preview mode. To maximize the screen, press the left red button at the top of your Skycable remote control. If your video is playing but doesn't have any sound, even if your regular Skycable channels have sound, you can try doing the following as a work around, in the hopes of getting sound.

1. Try to fast forward the video a bit
2. Press the PLAY button.
3. Your Video should now have sound

This trick worked for me and I hope it can help out others who are experiencing the same issue. If in the process, you also lose sound on your Skycable channels, try powering off your Skycable Digibox and television for about five seconds, then powering them back on.

Front Panel Headphone Audio Jack Not Working on Neutron Ion casing

Had a faulty tower power switch so I headed over to PC Express to see if they had parts for the tower's front panel. It turns out, you have to buy a new casing even if the faulty part is only the switch. So I asked for the cheapest available computer casing and they offered the Neutron Ion 1022qm. The price was 1,080 pesos. And it had no warranty. This was the first item I ever purchased from PC Express without a warranty. My spider senses were tingling. But being low on funds, I purchased it anyway.

Had to transfer everything from my old tower into the new tower except for the power supply, since the case came with a 700 Watt one. After plugging in the mobo, with CPU and RAM, I tried to power it on, and the tower was running properly. That solved the power switch issue. Plugged in the HD, DVD Drive, and LAN card. All is still good. Tested the USB ports. Still good.

So I thought that everything was working properly until I tried playing music. I got a speaker icon with a red circle and white x mark at the bottom right corner of my screen. It was saying I had bad drivers installed, which did not make sense since I didn't do an OS re-installation. So I checked the front panel audio connections and to make a long story short, the new casing came with Legacy AC'97 compliant pins for the audio connection while my motherboard already supported an HD-audio compliant configuration. So after searching for a solution on YouTube, it turns out, I had to re-install my audio drivers using my motherboard's drivers and utilities CD and make sure that Realtek HD Audio Manager is installed. To find this program once you finish re-installing your audio drivers, just go to Control Panel and make sure you are viewing Large Icons.

Once Realtek HD Audio Manager is installed, click on the screw driver icon for Connector settings and then check Disable front panel jack detection. Also click on the gear icon for Device advanced settings and check Mute the rear output device when a front headphone plugged in.

Finally try plugging in your headphones on either the headphone jack or the mic jack at the front of the tower. I don't know if this is an isolated case, but my headphones worked when I plugged them at the microphone jack. I don't have a mic so I haven't tested if a mic will work at the headphone jack. Hope this helps out other people who might have purchased a Neutron Ion casing.

.lnk USB Virus

It seems like every year, this USB Virus mutates and becomes more and more difficult to remove. Here are some steps I found online to remove it.

1. Try to scan your USB drive first with your anti-virus software
2. If no threats are found, go to Start and type cmd on the search bar
3. When it appears, right click on it and choose the option Run as Administrator 
4. Navigate to Flash Drive by typing its assigned drive letter, then colon, and hit Enter (i.e. H:)
5. Type dir /w/a to check what files are present. This virus usually tries to hide all your original files in the USB and will only show two files - an autorun.inf.lnk file and another .lnk file
6. Type del *.lnk in the cmd window and hit Enter on your Keyboard.
7. Now type attrib -s -r -h *.* /s /d /l and hit Ente
8. Your now might see two folders, one named _ (underscore) and another called System Volume. One of the folders should contain all your original files. Just copy your original files to a different storage device and delete everything else you don't recognize. You can also just format your USB drive once you've retrieved the original files.

Limited Connectivity and DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_CONFIG

Laptop was unable to connect to the Internet but mobile phones and the PC were connected. Laptop internet connection indicated "Limited Connectivity". The browser would also indicate the following: DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_CONFIG

Followed a lot of advice online but no go. Finally landed on the following page:

http://appuals.com/best-fix-steps-fix-dns_probe_finished_bad_config/

So far, it worked.

To summarize, first, run ipconfig /flushdns on a command prompt.

Second, set the wifi network adapter's IPv4 settings as follows:

Preferred DNS SERVER: 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS SERVER 8.8.4.4

On hindsight, changing the power management options for the laptop's wifi connectivity to Maximum Performance may have helped, too. It seems that when the laptop is under battery power, it disables the Internet connection to preserve battery power when it only has a charge below 50% remaining. Make sure that the laptop is connected to the charger and is connected to the power outlet to avoid being hampered by this issue during troubleshooting.

Addendum:
Three days after posting this, my PC lost its internet connection while undergoing an update on AVG antivirus. I have a suspicion that the same thing happened to the laptop which is why it lost its internet connection. Aside from the commands above, the following have been useful in troubleshooting.

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh winsock reset

Selective Browsing and Games Stuck at the Loading Screen

Yesterday, I tried to access the NBA website in order to check on updates with regards to the 2016 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. But for some reason, the site would not load. I quickly checked on Google, and it loaded immediately. Tried Facebook, and it was fine, too. So I thought that it was just a problem with the NBA website.

