IT/Computer Problems

[speedking]

Hello,

I will try to assist anyone who has IT/Computer releated problems.

Give me a yell of you need help.

SK

[rosymaria]

That's very generous of you SK - I'll try and whittle my list down to 10 - lol :D

[speedking]

That's very generous of you SK - I'll try and whittle my list down to 10 - lol :D

No need to whittle Mary. Use a PM if you prefer.

SK

[speedking]

Hello,

I will try to assist anyone who has IT/Computer releated problems.

Give me a yell of you need help.

SK

Just a small addition here people. Please provide info on the make/model or your computer and Operating System if you can, when asking for help.

Thanks

SK

[celticcountry]

I have an It/Pc related problem. I dont have a Pc or laptop, can you fix it?

[longlostpoet]

speedking
how decent of you...
i have a problem
........
when forwarding e-mails
none of the images transfer from the "inbox"
to the "outbox"
getting lost on the way...
have "sent" many in the past but only recently told that my messages are not 100% received.
can you help ?
i know that it is probably something stupid...
thanks for reading this
llp

[SANTA CLAUS]

speedking
how decent of you...
i have a problem
........
when forwarding e-mails
none of the images transfer from the "inbox"
to the "outbox"
getting lost on the way...
have "sent" many in the past but only recently told that my messages are not 100% received.
can you help ?
i know that it is probably something stupid...
thanks for reading this
llp


Longlostpoet maybe you should ask Santa to get you a new computer for christmas, only if youve been good though?

Season Greetings

Mrs Santa


http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd173/elepiscioneri/christmasgifts3.gif

[longlostpoet]

as i rent mine this does not apply to me, so i can be as bad as i like, so there ! if you try to take it away i'll screem and i'll screem the house down....
but seriously....
my small business rents it.
started 4 years ago
with a notebook
£8 per week + VAT total allowable against tax.
upgrades.....
2 years ago they upgraded me to a desk top PC (my choice)
still at same money..
2 weeks ago they upgraded me to a state of the art new laptop (my choice)
still at same money.....
so now for the £8 per week i have
1 old laptop (used by wife)
1 desk top PC (for both business & pleasure)
&
1 new laptop (my toy)
all for the total sum of £8 per week, and all the tech support you could ever need.
plus. when the first laptop went really haywire, they came the next day and changed it.
so no i will not be getting a new PC for Xmas..
that would be pure GREED.....
lol

[speedking]

speedking
how decent of you...
i have a problem
........
when forwarding e-mails
none of the images transfer from the "inbox"
to the "outbox"
getting lost on the way...
have "sent" many in the past but only recently told that my messages are not 100% received.
can you help ?
i know that it is probably something stupid...
thanks for reading this
llp


Hiya,

Please advise what e-mail system you use: e.g. Hotmail, Outlook, etc.

Thanks

SK

[mhibberd]

Speed king

I have been developing a website for a few months now. I need a reletively easy shopping cart system for making multiply carts of the same price. It is a project that is starting to get out of control.

Any suggestions?

Mark

[speedking]

Speed king

I have been developing a website for a few months now. I need a reletively easy shopping cart system for making multiply carts of the same price. It is a project that is starting to get out of control.

Any suggestions?

Mark

Hi Mark,

Unfortunately web site stuff isn't really my thing (don't even have my own), so I've never investigated this sort of thing.

It may be worth looking around to see if there is an off-the-shelf e-commerce solution that you can buy, which might work out cheaper in the long run that trying to create one.

SK

[speedking]

I have an It/Pc related problem. I dont have a Pc or laptop, can you fix it?

Sorry, magic wand is broken.

SK

[speedking]

Longlostpoet maybe you should ask Santa to get you a new computer for christmas, only if youve been good though?

Season Greetings

Mrs Santa


http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd173/elepiscioneri/christmasgifts3.gif

Dear Mrs. Santa,

I've been good by helping everyone. Shame I don't need a new computer, as I already have enough processing power to rival IBM!

SK

[harriet]

Hi, wonder if you could offer any assistance. I am wanting to 'connect' a lap top to a PC. I am on wireless and tend to use lap top more than PC however, pc has printer connected and scanner etc. At moment everything that is done on Laptop I copy to Portable Harddrive Pen and then download onto PC and vice versa for PC to Lap top. I know you can link them up fairly easily but have not got the confidence to make the final click. ( In past things have gone Soooooooooo wrong causing huge problems)
Could you possibly guide me in the right direction.
Thanks for your offer of help

[speedking]

Hi, wonder if you could offer any assistance. I am wanting to 'connect' a lap top to a PC. I am on wireless and tend to use lap top more than PC however, pc has printer connected and scanner etc. At moment everything that is done on Laptop I copy to Portable Harddrive Pen and then download onto PC and vice versa for PC to Lap top. I know you can link them up fairly easily but have not got the confidence to make the final click. ( In past things have gone Soooooooooo wrong causing huge problems)
Could you possibly guide me in the right direction.
Thanks for your offer of help

Hi Lynda,

Can you tell me what version(s) of Windows your desktop PC and laptop are using?

Thanks

SK

[harriet]

Hi both PC and lap top are Windows XP (think it is home edition) although the laptop came with Vista which was taken off.

[speedking]

Hi both PC and lap top are Windows XP (think it is home edition) although the laptop came with Vista which was taken off.

Hi Lynda,

Take a look at this:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp/filesharing.htm

Basically, you need to set up a file share on your desktop PC that your laptop can connect to.

Let me know if you get stuck...

SK

[harriet]

thank you

[speedking]

thank you

My pleasure. Let me know if you get stuck. PM if you prefer.

SK

[longlostpoet]

Hiya,

Please advise what e-mail system you use: e.g. Hotmail, Outlook, etc.

Thanks

SK

Hi,
Outlook express
on Win Int Express
on Win XP pro
Cheers,
only just got this post.. ?
llp

[speedking]

Hi,
Outlook express
on Win Int Express
on Win XP pro
Cheers,
only just got this post.. ?
llp

Very strange. Does it happen if you send a new e-mail as well, as opposed to just forwarding one?

SK

[longlostpoet]

if i go in to e-mail from home page (orange) all OK.
in fact i have 3 accounts and i can receive and send on all 3 OK
but, if i try to e-mail from a web page, no can do.
ie, this site.

[speedking]

if i go in to e-mail from home page (orange) all OK.
in fact i have 3 accounts and i can receive and send on all 3 OK
but, if i try to e-mail from a web page, no can do.
ie, this site.


Okay, I'm having a thick moment. What do you mean by e-mail from a web page? Can you give me the exact steps?

You mentioned orange. Is that Orange the mobile phone co, and their e-mail addresses?

SK

[mhibberd]

if i go in to e-mail from home page (orange) all OK.
in fact i have 3 accounts and i can receive and send on all 3 OK
but, if i try to e-mail from a web page, no can do.
ie, this site.

Longie

Are you using Firefox as this could be your problem. It sometimes sees webmail services as pop ups.

Try disabling your popup blocker and then try.

Mark
THECADDoctor

[longlostpoet]

Longie

Are you using Firefox as this could be your problem. It sometimes sees webmail services as pop ups.

Try disabling your popup blocker and then try.

Mark
THECADDoctor

hi Mark,
no sir, not using f/fox.
ta

[longlostpoet]

Okay, I'm having a thick moment. What do you mean by e-mail from a web page? Can you give me the exact steps?

You mentioned orange. Is that Orange the mobile phone co, and their e-mail addresses?

SK
hi there,
Orange is the mobile phone co that bought out "Wanado" formerly "Freeserve".

on their home page you can log on to your e-mail accounts direct.
these accounts are the ones allowed by the site.

but if on another site, like Sainsbugs etc, and i wanted to contact them via the e-mail address highlited in their contact section, i would normally just click on the address and hey presto i would have contact.
but not on my little baby !
i can not e-mail via any site. the only way is for me to copy address and put in as e-mail to.... on my own e-mail page.
any clearer ?
llp

[speedking]

hi there,
Orange is the mobile phone co that bought out "Wanado" formerly "Freeserve".

on their home page you can log on to your e-mail accounts direct.
these accounts are the ones allowed by the site.

but if on another site, like Sainsbugs etc, and i wanted to contact them via the e-mail address highlited in their contact section, i would normally just click on the address and hey presto i would have contact.
but not on my little baby !
i can not e-mail via any site. the only way is for me to copy address and put in as e-mail to.... on my own e-mail page.
any clearer ?
llp

Okay, I get you now. I usually use copy/paste myself. On my PC if I click an e-mail link it opens up Outlook Express, with the e-mail address, and sometimes a subject line, filled in.

