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Thread: My PC is committing slow suicide.

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    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    My PC is committing slow suicide.

    Random things stop working, like my MSN home page and my GMail. I was going to use the system restore CD, but my husband went nuts and told me not to. What happens when I use that CD?

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    Bad address email on file OptiBoard Gold Supporter Sean's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post
    Random things stop working, like my MSN home page and my GMail. I was going to use the system restore CD, but my husband went nuts and told me not to. What happens when I use that CD?
    It will restore the pc to its original factory state.........formating the entire drive will be part of the process.

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    RETIRED JRS's Avatar
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    You might have had your home page hi-jacked, but that's easy to restore. If you have other serious issues, it could be many things - most of which do not require using your factory CD.

    You should be able to restore using the internal (XP) process - System Restore which will only clobber stuff installed post the restore date you choose. You can make a new "restore point" before trying to roll backwards to an earlier date.

    You would need to be more specific to help further.
    J. R. Smith


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    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    Yeah, I tried to do a system restore and all I could get was a white screen. If I use the CD, what if any damage do I do? Will I have to find all the old updates and that kind of stuff? And what will it do to all my programs and the stuff that's stored on my hard drive?

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    Bad address email on file k12311997's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post
    Yeah, I tried to do a system restore and all I could get was a white screen. If I use the CD, what if any damage do I do? Will I have to find all the old updates and that kind of stuff? And what will it do to all my programs and the stuff that's stored on my hard drive?
    GONE. Your PC will remove everything from the hard drive and be exactly as the day you opened the box. If you have irreplacable stuff on your computer hire someone to make sure you have no viruses, most anti virus programs do a decent job, but viruses come out before the update that stops them.

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    Bad address email on file OptiBoard Gold Supporter Sean's Avatar
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    Judy,

    You could give this a shot and see if it snags the problem..................

    Ad-Aware2007 ®

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    RETIRED JRS's Avatar
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    I assumed judy had anti-virus, a firewall, and things like AdAware. If not it is a good program (I use it). Should have mentioned this stuff in my original reply... sorry Judy.

    Another source to check her system is www.Pcpitstop.com. They have a bunch of free tools for checking over her entire system, not just the virus part.
    J. R. Smith


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    Rising Star OptiBoard Silver Supporter
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    I'll bump for adaware
    also, spybot is rather good at finding things

    also, defragmenting also may help

    look at your startup folder in the start menu/programs and take out some stuff that isnt' needed.

    you can always look and see what programs can be deleted. might be some stuff in there you didn't know about or havne't used in months

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    Master OptiBoarder karen's Avatar
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    Buy a Mac!:bbg:
    Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others. -H. Jackson Brown Jr.

    If the only tool you have is a hammer you will approach every problem as though it were a nail

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    Master OptiBoarder
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post
    Random things stop working, like my MSN home page and my GMail. I was going to use the system restore CD, but my husband went nuts and told me not to. What happens when I use that CD?
    Hi Judy,

    Some questions for you:

    1) Which antivirus are you running? Is it up to date? When did you run it last?

    2) Which, if any, anti-spyware software do you have?

    3) Which, if any, firewall do you have installed on your computer?

    4) Which version of windows are you using? XP? When did you update it last?

    I have alot more questions but this will do for now. If you want I can call you from China and talk you through some of the fixes you can do.

    Doc

  11. #11
    One eye sees, the other feels OptiBoard Silver Supporter
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post
    Yeah, I tried to do a system restore and all I could get was a white screen.
    That's not good. There may be a way to do this from safe mode or from a boot disk. I believe there is a repair function on the os disk that might keep the os and data intact.

    Now would be a very good time to back up your data.
    Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. - Richard P. Feynman

    Experience is the hardest teacher. She gives the test before the lesson.



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    Bad address email on file kodorovski's Avatar
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    use Mcafee firewall... maybe many worm and spyware invented your pc

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    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    I've had McAfee all along. Tomorrow I'm dedicating the day to Dell and Dell Support. If that doesn't work, it's system restore time. At this point, it's a really nice looking boat anchor.

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    OptiBoardaholic Scott R's Avatar
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    The #5 on my number keypad thinks its a tab button.

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    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    If you have backed up all of your data files you can go ahead and do a system restore or whatever. But, if you want to be absolutely, positively sure that you have removed everything why not take the time and just reformat your hard drive and then reinstall your OS and applications. I realize that this is a lot of work but it is the only foolproof prophylaxis available.

    It wasn’t that long ago that this was a common procedure. It was performed primarily to defragment the hard drive and improve system performance. If you use an online back-up service to secure your data it is a very workable solution today.

    Of course, if you do not have licenses for the OS or applications it’s another matter.

  16. #16
    Bad address email on file kodorovski's Avatar
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    or it maybe bcause your hardrive's capacity is allready low...