But then, I tried to go to CNN, and it, too, would not load. I tried YouTube, an videos were playing fine, but when I tried another different site, it would not load. I then knew I was dealing with a Selective Browsing issue. And I knew it wasn't my hosts file causing the problem because I usually edit this only to prevent unwanted pop-ups from advertisement sites.

This issue was happening on both my PC and my mobile phone. On the phone, Viber would not work and some of the games like Clash of Clans and Boom Beach were stuck at the loading screen. FFRK was alright, but another game was not.

So instead of reformatting my PC and resetting my phone back to factory settings, I decided to call up my Internet Service Provider. I already experienced this issue before, and they were able to resolve it by a procedure called port resetting. That was done after an onsite was able to rule out any possible problems with their hardware (modem, filter) and the phone line. All the tech did was call up their support division which conducted the procedure. I asked him what was being done, and his explanation was that my ISP was issuing me another port. ^_^ I guess you can think of it as a water pipe from the service provider that has gone bad (slightly clogged, where you can still get some water, but not all of it), and all they are doing is issuing me another water pipe so that water (information) can flow fully.

I am curious on how the Selective Browsing issue actually happens. In the above analogy, I'd like to know what causes the clogging. There are some explanations that involve an analogy of the browser cache and how this needs to be cleared, and how an ISP needs to do the same thing, but it's still to vague for me. I've tried to search the Internet for more articles on this issue, but have not found one with a satisfactory explanation on the causes and resolutions of Selective Browsing. If you're reading this, and you can explain how it happens, or point me to a resource that has a good explanation, please feel free to post in the comments section below. Thank you.

Port Resetting Saves The Day

Was having intermittent connection issues with BayanTel. Their lineman made some changes and replaced a filter. The connection was now fast and no longer disconnected after the phone rings. I thought everything was ok. Facebook was functioning and videos on YouTube were playing fast.

Suddenly, my apps that require an internet connection no longer functioned properly. Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, and Final Fantasy Record Keeper were stuck at the loading screen. Viber no longer worked. What in the world was happening? The issue was not isolated to a single phone. Other wi-fi dependent devices were affected.

I tried reinstalling the apps, but the results were still the same. I also found out that certain sites like cnn.com and wikipedia.org would not load, but major sites like yahoo, google and facebook loaded fine.

This reminded me of site blocking so I was beginning to think it was a network issue, rather than the hardware or line connections.

When the repairmen from BayanTel came back, they thought a modem replacement would work. But the repairman was worried about a double MAC issue, once he exchanged the new modem for the old. So he called up the ISP's network division to have the port reset. The only problem was, the new modem didn't seem to be working either. So he reconnected the old modem, and viola, Wikipedia loaded properly.

Google Play Error 194

If you're having an Error 194 issue on your Android phone, don't worry. It seems a lot of people have been affected by this issue. If you don't believe me, check out the link below.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/play/hIIJ1nauNf4

Sometimes, the error changes to 927.

If you're planning to do a factory reset of your phone, let me save you the trouble. IT WILL NOT WORK. I had to learn the hard way.

Neither will clearing cache, data, etc. on the app you are having trouble with. The difficult thing about this error is that it has affected Google Play - the gateway to all other applications. It just shows how dangerous it is to be dependent on a single service provider.

Even if the phone is still able to browse the internet via wifi, the error will still come up. People have suggested modifying the date and time settings, turning the phone off and on, turning the wireless router off and on, turning your ISP's modem off and on. I've even watched a video advising modifying the host file using a root browser.

But I believe the problem is really with Google's service. It simply resolved itself. I, like other users, went through the easy troubleshooting steps above. With so many things I've done, I don't know if any of them helped since the last step I did, rebooting my modem, was what I did before the issue was resolved. But some users on the Google product forums claim that they did this step, too, and it did not resolve the issue. So it might just be coincidence, and Google's tech guys have finally been able to fix the issue after my last troubleshooting step.

If anyone has a clear and logical solution to this problem - something that has repeatedly been verified to work by other users, please drop a comment below and help others out. Thanks.

Till then, resist the temptation to do a factory reset on your phone, and wait a while.

Black Screen With 9c at the Bottom Left Corner

Here's a scenario you might encounter if you leave a USB drive plugged in to your computer and then restart. If booting via the USB drive is enabled in your BIOS for some reason, your computer might end up with a black screen with only a few letters at the bottom left corner of the screen. Mine was 9c and this may or may not be the same letters you see.

I tried removing the USB drive and restarting, but I ended up with the same screen. The computer won't even show the BIOS screen or the Windows startup screen. It goes directly to the 9c screen.