What happens for you?

SK

[longlostpoet]

it does not open !
maybe i should do the same with the links.
trouble is, i used to be able to right click on any of my pictures in "my documents" and then click on "send to" and then click on "e-mail" and it would perform normally.
now nothing.
i can still browse "my docs", after opening new, sending an e-mail normally, and send that way.
very strange.

[Phil_B]

In Internet Explorer go to Tools | Internet Options
Click on the tab marked 'programs'
In the top half of the box called 'internet programs' there should be something selected for email.
This is what governs Internet Explorer in its choice of programs when you click on a mailto link in a web page, if it doesnt know, nothing is selected or a non existent program is selected here then it wont work.
This could also apply if the program its trying to call has been moved to a non standard location.

Regards,

Phil
(Win 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP MSCE)

[longlostpoet]

cheers. will try that.
thanks

[mhibberd]

Hi Speedking

How do you like the html section i started.

Mark

[the grinch]

how do you use the spell checker feature in fire fox?
i have dled the dictionary but see no switch/tab like ie spell

[texasboy]

Just because we all love you Mr Grinch.
your ABC`s

Spell Checking

http://www.mozilla.com/img/firefox/features/spellcheck.png
Sometimes you’re in a rush, and can’t remember if it’s “i” before “e” or the other way around. Firefox 2 has built-in spell checking to keep you from making any mistakes in your blog posts and Web-based email, so you can worry about more important things.( ie CHRISTMAS.)
Merry Xmas

[the grinch]

I Am Not Just Before E
I Am Before Allllllll
Muwaaaa Haaa Haaaa

[mom2mysononly]

I Am Not Just Before E
I Am Before Allllllll
Muwaaaa Haaa Haaaa


WHO THE HECK YOU TRYING TO KID???

your just a green little thing trying to find friends the best way you can!!
but we still love you, almost!!

[Phil_B]

I before E except after C is the normal way of remembering that!

Phil

[texasboy]

After long discussions with my Mentor Speedking, we have decided to expand this IT section by offering practical general tips to help you and your Winxp computer to function a little better.Initally this will be on a monthly basis and provided the Stella and the Becks dont cloud our ram too much you may find the info will help speed up your PC.

Dec Tip.--- How to gain extra Gigabites on your hard drive.

You all would normally do the usual defragment/delete internet files etc. but have you tried the following.?

If you are 100% happy that your PC is functioning normally(maybe a little slow or running out of hard disk space).You have run your defrag/anti-virus etc.Then click on start/control panel/system.
Click on System restore. You will see a check box marked "turn off system restore". Check this box and click on apply. What this does is to delete all the MB`s used by your PC to store all your check points. Click ok. Now reverse the proceedure. click the same box to enable system restore monitoring,click apply and ok. This will start the PC creating new restore points.The ammount of space added to your hard drive can be quite amazing and will speed up everything. You would only need to do this every 2-3 months.
Check the difference by running Defrag before and after this process. I have gained 4-8 GB`s each time..
cheers
Speedking/texasboy productions unlimited.

[mom2mysononly]

help needed please??

i get quite a few emails with images in and instead of the pictures, i get a box with a little red cross in the top left hand corner,
i've tried right clicking to see if it will let me click on show picture but i don't get that option,
i have got windows vista and all my email comes through AOL 9.0 VR

any ideas please?

[Sim]

Its is probably a security setting to block pictures - some advertising pictures are blocked as they can contain virus and tracking code.

[rosymaria]

Does vista give you the show images option that windows does??

[speedking]

Does vista give you the show images option that windows does??

Hiya,

Can you be a bit more specific about what you mean?

SK

[rosymaria]

help needed please??

i get quite a few emails with images in and instead of the pictures, i get a box with a little red cross in the top left hand corner,
i've tried right clicking to see if it will let me click on show picture but i don't get that option,
i have got windows vista and all my email comes through AOL 9.0 VR

any ideas please?

Hi SK - i was trying to answer the above question!! I am on AOL but with windows and have to click on a "show images" option when receiving pictures!

[texasboy]

help needed please??

i get quite a few emails with images in and instead of the pictures, i get a box with a little red cross in the top left hand corner,
i've tried right clicking to see if it will let me click on show picture but i don't get that option,
i have got windows vista and all my email comes through AOL 9.0 VR

any ideas please?

I am not an AOL fan as they seem to be constantly changing their updates and adding new features that their followers dont really want.
1) Is your PC a new one or have you upgraded to 9.0VR from an older version?
2) Do you use Mc Afee security/anti-virus?
3) AOL can show senders photos/images using AIM photo/AOL pictures/Image shack/photobucket etc Do you have a little camera icon at top of your page?
4) Are you using AOL instant messenger 6.5
5) Have you kept on top of updates for your AOL programmes. They are constantly fixing bugs.

Sorry to be so long winded but if you can give us all a little more info.
AOL 9.0VR is "Vista compatable" which does not mean its Vista ready.

As Rosymaria said its much easier on WinXP.

However both my wife and daughter are running Vista on laptops and when they get an e-mail with attachments (from MSN/Myspace/Yahoo etc the photos/images have a red x) A warning line appears at the top of the e-mail under the toobars asking if you trust the source. If you click yes then the images will be visible.
Cheers

[mom2mysononly]

I am not an AOL fan as they seem to be constantly changing their updates and adding new features that their followers dont really want.
1) Is your PC a new one or have you upgraded to 9.0VR from an older version? brand new one compaq-presario
2) Do you use Mc Afee security/anti-virus? no AVG
3) AOL can show senders photos/images using AIM photo/AOL pictures/Image shack/photobucket etc Do you have a little camera icon at top of your page? No
4) Are you using AOL instant messenger 6.5 no idea, lol
5) Have you kept on top of updates for your AOL programmes. They are constantly fixing bugs. yes i get automatic downloads

Sorry to be so long winded but if you can give us all a little more info.
AOL 9.0VR is "Vista compatable" which does not mean its Vista ready.

As Rosymaria said its much easier on WinXP.

However both my wife and daughter are running Vista on laptops and when they get an e-mail with attachments (from MSN/Myspace/Yahoo etc the photos/images have a red x) A warning line appears at the top of the e-mail under the toobars asking if you trust the source. If you click yes then the images will be visible.
Cheers
I have a "show images" option at the top of some emails that i click on and it comes through ok, but with some i dont get that option,
i know on windows xp i could right click on the red cross and it gave me an option to "show picture" which i would click on and it would show the picture but it doesn't give me that option on AOL VR.

hope this makes sense cheers dawn

[Phil_B]

If you want to clean up your hard drive a little more effectively then download and run a program called ccleaner.
This can be gotten from www.ccleaner.com (http://www.ccleaner.com)
Its very good and also free, it cleans up all sorts of things that the inbuilt Windows disk cleaner doesn't, plus history files and uneeded logs etc.

AdAware is also very useful to have loaded, this is an antiispyware program, a free version of this can be downloaded from www.lavasoft.com (http://www.lavasoft.com)
There are also paid for versions of that, but I have never used them.

For a good firewall ZoneAlarm is available free for private use; www.zonelabs.com (http://www.zonelabs.com)

I have no commercial connection to any of the above companies!

Phil

[longlostpoet]

hi Phil,
is spybot of any use ?

[texasboy]

LLP, Spybot is an excellent free programme and as long as you update it. Can often find things that your regular spyware/antivirus misses.
As Phil says the free programmes are adequate for the average user. I use Zone alarm /Spybot AVG until recently changed to NOD32 courtesyof a friend.lol
cheers.
Will reply shortly ref AOL images . Just waiting for Speedking to finish his Stella.
cheers

[markhibb]

There is a program called xoft made by pareto logic. I would well recommend it. Its about £40 for the year. But kills the most amount of rubbish.

Marj


LLP, Spybot is an excellent free programme and as long as you update it. Can often find things that your regular spyware/antivirus misses.
As Phil says the free programmes are adequate for the average user. I use Zone alarm /Spybot AVG until recently changed to NOD32 courtesyof a friend.lol
cheers.
Will reply shortly ref AOL images . Just waiting for Speedking to finish his Stella.
cheers

[Phil_B]

hi Phil,
is spybot of any use ?

Hi LLP,
Not tried that one, there are quite a few different ones out there, AdAware and also AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5 are both parts of my standard system load-up now. And to date no problems so far!

I do keep away from Norton / Symatec stuff though, I've found this to be occasionally problematical in some areas. :-)

Another point to mention is backing up your computer- often overlooked these days! Acronis 9 is what we use and recommend, you can actually make a bootable set of CDs which will restore a machine to whatever state it was when it was backed up. Much safer than restore partitions that a lot of manufacturers supply now in that you have something to use if the hard drive goes wrong!

Phil

[texasboy]

Hi Dawn,

yeah sounds like they are blocking the viewing of images until they are 'approved'.

automatically viewing pictures is a security risk, for both attached/embedded and HTML linked inline pictures.

to help with the security risks, most email places now will block the viewing of pictures until you click some sort of 'Access Granted' for the email.



but for help with figuring out how to grant access (where to find the button, etc), AOL's support should be consorted, since it sounds to me like its functioning the way it should. maybe there once was a button that said, 'never show images from this sender?'... Gmail has that option too.. so maybe an option was set and needs to be reversed?

Also check out AVG settings, make sure it doesn't have an internet blocker thing built in to it (nod32 does).

Also check out Windows Firewall, probably worth just turning that off, it's crap.

Also did AOL come with any 'security features', I know new ones come with lots of crap anti-spyware stuff, probably worth turning all of those off for a bit to see if it works.
cheers

[mom2mysononly]

thanks TB,

will look into it and see what i can sort out.

cheers dawn

[mhibberd]

Speedking

This one should get you thinking. My pc in Spain died last week so I had to get a new one. here are the problems

1. the oem vista home that was on it was in spanish. i fdisked the machine and put my old xp pro on it.
2. all the drivers were in spanish and for vista.

So how can I work out where to get the network driver to get back on the net.

on boot up it say the motherboard is an intel marvell 88se61, its a quad core q6600 processor with 4gb ram. its got a gforce 8500gt.

If I could get it on the net, then I could work out the rest with pitstop.

also when i go into dos shell and type ipconfig it wont give me an ip address.

This is all i've worked out so far.

Mark

[texasboy]

Hi mark.
Looking at a glance at this one and assuming the cd for your xp pro is in English. It may be possible to do a complete clean/uninstall of the HD and start fresh with a clean install of Win XP Pro which will have all the original drivers on cd(you can update) Do you still have the KEY numbers on the CD? As MS may ask you to change these numbers for security reasons. You also might get some help from.
Start > Run > msinfo32<enter>

File > Export


I am sure others will be able to add to this, and I am awaiting more info from a friend. So hold tight for now.
cheers

ps. Latest info is that remove the Spanish and load the English. There should not be any conflict.
good luck.

[mhibberd]

Hi Guy.

So far I have all my main stuff working. i.e. windows xp, 3DS Max Autocad etc. Cannot find the drivers for the on board sound anywhere. It says its a realtek.

This could end up a jump out the wheelchaie and replace the card with a soundblaster situation.

Mark

[Phil_B]

Hi,
just try http://www.realtek.com.tw/ then click on downloads, select the card type you have, and download the correct drivers for your operating system.

The card type should say on it somewhere (normally the big splat pack chip) / in documentation / in windows system hardware etc.

Regards,

Phil

[mhibberd]

Hi Phil

Cheers for that mate. finally got the PC going. Worst thing was trying to get a stable internet connection. Only got a big wi-fi network out here.

Mark

Hi,
just try http://www.realtek.com.tw/ then click on downloads, select the card type you have, and download the correct drivers for your operating system.

The card type should say on it somewhere (normally the big splat pack chip) / in documentation / in windows system hardware etc.

Regards,

Phil

[Phil_B]

Hi Phil

Cheers for that mate. finally got the PC going. Worst thing was trying to get a stable internet connection. Only got a big wi-fi network out here.

Mark

Wifi should normally be very stable, if not then its normally seperation issues between the router and cards causing signal path losses - the best way of getting around this is to get some higher gain antennas off ebay or the like.
Remember a 3db signal gain is actually 10x more signal, its a log scale!
Also certain access points / routers and cards don't always mix well despite supposingly working to identical standards!

I just spent about a week getting a machine on my network running with a USB mounted wifi card working under Suse10.3 Linux - absolute nightmare doing this sort of thing when it doesn't work when recognised on install.
So don't imagine its always easy for people who supposedly know about these things! :-)

Phil

[mhibberd]

Phil

There are a few issues that make this wifi a bit unusual.

1. The area is on the site of a mountain in Spain.
2. It spans about 10 milles.
3. There are only 2 phone lines feeding it and 40 houses tapping off it.
4. We are not talking wi-fi cards here. We are talking about 6 foot areils bolted to the roof.

Basically, big boys wi-fi.

Mark


Wifi should normally be very stable, if not then its normally seperation issues between the router and cards causing signal path losses - the best way of getting around this is to get some higher gain antennas off ebay or the like.
Remember a 3db signal gain is actually 10x more signal, its a log scale!
Also certain access points / routers and cards don't always mix well despite supposingly working to identical standards!

I just spent about a week getting a machine on my network running with a USB mounted wifi card working under Suse10.3 Linux - absolute nightmare doing this sort of thing when it doesn't work when recognised on install.
So don't imagine its always easy for people who supposedly know about these things! :-)

Phil

[Phil_B]

Hi Mark,

Cool - that sounds like the sort of setup worth playing with....
Hmm... probably better off with a 24dbi beam or two stacked and phase tuned, than a monopole, pointed at a master access point location then feed that into one machine which is running a local access point / router on a different frequency.

This is actually why I was trying to get the USB device working properly, that way you can have it stuck right up on the antenna with a minimal coax feed, then connect to the network via a stack active USB 2.0 extension lead(s). The reason being is that this way you are dealing with a digital signal, not hoping that a tiny bit of 2.4Ghz is actually going to appear at the far end of a bit of coax cable! yet without any expensive, fancy hardware being needed!

Phil

[mhibberd]

Phil

The whole network is operated by one guy who cuts people off at will, especally me as I do a lot of graphic stuff. I think what I need is a server based in the UK, minimal maintenance, that I can hire and therefore work remotely. Any ideas on a supplier for such a setup.
Mark


Hi Mark,

Cool - that sounds like the sort of setup worth playing with....
Hmm... probably better off with a 24dbi beam or two stacked and phase tuned, than a monopole, pointed at a master access point location then feed that into one machine which is running a local access point / router on a different frequency.

This is actually why I was trying to get the USB device working properly, that way you can have it stuck right up on the antenna with a minimal coax feed, then connect to the network via a stack active USB 2.0 extension lead(s). The reason being is that this way you are dealing with a digital signal, not hoping that a tiny bit of 2.4Ghz is actually going to appear at the far end of a bit of coax cable! yet without any expensive, fancy hardware being needed!

Phil

[Phil_B]

Phil

The whole network is operated by one guy who cuts people off at will, especally me as I do a lot of graphic stuff. I think what I need is a server based in the UK, minimal maintenance, that I can hire and therefore work remotely. Any ideas on a supplier for such a setup.
Mark

Mark,
What sort of amount of space / bandwidth are you requiring for these graphics? I should be able to sort something out, its a LAMP not MS enviroment but I have got things like Imagemagick installed serverwide.

Phil

[mhibberd]

Phil.

Firstly, a lot of what I do is architectural visualisation. So therefore we are talking big files for a start.

To make it work I would need about 50-100gb. also all files would need to be rarred into small bits.(anything a bit chunky makes the network out here fall over)

I'm back in England next week so we can set something up for when i'm out here again. (proberbly in about 8 weeks)

Mark

[pensioner penny]

Help Phil Speedking !!! My laptop has gone excruciatingly slow. Even typing only appears 30 secs after entering. Have done disc clean, defrac, spy and virus scan, all ok. Tried systems restore. Wouldn't restore to pre set dates so created date. Restored. however problem not resolved. Also lost cursor completely at one point. Had to shut down without logging off. Everything taking an age.The page says 'done' yet it takes a while before I can even scroll down the page ! This message has been a nightmare. Whats going on ? What can I do ?

