How To Change Firefox Location Bar Search Engine

One last remnant of StopZilla's system modifications during install that it won't fix by uninstall: It changed the Firefox location bar search engine from google to ask. Thanks, but I didn't want that when asking for help with my malware. And I didn't mean uninstall everything you installed, StopZilla, except the Firefox Toolbar, and the Firefox Location Bar Search Engine, you see?

I meant uninstall Everything you installed, StopZilla! (You're not making any friends, have you noticed?)



Well this last piece is really easy to fix: How to change the Firefox Location Bar Search Engine. I found this on http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-change-your-firefox-location-bar-search-engine/ and modified it from  "I'm feeling lucky" display to regular google search:

Perform this simple steps:
1. Type about:config in Firefox location bar and press Enter
2. Type keyword in Filter textbox and you will see only the preference keyword.URL.
3. Double-click on keyword.URL and change the value to: http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=
That's all it takes to restore default keyword search functionality in Google.
Note: You can use this to change to any search engine for keyword search

 Voila! Hopefully this concludes the "How to completely uninstall Stopzilla" series ;)

Remove "Security Tool" a.k.a. SecurityTool Malware, Finally! (Uninstall Guide)

Finally I found the solution for the original "Security Tool" problem, and it is FREE! Read on!



BACK TO THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM

So by the end of the day I was able to remove all traces of StopZilla. It took me hours, but it will take you only minutes if you heed my directions here.

I was able to finally download McAfee virus scan and start the full scan which however found nothing.

I made the full circle and the "Security Tool" nagware is popping up again. This time I looked at exactly how much money they wanted (they would not reveal what website I was connecting to to pay, everything was done on their screen, not in the browser - awesome!). They wanted a total of $129.85 if I wanted to pay the full "protection package". I'm paraphrasing here.

FINALLY, WHAT LOOKS LIKE A TRUE SOLUTION

So I look into other solutions. I finally found one over at bleepingcomputer.com. This one worked, their recommended malware removal tool apparently got rid of my "Security Tool" and for one - time removal they charged nothing. Nada. Very nice gesture.

SOLUTION SO GOOD I'M CONSIDERING A PURCHASE!

For their capabilities I'm strongly thinking of purchasing them for ongoing protection if I ever feel I need one!

There are 4 pages of directions on how exactly to remove "Security Tool":

Automated Removal Instructions for Security Tool using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:

1. Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
   
   
2. Before we can do anything we must first end the processes that belong to Security Tool so that it does not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, download the following file to your desktop.
   
   rkill.com Download Link
   
   
3. Once it is downloaded, double-click on the rkill.com in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with Security Tool and other Rogue programs. Please be patient while the programs looks for various programs and closes them. When it has finished, the black window will automatically close. While rkill is running, if you get a message stating that rkill, or another executable, is an infection, ignore it, and let rkill.com finish. This is just the infection trying to stop rkill from disabling it. Please note, you may have to attempt to run rkill quite a few times before the malware process is terminated.
   
   Do not reboot your computer after running rkill as the malware programs will start again.
   
   
4. Now you should download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
   
   Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Download Link
   
   


5. Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
   
   
6. Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
   
   
7. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing and is at the last screen, make sure you uncheck both of the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware check boxes. Then click on the Finish button. If Malwarebytes' prompts you to reboot, please do not do so.
   
   If you receive a code 2 error while installing Malwarebytes's, please press the OK button to close these errors as we will resolve them in future steps. The code 2 error will look similar to the image below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. As this infection deletes a core executable of Malwarebytes' we will need to download a new copy of it and put it in the C:\program files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder. To download the file please click on the following link:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Malwarebytes' EXE Download
   

   When your browser prompts you where to save it to, please save it to the C:\program files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder. When downloading the file, it will have a random filename. Please leave the filename the way it is as it is important that it is not changed. You may want to write down the name of the file as you will need to know the name in the next step.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Once the file has been downloaded, open the C:\program files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder and double-click on the file you downloaded in step 8. MBAM will now start and you will be at the main program screen as shown below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. Before you can perform a scan, you must first update the program. To do this click on the Update tab, and that at the new screen click on the Check for Updates button. Malwarebytes' will now check for new updates and download and install them as necessary. When the update is completed, you will be prompted with a message stating either that you already have the latest updates or that they have been updated. Either way, you should now click on the OK button to continue.
    
