SOLVED Win7x64 Download Problem

[Youngblood]

Two of my PCs have Win7x64 on them (one, each, desktop [home-rolled] & laptop [Dell N5050).

Sometimes ... when I initiate a .pdf or .exe (perhaps more types) file download in the browser (IE11 or FireFox newest) instead of getting a popup Save/SaveAs dialog, all that is displayed in the window is ASCII hash.

I first ran into this when trying to D/L some income tax-related files from the Virginia Tax site and also the IRS site. In that case, after trying unsuccessfully with both of my primary system (Win7x64), what I had to do was fire-up one of my systems that sports a 32bit flavor of Windows and use that to download the files.

Most files download properly on my two Win7x64 systems ... but enough produce the ASCII hash to really make it annoying.

Anyone ever run into this kind of weirdness before and, hopefully, have a simple solution?

Thanks!

Kim

 

[TrainableMan]

Are you saying the text in the downloads window itself is ASCII characters? It's possible this is an attempt to display in a foreign language.

Go to control panel > Region and Language. Make sure the Format is set to English, Location United States, Under Keyboards and Languages make sure that is English (if you have any Language options here at all), and under Administrative click "Change system locale" and make sure that is English.


If that doesn't help, another thing I found in search suggests you ...
Look in C:\Windows\System for a file called MFC42LOC.DLL and if it is there rename it to MFC42LOC.old
... I never heard of this before and I do not have that file myself but if you do, renaming it may be worth a shot.

 

[Youngblood]

Many thanks for the reply, TrainableMan!

Unfortunately, windows\system is empty (the file is not in system32, either) and the CFG in Region and Language is all correct.

After penning my help request I rebooted into 14.4 Ubuntu (x64 also, btw) and was able to D/L that most recent file with no problem ... so at least it appears that I won't have to dig out an older x32 system to get the download files that only produce ascii hash on my Win7x64 systems.

Still a PITA, though ...

 

[Youngblood]

Here is an example of what I refer to as ASCII Hash (a small portion):

~_M‰S3ÔuáÁ?¹™PÐæûW`Ãá"ÒÖˆìní\}©þÚàÚäbÃ/ŒROAí¨w †|õAJhp„Á<Á0DŠ`¹ÑÊ™Y%ó‘?³P×sIŸ¢MpQpw(±³Uý€t‰Ec7’Uðíö®CZ˜Ê¡{A0~iºâ²\KÄ2"p[¼®rç2"at›Ì>9¥¦Í˜ßÞVwaÿC@'ª¨,é>bà"O[x)Y²8€ÿõþÉ Gz‹„2q jûyÎR!®ÜÂg»´VC”{æ¦,ØZO„\!Óç9œò?2#bld×ÉèKôÇ£&ŽíµéÞqGöðÁD Ñö)º¿Ì—ûŸÄ©úÿ\ˆ¶v¡%NS0¯b›ü9g_RÛ[LšÎO¡YÐXýï2Ëh} 9îE×½â^:…0êîU̪åP·€1>N}taEbž)ï¬k¦é4UæŽ,ÊÇ“5ý3ã.ªrÖ¸,¦Î¾9È·–ä%S؃àˆàÁzF¯®ä¼ÁaVNjy*=£‡ÔµéÅfáÚÒ=ž…‹_.ºÈ©[*Æ8ø0>g:49M+[Â7ÙK€‡Üå‡Ý^̓˜Àý®kÅFu¬}X»þõ‰Ôcœ>si)¿ZXœ é[?¦€xVÛ–»ãÛüe>`!ïX3¢FH3l®|±+»e¥ÃE6\åȹU;™ÍÈ!‘úáõ ¯2¢W®§7änPö¾aðzÎE”Ìœ)iáÒýùË]L¸‚öՏ”ôfõ6z[ðª„жWÑZ¾?Ô¢[Ðû…o¿€:BǝӶ¨}<ò³LÏ,ç‹--½¤o€†ëE¢nÿ™®ä$‘Eùˆn]Æ^Ùvp¢c_ùÊÑmEâ›”m©€Æ!û‰@âžY:˜~ƒ&l(msZ3"ÆXãÁvÃÀcœxœhØËÜø¥˜ÉÍäÈÌîP…w$ð ìæåù£k†aÌ9€j£Á¢spß]è*”œÚ9kºhVñ?Q¸~ÞâÇ ¬çƆ™çZ*™ù°d?µµ/žA¦â?£ÝJ[Œ^ù³¡(Û¤ç/‡ü!ÓœüÕp'ifT·µÑ[‰H´,¦¬nühºj¿o ðÀ{ö«&ý-Á:Kz¬}8h)ƒâb܉e ¸™™x·ú‘Ä&`U…¸'²Oç&NrÄž6ÇÉtÚåz¼7ÅÛ Ý îÁÉÖ(øóDï«;Ð[Á+â+Þ[hôwÿÝ„ç~.ûÔ¿G#9ôö-T£¤þ?0êuî†Èà¤ýíÚ{¦ìӁÙÊZN¹®Î˜¯¨OàØŧy¯—WÇB1CäSrZH˜.4ò{pƒHJƒc9æÏ"P©"vÑXm;‰x3nE™Õ,‰: zæö-—k&ܝ!ôá*‡n3õN°ùA”òƒfd[=¥d¾L©BùOZDšo$¨EÅ€Í¬ |àø¹À‡ÛˆÀÙh…YÒ•˜õ¤ô© ŒÛ¬ÃzOàoôk ë". ÚB$8‡YÔkåìóþÈ‚F˜u~¢»p-õL¡é×ÃÍ"t͏o¥`¾×@ÌVÐƇŽt4¤8ûw„—s…i§ƒ|±‘ZÊÌp˜pâ"F&«XÂdpžVÍî ïÎ\yL¦‡WPÑ«Jâeíï<À"‡g¶ðóÚ {” ¤5‡EŽÙ´„S÷jbÏ´ÛŠËc'ak»yœÐlÿ/JÆtVñK›dõ!ñçÏP[t

 

[TrainableMan]

Oh wait, I thought you meant you see ASCII characters in the "save as" dialog window - and that is usually a language setting. But what you show there is probably the actual PDF file itself.

You likely have some sort of add-on installed in your browser or, since you say it happens in IE AND Firefox, a download manager, which attempts to handle the file itself. I know I used to have an add-on that would attempt to show PDF files in my browser but it always gave an error and I always ended up having to download them instead.

Could you take a screenshot of your add-ons in IE and Firefox as well as screenshots of your control panel > programs and features?

 

[Youngblood]

The segment of Hash above are from an .exe which is almost certainly an executable .zip.

It has always looked to me like, for some unknown reason, it is trying to "stream" or "display" the file rather than copy it ... or in the case of .pdfs, a failed attempt to display.

The real trouble with this is that on both systems the issue is intermittent ... but ... at least when I find that I cannot properly D/L a specific file with one of the x64 systems, neither can the other.

Since this happens on both of my Win7x64 systems, I will do the requested captures on both.

The Upload a File button here suggests that this website can handle uploads instead of needing a separate site to host the images ... is that correct?

Thanks for your kind assistance!

Kim

 

[Youngblood]

I'll give it a shot with the Dell captures and wait to see if anything specific jumps out at you ...

 

[TrainableMan]

Nothing absolute. My best guesses would be Live Mesh activeX for remote..., Microsoft Office 2010 plugin, Google Toolbar, zonealarm toolbar, or Fireform.

Could you close IE and then run "Internet Explorer (no add-ons)" and attempt to download something you know hasn't been downloading properly? Does it download properly if add-ons are disabled?

 

[Youngblood]

Tried all listed plus Firefox with the -safe-mode switch. No Joy!

My search continues ...

 

[TrainableMan]

Could you take a screenshot of the entire screen with an ASCII download showing? I want to see what encases it ... does it show as if it is a webpage surrounded by the IE or Firefox browser headings etc?

Have they always done this or is it a relatively recent phenomenon?

Have you scanned your computer for viruses?

 

[Youngblood]

No, the Hash appears to be total crap ... the bottom ~10% even shows up as solidly lined-thru.

I have had the Dell since 18Jan13 and only noticed the issue during this past tax season.

My systems always scan as clean.

Thanks for the help, but I am going to give up for now. For any downloads that squirrel up on my desktop, I will fire up the Dell laptop in Ubuntu and D/L the file(s).

Thanks again!

 

[Shintaro]

Uninstall Zone Alarm then re-try your downloads. I have had that software interfere with downloads before.
Which is the reason I don't use any of them anymore.

I just use Windows Firewall Control to manage Window's built-in firewall.

 

[Youngblood]

> Zone Alarm <

SCORE!

When I first received this refurbished off-lease Dell in Jan'13, I unsuccessfully tried to install a mini-PCI-e dually-N/Bluetooth module. I forget the details now but some part of the operation (BT not recognized?) failed with every try.

Finally, in desperation, I uninstalled ZAISS (simply turning it off did not work) and reinstalled the module software ... and everything worked as it should ... even after I reinstalled ZAISS.

Since that time ZAISS has been at the top of my Nuclear Options List ... something that I would have worked my way to just after I tried ZAISS turned OFF.

Seeing your post made me decide to turn off ZAISS right now and test the download ... and the download functioned as it should!

I thank you for that suggestion! ... and also the info about Windows Firewall Control, which looks very interesting ... if Steve Gibson is impressed with it, so am I, as I have been using his software for 25 years and always test system security against his site.

Again, my thanks to both you and TrainableMan for your kind assistance!

 

[Youngblood]

Additional info:

I have subsequently determined that changing one setting in the ZAISS configuration will eliminate this issue for me..

ANTIVIRUS&FIREWALL > APPLICATION CONTROL > DefenseNet

Change DefenseNet from AUTO (the default) to MANUAL

Reboot the system (turning ZAISS OFF & ON may work as well) and the download issue is no more.

This appears to have also solved an annoying sometimes-video-won't-play issue for me.

I confirmed this FIX on both of my Win7x64 systems.

FYI

 

[Shintaro]

That's one of the reasons I go rid of Zone Alarm. Far too much time messing around with it, when I could be doing other things. A total pain.

I am glad you found the setting that you needed. Now its ok until the next time that you need to mess with the settings to get it to operate as expected.
Sorry for the sarcasm, it is a big time waster in my view.

 

[Youngblood]

I have been using Zone Alarm since about a year after it came out, after reading some stellar reviews.

I recall that sometime after Check Point Software bought Zone Labs a decade ago they managed to really screw up one of the versions of Zone Alarm and upset many people, moi aussi. Many folks stopped using the product forever at that point ... but some of us returned when Check Point finally managed to fix what they had broken.

Quite frankly, I was concerned that Check Point was going to do to ZA what Symantec had done to Norton (after that I never bought another Symantec product and advised folks against them, also).

I will continue to use the ZAISS product, but it will now be the first place that I always look if I notice any squirrelly behavior. Each year when it comes time to re-up, I will look more closely at alternative options.

Thanks again for your help!

Kim

 

[TrainableMan]

I'm glad you were able to fix your problem.

For every A/V product out there, there is somebody that loves it and somebody that hates it. What we can all agree on is that it's just too bad we need them at all.

 

[Youngblood]

Amen to that.