Two flaws found in Firefox

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Update Gotcha

Yes, it's great to be updated with the latest fixes on a regular basis. And even excellently written software realistically should not be expected to be perfectly secure. The intended purpose is to provide accessible functionality for a broad range of applications. Conscious programmers will also keep security in mind but it's virtually impossible to compete with those whose primary focus is to break the code.

The flip side of regular update is applying a fix that breaks other functioning applications or your system. Unfortunately MS updates have caused some severe complications on a number of occasions. I was recently victimized by one of these after applying updates for IE 7 and MediaPlayer 11 to a Dell 8500 Inspiron laptop running XP SP2. I got the dreaded blank screen after the AGP440.SYS driver loaded message. Research indicates that this is an ongoing issue stretching back quite a few years . Exact cause and solution isn't clear but apparently the MS documented solution does not work. It appears that the cause is either HARDWARE RELATED:
(1) Bad Sectors on the HD (often resolved by running CHKDSK /r)
(2) Hardware conflict (usually tracable to a USB device but may be CD/DVD drive - process of step-by-step elimination is best)

SOFTWARE RELATED:
(1) Occurs after applying a MS Update. Currently seems to primarily affect machines with XP SP2. Solutions include:
(A) Backing out the SP2 Update if possible and/or updating the BIOS and/or Chipset drivers (particularly video).
(B) Repairing the XP Install.
(C) Doing a fresh install of XP.

Apologize for going off a bit but felt it important to alert the user community to the other (negative) side of the update issue. As always it stresses the need to do regular backups which we all know but frequently ignore. It seems that in the above case just doing a system restore may not resolve the problem so whatever backup methodology you employ should in the worst case scenario allow you to do a restore after a fresh OS re-install.

Posted by: Wayne Reid   Posted on: 02/09/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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