One way to reset the BIOS back to its default settings is to reseat (take out and then place back in) the CMOS battery on the motherboard. It's that silver circle which looks like an oversized watch battery. So if you're comfortable opening up your computer and you have access to the motherboard, you can try this solution.

I was able to reboot and see the BIOS screen after doing this. So I changed my BIOS settings so that booting via a USB drive is no longer viable. I will only enable this if I really need it, perhaps for troubleshooting purposes.

The USB drive was clean according to AVG anti-virus software, so I'm not sure if the USB drive was carrying a BIOS virus.

If you ever experience this, I hope reseating the CMOS battery will also work for you.

NEO M72S Laptop Black Screen

This serves as a journal of sorts of the steps I tried in order to resolve the "black screen" issue on a NEO M72S Laptop. But aside from that, I hope it is able to help you out in troubleshooting your own laptop problems.

Symptoms:
When turning on the laptop, you know there is power since there is a light on the power button and you hear the laptop fan spinning, but all you get is a black screen. I also kept hearing the DVD drive create some kind of noise, as if it was trying to read a DVD, but there was no media present in the drive.

Troubleshooting steps taken:

• Thought it was a DVD drive issue. Tried removing the DVD drive from the laptop. Refer to YouTube for some tutorials. (Did not resolve the issue)
• Pressed CTRL - ALT - DEL (A.K.A. the three fingered salute) simultaneously repeatedly. BIOS screen was able to come up after several tries.
• Checked BIOS settings. Made sure the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) was the first boot device. Saved settings.
• Checked power saving options in Windows XP. Made sure no settings made the laptop go to sleep or turn off after several minutes of being idle.
• Updated AVG definitions in Windows XP and ran a full system scan. AVG didn't find anything.
• Swapped out RAM with known good RAM from another laptop. This seems to be the issue since the other laptop which was originally working fine is now encountering the "black screen" issue.

So at this point, after almost an entire day of troubleshooting, the only way I can get the original laptop to work is by pressing CTRL - ALT - DEL until I can get the start up screen. Even if I shutdown or restart from Windows, the laptop ends up in the "black screen" state and I have to either power down manually (holding down the power button for 5 seconds, or press CTRL - ALT - DEL to get back into BIOS/Windows).

Tiberium Alliance Greasemonkey Scripts No Longer Work

I logged in yesterday to do my usual rounds of killing Forgotten bases when I noticed that the TACS simulator button was gone. I checked Greasemonkey and none of the installed scripts were showing up.

So I tried reinstalling the scripts for Tiberium Alliances. But whenever I pressed the INSTALL button, all that appears is a new webpage with the .js (Javascript) file. (The reason for this is that the scripts are actually still installed. You just can't see them at this point.)

I tried reinstalling Greasemonkey instead. I removed Greasemonkey and then reinstalled from the Firefox add-ons page. That remedied the problem for one day. The next morning, the same problem was back. All Greasemonkey scripts for Tiberium Alliances were no longer working. And when I tried to uninstall Greasemonkey, there no longer was an option to remove the add-on. All installed add-ons were no longer visible.

So as a last resort, I decided to reinstall Firefox. There has been pop-ups the last couple of days about upgrading to version 20.0.1. And after much hassle about the need to be an administrator to install it, I finally finished. Lo, and behold, the scripts were working again. REALLY UNCOOL FIREFOX! All that trouble - forcing your users to a mandatory update.

I know, I know... it's like your mom making you eat vegetables because its good for you. Well I hope all the update does is protect us from vulnerabilities and not put more garbage on our drives.

TP-Link TF-3239DL LAN Card

My internet connection went down a few days ago. Checked all the connections and realized that my LAN Card wasn't even being recognized. Tried re-installing the drivers via Device Manager but still no luck. Fortunately, my motherboard has a built in network port. Plugged my internet connection via that port and everything was working again. It was time to replace the LAN card.

Checked the price list at my favorite computer shop and saw the cheapest LAN card available, TP-Link's TF-3239DL. At a price somewhere between 5 and 6 U.S. dollars, I thought I'd give it a try.

Took out the old LAN card and plugged in the TF-3239DL network card into the same PCI slot. Booted up, and Windows 7 automatically installed the drivers. Blogged this post!!! ^_^

Recycler Virus

My friend's USB drive got infected with the Recycler Virus despite being vaccinated with PANDA security software. This virus has hidden all folders in the USB drive in a subfolder named "_" (underscore, without the quotes). It also creates a bunch of "~" (tilde) or "~$" (tilde-dollar) prefixed files with sizes between 1 kB and 10 kB. The USB drive was also made almost full, with only a few MB of free space remaining. And upon scanning the drive with AVG Anti-virus, there were about 2000 plus threats found.

The first thing we should do is to show all hidden files and folders in the drive. If you're using Windows 7, then this guide by Lawrence Abrams should be helpful.