[Phil_B]

Help Phil Speedking !!! My laptop has gone excruciatingly slow. Even typing only appears 30 secs after entering. Have done disc clean, defrac, spy and virus scan, all ok. Tried systems restore. Wouldn't restore to pre set dates so created date. Restored. however problem not resolved. Also lost cursor completely at one point. Had to shut down without logging off. Everything taking an age.The page says 'done' yet it takes a while before I can even scroll down the page ! This message has been a nightmare. Whats going on ? What can I do ?


What operating system is it please?
What anti-virus software do you use?
How much disc space do you have left? (my computer | right click C drive | properties)

If you have got Ccleaner installed run it, if not install it - ccleaner.com (free and very good) and run it!

it is possible that a virus has gotten on there and its masking itself from the instaled antivirus - most of the antivirus vendors such as McAfee offer a web based system scan / removal tool - do this.

Phil

[pensioner penny]

Hi Phil, Wireless broadband through BT. Signal excellent. Windows XP. Explorer 7.
AGV 7.5. Spybot 7.5. 60% space left. Have run ccleaner but no change. Spybot on start menu came up with message 'sharer violation' !! but not shared with anyone. If I download another anti virus will it work alongside AGV ? Problem persists off line as well. :help::scared: x.

[Phil_B]

Hi Phil, Wireless broadband through BT. Signal excellent. Windows XP. Explorer 7.
AGV 7.5. Spybot 7.5. 60% space left. Have run ccleaner but no change. Spybot on start menu came up with message 'sharer violation' !! but not shared with anyone. If I download another anti virus will it work alongside AGV ? Problem persists off line as well. :help::scared: x.


Hmm..... setup sounds reasonable.
if you go into windows task manager (cntrl + alt + del) processes tab | click cpu ( possibly twice ) so that it says what is using the most cpu resources up.
Let me know the top 5 most cpu intensive processes please.

Phil

[Phil_B]

Phil.

Firstly, a lot of what I do is architectural visualisation. So therefore we are talking big files for a start.

To make it work I would need about 50-100gb. also all files would need to be rarred into small bits.(anything a bit chunky makes the network out here fall over)

I'm back in England next week so we can set something up for when i'm out here again. (proberbly in about 8 weeks)

Mark

Hi Mark,
PM me when you are back here and I'll give you direct contact info.

Phil

[mhibberd]

Hi Penny

You say you are on wi-fi. I had similar problems a while back, turned out a spyware issue (even though I had spybot)

Do the following.

from xp, click "start" then "run"
in the box type "cmd" then Enter
a dos window will appear.
it should say C:\windows
Type "cd\" then enter
type "netstat" then enter
Then will list everything that is connecting to your pc and hub
If you have a lot of connections. There is a good chance your hub is being hacked.

Mark


Hi Phil, Wireless broadband through BT. Signal excellent. Windows XP. Explorer 7.
AGV 7.5. Spybot 7.5. 60% space left. Have run ccleaner but no change. Spybot on start menu came up with message 'sharer violation' !! but not shared with anyone. If I download another anti virus will it work alongside AGV ? Problem persists off line as well. :help::scared: x.

[Phil_B]

Hi Penny

You say you are on wi-fi. I had similar problems a while back, turned out a spyware issue (even though I had spybot)

Do the following.

from xp, click "start" then "run"
in the box type "cmd" then Enter
a dos window will appear.
it should say C:\windows
Type "cd\" then enter
type "netstat" then enter
Then will list everything that is connecting to your pc and hub
If you have a lot of connections. There is a good chance your hub is being hacked.

Mark

If its a BT homehub then they are quite crackable <whistles innocently> in their default encryption setting.
However if the problem persists offline then its probably not the hub - more likely a trojan spewing spam or attempting many connections.

Phil

[Rambo]

If I download another anti virus will it work alongside AGV ? .

Dont ever, I say again "ever" run two antirus together. World war 3 will start inside your computer if you do.

I cant give anyone any technical advice but I can tell you that the best free anti-virus on the market is avast. If you dont have it and are experiencing problems, download it from the link and let it do a full scan.

So download it, get off line, close down or better still delete your own anti-virus, then run avast. It will do a boot scan and then full scan. Its German so it has to be good LOL.
http://www.download.com/Avast-Home-Edition/3000-2239-10019223.html?part=dl-AvastHome&subj=dl&tag=button

[pensioner penny]

Thankyou Rambo. I have been warned !!!

Phil, herin lies the problem. With everything idle except task manager, 100&#37; cpu usage ! The culprit svchost.exe showing 95-99, changing every couple of seconds, with Spybot coming in second with 02-03. Every thing else 00. No wonder I am typing blind, the script can only appear in tiny moments when a couple cpu available. I have no idea how to sort this Phil. Also there are 5 svchost.exe listed, all different sizes. The others show 00. How do I identify the right one ? What are they ?

Sorry Mark, missed your post. Thanks for input darling.x

[Phil_B]

Phil, herin lies the problem. With everything idle except task manager, 100% cpu usage ! The culprit svchost.exe showing 95-99, changing every couple of seconds, with Spybot coming in second with 02-03. Every thing else 00. No wonder I am typing blind, the script can only appear in tiny moments when a couple cpu available. I have no idea how to sort this Phil. Also there are 5 svchost.exe listed, all different sizes. The others show 00. How do I identify the right one ? What are they ?


First try this;
Go to: Start | Control Panel | Security Settings | manage security settings for automatic updates | turn off automatic updates | apply | OK

Close up any bits left open.

Reboot

Now relaunch task manager [ ctrl alt del ] and see what happens and report back.

Obviously we ultimately dont want automatic updates left off, before anyone shouts about that, so what we are doing is establishing the cause.
as a matter of interest is this an IBM / Lenovo notebook?

Phil

[pensioner penny]

Good evening Phil. Followed the above. CVU now reads pschost.exe 75-92 and spybot 06-14. Still having to wait for everything, but it's quicker now and script appears as I type. When I close down I get a 'program still running' notice. If I wait for it to close it comes up program not responding. If I click 'close now' it disappears and another 'program still running' appears, 'close now' again and it shuts down. This isn't new, has been happening for a while. I think this is something to do with the overall problem maybe ?? Should I turn auto updates back on ?

O.K. after posting this went off line to copy a letter from my docs for a member here. Everything seized up completely ! I had to switch off pc. Turned on again, got into docs without going on line, then it happened again ! At the 3rd try instead of going directly to my docs I put in Cd rom (backup of the same) and accessed the letter through that. That was ok and I managed to get back here to post it. So don't know what happened there.

Then, 8.30pm AGV UPDATE ! Update successfully completed !!! Still getting notice saying security updates turned off, and haven't turned them on again yet !!
Also I get LOADS of spam from a variety of individuals asking if I would like a bigger penis !!! lol, I wish !!

[Phil_B]

Good evening Phil. Followed the above. CVU now reads pschost.exe 75-92 I assume you mean svchost.exe here as I, or google, don't know what pschost is? and spybot 06-14. Still having to wait for everything, but it's quicker now and script appears as I type. Try terminating any instances of svchost in taskmanager and se if that helps. When I close down I get a 'program still running' notice. If I wait for it to close it comes up program not responding. If I click 'close now' it disappears and another 'program still running' appears, 'close now' again and it shuts down. This isn't new, has been happening for a while. I think this is something to do with the overall problem maybe ?? Should I turn auto updates back on ? Not yet

O.K. after posting this went off line to copy a letter from my docs for a member here. Everything seized up completely ! I had to switch off pc. Turned on again, got into docs without going on line, then it happened again ! At the 3rd try instead of going directly to my docs I put in Cd rom (backup of the same) and accessed the letter through that. That was ok and I managed to get back here to post it. So don't know what happened there. Essentially what you have is a memory leak from one program into another, very annoying and unpredictable.

