Regular IE and WMP crashes? Check your motherboard
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I've been catching up on blogs (I hadn't read any of my subscriptions for nearly two months!) and found an article by Mark Russinovich that rang some bells for problems that some here had been reporting. The Case of the Random IE and WMP Crashes[^] I almost don't want to spoil the ending, but basically he tracks it down to NVAppFilter.dll, which seems to be some attempt at a firewall or packet-prioritization feature on NVidia chipsets. Here's the general question: is Windows, and other Microsoft software, too extensible? There seem to be too many places where a badly-written third-party package can seriously affect the reliability of an application or the system, or places that assorted badware can hook in.
DoEvents: Generating unexpected recursion since 1991
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I've been catching up on blogs (I hadn't read any of my subscriptions for nearly two months!) and found an article by Mark Russinovich that rang some bells for problems that some here had been reporting. The Case of the Random IE and WMP Crashes[^] I almost don't want to spoil the ending, but basically he tracks it down to NVAppFilter.dll, which seems to be some attempt at a firewall or packet-prioritization feature on NVidia chipsets. Here's the general question: is Windows, and other Microsoft software, too extensible? There seem to be too many places where a badly-written third-party package can seriously affect the reliability of an application or the system, or places that assorted badware can hook in.
DoEvents: Generating unexpected recursion since 1991
Microsoft definately makes their software to work with other Microsoft products. When you enter a third party app anything can happen. I quit using Nvidia products when I upgraded to Vista.
"There's never a bathroom when you need one."---DarkPee
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I've been catching up on blogs (I hadn't read any of my subscriptions for nearly two months!) and found an article by Mark Russinovich that rang some bells for problems that some here had been reporting. The Case of the Random IE and WMP Crashes[^] I almost don't want to spoil the ending, but basically he tracks it down to NVAppFilter.dll, which seems to be some attempt at a firewall or packet-prioritization feature on NVidia chipsets. Here's the general question: is Windows, and other Microsoft software, too extensible? There seem to be too many places where a badly-written third-party package can seriously affect the reliability of an application or the system, or places that assorted badware can hook in.
DoEvents: Generating unexpected recursion since 1991
My NForce4 MB is one of the worse computer purchases I've ever made. NVidia drivers stink (which is quite frustrating since ATI's drivers, and especially the hideous control center, aren't exactly a joy.)
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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I've been catching up on blogs (I hadn't read any of my subscriptions for nearly two months!) and found an article by Mark Russinovich that rang some bells for problems that some here had been reporting. The Case of the Random IE and WMP Crashes[^] I almost don't want to spoil the ending, but basically he tracks it down to NVAppFilter.dll, which seems to be some attempt at a firewall or packet-prioritization feature on NVidia chipsets. Here's the general question: is Windows, and other Microsoft software, too extensible? There seem to be too many places where a badly-written third-party package can seriously affect the reliability of an application or the system, or places that assorted badware can hook in.
DoEvents: Generating unexpected recursion since 1991
I saw that Firewall option when I installed my motherboard drivers. Why would I want a firewall from Nvidia? This is one of the reasons I always, always choose the Custom install option for any setup program, as opposed to selecting Automatic Install or blindly click Next/Next/Next/Finish. The same goes for Daemon Tools--some people have jumped ship since they started including optional sponsor advertising crapware. Custom install/skip it/never had a problem or unwanted crap. Same with printers also...if the CD contains a setup.exe, it'll typically install half a gig worth of crapware (I'm looking at you, HP). I prefer to go to Add Hardware, then point to the .inf--minimalist driver, and it's all I need. Bottom line--keep a tight grip on what you allow on your system. (sorry, did I go off on a tangent?)
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I saw that Firewall option when I installed my motherboard drivers. Why would I want a firewall from Nvidia? This is one of the reasons I always, always choose the Custom install option for any setup program, as opposed to selecting Automatic Install or blindly click Next/Next/Next/Finish. The same goes for Daemon Tools--some people have jumped ship since they started including optional sponsor advertising crapware. Custom install/skip it/never had a problem or unwanted crap. Same with printers also...if the CD contains a setup.exe, it'll typically install half a gig worth of crapware (I'm looking at you, HP). I prefer to go to Add Hardware, then point to the .inf--minimalist driver, and it's all I need. Bottom line--keep a tight grip on what you allow on your system. (sorry, did I go off on a tangent?)
Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
Same with printers also...if the CD contains a setup.exe, it'll typically install half a gig worth of crapware (I'm looking at you, HP). I prefer to go to Add Hardware, then point to the .inf--minimalist driver, and it's all I need.
Personally I find low ink notification *before* something doesn't print right to be rather useful and my Lexmark and Epson printers have had much better behaved than HPs, although I've not actually checked the amount of diskspace they consume.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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I saw that Firewall option when I installed my motherboard drivers. Why would I want a firewall from Nvidia? This is one of the reasons I always, always choose the Custom install option for any setup program, as opposed to selecting Automatic Install or blindly click Next/Next/Next/Finish. The same goes for Daemon Tools--some people have jumped ship since they started including optional sponsor advertising crapware. Custom install/skip it/never had a problem or unwanted crap. Same with printers also...if the CD contains a setup.exe, it'll typically install half a gig worth of crapware (I'm looking at you, HP). I prefer to go to Add Hardware, then point to the .inf--minimalist driver, and it's all I need. Bottom line--keep a tight grip on what you allow on your system. (sorry, did I go off on a tangent?)
Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
I saw that Firewall option when I installed my motherboard drivers. Why would I want a firewall from Nvidia?
IIRC the marketing point for the nVidia firewall was that their mobo chipset did the processing in hardware so it wasn't using any desktop CPU resources. I never bothered since my router already had a hard firewall and I didn't want to learn how the nv wall needed messed with to make work.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
Same with printers also...if the CD contains a setup.exe, it'll typically install half a gig worth of crapware (I'm looking at you, HP). I prefer to go to Add Hardware, then point to the .inf--minimalist driver, and it's all I need.
Personally I find low ink notification *before* something doesn't print right to be rather useful and my Lexmark and Epson printers have had much better behaved than HPs, although I've not actually checked the amount of diskspace they consume.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
dan neely wrote:
Personally I find low ink notification *before* something doesn't print right to be rather useful and my Lexmark and Epson printers have had much better behaved than HPs, although I've not actually checked the amount of diskspace they consume.
I don't know about you, but personally I can tell when my printouts are getting gradually worse over time, and I'll make the call...it's not like one page will print perfectly, and bam, the next page won't print at all. The notification app is just a scheme to sell you more ink. And it's not just about the disk space either--it's the extra apps and services you don't need to be running all the time, sitting in the system tray and consuming resources with no benefit.
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Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
I saw that Firewall option when I installed my motherboard drivers. Why would I want a firewall from Nvidia?
IIRC the marketing point for the nVidia firewall was that their mobo chipset did the processing in hardware so it wasn't using any desktop CPU resources. I never bothered since my router already had a hard firewall and I didn't want to learn how the nv wall needed messed with to make work.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
dan neely wrote:
IIRC the marketing point for the nVidia firewall was that their mobo chipset did the processing in hardware so it wasn't using any desktop CPU resources.
Like a router, huh? ;P
dan neely wrote:
I never bothered since my router already had a hard firewall and I didn't want to learn how the nv wall needed messed with to make work.
It's probably fair to say that would also be the case for most people. I've got the Windows firewall, my router's firewall, I think my DSL modem can do it, plus my ISP can do additional filtering if I wanted to give them extra money for it. At this point, if one of my machines gets infected, it won't be because I inadvertantly left a port open...so when Nvidia offers to install its own firewall software, it all looks pretty pointless to me. Those who are the most likely to just click 'yes' are also probably the ones who wouldn't know how to configure it anyway... [feeling rather opinionated today...]
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dan neely wrote:
Personally I find low ink notification *before* something doesn't print right to be rather useful and my Lexmark and Epson printers have had much better behaved than HPs, although I've not actually checked the amount of diskspace they consume.
I don't know about you, but personally I can tell when my printouts are getting gradually worse over time, and I'll make the call...it's not like one page will print perfectly, and bam, the next page won't print at all. The notification app is just a scheme to sell you more ink. And it's not just about the disk space either--it's the extra apps and services you don't need to be running all the time, sitting in the system tray and consuming resources with no benefit.
I've had a few (2? 3??) occasions with old printers that either didn't have a monitor or that were ran down to the critical/out level by someone who didn't say anything about it; and when I needed something printed well I had to make an emergency ink run to the local boxmart 20-30mi away. Much less stressful to have advance notice so I can do the buy in a planned purchase or just get another freebate printer. IIRC when I checked both my current lexmark/epson software has a CPU load measured in seconds/week which is small enough to be immaterial IMO. HPs bloat OTOH...
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall