Hello
Vista is in, what is called a 'Mod-Auth' Tamper state. There are 2 types of Mod-Auth tampers.
1) A critical system file was modified On Disk - What this means is that the file, located on the hard drive, was modified in some way. This can be caused by a malicious program (spyware, malware, virus) or by manual file modification (by a user of the system). There is also a very small chance that an Update may fail in mid-update and cause this type of issue. As a safety mechanism, Updates are made so that if they fail, they roll back any updating that was done before the failure, but there is an off-chance that the roll back did not occure.
2) A critical system file was modified In Memory - What this means is the file itself (on the hard drive) is un-modified, but the code, from that file, running in the system, was modified in some way. and is usually caused by a running program that is incompatible with Vista.
Because there is No Mismatched files listed under the "File Scan Data-->" line of your Diagnostic Report, your issue is of the In Memory variety. Which means that you have an application that is incompatible with Vista
In addition to why a Tamper occurs, it's also important to understand how Vista detects the Tamper event. There is a Service that runs in Vista that detects a Tamper to a Critical System file. But this Service runs randomly, so if you were to install an incompatible program and run it, Vista (most likely) would not immediately enter a Tamper State and it could take some time for the Tamper to be detected. The important point to note is that the moment Vista detects the Tamper, you know that the program that caused the tamper, is currently running.
Below I have provided a number of steps to help you identify the program that is causing the tamper:
First, go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931699/ and confirm that you do not have any of the programs known to cause this type of issue.
Second, in your Diagnostic report above, you can see the line that starts with 'TTS Error:' followed by a bunch numbers: M:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx- This is the Tamper Time Stamp and yours breaks down like this:
(year) (month) (day) (time in 24format) (millisecond)
M:2007 12 26 0646 13010
This number indicates the last time the Mod-Auth Tamper occured.
Note, I also see a "K" type Tamper Time Stamp. The K stands for Kermel Mode tamper. This is a minor tamper and is most likey directly related to the Mod-Auth tamper. Once you remove the program that is causing the Mod-Auth thamper, I believe that the Kernel mode tamper will stop as well.
Normally, I would provide you steps to find all the new programs that had been installed in the last 3 days and then have you uninstall then, one at a time, till the tamper no longer occured. But since you stated that this issue has been occuring for over a month, those steps would not be usefull.
What I can suggest is to try to remember what program(s) you installed around the same time the Mod-Auth started and start by uninstalling those first.
Lastly, I just received a confirmed report that PC Tools Firewall Plus version 3.0.0.52 (with Anti-Injection Protected option enabled) has been found to cause this type of issue. PC Tools has fixed the problem. On the PC Tools forums (http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?s=7e262d016b2a208f58a2d03143ba90a0&t=49501&page=2), they state:
In order to make sure you have the latest version, you can make a simple test after installation.
Test 1:
a. Restart the machine
b. Try to perform Smart Update (if no files appear then you have the latest)
Test 2:
a. Go to the FW directory (normally C:\Program Files\PC Tools Firewall Plus) and check that:
FirewallWrapper.dll version is 3.0.0.53
FWService.exe version is 3.0.0.53
FwHook.dll version is 1.0.44.0
sdwvhlp.dll version is 1.0.0.2
If the files version does not match try to Smart Update.
Thank you,
Darin Smith
WGA Forum Manager
Crippled Vista Ultimate
till they finally figure out how to make one for me.
