Sunday, 2 January 2011

Thumbdrive, Flashdrive, or USB Devices Can't Be Used or Recognized, HIMIPX.EXE Error

In this troubleshooting example, an EMachines D725 laptop can recognize USB devices but refuses to load it up. When a Globe Tattoo was plugged in an error message of the dialog box appears as : "The file or folder 'himipx.exe' that this shortcut refers to can't be found" and the dialog box can't be closed. This restricts the USB device to be loaded. The laptop has Win 7 operating system with an expired Avira Antivirus - which I suspect caused the problem. I was able to remove and deactivate the himipx.exe (himip.exe) but I suggested that the laptop should be reformatted as soon as possible. The fix made was not full because they need to have the laptop sent to the school just half an hour when I was "fixing" it.



Date Fixed : December 12, 2010


Problem : When a flashdrive or a USB device is plugged in an error message appears as : "The file or folder 'himipx.exe' that this shortcut refers to can't be found"


Owner : Gwen Amante
Unit : Emachines D725 T4400 2 GB RAM
Operating System : Windows 7


Technician : Drokz
Weblog : http://clhidohsr.blogspot.com


INTERVENING FACTOR :

- The laptop needs to be fixed around 30 mins


OBSERVATION :

- The laptop just boots fine and there seems to be no problem. But when a flashdrive or thumbdrive or any USB device is being plugged in, an error message appears and the dialog box could not be closed and likewise the USB device is refused to be recognized.


TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE :

- Since the antivirus has already expired, I have a suspicion that a virus must have caused the problem. So I plugged in a wifi kit (Globe Tattoo) then a dialog pops up and shows the himipx.exe error. So I checked in the task manager if the himipx.exe is active in the memory but what I found out was its process name is himip.exe. So I need to find himip.exe in the registry and manually delete it.

- To be able to find himip.exe in the registry, press Win+R and type in "regedit". As the registry dialog box appears, click or highlight "My Computer" and go to the "Edit" tab then to "Find" then type in the text input box "himip.exe" and press "Enter". A few seconds after, it should display in the left pane of the registry dialog box a string value entry named "himip.exe" then click right on it then choose delete.

- You have just deleted the first himip.exe and you need to find the other string value by going to "Edit" tab again then to "Find Next". It should reveal another himip.exe string value entry and delete it.

- Now the known registry values has just been deleted, we need to disable the startup item for "himipx.exe" or "himip.exe" in the System Configuration Utiity. In order to do so, press "Win+R" then type "msconfig". As the System Configuration Utility appears, go to the "Startup" tab and uncheck the the item for "himipx.exe" then click "ok". Restart your computer.

- As I have accomplished this and had the computer successfully boot up, I tried to plug in a USB drive (Globe Tattoo) and the error message did not come out! I was already able to use the wifi kit then later uninstalled the expired Avira Antivirus and replaced it with the 1 year trial of Avast Pro. The laptop is now ok but I strongly suggest that it should be reformatted.


SUMMARY :

The Emachines D725 laptop virus infected by the malware "himipx.exe" or "himip.exe" could not be able to use a flashdrive or a thumbdrive or any USB device. The only way to do this aside from having your computer scanned by a good and updated antivirus is to manual deletion of the registry values of the "himipx.exe" and its derivative "himip.exe" and disabling its startup item in the System Configuration Utility. I also found no other problem made by this type of malware so far.

0 comments:

Labels

(Electronics) 2011: 2012: 3.4GHz 400MHz 4x512 AMD's AMD’s ASRock Adapter Alienware Amd processors Analysis Android Angry Announced Announcement Antec Apple Apple's Arctic Arrives Aspire Athlon Audio Battle Benchmarked Biostar Blackberry Blu-ray Bluetooth Bridge Broadband Browser Budget Cache Chromebook Compound Computer Computers) Computex Concept Cooler Corsair Crysis Dell's Design Desktop Desktops Details Devices Diamond Digital Display Download Drive External Extreme Facebook First Fujitsu Fusion Future Galaxy Gaming GeForce Gigabyte HSFPHASECM Honeycomb India Indian Keyboard Keyboards Keypad Kingston LGA1155 LGA1366 LGA775 Laptop Laptops Latitude Leaked Lexmark's Light Llano Logitech M2N-SLI MSI's MSM8660 MacBook Master Medal Media Medion Mini-Review Mobile MotherBoard's Motherboard Motherboards Motorola Mouse Multimedia NC215S NTLDR NVIDIA NVIDIA's National Netbook Netbooks Nexus Nokia Non-ECC Notebooks Offers Optical Optimus Option Overclock Overclocked PC2-5300 PC2-6400 Panda Panel Patriot Pavilion Performance Phone Plans PlayStation Portable Postpaid Power PowerPC Preview Preview: Price Prices ProBook Processor Processors Project Projector Propus Qosmio Quad-Core Qualcomm Quick RadTech Radeon Rates Razer Registry Released Releases Retail Review Review: Reviews Rupees Rupess SDRAM SODIMM Samsung SandForce Sandy Satellite Seagate Select Sensitive Series Series™ Server Shuttle Silent Silicon Silver Single Small Smartphone Smartphones Socket Solar Solid Speakers Specifications Specs Speed Store Super Tablets Tariff Technology Tegra Testing Thermal ThinkPad Thunderbolt Toshiba TouchPad TouchSmart Touchscreen Tower Troubleshooting Tutorial: Ultimate Ultra Update Verizon Vertex ViewSonic Viliv Vista Vodafone Voodoo Western Wi-Drive Wi-Fi WiMax Windows Wireless Workstations: World Writer Xperia Zotac acpi_call all-in-one announces business camera feature features flash iPad iPhone latest launched launches mobiles module nFORCE notebook omnia overview panasonic player release shutdown special tablet takes touch toughbook unveils webOS white www.phoronix.com

About This Blog

Blog Archive

  © Blogger templates The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP