Turn Any Negative Into A Positive

How To Turn Any Negative Into A Positive

This time last week I was ready to throw this keyboard, along with the rest of the computer out of the window. A random power cut (we got lots of those around here) seemed to mess up the inner workings of the computer and I was unable to log on.

This lasted for a couple of days and to say I was a little bit p***** off would be an under-statement, I had got backups of all my vital data but I knew that I had emails waiting to
be answered and important things that needed to be downloaded.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I eventually found a way to log back onto the computer,
with all of my data still intact. As soon as I got back onto the computer I got a backup of
everything but then guess what I did….

I posted my problem, and the solution - along with an affiliate link on this blog!

My theory is always that if I have a PC problem then the chances are that someone else
will also be in the same boat. I did a bit of keyword research and found that the specific
error message that I received got around 1000 searches with various long tail keywords
each month.

So I decided to start writing! I actually had the idea to write about it when I was still
getting the error, so luckily I got some pictures of the error messages with my digital
camera. This helps a great deal when describing any problems you may have that are
PC related, it also helps the reader quickly identify if they are having the same problem.

With the pictures and keyword research done, I started writing. Thirty minutes later I
had fully documented the problem and the fix I used to solve the problem. I also included
an affiliate link to some anti-virus software that I used to help me get rid of some un-wanted visitors along the way!

Within a week of posting I am on the first page of google for the error (number 10 at
the time of writing):

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=lsass+shutdown&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

This is without any SEO or backlinks, all I did was write the article and click the publish
button on my blog!

What I am trying to get at here is not to worry if something potentially bad happens, I
honestly think that most things can be turned around and used to your advantage. I’m
sure you’ve all had similar problems that you could write about, why not try doing the
same as me, at best you will make some affiliate sales and at worst you will have lost
30 minutes of your life!

If any of you would like to view my PC error and fix post you can do so here:

https://elpassoblog.com/lsassexe-system-shutdown-error/

Thanks for reading, Please leave any comments you may have on this subject, I will look
forward to reading them!

Regards,
Dan

lsass.exe System Shutdown Error

lsass.exe System Shutdown Error

As you may have noticed I wasn’t able to post a newsletter earlier this week as I had planned. This was down to my computer deciding it was time to self-destruct! Let me give you a bit of background information, and then let me show you what I did to fix this annoying error.

It all started on Monday when we had an un-expected power cut. The computer was turned on at the time so when the power went off, so did the computer! When I booted back up everything went as normal, the obligatory windows Disk Check ran, but then to my horror the computer decided to turn itself off, no warnings, it was just like someone ripped the power cord out of the socket!

I tried again and the same process happened, this time I got my digital camera out and decided to take some pictures of the error. This is what I saw, please ignore the bad screens, I forgot to turn off the flash on my camera!

The above error message reads lsass.exe – Operation Failed
Then underneath it says: The requested operation **long code here**

After about two seconds the computer shuts itself down, well it doesn’t really shuts down it’s more like a “power down”.

So my next step was to boot up in safe mode, I’m using Windows XP home by the way! All was going well until I got past the windows boot screen and then I got the following BSOD (Blue screen of death)

And here is a condensed version

Again, the flash has messed up the picture but in short it said:

“The Video Driver Failed To Initialize”

So back I went, I tried all of the F8 options – boot in safe mode, enable boot logging, disable automatic shutdown etc but nothing worked. I was still getting the lsass.exe every time I tried to boot up. In the end I booted from my Windows XP CD and tried a reinstall/repair but the computer closed down before the CD had a chance to run!

I don’t like been beaten by a computer but this one almost managed to get one over on me, as a last desperate attempt I booted up and then plugged in my external USB had drive when the following screen appeared

After the XP logo had gone away the screen went black, I was expecting another lsass.exe shutdown but to my surprise I had made it to the blue “Windows is Starting Up” screen!

I was delighted, finally I thought I had managed to log back on, but then this happened:

As soon as the “Preparing Network Connections” text appeared the computer shut down, again, when I say shutdown I mean the power went but you know what I mean 😉

I tried a few more times with the hard drive plugged in – it’s a Freecom FHD 320GB external USB drive if any of you are taking notes! Each time I would get past the lsass.exe failed to initialize screen but when it went onto the preparing network connections screen BOOM, off the computer went.

The next time I booted up the blue Windows check disk screen ran, I let it run but when it was finished it powered down again. I started back up and inserted the USB disk drive, to my amazement I made it back to the windows login screen, I was able to log back onto the computer and everything was running perfectly.

The computer now boots up as normal, I just hope we don’t have any more power cuts anytime soon!