  17. #17
    One of the worst people here
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post
    I've had McAfee all along. Tomorrow I'm dedicating the day to Dell and Dell Support. If that doesn't work, it's system restore time. At this point, it's a really nice looking boat anchor.

    That may be your problem. I have heard nothing but bad things about McAfee. Get AVG, it is free, and better quality.

    Also, definitely use or get Ad-Aware. We assume everyone has it, but more people are not aware of it.

    Like one poster said, a disk defrag could help too

  18. #18
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter DragonLensmanWV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy Canty View Post
    I've had McAfee all along. Tomorrow I'm dedicating the day to Dell and Dell Support. If that doesn't work, it's system restore time. At this point, it's a really nice looking boat anchor.
    I hope you understand an Indian accent.:D

    As others have said, you might try the free Spybot Search & Destroy and the free version of Ad-Aware. The AVG antivirus is also a really good free alternative. Be sure you uninstall your Mcafee first though.
    I'm assuming you're running XP?
    You might try opening Windows Explorer (hope you're at least a little bit familiar with that),then hit the Tools button at the top then scroll down to the Folder Options and select it. When the new window opens, hit the View button and select Show Hidden Files and Folders the the Apply To All Folders box above.
    Then navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\(your user name)\Local Settings\Temp and deleting everything there. Don't worry, there will usually be one file it won't let you delete, so delete all but that one.

    Also download CCleaner ( another free app) and run it's cleaner, then it's Registry cleaner. Reboot, then defrag.
    you just might have too much junk on your system.
    DragonlensmanWV N.A.O.L.
    "There is nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country."

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    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    Well, the Dell folks and I have been going at this all day. I've had to dump everything and start fresh. I have the AVG antivirus software on my laptop, but it came through our tech support in Reno. Where can I find it for my desktop?

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    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    Bad address email on file medkoinc's Avatar
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    Forget AVG , Forget Mcafee...

    download a free trial of kaspersky
    http://usa.kaspersky.com/

    it is one of the top anti-virus programs .... updated daily unlike mcaffe updated ever 3 month.... it also takes very little system resources so it wont slow you down like mcafee does.

    the free trial lasts 30 days but its fully functional so it will clean your pc.

    if you like it... buy it....if you dont... get avg or mcafee....

    if that doesnt work...copy all your documents to a USB flash drive (you can get one anywhere for $20 for 2 gigs+ (if you have music get a 120gig portable usb drive like this one ) and then just use the restore cd.... call dell support to show you how to do a clean restore...

    or do the following:
    sometimes when you first start your pc (the moment you press power button) at the bottom of the screen you might see press X (f12 maybe) to restore your pc. if you have that .... press it so it loads the cd without even starting windows... if not you will defenetly see something that says press X to go into set-up or bios.... usually its delete or an F button... go in there... look around for something that says boot order .. change it where cd-rom is first... then look around for save and exit... and do it.... when you boot up your pc again a message should eventually come up saying press anykey to load from cd... press anykey... and follow the restore cd instructions... if it asks you to... tell it to delete everything... and start fresh....

    if you need help tracking down a software that you used to have ... pst me .....

    sorry for the long post... i'am very computer technical and tend to get too detailed sometimes....

    Mina
    www.medkoinc.com

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    It must have been progressively making inappropriate remarks.

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    Something Wicked This WayComes AngryFish's Avatar
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    System Mechanic 7

    I have twice had problems that the software fixes mentioned above could not fix and used System Mechanic 6, the older version the first time, and just a few weeks ago version 7 to repair. Both times I lost no data and had some pretty serious issues on going. This last time I had a Trojan that was quarantined but could not be eliminated. You can download a full version for a 30 day trial at www.iolo.com I have been really pleased with it.

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    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. After 2 days with Dell Canada, I still had to use the system restore disk and start from scratch. I've installed AVG for my security system and everything seems to be fine. I probably needed to clean of all that extra stuff anyway. :o

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    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter DragonLensmanWV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AngryFish View Post
    I have twice had problems that the software fixes mentioned above could not fix and used System Mechanic 6, the older version the first time, and just a few weeks ago version 7 to repair. Both times I lost no data and had some pretty serious issues on going. This last time I had a Trojan that was quarantined but could not be eliminated. You can download a full version for a 30 day trial at www.iolo.com I have been really pleased with it.
    I've used System Mechanic since version 3. I currently own System Mechanic 7 which I have removed from my system. The last version I considered useful was version 5. Versions 6 and 7 have decided to make all the decisions for you without options that used to be standard and as such, take over your system. It's now even more of a resource hog than Norton SystemWorks. Not that it's tools don't work, it's just that I prefer to customize what I do to my system, not someone else's idea of what to do. I also don't like that they've removed the Incinerator function. Now you can only wipe free space, if it doesn't hang.
    DragonlensmanWV N.A.O.L.
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