Hello all.  Yesterday when I shut my PC down (and started it),
all was ok.  Today when I started it, I first noticed the "Add
new hardware" wizard that pops up when you install new
hardware(1), and no, nothing was changed nor added!  I told it
to search the HD and it said it found nothing for the device.
During this time, there was one of those "balloons" popping
from the System Tray saying it found something....that was
ALREADY INSTALLED!  This is a screenshot of both in one.
http://www.orpheuscomputing.com/tests/1.png

I have one device connected to the Promise **IDE** controller
and that's my 2nd HD used for storage, it's IDE.  I could NOT
access it!  When I clicked the desktop icon I have for it, it
wasn't found!  (The Promise SATA controller is not being used
at this time, and I have a Plextor DVD burner connected to the
NATIVE SATA controller and it was unaffected).

(1)(I also noticed that during this boot, something didn't
fully load.  It's a program called "Power Strip" and it's a
program that controls/tweaks video card and monitor settings.
I have to use it because my LCD monitor has too much contrast
and when the DVI connector is used for it you can't use the
contrast settings!  So I made a "profile" via batch file for
that lower contrast setting.  It's in the "Start Up" folder, so
it loads when the Desktop loads, then AUTOMATICALLY SHUTS
DOWN. The profile loaded, but it didn't shut down this time!)

I then opened the Device Manager and to my surprise, the
Promise controller was **STILL installed and showing up
correctly** (underlined in red in the image below), yet there
was a *NEW* entry for some *OTHER* Promise device!
(That's the yellow ? mark area just above the red underlined
area in the image below).
http://www.orpheuscomputing.com/tests/2.png

I then clicked "Show hidden devices" and saw these 3 yellow
marked areas below: (that black rectangle insert at right is
the other area I just pasted there so they would fit in one
image.  It was further down in that area below "AxPsHook11").
http://www.orpheuscomputing.com/tests/3.png

I went to the "Event Viewer" to see if anything unusual was
there and found this:
http://www.orpheuscomputing.com/tests/4.png
Now it says AxPsHook11 is a "Service", but nothing like it
shows under XP's "Services"!  (Of course clicking the link XP
provides is totally useless as always).

Befuddled about this, I restarted and all appeared to be well.
It's not enough for it to go away, I'm of the "school" that
wants to know HOW and WHY this happened.  I later ran my
anti-malware programs, as I normally do, unrelated to this.
AdAware once again tagged "Spyware Nuker XT".  It's always
tagging it because they apparently stole the database from
Lavasoft (creators of AdAware).  However, this time instead of
tagging a few registry entries Spyware Nuker creates, AdAware
was tagging actual FILES of Spyware Nuker!  Now observe what is
stated in the log file for AdAware:

Disk Scan Result for C:\WINDOWS\system\
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : File
    Data               : pshook11.sys
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Object             : C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\
    FileVersion        : 5.2.3639.0
    ProductVersion     : 5.2.3639.0
    ProductName        : Anti-Virus Engine
    CompanyName        : TrekBlue, LLC
    FileDescription    : Process Hooks Driver
    InternalName       : pshook.sys
    LegalCopyright     : Copyright 2005 TrekBlue
    OriginalFilename   : pshook.sys


Performing conditional scans...
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : Regkey
    Data               :
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Rootkey            : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    Object             :
system\controlset001\services\axpshook11

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : RegValue
    Data               :
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Rootkey            : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    Object             :
system\controlset001\services\axpshook11
    Value              : ErrorControl

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : RegValue
    Data               :
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Rootkey            : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    Object             :
system\controlset001\services\axpshook11
    Value              : Start

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : RegValue
    Data               :
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Rootkey            : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    Object             :
system\controlset001\services\axpshook11
    Value              : ImagePath

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : Regkey
    Data               :
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Rootkey            : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    Object             :
system\currentcontrolset\services\axpshook11

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : RegValue
    Data               :
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Rootkey            : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    Object             :
system\currentcontrolset\services\axpshook11
    Value              : ErrorControl

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : RegValue
    Data               :
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Rootkey            : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    Object             :
system\currentcontrolset\services\axpshook11
    Value              : Start

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : RegValue
    Data               :
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Rootkey            : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    Object             :
system\currentcontrolset\services\axpshook11
    Value              : ImagePath

 SpyWareNukerXT Object Recognized!
    Type               : Folder
    TAC Rating         : 3
    Category           : Data Miner
    Comment            : SpyWareNukerXT
    Object             : C:\Program Files\Spyware Nuker


Hmm, look at all those "axpshook11" entries!  Yes, obviously
connected to this AxPsHook issue, but (and here's the
questions) what the heck could that have to do with:  1. Power
Strip not loading; 2. The new Promise hardware found; and 3.
Not being able to access my storage HD????  NONE of this has
EVER happened before!  Today was the first time any of this has
ever happened.

As of now, I have not let AdAware remove those entries.  There
was an update to AdAware before I ran it, obviously this new
data on Spyware Nuker was just included in the new update.

I searched the registry for 'axpshook' and every entry I found
was "axpshook11" and there was absolutely no identifiable data
in the registry tags that told me anything about it.  Some of
the tags were "LEGACY_AXPSHOOK11", "Legacy" usually
means some type of driver, and an older one at that.  I can't
say if that's the case here.

So....any comments/answers/info on this?  :-)
-Clint

God Bless
Clint Hamilton, Owner
http://OrpheusComputing.com )
http://ComputersCustomBuilt.com
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