Once you can see the hidden files and folders, you can follow these steps:

• Scan, using AVG, the files you want to recover, (making sure these are threat free) and transfer these files to your hard-drive. Make sure you check the "_" folder and its subfolders for any of your files which the virus might have hidden.
• Format the USB drive
• Transfer the files you've recovered back to the USB drive.

The above steps are simple compared to manually deleting all unwanted files, since you're not sure you've deleted every infected file. But here's a list of unwanted files I've seen this virus create

• RECYCLER.exe
• "_" folder
• RECYCLER subfolder within the "_" folder
• a lot of .chk files

So another option is to delete these unwanted files and folders (again, make sure you transfer your files out of the "_" folder before deleting it, and make sure the files you are transferring are uninfected by checking them with AVG).

I hope this guide has helped you recover from a Recycler viral infection. Feel free to share your comments and thoughts on how to improve this guide. Thanks.

D-Link DFE-520TX PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter

Replaced my NIC about two weeks ago. Tried out D-Link's DFE-520TX PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter. From time to time, I would get an error 651 whenever I tried to go online. I would also notice that the Internet icon at the bottom right corner of my screen would have a red X mark instead of the usual yellow triangle with an exclamation point whenever it is not connected.

I would simply go into device manager, uninstall the D-Link network adapter, scan for hardware changes and Windows 7 will automatically re-install the drivers. This seems to resolve the error 651 issue and I would be able to go online. The problem would be gone for a day or two, then I would have to go through the entire process and it is getting old.

So, just wondering if any of you techies are experiencing the same problem I am having and if you have found a permanent fix, a little assistance would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Error 651

Just got home from work and was trying to go online when I started receiving the following error.

Called my ISP and they walked me through a few troubleshooting steps.

• Restarted the ISP modem
• All lights were normal
• Went to device manager, and noticed that one of the devices was listed as Other Devices

I thought it was merely a Driver issue so I swapped network ports (my mother board has a built in LAN port but for some reason, I was using a PCI card) and lo and behold, I was back on line. It is good to have a back up. It turns out my LAN card gave out. Even after trying to update it via the Internet, a driver could not be found for it.   

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Error 718

Sometimes, while trying to establish an internet connection, I get the following error window.

I am not really sure what causes it. There are days when after a few tries, the connection is established while there are also times when I try for several minutes, and even restart my modem, and it still doesn't work. So I blow off some steam, (since calling my ISP is seldom productive), and when I get back after a few hours, seems as though everything is working perfectly fine.

Tried to do a bit of online research on Error 718 and here are some things I've found out about it.

• It can be caused by using either a wrong user name or password or both
• It can be caused by an expired ISP account
• It can be caused by poor line quality

And out of all the above reasons, only the last one seems to fit my scenario. I don't have to re-input the username or password whenever I connect to the internet. I pay my bills on time so I'm not expecting an expired account. So how do I deal with poor line quality.

My ISP says that as long as they can establish a connection, they have done their part. And browsing speed appears to be within expected service levels. I guess some problems are not really important and should just be ignored.

How about you? Have you had some success with an Error 718 issue? How did you solve it? Share your experience and hopefully, others may benefit from it.

AVG 2012 Not Able To Recognize License Number

A friend of mine was having trouble with her laptop. She is using AVG 2012 for her anti-virus software. When she tried to update her virus definitions, the following error comes up on the AVG user interface.

"AVG is not able to recognize your license number".

My friend no longer knew her license number since she installed the program months ago and she was merely using the free edition from download.com.

I searched on Google and most sites recommended a complete re-installation of the program. To me, it seemed strange that freeware was asking for a genuine license. Shouldn't that be implicit when you are using the software freely? But as I would find out later on during the re-installation process, the license number is shown during the installation and I would advice that anyone installing AVG take note of this number and write down a copy of it in case the error above comes up again.

So in order to fix this problem, I would recommend the following steps.

1. For computers using the x32 version, ownload a copy of AVG 2012's offline installer from here. The size of the file is 137 MB so you might want to grab a snack while waiting. The reason I'm recommending downloading the offline installer is because a lot of things can happen if you have an unreliable internet connection like mine. And an intermittent connection can result in a corrupted installation. You can also check the links from this website.
2. Once you have the file downloaded to your desktop, double click it and follow the instructions. Choose the "Repair" option if possible. What this does based on my understanding is it only checks the existing installation for corrupted files and will only replace those files. This process should be faster rather than doing a complete re-installation. You also get to retain previous updates that AVG might have applied after it was installed.
3. The last step is to update AVG. Again, for people with intermittent connections, I would recommend a manual (offline) update. Go to AVG's webpage for manual updates. Download all the files that is applicable to your AVG installation. Then choose the option to update from a directory location, and browse to the folder where you stored the downloaded files.

That's it, you should be good to go. I hope this guide is helpful to anyone having problems with AVG.

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