    
11. Now click on the Scanner tab and make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected. Then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Security Tool related files.
    
    
12. MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
13. When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the SecurityTool removal process.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
14. You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
    
    
15. A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
16. When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.
    
    
17. You can now exit the MBAM program.
    
    
18. Due to the fact that this infection deletes certain MalwareBytes' files, and we had to work around this, if you wish to continue using MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware, which we suggest you do, then you should uninstall and then install it again so that the files are created properly.
    

Your computer should now be free of the SecurityTool program. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

MY ORIGINAL "BLACK FRIDAY" PROBLEM SOLVED

This solved my Black Friday "Security Tool" Malware problem. I'll let you know if I have another appearance of "Security Tool" or StopZilla in my laptop. Just stay tuned in. Bookmark this page or subscribe to the feed.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Have these last three posts been helpful to you? Have you found in this post exactly how to remove Security Tool? Do you have any other spyware or malware on your computer? Let me know, maybe we can create another post with the solution. Just leave a comment. Thanks!

Stop Zilla To The Rescue? Maybe Not! How To Remove StopZilla Toolbar

Has your computer been plagued by Stop Zilla or its notorious toolbar? Not able to remove either the software itself or the Stop Zilla toolbar? This post contains the solution! Read on!



BLACK FRIDAY SECURITY TOOL ATTACK

So I was telling you about the Black Friday attack of the "Security Tool". I therefore downloaded and installed Stop Zilla, an alleged malware removal program.

It turns out Stop Zilla itself justifies the adjective "mal" = bad... keep on reading.

I STEP INTO... STOP ZILLA

I installed and ran Stop Zilla. After a few hours it came back with seven potential threats:

1. Agobot.MG, Worm,Critical Severity
2. VX.Game.Temp_044, Trojan, High Severity
3. A Better Internet.Clean Get-Away, Adware, Moderate Severity
4. System Security, Rogue Adware, Moderate Severity
5. PromoReg, Worm, High Severity
6. SystemPolicies.DisableTask, Hijacker, Moderate Severity
7. SystemPolicies.DisableRegistry, Hijacker, Moderate Severity

Didn't look exactly like what I was trying to get rid of (C:\Windows\Temp\_ex-08.exe, see my previous post). Still, I go ahead and hit the Remove Button. When I hit the button Remove to remove the malware found, Stop Zilla wanted money from me (9.95, $30 off of the regular price for the whole year, a Black Friday Special - what a coincidence!? or $79.95 lifetime support). So typical. Everyone is willing to tell you how they found malware on your computer, noone is willing to remove it for free. I'm not surprised, this is how softwares like that make their money. But I decided to uninstall Stop Zilla. Another reason - I just remembered I have a free McAfee download available through my DSL provider AT&T (Thanks Mama Bell).

ON TO REMOVING STOP ZILLA - EASIER SAID THAN DONE

Easier said than done. Stop Zila uninstalls to the degree, and then stops and waits, doing nothing apparently. Waits for 10-20 minutes! Really slow uninstall! I ended up killing all Stop Zila processes and doing the uninstall manually through the Vista system. Job completed? Not really. A nasty surprise awaits...

BUT WAIT - WHAT IS THIS PESKY STOP ZILLA FIREFOX TOOLBAR DOING HERE?

It is impossilble to uninstall the "Stop Zilla Toolbar" bot for the Firefox 3.5.5 and for the Internet Explorer 8! The Stop Zilla simply doesn't clean that "detail" after itself. The Stop Zilla refuses to remove the (useless and disfunctional in my opinion) toolbar. When you go to Firefox Tools, Add-Ons section, Stop Zilla Toolbar is NOWHERE to be found, neither under Plug-ins nor Extensions! So how to remove the toolbar? This annoyance took me a few hours to figure out but I found a solution.

OTHER PEOPLE COMPLAINING TOO

I found a suspiciously similar complaint on this website http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/and-yet-another-security-vendor.html. There is a rebuttal by an officer from Stop Zilla... And now a rebuttal of the rebuttal of yours truly:

And yet another security vendor succumbs to temptation

12/3/2008 Correction/Clarification: This is not technically the Ask Toolbar. It's actually a STOPzilla toolbar that uses Ask search results. More here.

Yet another security vendor succumbs to bundling the Ask Toolbar with their product — and again, pre-selected (and when you go to uninstall the STOPzilla, you’re still left with the Ask Toolbar to uninstall).

This is getting gross.

AND HERE IS THE SOLUTION. IT WORKS FOR ME.

So, long story short, it  is possible to easily remove Stop Zilla Firefox and IE8 toolbars by

• uninstalling Stop Zilla as directed under Stop Zilla/Uninstall Stop Zilla -- you really need to kill all other processes for this to work, or just use the Windows Vista Uninstall Program feature.
  
• going to C:\Program Files\Stopzilla!\ and removing all files from there. The Firefox won't find the extension there, and you won't see it in the Firefox frame anymore. A Big annoyance resolved! As for IE8, even with Stop Zilla installed, you could always disable the SZ toolbar. 

Big toolbar annoyance resolved. Can we please get back to the "original" malware, the one that started this whole story?

[Update: Turns out this was not the last change Stop Zilla instigated and not reversed during uninstall. Find out how to restore google search in your Firefox Navigation Bar, if you notice the default search was changed to Ask...]

MCAFEE NOT DOING MUCH BETTER... TOOK FOREVER JUST TO INSTALL...

Talking about the "Security Tool" malware. Stop Zilla apparently did not take it out but I did delete some files as instructed. Has that been able to take it out? I was only able to run the McAfee "quick" virus scan with the updates. McAfee gave me a lot of grief just installing itself, and I had to install McAfee Virtual Technician too just to get the Virus Scan going. But I digress.....

STOP ZILLA PROBLEM SOLVED FOR ME, MOVING ON TO THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM

Well, at the end of the day, Black Friday, the Security Tool popped up again, this time just the "Red" shield... I'm running McAfee again overnight. The battle of security tools... I'll let it run overnight.. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, my laptop's in trouble!

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Did you find the directions above useful for removing Stop Zilla AND its pesky toolbar? Let me know! Just leave a comment below. Or bookmark the page below. If you have questions let me know also!

Remove "Security Tool" "Anti-Malware" Popups

Black Friday: A Day Wasted on "Security Tool" removal.

BLACK FRIDAY, AM

Black Friday, what an appropriate name. Having woken up this morning and for some reason having rebooted my laptop, I find the reboot proces is utterly slow...



"SECURITY TOOL" GREETING

Finally the laptop comes to life, I log on, and a software named "Security Tool" starts popping up, letting me know I have several worms, trojans, and other malware and that I need to download "Security Tool" of sorts ... One Blue and one Red icon appear in the system tray. With popups.

SOMEBODY WANTS ME TO BUY

It really looked more like a hard sale/marketing approach wanting me to go and visit an anti-malware site. Not buying into the suggestions, it gives me the only option to "continue unprotected" just to bug me again in a few minutes. I suddenly felt a strong urge to remove the "Security Tool".

I WANT TO REMOVE "SECURITY TOOL"

A quick search for "remove security tool" yields a site offering a purchase of anti-virus program. Here is the page: 2-viruses.com. The best part was a comment posted there by Philly Keith:

Philly Keith

October 9th, 2009 at 21:04

forget all that… try this move, it worked for me
after going nuts over this for a whole day.

Reboot in safe mode browse to
C:\Documents and settings\all users\ application data

There will be a folder in there that has
eight numbers as a name (ex 91908431)

Delete this bad boy, empty recycle bin

Reboot normally, delete all left over shortcuts,
empty recycle bin again and you are home free.

FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS

Except that these directions look like they're from Win XP, so I found the offending directory in C:\Users\All Users\00854623 and the other place is C:\Program Data\00854623\00854623.exe . I noticed the 00854623.exe was running in the Task Manager. That was suspicious indeed.