Then, 8.30pm AGV UPDATE ! Update successfully completed !!! Still getting notice saying security updates turned off, and haven't turned them on again yet !! No, that's an AVG anto virus update, not the same, don't worry about that.
Also I get LOADS of spam from a variety of individuals asking if I would like a bigger penis !!! lol, I wish !! We all get that, I've also one millions today! :) I've been out most of the day and there will be 500+ in my inbox - unfortunately since I have quite a few published email addresses I do get rather a lot!

As far as I can see this should assist;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916089
Try working through the fix on there and seeing if it helps. It can look daunting on first reading, but keep in mind it's referring to a number of different operating system versions, so once those are excluded its a lot slimmer!

If you get stuck, worried or lost then ask, I'm quite happy to take you through it one step at a time.

Regards,

Phil

[pensioner penny]

Good morning Phil. Thanks for keeping on my case. Downloaded hotfix 927891 update for windows XP. No change. So fearfully terminated only the sychost. exe rating at 90+. CPU usage fell from 100&#37; to 5% or less. Though on the processes list the terminated sychost is replaced by 'System idle process' still reading 90+. Tried to right click on this with no result. Page changing still very slow. Should I highlight 'System idle process' and click 'end process' ?

[Sim]

'System idle process'
This shows what percentage of the system is not being used - its a display item only.

[pensioner penny]

Ohh. Thankyou Sim for my continuing education. God knows I need it ! lol.x.

[Phil_B]

Hi Penny,
Don't worry, support like this is what I do for a lot of people!

As Sim says - system idle process is GOOD its essentially saying what you have in reserve now.
The way XP works ther is always something going on, so 5 - 15% ultilisation is normal and perfectly acceptable - in fact part of that is actually the process / program thats telling you the system useage! :)

Certain laptops, notably IBM and some HP ones seem prone to this memory leak issue. As a matter of interest what version of Office have you got installed as this does seem to have some bearing on it occuring?

Phil

[pensioner penny]

Hello again Phil. I did have Office Proffesional, installed by my daughter. She said "It's so much better than Open Office", but there was a problem and I kept getting an initialising install window coming up, even though it was all up and running. Eventually I removed the whole program, and the problem stopped. I didn't need such a big program anyway, Open Office is quite adequate for my needs. My laptop is Packard-Bell.

[pilgrim]

What spec is it Penny - CPU, RAM, hard disk size, and free-space on the hard disk.

The svchost service is a core windows function, used to start other parts of windows. Think of it like a the stages of a moon rocket, the big rocket launching the smaller capsule.

When your PC runs slow, save any work, close all programs. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL, and click on "Task Manager" as before. Press the column maked "CPU" (might have to press twice) so the high % utilisation is at the top. If there is an instance of svchost.exe with a high utilisation (ie >75%), right click it and select "End process tree". See if this makes a difference to how responsive it is compared to when you just ended the process.

[Phil_B]

Hello again Phil. I did have Office Proffesional, installed by my daughter. She said "It's so much better than Open Office", but there was a problem and I kept getting an initialising install window coming up, even though it was all up and running. Eventually I removed the whole program, and the problem stopped. I didn't need such a big program anyway, Open Office is quite adequate for my needs. My laptop is Packard-Bell.

This could have been caused by Office Pro, it is a known bug in XP which was supposed to have been fixed by a previous update.
It might be worth reinstalling Office as a full install on the grounds that this might overwrite and correct whatever the error actually is, even if you never use it. Did the install window say something along the lines of susch and such a feature isnt installed, would you like to install it now?

Open Office is a fine program, I use it on the Linux machine on my network here.

The problem at the moment is going to be that this process is going to re-run each time the machine is booted. If there is going to be a long delay in trying Office Pro on there again there is a way of stopping it from running. However don't locate and delete it - that would be a 'bad thing to do' as it is used by various system areas.

Phil

[pensioner penny]

Yes Phil, that was exactly the message. I understood from the microsoft link that you gave me, that downloading the update that I did would also deal withany office problem. Can you tell me how to stop it running as my daughter lives a long way away and we might not see each other for a while. She has the install discs. This probably is the reason I get an unexplained 'program still running' window on shutdown. Also when my settings are loading, the outline of a window frame flashes up for a fraction of a second ?
Hi Pilgrim, Thanks for your advice, did that earlier. svchost exe. up to 99, cpu usage 100&#37;. Its certainly better with it disabled as script now appears as I type rather than 15 seconds later, but page loading is still agonisingly slow and cpu usage is now only @ 15%. I have to re-disable it each time I switch on, sometimes it takes 20mins before I can get task manager to come up.

[Phil_B]

Yes Phil, that was exactly the message. I understood from the microsoft link that you gave me, that downloading the update that I did would also deal withany office problem.
OK!
Can you tell me how to stop it running as my daughter lives a long way away and we might not see each other for a while.
See below. One way around the Office disks being far away, apart from buying another set, is to copy them as an ISO to a hard drive partition, that way it looks to the installer that they are present as a drive letter and stuff just gets read on demand.
She has the install discs. This probably is the reason I get an unexplained 'program still running' window on shutdown.
Probably!
Also when my settings are loading, the outline of a window frame flashes up for a fraction of a second ?
Hi Pilgrim, Thanks for your advice, did that earlier. svchost exe. up to 99, cpu usage 100%. Its certainly better with it disabled as script now appears as I type rather than 15 seconds later, but page loading is still agonisingly slow and cpu usage is now only @ 15%. I have to re-disable it each time I switch on, sometimes it takes 20mins before I can get task manager to come up.

Disable a program or a service;
have a read through this, notably the section; "Use Process Explorer to find programs running as svchost.exe (easy way)"
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-fix-svchostexe-errors-and-problems-with-high-cpu-usage/

It normally does the trick for this problem to stop it happening again, but its a fix not a full resolution. Ultimately you need to see if reinstalling Office stops it happening, either that or you might have to consider reformatting and reinstalling XP.
That does involve a serious amount of work though. :)

Phil

[pensioner penny]

Ok I'll give the above link and try, and get my daughter to post disks to me as well Phil. I'll let you know if I have any joy with the above. Thankyou so much darling for keeping on helping me with this. xxx.

[Phil_B]

Ok I'll give the above link and try, and get my daughter to post disks to me as well Phil. I'll let you know if I have any joy with the above. Thankyou so much darling for keeping on helping me with this. xxx.

Hi Penny,
No worries - any more questions just ask away!
You did start off there with one of the trickier ones, persevere and you will sort it, the main thing is not to let it get to you - just chip away at a computer problem from different directons and eventually it will be solved.

When posting those disks have them packaged up in a way that they don't look or rattle like disks and send them SD - a lot of disks in ordinary mailers go missing in transit - not just govt ones. :)

Regards,

Phil

[texasboy]

Phil, Hope I have caught you in your advisory mood.lol
Got a question from another member,but before I offer my very limited opinion. Could you all give me some thoughts

"hi, i have had a problem on my vista home pc and i had to restore using dell restore partition. windows formated my hdd, the one thing i forgot to save before reformat was my windows calendar info which i need the most, i ran a data recovery on hdd and recover files from the program files\windows calendar folder, but they are in a .dl_ format, how can i retrieve my info and get it back into my windows calendar? please help...."

Your time starts now.lol
regards

[Phil_B]

Phil, Hope I have caught you in your advisory mood.lol
Got a question from another member,but before I offer my very limited opinion. Could you all give me some thoughts

"hi, i have had a problem on my vista home pc and i had to restore using dell restore partition. windows formated my hdd, the one thing i forgot to save before reformat was my windows calendar info which i need the most, i ran a data recovery on hdd and recover files from the program files\windows calendar folder, but they are in a .dl_ format, how can i retrieve my info and get it back into my windows calendar? please help...."

Your time starts now.lol
regards

I have managed to stay well away from Vista so far! :) I am currently coming to terms with OpenSuse 10.3 and associated bits of stuff!

If I was addressing this problem on an XP machine I would say try this;

expand C:\where_it_is\filename.dl_ c:\where_it_is_going\pathename\correct_filename.dl l

It doesn't feel right that a data file will be called a .dll though, that stands for dynamic linked library, which isn't user generated data of this type normally.