I have now made a backup of everything, I also ran my anti-virus scanners, I use NOD32, Comodo Firewall and Spybot. None of these found anything out of the ordinary so I did a quick search on google and came up with XoftSpy, it’s free to download/scan your PC and it found a lot of errors in my registry and it also found a few bits of Malware that the others didn’t pick up, but more worryingly it also found a Worm that logged Keystrokes! You can see a screenshot of all the errors below, it found over 300 in total so I would defiantly recommend giving your PC a free scan. (Click here)

After I had removed the items using XoftSpy the computer seems to be back to normal, I will just have to wait until our next power cut to see if the lsass.exe error decides to rear its ugly head again.

So in short, this is what I did to get back onto my PC after the lsass.exe system shutdown problem:

1. Boot up the computer and get Windows to run the Disk check (the one with the blue screen)

2. Plug in an external hard drive after the windows loading screen has run

3. Cross your fingers!

As I said this has worked for me, I hope it will help you do the same. Please leave me a comment if you have had the same error and what you did to fix it!

Thanks for reading,
Dan

1 Year Old Today!!

Just a quick post to say that the blog is today celebrating its first birthday!

Thanks to everyone that has read, left a comment or contributed to it in any way, without you  it wouldn’t have even got off the ground!

If People Are Stealing Your E-Books – Let Them!

Greetings one and all, welcome to a long overdue newsletter. I’ve been in the e-Book business for around two years now, I also work for a design company setting up “plug and play” websites for people wishing to sell electronic books. One of the most common questions I am asked is:

“How Do I Stop People Stealing My E-Books”

As a website designer/technician person it is my duty to roll off the usual ways of protecting the download links; password protecting the folder, putting in an index page, turning off the directory view etc. but as a marketer this is the answer I would give:

“Let Them Steal Your E-Books!”

That’s right, you should let them steal your e-books. Why not try and make it easy for them, put all of your e-books in an easy to guess folder like “Downloads” or “EBooks”.

I know this is going against human instinct, nobody likes a thief but in this case you really do need to put your sub-conscious thoughts aside and trust me that it really is in your own benefit to let them steal your e-books, let’s jump onto the thing you are all wondering….WHY!!

The short answer is exposure, increased website traffic, increased opt-ins and increased name recognition.

In every e-book you create you should (in my opinion of course) include back links and plugs to your site, newsletter, downloads, other products or whatever else is relevant to the book. That way every time someone “steals” your book and then decides to pass it onto a few friends you will always get a few that come back to your site and maybe sign up to your newsletter, basically what I am getting at the is “the more exposure you get the better” and if that includes letting people download your e-books without paying then so be it.

—///—///—///—
I have some new software currently being tested
That will make sure everyone that steals your
e-book or product will HAVE TO sign up to your
Newsletter before they can use it.
More details will be revealed soon.
—///—///—///—

Obviously you don’t want to turn your book or report into a massive plug-fest, try to find a happy medium between quality content and self-promotion.

Even if you are selling products with resale rights don’t think you can’t use similar techniques, you might not be able to change contents of a book to include links back to your site but there is nothing stopping you adding a “Bonus Items” folder along with the e-book that links back to your site. A popular method is to offer some free e-books or another incentive if they sign up to your newsletter. I have used this method with great success; some of you reading this article probably joined this newsletter through one of my “Bonus Items” folders!

Hopefully you can now see why people “stealing” your e-books might not be such a big problem as you first thought. People are always going to try and get around your download security so you may as well use it to your advantage!

Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave any comments or questions you may have regarding the article – that’s what the blog is here for!

Cheers,
Dan

Horton Gala 2007 Pictures

Here are some pictures I took at the Horton Gala 2007, it took place on the 2nd June. Apologies for the smallish pic size but I am tyring to keep the page loading times to a minimum!

Two men wondering if they had got the wrong day:

It’s ok, two cars have now arrived. One containing an oversized umberella:

Spot the traditional coconut shy and ice cream van:

The big hill (Penyghent) that the fell runners will be running up:

A woman dressed as a yellow duck, desperately looking for some water:

A fancy dress parade, where parents get to dress kid’s up in decorated prams and boxes:

Why you should never wash your hair using Hortons water supply:

Duck woman still in search of some water:

A bird of prey sat on a roof:

Same as above but including man with comb-over:

I have no idea what I was trying to take a picture of:

A woman dressed in tin cans and plastic bags…..it takes all sorts:

A vuture flying towards a man with a very hairy back:

The vulture contenplating the next move:

The vulture goes in for the kill, possibly needs some hair for its nest:

Another bird, possibly an eagle?

Fell runners about to set off:

And there they go:

And a bit more:

And the stragglers at the back:

Some strange creatures: (The ones in the pen)

They are called “Alpacas”

I may have the spelling totally wrong, they look like Lamas…

Cheeky:

Duck woman still looking for water, she’ll find nothing in there apart from tasty cakes and soft drinks:

That brings to an end my pictures. I have been told that the duck woman did eventually find some water.