ANOTHER BUGGER

So I followed directions but, I also noticed another bugger in the Task Manager/Processes: _ex-08.exe. Searching for this string led me to virusremovalguru.com/?p=3623 where I found advertising for Stopzilla.com. You are beginning to notice how these "helpful" sites always have something in store for you that will cost ya?!

STOPZILLA TO THE RESCUE?

[UPDATE: Please do NOT follow these directions to download StopZilla. If you do, you will have to go to the very next post and learn how to completely remove Stop Zilla and its toolbars. It ain't easy! You've been pre-warned! However, if you have downloaded Stop Zilla already, that post will save you a ton of time]

Long story short, I download StopZilla in hopes it will remove the _ex-08.exe bugger. FYI an independent search using Windows Explorer found two files: C:\Windows\_ex-08.exe-311C6F9.pf and C:\Windows\Temp\_ex-08.exe . I wanted these removed.

FOLLOW THIS LINK TO GET TO THE NEXT STEP IN REMOVING "SECURITY TOOL"

If you installed StopZilla: More on removing "Security Tool" in the next post: Adventures in the StopZilla land.

If you did install StopZilla like me: You need one extra step of removing Stop Zilla here, and then proceed from there.

ARE YOU HAVING FUN YET?

Has the adventure helped you in any way so far? Let me know, leave me a comment!

Vista: No Sound. Problem Solved. Sound On and Off? Problem Solved.

I will explain how to fix your problem if your Windows Vista has no sound. Or if the sound on Vista comes on and goes off. Read on.

Remeber not too long ago I had a strange event happen: I had the sound coming out of my Laptop's speakers and out of my headset simultaneously.

THE PREVIOUSLY "RESOLVED" PROBLEM REPEATS ITSELF...

That was kind of weird but I resolved this strange sound problem then. It repeated yesterday. Hmm.

...AND GETS WORSE

Then today, while I was watching a video about making money with your blog the vista sound went away, totally. No sound on Vista! That was very annoying!


My laptop with "Windows Vista, No Sound" version is not much fun. I'm not very good at reading lips! Anyhow I played around a bit and I found a couple of weird things going on.

• The headphones and the speakers playing simultaneously. Basically, the speakers wouldn't shut off when the headphone jack is inserted. This could be a jack problem, but it didn't look like one!
• (later) No Sound from Vista. Pressing Fn Up Arrow showed the Volume Bar, and it was at its max, but no sound. The Video Player (Flash Video Player) sound button was at 100%.

I went in decided to go deeper than last time where reboot fixed the problem for the time being. I opened the Sound Driver Manager (Start, Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Sound), looked at Configuration and Properties. Everything looked fine initially.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED

Except this: Pressed on Speaker, Properties, again Properties under "Controller Information, High Definition Audio Device", clicked the Driver Tab on Top and pressed Disable to turn off sound! As soon as I confirmed the delete, the sound came on! I rejected the next popup suggesting to reboot to complete the changes. I liked having sound! This lasted for about 30 seconds and then the sound shut itself off again. Funny enough, I was able to repeat this procedure 3-4 times which repeatedly gave me sound for 30 or so seconds at the time. So let's add another "weird symptom" bullet:

• the sound came on after hitting the "Disable" in the sound driver and confirming!
  

I searched for Vista No Sound type problems and indeed, I found a web site http://www.filecluster.com/reviews/102008/realtek-cards-no-sound-in-vista-problem-fix/. They  suggested to reinstall the sound drivers and offered (a certain) driver download. I agreed with the reinstall part and decided to download vista sound drivers from the manufacturers site instead.
 
The strange behavior really ruled out any obvious hardware problem such as speakers or headphones or headphone jack switch. So next thing to think about: maybe the Realtek driver went bad. OK.

DOWNLOADING FRESH DRIVERS AND REMOVING THE INSTALLED DRIVERS

I proceeded to download the driver from the Acer (manufacturer) website acer.com. Selected my country, laptop model and Voila, there it was. It was a Realtek High Definition Audio Driver which seems quite common on Vista these days. About 37 Mbytes zipped. I placed it on my hard drive and proceeded to uninstall the existing driver as directed. Start, Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Sound, Playback Tab, Speakers, General Tab, Properties, Under Controller information, High Definition Audio Device, Properties, Driver Tab, Uninstall Button (advanced). Agreed (checked) Delete the Driver Software. Click OK.