However..... its going to depend what it really did when it reinstalled - if it really reformatted the disk then its unlikely what you have left is going to be complete and useable.
But - if all it did was copy back windows over the top of the damaged installation then it will have possibly left data files alone, as long as you haven't over-written them by the application making a new copy over what was there.

Phil

[texasboy]

Many tks Phil, Have passed this on.
cheers

[texasboy]

Thought I would revive this lot.lol
7 yr old family PC,still going strong but need to update a little.
Started building a new rig based on a good quality AGP graphic card(will fill in links as I go along.HIS Radeon X1950 PRO ICE Q3 512MB AGP Graphic card. Overclocked by HIS.
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=553 (http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=553) 594/1540 core/mem stock.
Bought new motherboard Gigabyte 81865GME 775 RH.http://www.ebuyer.com/product/113839
New Aurora case with 450 PSU installed. Mobo has agp 8X slot on board to suit graphic card. Could not get signal to monitor to boot up. May have shorted Mobo. So bought another one and was extra carefull during install to hook up board with both 20 and 4 pin power.Other small leads hooked up as per manual. Have only graphic card,one stick of ram(512mb) installed. Removed CMOS battery each time but only getting a twitch from fans. Changed both PSU(to 500w) and Pentium 4 CPU(same model and chip),but still only twitch from fans. Am in process of hooking up again with speakers attached to see if beep tones are present to indicate problem. Seems like I am not getting 12v to board or there is a short somewhere.There is always that chance that both Mobo`s are faulty.
Will update as I go along. Any thoughts in the meantime???
cheers
PS. 10mb broadband and 2gb ram waiting to install. Graphic card 6 pin attached for power ,ram and card fully seated.

[texasboy]

bad cpu processor causing problems. changed to spare p4 and pc running super fast. i am posting on the new build pc. you will notice that i am in lower case letters. if i hit caps it will go to caps ,but will not change back to lower case if i hit caps again. it will only change after a restart. both the mouse and keyboard are plugged into the usual green and purple serial connections. on set up there is provision to enable/disable if on usb. both disabled.
anyone any thoughts on how i can fix caps. ps have tried with 2 other working keyboards.
cheers

[johnharding]

I am also available to help with IT issues.

I have a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Computer Science and work in a regional financial institution ("we" are only mentioned once on the entire site despite being a household name!) in the Tech Support department.

I use Linux at home but Windows at work.

[texasboy]

A very warm welcome to you John.
Please feel free to interject anytime
regards

[pensioner penny]

Sorry to interupt John. Can someone help this member with scan problem, post 14 please ??

http://www.penaltychargesforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=361983#post361983

[longlostpoet]

my home PC is misbehaving,
it will not load up properly....
as of yesterday it is taking a very long time to load the desktop !
once loaded every command (click on ) is taking ages to appear on the screen,
sometimes the cursor becomes inactive,
only things loaded recently are: -
Mailwasher,
Tesco Office,
i am at a loss what to do as it will not let me restore back to an earlier time !
anything i eventually get on screen becomes inoperable,
all icons take ages to load up.
do not have rescue disk as WINDOWS XP came already insalled.
i am a bit of a novice so itemised list of suggestions would be appreciated..
am away till next weekend......
in anticipation
Thanks

[texasboy]

my home PC is misbehaving,
it will not load up properly....
as of yesterday it is taking a very long time to load the desktop !
once loaded every command (click on ) is taking ages to appear on the screen,
sometimes the cursor becomes inactive,
only things loaded recently are: -
Mailwasher,
Tesco Office,
i am at a loss what to do as it will not let me restore back to an earlier time !
anything i eventually get on screen becomes inoperable,
all icons take ages to load up.
do not have rescue disk as WINDOWS XP came already insalled.
i am a bit of a novice so itemised list of suggestions would be appreciated..
am away till next weekend......
in anticipation
Thanks

Hi LP,
There are many simple things that will help your PC without spending all your hard earned cash.First of all can you give us some general details about your PC. I presume you have a general knowledge of defragmenting etc. Are you using WinXP or Vista etc.What size is your Hard Drive, what free space do you have left. What cleaning programs have you installed. The free ones do the job. Get back soonest and we all will help.You maybe expert in the whip,but we have experts on the chip,lol
cheers

[Phil_B]

Sorry to interupt John. Can someone help this member with scan problem, post 14 please ??

http://www.penaltychargesforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=361983#post361983


Hi Penny,
Done that inline on the above thread now.

Phil

[Phil_B]

my home PC is misbehaving,
it will not load up properly....
as of yesterday it is taking a very long time to load the desktop !
once loaded every command (click on ) is taking ages to appear on the screen,
sometimes the cursor becomes inactive,
only things loaded recently are: -
Mailwasher,
Tesco Office,
i am at a loss what to do as it will not let me restore back to an earlier time !
anything i eventually get on screen becomes inoperable,
all icons take ages to load up.
do not have rescue disk as WINDOWS XP came already insalled.
i am a bit of a novice so itemised list of suggestions would be appreciated..
am away till next weekend......
in anticipation
Thanks

LLP,
start with cleaning it up a bit, that will often free up a lot of space and make XP happy again. Unless it has had chunks deleted or been severely compromised XP is actually pretty stable.
Try this - www.ccleaner.com (http://www.ccleaner.com) - its what I use here and it works nicely (free as well)

Phil

[Turboman]

Hi Penny,
Done that inline on the above thread now.

Phil

Same here Penny re OCR scanning techniques into Word etc..

Turbo

[Liberty64]

Help needed please - member needs advice on how to scan document to his thread- sorry guys im terrible at that sort of thing lol

http://www.penaltychargesforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18061&page=4 (http://www.penaltychargesforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18061&page=4)

[Turboman]

Help needed please - member needs advice on how to scan document to his thread- sorry guys im terrible at that sort of thing lol

http://www.penaltychargesforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18061&page=4 (http://www.penaltychargesforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18061&page=4)


See reply in that thread Libby--I think we need to structure & co-ordinate techie things--be on line after tea etc

Turbo XXX

[Liberty64]

See reply in that thread Libby--I think we need to structure & co-ordinate techie things--be on line after tea etc

Turbo XXX
Yes I could'nt agree more Turbs- there are bits "n" bobs all over the forum- could do with a small section of site just for techie things- will put the idea to Admin and other MODs!

[mhibberd]

Guys

I can provide help for CAD and 3D animation stuff. My background is highlighted below.

92-93 trainee CAD operator, Met police
93-95 joint forensic animator met police On the first time to produce an animation in a real murder case.
95-2003 colllege and unversity
2005-now The CADDoctor project

Programs I teach include Autocad, architectural desktop, 3DS MAX, Cinema 4d, Photoshop and Corel Draw.

Mark

[longlostpoet]

hi all,
system is XP
64 GB
all suggestions as to cleaning system are wasted i am afraid, as the only thing that i can get is the desktop.... !
need to know what to do from the boot menu !
HELP please

[Phil_B]

hi all,
system is XP
64 GB
all suggestions as to cleaning system are wasted i am afraid, as the only thing that i can get is the desktop.... !
need to know what to do from the boot menu !
HELP please

LLP,
go to mycomputer, right click on hard drive icon and see what it says is the remaining space. In Internet explorer go to tools I think it is and delete all the history stuff, in start accessories go to system tools |disk cleanup and run that.
Sorry thats not more precise mate but I'm on my Linux machine right now and its a tad different!

Phil

[Phil_B]

Yes I could'nt agree more Turbs- there are bits "n" bobs all over the forum- could do with a small section of site just for techie things- will put the idea to Admin and other MODs!

I'm up for that.
I've been doing hardware support in one form or another since '82 and have been doing PC suppport literally since day one.
Though I shan't really be offering support on ZX80 computers and that ilk! :)

Phil

[longlostpoet]

sorry to disappoint PhilB,
but as stated before
all i can get on screen once booted is the desktop
clicking on any icon does not work
must be assist from boot menu
please
have tried loading system from laptop
still no go
desperate now
when the Princess from Lithuania gets home tomorrow,
she is gonna kill me

[poltmcm]

longlost i got the same problem, must be a virus kicking around, i will let you know how to sort it once i find out ;)

also site tech help section in general chat under the lounge ;)

[Phil_B]

sorry to disappoint PhilB,
but as stated before
all i can get on screen once booted is the desktop
clicking on any icon does not work
must be assist from boot menu
please
have tried loading system from laptop
still no go
desperate now
when the Princess from Lithuania gets home tomorrow,
she is gonna kill me

If you hit F8 just as the system starts to boot you should get a different menu, bring it up in "safe mode" and see if you can then follow previous instructions.

