Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?

Subject: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 08:27 PM

After having to do a system recovery, I have been reinstalling various programs, one of which is Microsoft Greetings Workshop2 which I use a lot for posters, cards, etc. I have never had any problems with it. After installing this time, it hangs up when I try to start it and when I do Control Alt Delete I see it running and something called MHPSplash. When I click on END NOW for either of them, they both stop.

I removed the program and reinstalled, same problem. I did a search on google for MHPSplash and found only three references, only one which was useful. The techie there suggested running adaware which I am doing at the moment. I'll see what it comes up with. In the meantime, do any of you know anything about this thing?

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 09:34 PM

Don't know for jertain but a 'splash' is usually the intro screen you see when a program is startiwg up. It would be a 'child' of the exe process that started the program.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 09:43 PM

Ah, that would make sense as it was the intro screen which kept hanging up for the program. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 09:59 PM

there is often an option to 'disable' the splash screen....is there a menu?

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 10:04 PM

Not that I can find, Bill. When I try to start the program it starts then just hangs up. I think the sys recovery did something else, though. When I go to MY Computer, it just shows the "flashlight" searching and searching without any files showing up, dammit. AdAware got rid of five criticals, but it didn't have anything to do with this program, apparently as it has not made a difference.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 10:09 PM

Oddly enough, I reinstalled the earlier version of this program, a much simpler one, and have had no problems with its intro screen, etc.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 10:13 PM

Have got it working now. Went to Ctl-Alt-Del, right-clicked on the MPHSplash, chose Go to Processes, and it suddenly came to life and started up. There was a flash intro which I forgot about because it only comes up the very first time a person starts that program. I skipped it and am in the program. Thanks. Still not sure what to do about My Computer.

kat

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 10:21 PM

Looks as though it may have to do with a Microsoft Picture It process, "pip.exe" and a corrupted user profile, so I'll create a new profile and see how it goes.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 10:26 PM

Sheesh, My Computer finally came up.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 10:54 PM

Bill, if you have the time, would you look over this: CLICKETY and see if it seems right to you? I don't want to do it, delete the old user profile and wind up with more problems. This is the solution they recommend on THIS PAGE when the pip.exe causes problems. (I do not get a pip error message, though.)

If this is too involved, no problem. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 11:16 PM

If you've done a lot of rearranging, it might be well to run a disk check at your first convenient time. Right-click on your System Drive in Windows Explorer (C:\ probably?), Properties, then Tools. When you click on Error Checking|Check Now it will tell you that it can't do it now because it has to have complete control; but it will schedule it for the next time your computer starts. If you need to defer it, you can override and cancel the next time you boot. Allow an hour or two if you check the doitall choices.

The slow search to find what's at My Computer could mean that your file catalog is a bit tangled, and the check for errors (used to be CHKDSK, approximately) should unscramble things. "Tangled" doesn't mean there are errors - just that it's having to hunt around a lot to put the lists in order.)

Of course you'll do a full defrag once everything's loaded. ;<)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 11:22 PM

I am JUST now starting to read about different profiles. My wife & I are diverging enough that we ought to have different screens and prefs., and we need a mode that is 'clear' of extraneous running processes for scanning, burning,,,etc...

I guess *I* am default system administrator, but I have never gone deeper, and there are security reasons why I should. Too late tonight.....night all.....


...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 11:44 PM

The KB article does note that you could lose OE messages and addy book. If you use OE, there is a clicky in the clickety article to tell you how to back things up before you create the new profile. Some other Office programs can share the OE address book, so you might want to search for *.wab and back it up - if it's there - even if you don't use OE.

Before you create the new profile, you should open OE and run a Folder|Compact All, do a file Export and export the addy book to someplace safe elsewhere on your computer, and then copy the email folder somewhere. (Search for *.dbx if you have trouble finding the email messages. I usually jump up one level and just copy the whole Outlook Express folder, since the import really works best if you make sure you have all of the subfolders in the message data base.)

After the new identity is set up, logged on as the newby, you can import both the address book (.wab) and the email (.dbx) from where you stored them. You may still have to reset some email things like what "from" name appears on messages, but that should be fairly easy.

