Ahmed Azhad’s Website

Mass Effect is a Role-Playing Game released by Bioware. During the setup (or first run), the game tries to validate the CD Key by contacting Bioware through the Internet.

I noticed that having Vista’s ECN capability enabled can cause the validation to fail. Luckily, most users don’t face the problem as ECN is disabled by default. To check whether ECN is enabled, type in a Command Prompt:

netsh interface tcp show global

So, for those of us who use Vista with ECN, try disabling ECN for the first run of the game. This can be done by opening a Command Prompt as Administrator (done by right clicking on Command Prompt and choosing to Run as Administrator) and typing the following command:

netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=disabled

Then run the game till it displays the Game Menu.

If you wish, you can re-enabled ECN by typing:

netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled

The same process may be required while installing the expansion for the game. The problem is most likely due to one of the intermediate routers in the Bioware network not supporting ECN. Mentioning this problem as it can be one of many problems which you could face. The problem is being discussed in the Bioware Community Forum.

Problem detected by using Sysinternals TCPView – SYN SENT not being acknowledged by Bioware Server.

A new security vulnerability has been found affecting mainly home routers with uPnP enabled. It was discovered on 12th January 2008.

Most home routers have uPnP enabled by default. They also come with the default IP addresses which are usually one of the following: 192.168.0.1, 192.168.0.254, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.254. The router can be affected by visiting a website with a Shockwave Flash file designed to change router settings.

The Simple Solution:
* Turn off uPnP in your router *
This won’t affect normal use like browsing. Those who use P2P applications may have to set the port forward manually.

Please read this FAQ for more information.

This is a difficult to solve problem I faced when trying to fix my home desktop. As mentioned in the title, the computer reboots, provided no username is clicked to login. If a username is clicked before the time period, the system will run Explorer and it would work fine.

It took a lot of work to find out the cause, using “msconfig”, disabling all services and enabling one by one to find the culprit.

It was due to a program in the Services named as Automated Surfer (C:\Windows\system32\srvany.exe). On doing a scan from Jotti’s Malware Scanner site some antivirus programs showed that it was a trojan. The results are posted below.

So deleted it from the services using regedit.exe and deleted the srvany.exe file. Now the system is fine. A file with the same name does appear in some other computers (I think it is part of some Resource Kit) so be sure to check the MD5 before deleting it.

Please write a comment if you face the same problem.

File: srvany.exe
Status: INFECTED/MALWARE
MD5: c9b18abe9063a33e77f6be81cc8df0c5
Packers detected: -
Bit9 reports: No threat detected

Scanner results

A-Squared Found Riskware.NetTool.Win32.Calc-SETI@Home.b
Dr.Web Found Program.SrvAny

Operating System: Windows xp SP2

This week, I had planned to reinstall the home desktop CPU. It was running at 85°C. Way too hot for a Pentium-D 2.8 GHz which apparently should run at a maximum of 64°C. I guess I should be thankful for Intel throttling which surely has prevented the CPU from frying. Ilango, who is one of my friends in Chennai, asked me to reinstall it, and to make sure the heatsink pins make a click sound.

So, I opened it up, and found spots where the thermal grease was not properly coated. With ample funds in hand, rushed to the Richy Street in Chennai, ready to buy some Artic Silver (which I heard is the best and quite costly). Most vendors did not have any in stock – no arctic silver and no material close to thermal paste. They were offering me heat-sink and fan combinations which cost Rs. 150-250. Since my heatsink had a copper bottom and the fan was ok, I didn’t buy any.

Finally, one shop offered me some content in a syringe costing Rs. 5. It contained zinc(II) oxide material. Looked Intel original, so bought it.

Applying it was tricky. I ended up getting more than half the material on my fingers. Sticky stuff – no wonder it’s called grease. Luckily the zinc is not toxic. Not as bad as super glue, but being a sticky grease, tough to get it off.

After re-installing, temperatures are down. The heatsink wasn’t properly installed before. One of the pins had splayed (due to the small holes in the motherboard) and didn’t lock. Still planning to replace the grease as I lost most of it on my fingers. I’ll try to post some snaps of the stuff then.

You may want to refer to the wikipedia page on thermal grease to learn more on how to apply the stuff.