UNINSTALL SUCCESSFUL. HERE NOT FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS PROVES BENEFICIAL

The driver uninstalled successfully and Vista offered a reboot. I agreed contrary to the directions from the above filecluster website. This proved successful. It turned out, it removed the need to actually install the downloaded driver as Vista found (the old?) drivers and installed them during the restart process. Mind you, I feel the "old" Vista drivers were up-to-date.

VISTA NO SOUND PROBLEM SOLVED

The sound came back. Vista, No Sound Problem Solved. For now. I'll keep you posted.

MY PROBLEM SOLVED. WHAT ABOUT YOURS? LEAVE A COMMENT PLEASE?

Let me know if these directions helped with your sound or even if they didn't help you. Either way, leave me a comment, would you!

IF YOUR PROBLEM IS SOLVED, BOOKMARK THIS PAGE FOR LATER!

And if it did help you, I would appreciate your bookmarking this with your favorite service like Digg or StumbleUpon below. That way you can come back here when needed and others can find this solution more easily as well.

Sluggish Pointer on Windows Vista (And Win 7?) Reoccurred!

Another sluggish pointer occurrence, another chance for a better answer!

I have previously reported about Vista coming up from sleep with an extremely sluggish pointer/cursor and page faulting WDM Windows Desktop Manager. Back then the solution was to reboot.

Is that really the best way around this? No!


PROBLEM REOCCURRED

Today, I put the laptop to hibernate, woke it up. Sluggish pointer! The symptoms were exactly the same as before: 3-5 times slower pointer, slow windows, and page faulting Windows Desktop Manager. What else can I do but reboot? This would take at least 5 minutes if I am lucky.

SOLUTION: ATTEMPT 1 FAILS!

One way to bring down WDM: Went to Control Panel (which now works flawlessly after fixing it yesterday, see Control Panel Not Working post), System and Maintenance, Performance Tools and Information, Adjust Visual Effects, $Visual Effects TAB, and went all the way down to uncheck Use Visual Effects on Windows and Buttons under Custom. Click Apply and wait, well 3 minutes.

The result? Nada. The mouse pointer, the windows were even more sluggish than before even though WDM wasn't even running.

SOLUTION: ATTEMPT 2 SUCCESSFUL!

Another way was to bring the whole system down to sleep, using the suspend button. Gues what, that worked like a charm, took maybe 20 seconds to suspend and maybe 5 seconds to get back and with no pointer or Windows slowness! So no reboot needed, just put your computer to suspend and back!

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Have you experienced slow or sluggish pointer on Windows Vista or Windows 7? Let me know, leave a comment! Thanks! If this page helped you, bookmark it!

SOLVED: Vista Control Panel Blank, Not Coming Up

Shocking: Something or Somebody is trying to take control of my computer away from me.

PROBLEM: CONTROL PANEL NOT COMING UP, IS BLANK!

As you are beginning to notice I like to stay on top of things with my computer. So last night I was going to access Vista Control Panel (CP)on one of my laptops (Acer Aspire 5570z Vista SP2). I hit Start/Control Panel. The window pops up and the Control Panel does not get populated with graphics and options. Vista Control Panel stays empty, blank! I wait.

Nothing. The silly light green bar over the top of the window grows toward the right, almost reaching the right edge. As if there is progress made. You know better. Nada. Zilch. Blank white window. No control panel.

I left the computer like that overnight. No dice. No Control Panel.

WORKAROUND: CLASSIC VIEW

Luckily a click on "Classic View" brings up all the items in the Control Panel so I can do whatever I wanted. And, miraculously, I can click "back" to Control Panel Home, and the graphical, default Control Panel (CP)pops up! Problem solved?

WHAT OTHERS FOUND

A quick search for similar problems on the internet finds a variety of possible causes: Slowness caused by indexing of hundreds of thousands of files. This I excluded because my problem is not slowness, my problem is CP not working period. Ever. Plus I do not index anyways.