Actually, it's a good idea to do the same Address Book and email backups on a fairly regular basis anyway. If you might want to be able to import the addy book into other browsers or email programs (like perhaps Outlook) it's a good idea to keep a reasonably current backup address book as a .csv (comma separated variables) file, along with the "normal" OE .wab format, since the .csv format is easier for some other programs to import.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 11:53 PM

The "clinker" I intended to note and omitted:

You must have a user other than the new one you're creating and other than the old one that's corrupted, so you could need to create a new user (temporarily?) to be able to move the old data from the corrupted user to the real new user you want to keep - if you don't already have at least two identities when you start the process.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 12:17 AM

Thank you, John.I am going to take a bit to absorb what you have posted. Glad to hear "tangled" might not be as bad as it sounds.:-) I do not use OE, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Bill, I agree, it's too late tonight!:-) I may tackle it this weekend.

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 10:40 AM

Oh boy, I think I've got trouble. Have had to do another System restore after everything locked up last night. Now it keeps showing the startup MS logo with "please wait"then after forever the monitor goes black, I can hear it crunching. That goes on for almost an hour, then it starts the whole cycle again with the "please wait" etc. I am using the laptop right now.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 10:41 AM

Forgot to say that all started after I told it do do the error check and I rebooted it to do so. When it started that process the monitor went black and the computer stopped.:-<

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 10:52 AM

Guess I need to learn to be patient. My PC is now up and operational. I am going to do a defrag before I do anything else, then we shall see. Thanks, again.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 11:41 AM

My only moderately-ancient desktop, with 120GB HD, takes about 2+ hours to do a full error correct with the check for recoverable sectors. It took me a rather long time to figure out how to get it to quit entering "hibernation" (green machine etc) on some such long processes.

My totally decrepit and degenerate laptop, with 20GB HD, takes about 2+ hours to do a full error correct etc, and still "goes blank" and looks like it's turned itself off, although actually it's still (usually) clunking (not quite chugging) away.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 03:07 PM

Hmmm...thanks for that, John. Again, I think I need to be more patient.:-) Defrag is done. Now to try the error check,again.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 08:26 PM

Kat -

You can run the error check with just the "automatically fix errors" box checked to untangle any confusion/complexity in the file structure. It's still not quick, but doesn't take nearly as long as if you check the "scan and attempt to recover bad sectors."

For the full sector scan-and-recover it has to read and write in every sector on the disk - even the empty ones, while to fix errors it only has to read things, mostly only the "headers" that are a short bit of each sector, and writes only when something needs to be fixed.

I don't know for sure that the new utility does it like in the old days, but the very old "scan and attempt" routine actually read each sector, wrote it to somewhere else on the disk, wrote a test pattern to the sector being examined, read the test pattern, and if it read back right, go read the original sector content and write it back in the sector.

With common error checking in this kind of program, every "write" operation is followed by a "read" and the read is compared to the RAM from which the write was made (which means waiting one full revolution of the drive to read what it just finished writing) and every time something is written to a new location the "pointers" to the information at other places on the drive must be rewritten - and of course read back and verified.

This level of error checking may not be used in normal disk operations, and I can't confirm that it's still the standard in the new error checking; but I suspect that it is fairly close to what happens now in the error check program.

Even without all the re-reads and verifies, it's a very intensive scrub of the disk, with a lot of thrashing about, and especially with a large disk there's no way to hurry it. It's even worse with most laptop drives, partly because more of them are "low rpm" drives, and party because the heads usually are "parked" after each read/write operation to minimize damage if the computer gets moved.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 10:46 PM

Thanks, again, John! I did the whole enchilada...saw the report as it was "thrashing" (I like that term!) I saw a lot of stuff being fixed, etc. I have now reinstalled everything, again. I still get a slow flashlight thingie with My Computer, but it does all come up.

I have also just plugged in a new external harddrive for backup. Do those things come set to automatically copy everything? I had barely plugged it in when it started up a new version of WinMediaPlayer and began playing all of my music files which were on my C drive. Then, when I went to My Computer and looked at the external drive, it showed everything copied! I am amazed. One of the reasons I had not done this is because I thought I was going to have to go through and tell it every file I wanted copied to it, as I have done to CDs. Amazing.

Thanks, again. Come this summer, I am due for a new PC. This time it's going to be a Dell.

kat

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 11:27 PM

The automatic copying thing isn't a standard feature of most external hard drives, although you can set it up in WinXP, I think, once a conventional drive is hooked in. I've seen some dedicated "backup" drives that are intended only for backup that may be setup to do it automatically. I suspect you'll want to RTFM - the material that came with the drive?