Phil

[mhibberd]

Go to www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm

In theory you can create a bootable floppy that will enabble you to boot off a pen drive or other from of usb drive. You may be able to run this long enought to be able to get your work off.

Mark

[texasboy]

done all that Phil.........
need a disc to copy "XP" from i think
as i am unable to retrieve system in good order.........
from desk top set up.
completely b*****ed

Are you familiar with going into "Set Up" during boot up?
I am running WINXP64 on this pc. When pc starts I click on "Del" key several times, this will bring up your blue set up screen and by using the up and down arrows +plus enter.
DONT make any changes unless you are completely sure of what it is.
One thing is worth checking in the left hand columns is to see which drive is set as no1 boot up device. This would usually be your hard drive and not the floppy drive. JUST CLICK Esc key if there are no changes made and dont forget to click the F10 key to save and exit. The pc will then continue booting up.
cheers
ps. what sort of graphics card is in pc. ie. PCI-E or AGP as you need to have correct one enabled in setup.

[johnharding]

A very warm welcome to you John.
Please feel free to interject anytime
regards

Cheers.

Have been off and on for the last week so sorry not responding sooner! (Wife is due on Friday so been decorating, etc)

[johnharding]

hi all,
system is XP
64 GB
all suggestions as to cleaning system are wasted i am afraid, as the only thing that i can get is the desktop.... !
need to know what to do from the boot menu !
HELP please

Long Lost Poet,

It sounds as though your machine has a catalogue of nasties on it or OS corruption. Given that Windows is out of the four major OS's (BSD, Linux, Mac and Windows) is the least reliable and most unstable its possible, but lets work on the other one for the moment.

Take a look for AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/) and Spybot S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html). Install and let each do a sweep. SafeMode might be helpful here! Fix and issues and then retry full mode.

If you are still having issues then look at your Startup programs. These can be found in Start Menu >> Programs >> StartUp and by loading regedit and navigating to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run and then HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Run. This requires some technical judgement but you should be able to look and see if there is anything unwanted or if a piece of old hardware is causing issues. Delete entries whcih are wrong.

Hope this helps

John

[Sim]

Rather than Regedit, always a bit nervous of that, it might be better to use the Dos prompt "run" and msconfig.

[johnharding]

Rather than Regedit, always a bit nervous of that, it might be better to use the Dos prompt "run" and msconfig.

Sim,

Good point!

Sorry, I kind of like to use the most technical tools and don't often mind introducing non-techies to them.

Just advise them not to use them unless they are being instructed!

John

[Phil_B]

done all that Phil.........
need a disc to copy "XP" from i think
as i am unable to retrieve system in good order.........
from desk top set up.
completely b*****ed

Sounds like you could be right :(
XP will normally do a repair install without gobbing up the rest of the hard drive though, so its safe enough to do.

Phil

[Buchenauld]

I don't know if you can help me with my silly problem, but when I first log on to Penalty Charges the page is too big, but when I click on New Posts or any other posts for that matter the page fits perfectly.

Don't get too technical lads, I'm only a learner.

[Turboman]

I get that too!--Nothing to woory about. (I think) V-Bulletin (the hosting sotware for the site) operates using Auto-Width which activates itself on your first activity.

So if you have a Widescreen monitor or a Std Monitor--it adjusts itself to use your total monitor width

[Buchenauld]

I get that too!--Nothing to woory about. (I think) V-Bulletin (the hosting sotware for the site) operates using Auto-Width which activates itself on your first activity.

So if you have a Widescreen monitor or a Std Monitor--it adjusts itself to use your total monitor width

Thanks Turbo

[longlostpoet]

thanks for the assist....
got spybot
will try to run it in safe mode.....
thanks again

[texasboy]

To John Harding,
Hope everything went well with the new family addittion .You can fill us all in when you get all that paint off your hands.lol
cheers

[longlostpoet]

i am now getting a Blue screen...
with error no ....
0000008E
which i have tried to sort from the laptop .....
but with no joy.......
am now gonna put it into the hands of the local nerd...
sorry....
local it expert.........
lol

[texasboy]

i am now getting a Blue screen...
with error no ....
0000008E
which i have tried to sort from the laptop .....
but with no joy.......
am now gonna put it into the hands of the local nerd...
sorry....
local it expert.........
lol

Hi LP
This is quite common to get this error and blue screen. Makes you want to chuck everthing out the window.lol Often it is the BIOS that is up the left and mobo cant communicate with the rest of the PC.
Phil or John can verify this.
There are several ways to rectify.
1)If you have saved your original BIOS on floppy,then boot up pc with floppy in drive. If this works then restart and go into set up and change boot up priority to hard drive save and restart.
2)Depending on your mobo there will usually be 3 small pins directly alongside the round silver lithium battery on the board. There will be a small plastic jumper over pins 1&2,remove jumper and place it on pins 2&3 for 5 secs This will short out and hopefully return BIOS to original factory setting DONT forget to put jumper back on pins 1&2 after the 5secs.
Try booting up again. You will have to go into set up during boot up and select load safe defaults. You can always go in again later and make other changes.
3)this basically does the same as no 2. Switch off all power to your case(for item 2) as well) Carefully remove the lithium batteryfor abt 10secs and then install it again. Try boot up.


Remember to have your power disconnected anytime you are working inside the pc. Ground out the case by touching another metal object before opening.
Hope this helps.
cheers

[longlostpoet]

WHAT ?
i know you are well meaning and all that.....
but i am nearly .... ahem.....
a sprightly......
63
and that jargon means nothing to me.....
sorry
good try though
thanks

[texasboy]

WHAT ?
i know you are well meaning and all that.....
but i am nearly .... ahem.....
a sprightly......
63
and that jargon means nothing to me.....
sorry
good try though
thanks

O> I`m 3 weeks from bus pass,and 8 years ago I couldnt even turn on a PC. The pc I`m on at the moment I just finished putting together this week.lol So no excuses from you young ones.<£

[granby]

earlier post says 4 main os i know mac,linux and ms
what is bsd? and what is it configured for?
could google it but i would like an answer i can understand lol

[texasboy]

earlier post says 4 main os i know mac,linux and ms
what is bsd? and what is it configured for?
could google it but i would like an answer i can understand lol

Basically BSD was the start of pc systems as we know them today from Berkely University. Sort of developers forum. Many ups and downs, but now left somewhat behind with MS etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution
Hope this helps
cheers

[Phil_B]

Hi LP
This is quite common to get this error and blue screen. Makes you want to chuck everthing out the window.lol Often it is the BIOS that is up the left and mobo cant communicate with the rest of the PC.
Phil or John can verify this.
There are several ways to rectify.
1)If you have saved your original BIOS on floppy,then boot up pc with floppy in drive. If this works then restart and go into set up and change boot up priority to hard drive save and restart.
2)Depending on your mobo there will usually be 3 small pins directly alongside the round silver lithium battery on the board. There will be a small plastic jumper over pins 1&2,remove jumper and place it on pins 2&3 for 5 secs This will short out and hopefully return BIOS to original factory setting DONT forget to put jumper back on pins 1&2 after the 5secs.
Try booting up again. You will have to go into set up during boot up and select load safe defaults. You can always go in again later and make other changes.
3)this basically does the same as no 2. Switch off all power to your case(for item 2) as well) Carefully remove the lithium batteryfor abt 10secs and then install it again. Try boot up.


Remember to have your power disconnected anytime you are working inside the pc. Ground out the case by touching another metal object before opening.
Hope this helps.
cheers

This is kind of right but yet kind of wrong.............. :)

Yes that sort of was the way it used to be, though the settings referred to are the CMOS ones where things like the hard drive parameters were stored and had to be entered manually, along with a bunch of other stuff.
These days most of these settings are interogated directly from devices during the boot sequence.

There are other settings in there regarding tweaking the machine's performance, but mostly these areas now are non-volatile and have nothing to do with the lithium battery as described.

