[Johnny Quest]

Since installing Alcohol 120% my system has been plagued with all sorts of problems; hangs, crashes, failure to start and lots of error messages on the event viewer. One thing I thought odd was that Alcohol also installed something called "Starwind".

Everything seems to point to something called "sptd.dll", but every search of "SPTD" I run on Google points to Daemon Tools.

But I don't have Daemon Tools installed, and haven't had it for a very long time.

But then I just noticed a Rocketdivision/Starport connection with Daemon tools, and I am also suspecting this Starwind as being a cause of problems.

When I Google Starwind, most of the hits have to do with malware & trojans.

All of this is becoming very confusing.

Is there a connection between Alcohol & Daemon Tools ? Is one or the other causing my problems ? Is Starwind legitimate software, or is it malware ?

Why can't I delete Starwind from my Highjack This scan ? It behaves like malware by refusing to uninstall, it gets installed without my knowledge and I have systemic problems when it gets installed ?

What's going on here ? It's seems to have messed up my DLL files, especially those that have to do with SCSI drives. I'm no expert and shouldn't have to be messing with stuff at this level. Can someone please tell me what's happened here ?

[LocutusofBorg]

well, I will try to help you.

if you have problems with alcohol, you should try to use their
support! We are NOT the alcohol-support-board

What concerns the StarWind-issue:

Starwind is a special service which is installed by alcohol.
However, it is in no way related to malware, where did you get
such crap informations from????? It is a SCSI-initiator, similar
to that one Microsoft offers (only better ). Again, use
ALCOHOL - Supportboard to get more information.

My suggestion is that you completely UNINSTALL alcohol,
then re-install it. When you REINSTALL, please make sure to
NOT install also Starwind/Starport (you can uncheck (OPT-OUT)
that option).

Then your StarWind-installation should be gone.

What concerns SPTD:

SPTD is a special-driver, used by both, Alcohol AND Daemon-
Tools. As DT used it for quite some time now, it is normal
that most sites point out to our board.

When you have trouble with SPTD, you can visit the
manufacturers website: http://www.duplexsecure.com
they have also an own support-board.

Note that neither Alcohol nor DaemonTools will functioning
without that said SPTD-driver, however, you can then
use older versions of DaemonTools or Alcohol, which are
based on another technology.

Why can't I delete Starwind from my Highjack This scan ? It behaves like malware by refusing to uninstall, it gets installed without my knowledge and I have systemic problems when it gets installed ?

I think you (don't want to sound rude here, just a suggestion!) should in the future first READ and then press
"INSTALL" or "YES; PLEASE INSTALL" or something else.
The above statement from you is simple not true.
For the same reasons I become insane on a more and more
frequent level.

Alcohol - and Daemon Tools - are both advanced applications.
To do their job they have to use special technologys.
To run such apps, you should at least know what you're
doing - and the least we could demand is that our users
carefully read the EULA, the installation-notes, etc. etc.
I know, this is boring and annoying stuff - on the other site
you see now that you do not even know that it was YOU
who agreed to install StarWind (which is, like explained above,
NOT malware but a driver, which is bounded in some
ways now to your system. To remove it with "hijack this"...
well, I guess you know what I would say next).

Ok, just to repeat:

1) Remove alcohol completely from your system
2) reinstall it (this time you should make sure to opt-out
StarWind at installation

- does the problems still persist?

No? fine then

Yes? ok, in that case please uninstall Alcohol, reboot your
System and then remove SPTD from your system.
Here is a direct link, please read carefully this little faq
BEFORE you proceed:

http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/t682...h-sptdsys.html

imho, best solution here is to download sptdinst.exe from our
download-section and execute it. It will ask if you wish to
remove SPTD.

Now - after you booted your system again - check if your
problems still persist. If yes, then your problems are not
related to SPTD and/or Alcohol. Post again here then to
see what we can do next. Also you could send out your
event-log to support@daemon-tools.cc with reference to
this thread! (as well as possible mini-dumps from your BSODs)

Together we will surely find a solution for your problem!

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by LocutusofBorg

if you have problems with alcohol, you should try to use their
support! We are NOT the alcohol-support-board

Exactly, however i feel you have offerd the same advice and information for this as we would have done, however your correct users with problems related to Alcohol should seek a solution with us prior to going to third party sites even though some software use similar tools they are not nesseseraly identical in each software.