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Archive through March 08, 2006

The TVClubHouse: General Discussion ARCHIVES: 2006 Mar. ~ 2006 May: All Things Technical: The Help Desk: Computer Problems? Ask Here (ARCHIVES): Archive through March 08, 2006 users admin

Author Message
Lumbele
Member

07-12-2002

Saturday, February 11, 2006 - 6:58 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Lumbele a private message Print Post    
That makes two of us, Jan.LOL

Babyboo
Member

06-16-2003

Sunday, February 19, 2006 - 1:09 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Babyboo a private message Print Post    
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me, I am very new at computers, i have only been using one for a couple of years and haven't learned much, My problem is that i have a dial up connection which is slow anyway but my downloads are a lot slower than they should be, i have tried everything to fix it but have not been successful, Can someone please tell me anything i can do to improve my download speed, i mean other than DSl or Broadband.

Thanks

Jimmer
Member

08-30-2000

Sunday, February 19, 2006 - 1:19 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Jimmer a private message Print Post    
There will be other people who can probably help you more with this than me but as a starting point, what operating system does your computer have?

Another thing you can look at is when the modem connects after making all of those funny noises, what speed does it show it connecting at?

Jan
Moderator

08-01-2000

Sunday, February 19, 2006 - 2:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Jan a private message Print Post    
also Baby, do you use adaware and / or Spybot or another program to keep spyware off your computer? I think Spyware is known to slow a computer down. If you don't have any, I think there are links at the top of this page (click on the CLICKING HERE)

good luck. Hopefully some of the computer techies will be online later :-):-)

Babyboo
Member

06-16-2003

Sunday, February 19, 2006 - 2:19 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Babyboo a private message Print Post    
oop

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Monday, February 20, 2006 - 12:16 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
Babyboo, I am on dialup. It is very slow. A lot of the time, I just tell friends not to send me those video clips that everybody likes to send to each other. It can sometimes take twenty minutes to download one, during which time I can't do much else on the internet.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Monday, February 20, 2006 - 7:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
Babyboo, it occurred to me that you may not know how to check the speed of your dialup connection as somebody above asked you to do.

Look down there in the bottom right corner of your screen, and you should see two tiny images that look like computer monitors, one behind the other. They may glow brighter from time to time. Pause your cursor over that icon, and a little message should pop up. One of the lines should say Speed:. Right now mine says Speed: 49.2 Kbps. That is fairly high. Max on dialup is 56.

If you don't get the popup message when you pause your mouse on the icon, put your mouse cursor on the icon and right click, then choose Status. Your speed should show on there.

Babyboo
Member

06-16-2003

Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 5:06 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Babyboo a private message Print Post    
Thank everyone for all your help, i found a program that is going to help me repair my system, no way i can do it myself.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Wednesday, March 01, 2006 - 3:38 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
I hope someone will be able to answer my question.
When I run my spyware program, I will the get the same pest..not every time but maybe every 2 or 3 times. I have disabled system restore and run the program. I have run my virus scan and it's not in there. but it keeps coming back.
It seems to be a variant of Kazaa, but we aren't running Kazaa.

Draheid
Board Administrator

09-09-2001

Wednesday, March 01, 2006 - 6:06 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Draheid a private message Print Post    
Texannie: What spyware program are you running and exactly what does it say you have? Have you been able to tell the program to remove the problem and then run the program a 2nd time to see if it was successful?

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Wednesday, March 01, 2006 - 11:48 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
Dra, thanks for replying! It's Etrust Pest Patrol. I can remove it, run the program again and it shows it's gone. It may not come back the next several times I run the program or it may come back each time.
It's KaZaa.

Draheid
Board Administrator

09-09-2001

Wednesday, March 01, 2006 - 9:52 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Draheid a private message Print Post    
Texannie: I would recommend you run a Google search for "remove Kazaa" and see the many options for how to remove all the program installs. There are so many various ways, it's hard to say which works best. Find one you feel you can comfortably run and follow the instructions carefully. (I've never allowed Kazaa or anything like it on any of my computers so I'm really not sure which way is best to remove it, sorry.)

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 6:36 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
Dra, I haven't allowed it either! My son tried it several years ago and it totally screwed up my puter. I put a stop to it immediately!!! That's what is so bizarre about this. Do you know if it attaches itself to Limewire?
Here is the full info I get
key:hkey-local-machine\software\magnet
KaZaA
and as to what type it is (ie tracking cooking, spyware ect) it says that it is a P2P

Draheid
Board Administrator

09-09-2001

Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 1:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Draheid a private message Print Post    
Texannie: Read the two message posted HERE - the first one describes your finding and the second has a link to a program to fix it I think.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 2:17 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
Thanks Dra. Just to confuse things even more, when I run Adaware or Spybot, it doesn't show up.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 3:28 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
well,it worked sort of. i took it off, but it's come back again...any other suggestions?? please!!