Keeping Media Player turned off in the presence of any music files is sort of a persistent p.i.a..

I looked pretty seriously at Dell quite recently, but decided I liked the choices offered elsewhere, and with the "special configuring" I wanted the price was pretty close. We have a replacement ordered for Lin's Win2K machine that's been having lots of old-age problems (i.e. crashed, smoked, sparked, burned, and self-destructed, taking network cards out on three other connected machines and probably blowing a monitor.). It's an excuse to get her off Win2K and onto WinXP. We're suffering from longer delivery time, because Dell and Gateway have cornered the mass market and none of the smaller producers can afford to keep stock on hand for immediate shipping, but we've been happy with our regular guys through 9 or 10 consecutive machines, so we expect something good in a couple of weeks.

I have whip and chair in hand to keep her (semi) docile until it gets here, and I let her on mine for brief intervals to check her email. She can play solitaire on the laptop, although she has to squint and rub her nose on the display to read the cards.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 12:03 AM

Oh what images you conjure, John! LMAO! Puir Linn, I know how she feels. I was surly with Rog this morning, I am sure, when I told him his laptop needed to stay home today! Sadly, for him, he has only a chair, no whip.

I've got XP. We ordered the external HD from Dell. Neither of us remembers anything about it coming with pre-installed software. I'll look it over some more this weekend. Sorry, what does RTFM mean?

At least I can laugh through the chaos with techies like you and Bill.:-)

kat

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 01:06 AM

R. = READ
T. = THE
F. = (well known word)
M. = MANUAL

c'mon kat, you know that one.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 08:38 AM

RTFM - an pre-internet version of this...

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 10:42 AM

LOL!! You guys!

I make it a point to never RTFM, John> That's what I have Rog for.:-)

Thanks, Fools...I'll have to bookmark that page!

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 01:20 PM

And every time we use it, it will be properly credited:

"And Foolestroupe provided the helpful link to ..."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 09:13 PM

.... (blush!!!) ....

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 10:53 AM

Well, can ye stand one more question, fellahs?

Ever since trying to download a certain firewall, I have had problems. My "MY Computer" takes a full minute or more of the flashlight searching before it shows me my drives, etc. When I try to open the kerio firewall (not the one that caused the original problem) I get a message which says "unable to initiate FwDrv Driver:2." Okay two questions...what does that one mean and I reinstalled my scanner software, but when I try to open it, I get a message that it cannot open because some other program is busy and to click on "Switch to" to close that program. If I click on Switch To, it takes me to the Start Menu, which I used to get to the scanner software to open it! When I click on Ctr-alt-Del, the only thing running is the scanner program I am trying to open. Help, please?!

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 03:25 PM

Kerio says that FwDrv is a .sys file that's part of their firewall protection to monitor outbound traffic. Note that you don't have to be using Kerio to have the file, as AV/Firewall producers do a lot of "borrowing" and encapsulating of modules that others have worked out.

FwDrv.sys appears to be a "wrapper" type file that picks up and executes other files, in this case "drivers" that contain the details of what to look at and where to go. The error message probably means that the "driver" file that FwDrv.sys is looking for is either missing, mislocated, or corrupted.

The "error" probably is associated with firewall functions. Since these functions sometimes contain "suspect" stuff, it's possible that another anti-spyware/anti-virus/antialmostanything program deleted the driver file, thinking it was, or contained, malware.

It's also possible that some malware has attempted to attack you via that file and has made it unrunnable, or that the driver file did get infected and your AV deleted it, i.e. it's (remotely) possible that some malware used that filename as a way of concealing itself.

The most likely cause probably is that you've made configuration/setup changes in your firewall, and the driver file just got "lost."

While the usual usage of that filename is associated with a firewall function, there's no law that says some other program can't use the same name; but this appears to be "prevailing usage."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 04:00 PM

Thanks, John.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 04:26 PM

kat -

I omitted Foolestroupe's All-Purpose Help Link mainly because "even I" had to ponder a bit to figure out what Kerio was talking about at the page I found. The pages that were "easy to understand" just didn't say much of anything.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the heck is MHPSplash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 06:02 PM

LOL...it does bear repeating, John.

Funny thing. Since my Sys recovery there has been an Outlook icon on my screen. I never use Outlook, ever. When I sent it to the recycle box it said was I sure that certain things might not operate right without it or some such. I went ahead, today,and shit-canned it and lo and behold My Computer has no need of a search light now, it comes right up!