The Lithium battery really is there only for powering the onboard system clock chip. On an O/S like XP this even gets overidden as the O/S normally sets itself against an online NTP server if correctly configured.

If LLP wants to adjust anything in there I'd suggest doing no more that letting it go to default settings and saving.

As regards the BIOS, this can be re-flashed on a lot of mainboards these days - however use the wrong one and that mainboard is history. Unless there is a really good reason for doing that then don't even attempt it.

Phil

[Phil_B]

Basically BSD was the start of pc systems as we know them today from Berkely University. Sort of developers forum. Many ups and downs, but now left somewhat behind with MS etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution
Hope this helps
cheers

LOL - there's a few forums where you would have been hung out to dry for a radical remark like that :)

The main thing about BSD as an O/S is its size vs operatability, you couldnt port XP / Vista etc into a tiny device, its just not what its designed for.
You probably have a router / wireless router sitting on your desk somewhere, and inside that is probably a version of BSD or some other tiny Linux / Unix variant such as BusyBox.

Phil

[longlostpoet]

This is kind of right but yet kind of wrong.............. :)

Yes that sort of was the way it used to be, though the settings referred to are the CMOS ones where things like the hard drive parameters were stored and had to be entered manually, along with a bunch of other stuff.
These days most of these settings are interogated directly from devices during the boot sequence.

There are other settings in there regarding tweaking the machine's performance, but mostly these areas now are non-volatile and have nothing to do with the lithium battery as described.

The Lithium battery really is there only for powering the onboard system clock chip. On an O/S like XP this even gets overidden as the O/S normally sets itself against an online NTP server if correctly configured.

If LLP wants to adjust anything in there I'd suggest doing no more that letting it go to default settings and saving.

As regards the BIOS, this can be re-flashed on a lot of mainboards these days - however use the wrong one and that mainboard is history. Unless there is a really good reason for doing that then don't even attempt it.

Phil
*
thanks Phil,
do not have the time that "Tex" has.....
and still no idea what all those initials meant....
understand what you say about motherboard.
so will leave well alone and wait for local PC expert to fix..........
ta

[Phil_B]

*
thanks Phil,
do not have the time that "Tex" has.....
and still no idea what all those initials meant....
understand what you say about motherboard.
so will leave well alone and wait for local PC expert to fix..........
ta

One of the problems with computer stuff is the number of little acronyms involved with it all......
However it is way easier to type UART than Universal Asynchronous Receive and Transmit each time I'm thinking about the type of serial port implemented on a machine!

Phil

[Turboman]

Acronymns

When we were developing mainframe systems in 19??, we came up with CAMEL which was a front end to a system for on-line users own development--we had trouble with the last "L"--LOL

Computer Applications Made Easy Like

[Phil_B]

Acronymns

When we were developing mainframe systems in 19??, we came up with CAMEL which was a front end to a system for on-line users own development--we had trouble with the last "L"--LOL

Computer Applications Made Easy Like


Ahh........ but the one I came up with as a sales pitch actually became an industry standard............

"All our computer systems come with LRF as standard"

I've actually had people quote this to ME as a sales feature of systems.

A pint of virtual beer for the first person who actually knows what LRF stands for.

Phil

[granby]

ohh ****** off you two lol
alls you puter techies do is switch the machines on and off to fix them lol

:) :) :)

[longlostpoet]

LRF.....
Loads of Regular Faults.........
Lots of Ruddy Faults...............
Lousy Rectangular Fixation..........

[Phil_B]

ohh ****** off you two lol
alls you puter techies do is switch the machines on and off to fix them lol

:) :) :)


LOL!

Actually, second to a screwdriver the most useful tool for fixing a computer is an ordinary white pencil rubber.

Take out all the boards, clean all edge connectors, reassemble, machine is no longer dead.
You wouldn't believe how many time over the years I've done just that and never had a repeat call.

Never use an abrasive rubber though........

Phil

[Phil_B]

LRF.....
Loads of Regular Faults.........
Lots of Ruddy Faults...............
Lousy Rectangular Fixation..........


It was supposed to be a SELLING feature! :)

Phil

[texasboy]

This is kind of right but yet kind of wrong.............. :)

The Lithium battery really is there only for powering the onboard system clock chip. On an O/S like XP this even gets overidden as the O/S normally sets itself against an online NTP server if correctly configured.

Phil
Too many techies on here.lol
While the battery provides power for onboard system, removing battery for short period resets BIOS to original mobo settings,as in one of my PC`s a gigabyte board. On my latest Asus board there are provisions to update BIOS will a fail safe program built into Asus programs. Some of the boards have done away with the usual 3 pin jumper system where you can use jumper to short out pins 2&3. And yes it is dangerous to flash a BIOS if you are not completely sure of what your doing.
Thats too much info from an old man like me.jd?
cheers

[Turboman]

Lrf ??????????

[granby]

Ahh........ but the one I came up with as a sales pitch actually became an industry standard............

"All our computer systems come with LRF as standard

long rod fixation ?
lol

[longlostpoet]

Ahhhh
Selling...............
LRF.....
Long Range Feathers............
always worth a tickle...
*
Loud Robust Faders.............
*
Lefthand & Righthand Features..........
*
Large Rigorous Featherdusters on board.......
*
.....

[Phil_B]

Too many techies on here.lol
While the battery provides power for onboard system, removing battery for short period resets BIOS to original mobo settings,as in one of my PC`s a gigabyte board. On my latest Asus board there are provisions to update BIOS will a fail safe program built into Asus programs. Some of the boards have done away with the usual 3 pin jumper system where you can use jumper to short out pins 2&3. And yes it is dangerous to flash a BIOS if you are not completely sure of what your doing.
Thats too much info from an old man like me.jd?
cheers

LOL, nah, when I get really techie you will know! :)
When I started fixing stuff way back when it wasnt just card swapping, it was fixing to component level. Qualifying that statement a bit though it wasn't all surface mount stuff on the boards.
So if you want a detailed description on setting the index to data burst timing on a Tandon TM100 5 1/4" full height 360kb floppy drive after a head change..... but keep in mind that back then those drives cost a good few hundred quid each, whereas a modern 1.44 drive is about £6!

Just about the only real component level repair stuff I do now is on switch mode power supplies and older "collectable" test gear like Tektronix scopes. All good fun!

Phil

[granby]

LOL, nah, when I get really techie you will know! :)
When I started fixing stuff way back when it wasnt just card swapping, it was fixing to component level. Qualifying that statement a bit though it wasn't all surface mount stuff on the boards.
So if you want a detailed description on setting the index to data burst timing on a Tandon TM100 5 1/4" full height 360kb floppy drive after a head change..... but keep in mind that back then those drives cost a good few hundred quid each, whereas a modern 1.44 drive is about £6!

Just about the only real component level repair stuff I do now is on switch mode power supplies and older "collectable" test gear like Tektronix scopes. All good fun!

Phil

wot a bit like in school when they gave you a circuit board,a soldering iron, and some components and you made a transistor radio? lol

[Phil_B]

wot a bit like in school when they gave you a circuit board,a soldering iron, and some components and you made a transistor radio? lol

Yup, but mine actually worked and had more features! :)

Phil

[granby]

Yup, but mine actually worked and had more features! :)

Phil

lol
so did mine
it was DAB LOL
35 yrs before it was broadcast
thats why you could not pick up a station lol

[longlostpoet]

so, the sags continues,,,
the desktop PC still refuses to perform....
whilst in 'Safe Mode' i deleted a couple of things that i had loaded last....
now have a blue screen with fault code : -
0000000 5E
any ideas
?

[granby]

now have a blue screen with fault code : -
0000000 5E
any ideas
?

ohhh
is it the "blue screen of death"?:sorry:

[longlostpoet]

ohhh
is it the "blue screen of death"?:sorry:
*
i think you may be right..............

[granby]

if it is you can sometimes pull it back or save your data on your HDD
best pm our ressie techies lol

[Phil_B]

so, the sags continues,,,
the desktop PC still refuses to perform....
whilst in 'Safe Mode' i deleted a couple of things that i had loaded last....
now have a blue screen with fault code : -
0000000 5E
any ideas
?

It might seem like a daft answer...........

Reinstall them then, then uninstall them properly whilst NOT in safe mode!

Phil