Another site http://forums.tweakguides.com/showthread.php?t=5228 suggests again that "slowness" of the Control Panel might be due to other applications such as Apple QuickTime. Indeed, I know that is a part of CP display. And, yes I remember, just yesterday Apple popup came up, offerin the upgrade of my Safari browser to 4.0 something. Which I declined. Is this Apple playing being offended?

Yet others http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/541064-why-does-take-control-panel.html suggest that control panes might take a long time because of lengthy registry searches. Could be but, this is not lengthy, this takes forever.

Finally, I came across a quite likely solution: Spicks and Speckled at whirlpool.net.au came up with the problem and the solution that will probably work, it just looks too good not to work http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/974866.html :

I came across this problem – but I'd been disabling lots of services as most weren't needed.
I found I couldn't open the control panel, or the power plan (power options) tool.
I fixed this with (from command line – i.e. start->run->cmd)
sc config SLUINotify start= auto
sc start SLUINotify
sc query SLUINotify
You can also fix with this command line tool to get into the services control gui (since I couldn't start it with the control panel)
services.msc
look for> SL UI Notification Service
I found the service does not stay running, but my control panel works now as well as the power plan changer. I guess it must start and stop as needed.

I also observed, like him, that the power button in he Vista Tray did not work properly. Left clicking on the battery button brings up the "Fully charged 100%" window, but I can not go into the power options, just like he describes. Well I was able to get into the "Classic View" in my case (see Workaround above) so I went there.

SOLUTION? EXPERIMENT WILL TELL

Went to "Start/Control Panel/"Classic View"/Administrative Tools/Services. Indeed I find SL UI Notification Service set to "Manual" and not started. Changed that to "Automatic" and started the service. By the way SL stands for Software Licensing Activation and Notification and UI maybe stands for User Interface? Sounds really like Apple was trying to do yesterday, install software?

Anyways, starting the SL UI works great. Does it solve the problem?? Let's see: NOT !! No Dice! I also restart Software Licensing service which in turn restarts SL UI. Still, no solution.

NO DICE, FOR NOW. STAY TUNED

No solution for now. I'll restart the laptop to see if that does it. Then maybe, Ill install Apple Safari version 4. In the meantime, you and I can use the Workaround above.

FIVE MINUTES LATER... PROBLEM SOLVED

Couldn't stay away with an unsolved problem... I restarted the laptop and Control Panel works like new. The solution therefore is: Set Service SL UI on Automatic. See EXPERIMENT WILL TELL above. Then restart Vista.

I SUCCEEDED WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Do you have the same problem? Let me know, leave a comment. Have you solved this or similar problem? Let me know, leave a comment. Do you know why I had to restart Vista to fix this? Let me know, leave a comment! Cheers!

SOLVED? Sound Output on Laptop From Both Speakers AND Headphones

PROBLEM - BOTH SPEAKERS AND HEADPHONES PLAYING

I had a strange thing happen to me today. Almost as if taken from a zombie movie.

Laptop speakers came alive all by themselves!



[UPDATE: This now appears as an overture into Vista No Sound problem, sound drivers going bad, and having to reinstall them later]

I inserted a set of headphones in my Acer Aspire laptop front panel. I was listening to a webcast and I didn't want to disturb my friend. Shortly thereafter my friend alerted me however that my speakers are playing loud!

Crazy- it was hard to believe. Impossible to know by myself because the headsets are all I heard!

Normally I'd expect that when inserting the headphones jack the speakers would be muted. Not this time. Tried plugging and unplugging the headset. Regardless, speakers keep on playin'!

ATTEMPTED SOLUTIONS

What would you do to fix this? Well I tried a few things. Plug/unplug the headphone jack failed. Went into my Device Manager, under Sound, disabled my Realtek sound card. That cut off the sound completely. Turned it back on, still, both headphones and speaker keep on playin'!

FINAL SOLUTION?

Finally, decided to reboot the Vista laptop. That solved the problem and everything works as usual.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Till next time! What do YOU think was going on? What would you do? Please comment if you have a clue!

OTHER PEOPLE WHO COULD BE HELPED BY THIS

This guy with an Asus could be helped, possiby.
These guys at Tom''s Hardware think this is normal behavior. Well not for my laptop!
Some folks actually prefer to have sound from both speakers and headset simultaneously(Win 7)!