Costacat
Member

07-15-2000

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 4:59 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Costacat a private message Print Post    
Tex, the reason why it doesn't show up as spyware for Adaware or Spybot is probably because their definitions consider it an "allowed" program. KaZaA actually *is* a P2P (peer-to-peer) program, used to share files (usually music, usually illegally) from one user to another. Ditto with Limewire.

If you can't remove it and if it's not causing conflicts with any other programs, I wouldn't worry about it. (Microsoft's new OS will be coming out soon enuf and you can reinstall then! <grin>) Just be sure you have sufficient protection on your computer (firewall, etc) if you decide to leave it alone.

Costacat
Member

07-15-2000

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 5:06 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Costacat a private message Print Post    
Oh yeah. If it's just in the registry, you can use a registry cleanup tool (some of free for 30 days; search google) to clean up the Windows registry. These tools remove registry keys left over from "unclean" uninstalls. Be sure to backup your registry before you do this, just in case.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 5:09 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
Thanks!

Coco
Member

07-13-2000

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - 10:36 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Coco a private message Print Post    
My WindowsXP laptop has a problem and I need some help please.

Once I get to my desktop, I get a dialog box asking me if I want to send an Error Report to Microsoft. Then all of a sudden, my screen goes to white lettering (words) with a blue background and reboots to my start screen again. After clicking onto my icon and getting to my desktop, dialog box with Error Report comes up once again and then boom! - blue screen with white words/lettering and the rebooting starts again.

I do not have a manual for the XP and I'm sure there's some way I can fix this but I'll need help from my TVCH Computer angels.

I'm on my way into work right now and I'll be back this evening and check in with this thread with lots of hope.

BTW, I'm sending this post from our Win98 PC


Wendo
Member

08-07-2000

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - 4:15 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Wendo a private message Print Post    
Sounds like the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error. Basically, it's a Windows Stop Error that occurs when Windows encounters a problem that it cannot recover from. From your description, you're caught in a loop where it boots, encounters the error, reboots, error, and so on.

As for what to do, hopefully someone will be able to post some helpful comments.

Coco
Member

07-13-2000

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - 9:51 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Coco a private message Print Post    
Help! c'mon guys, I need some help here....pleasssseeee.

And Wendo, yup, you described it perfectly and I'm hoping someone can indeed come along and offer some help.


Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - 9:58 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Ladytex a private message Print Post    
Coco, does the blue screen tell you what problem is occurring? Can you fall back to your last good configuration?

Draheid
Board Administrator

09-09-2001

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - 10:12 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Draheid a private message Print Post    
Coco: First you should try starting the computer in 'Safe Mode' and see if it is a system problem or something that loads in normal mode. To do this, try these steps:
To use the F8 key to start Windows XP in Safe mode

1. Restart the computer.
Some computers have a progress bar that refers to the word BIOS. Others may not let you know what is happening.
2. As soon as the BIOS loads, begin tapping the F8 key on your keyboard. Do so until the Windows Advanced Options menu appears.
If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. If this happens, restart the computer and try again.
3. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, select Safe mode and then press Enter.

Before doing anything else, you should run any cleanup tools you have available to you such as your anti-virus, AdAware, Spybot, etc. to clean the system while in safe mode. Once these are run and have cleaned up any problems, then try restarting in normal mode to see if the problem is gone. If not, go back to safe mode and use the configuration utility to disable anything that is not supposed to be running.

To access the utility, click on 'Start - Run' and type MSCONFIG in the window. Then click 'Ok'. On the first screen, click on 'Normal' at the top of that list. Then click on the 'Startup' tab and uncheck anything that looks like it doesn't belong. When you click 'Ok' on the utility, it should prompt you to restart the computer. You may need to repeat these steps (safe mode, msconfig, restart, etc) a few times until you find and disable the problem program from running.

If this works, post here what you disabled to get your computer back running again and we can try to find a better, more permanent, solution for you to use.

Coco
Member

07-13-2000

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - 10:50 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Coco a private message Print Post    
LadyT and Dra, thanks so much!

Dra, I've gotten into Safe Mode and now I'm running Spybot, etc. I'll post my findings later. Thanks again for helping me to get to this point...


EDIT MODE: I just now saw the top of this thread and I love all the links you provided!}