Pete_C

Windows Experts
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Everything posted by Pete_C

  1. Unfortunately, the individual in question had returned the router in question before I had a chance to look things over; so this is not from personal experience. I just wondered if anyone could confirm or deny this. He says he bought a new netgear 108Mbps wifi router (Presumably this model http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WGU624.php He just wanted a home network; not internet sharing. He says that whether he tried to set up manually or using their software CD, that it would not allow him to proceed without having a broadband connection hooked up and if he did connect it for setup; it w
  2. My question is what is this winprotral ? I can't find anything about it. Any specifics on what rootkit? Microsoft windows update, malicious software removal tool will remove the sony rootkit. http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx Fsecure blacklight Will remove most other common ones.
  3. Google news has a lot about recent solar flare activity Basically, if you did not do it, something else flipped a bit somewhere. It would help to know more about your configuration. Did you have onboard video and then install an AGP card , and disable the onboard? If so how did you disable it? Best is always when there is a physical switch, a jumper on the motherboard. Next best would be disabling in bios if that is an option, flipping that bit would give you a cmos checksum error alerting you to the fact that it changed without your action. Botttom of the list is disabling in device manager
  4. Double Pneumonia? I thought it was summer down under. Best wishes and hope you get well soon marty. Don't let the strain of the holiday season stress you out and affect your recovery.
  5. I too would like to hear from him. Hope all is alright with our old friend. Anyone know if Il is a Reverend in the Pagan community? I thought I had his email, but the most likely is a Reverend (and no it aint Preston, I have his email too and this aint it.) I know I have his email, but can't remember his name. Does it start with G or J? Should have checked the email address inside; Should have know that he is the person with several which start with Ilwiccan.
  6. If the sticky I saw when I visited yesterday is to be believed; Dave and I were just a couple months ahead of time and they will be cancelling Call For Help and closing the board after all. At least there has been a little extra time for folks to stay in touch.
  7. Glad to see they updated it to include So the solution for now is to run live update.
  8. It sounds like you either have to many icons in your icon cache or that it has become corrupted. http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/57/ Tells you how to increase the icon cache size (I used to recommend X-setup, but it is no longer free. The free program http://www.snapfiles.com/get/freshui.html may be able to do this) The other problem , a corrupted shell icon cache can be fixed with tweakui http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/dow...s/powertoys.asp once installed the repair option is under repair, it installs to start/ programs/ powertoys/ tweakui launch and go to repair/ re
  9. Yes, this is normal. Most spyware and antivirus programs are set to use as many cpu cycles as possible, to set themselves to the highest priority ; so that they can unload any malware and get rid of it and so that they will complete the scan as quickly as possible. This causes some folks to refer to things like Norton Antivirus as "Resource hogs" when in reality they are doing it for a specific reason and only hog resources when necessary. You can use the windows task manager or a program such as Powermenu To change their "priority" and thus limit the amount of cpu cycles they consume; but t
  10. With the command.com command prompt , you can go to the file itself (In XP it is in C:\WINDOWS\system32 ) and right click => properties => font And choose the font size. CMD is an executable cmd.exe But as you noted, if you right click on the "toolbar" area you get a properties option where you can adjust the font. Lots of other things there too. I thought everyone knew this.
  11. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computi...neinternet.html
  12. Hope Marty is okay down there with all this hooliganism. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NEW...N=ENTERTAINMENT
  13. No problems here and it is adviseable to get them. Besides a major security patchfor IE and a kernel patch for windows XP, there is the new malicious software tool which removes the sony rootkit if it is there. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=890830 Lists what the tool removes this month. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=53511 and http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=55918
  14. I agree, if you have onboard video and it still works, clear cmos and connect the monitor to the onboard. See if that solves it. Then if it does configure your bios and set things up to use the other video card. If you do not have onboard video, try reseating the card. It may have come just loose enough to cause no signal, but not to trip the no video card error.
  15. What printer do you have? You can buy a USB or Parrallel port print server which will connect most printers to the router instead of the computer so you do not have to have both computers on to print from one. If you have not bought one yet, see my review of the HP photosmart 2610 I recently bought. http://www.besttechie.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5779 One of these new network ready machines is definitely the way to go. (although I do like the canon BJC2100 I bought for my wife some years back since it only costs $1.00 for two black ink cartridges or one color - polaroid ink tanks at that
  16. A stable and safe removal tool was included as part of last weeks windows update in the malicious software removal tool. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=890830 Scroll to the list of nasties it removes , it is the last listed. http://www.microsoft.com/security/encyclop...NT%2fF4IRootkit So what should the average computer user do? Sign up to be a beta tester or run windows update ? I think that in this case, windows update wins the race.
  17. When you install XP , you can choose the default install with all commonly used features; or you can choose custom and only install the items you know you will need. Note that this requires a fairly advanced knowledge of your system and needs. Mess up and you may find you cannot go online, or you can't play the game you love without first going and adding a component. Likewise, in any existing install you can just go to the control panel => add/ remove programs applet=> windows components and remove components you do not use (say windows media player ). Also you can follow blackvipers t
  18. I tried to steer well clear of my opinions of politics and religion when I was at TechTV and G4TV forums; but now do not feel any such compunction. For many years (decades) now I have noticed the signs of creeping Facisim and the slow and steady erosion of our rights of privacy and due process and the seperation of church and state ; all in the name of making us safe from something. All too often an event which makes the news and grabs the nations attention is used to add ever more onerous legislation, often totally unrelated to the problem ; as opposed to just applying existing laws or fixin
  19. Pretty much look like the standard "protected" and "in use" files which many applications cannot scan. You could try a scan in safe mode; but I would say that if the rest is clean not to worry.
  20. No need to unclip fan and heatsink to clean them; just get a can of compressed air and blow off all the dust. In fact, since they probably used an adhesive thermal tape between fan and heatsink, attempts to remove it could damage the processor or socket if you are not careful.
  21. The reason the holes in the power supply did not line up is that the case you had and hence the power supply was standard Micro ATX Example of micro ATX power supply] are not available over 250Watt. What he bought was standard ATX , or full size power supply . Example of ATX full size power supply As for reinstalling windows; if you change motherboards, you need to uninstall the motherboard drivers from the old one and install the drivers for the new one. In older versions of windows, all you do is boot to safe mode, go to device manager and remove all the devices, boot up and when windows fi
  22. Do you by any chance have the no script extension installed? That or the popup blocker can block java redirects from working. With the noscript, it blocks it unless you add permission for the site to run scripts;; with the popup it may or may not block it any given visit.
  23. On most of the Compaqs I have had to deal with, there are three screws on the back of the case (one on upper edge and one on each side edge) which must be removed. Then there is a kind of metal hand grasp you can see . You grasp this and pull back while you or a friend hold the case. The whole innards of the computer slide out to the back. When putting it back in , the biggest problem is properly aligning the floppy drive, since there is a button on the case which must precisely line up with the one on the drive. As Dave said, on the compaqs you can generally just buy an aftermarket power supp
  24. Are you trying to burn MP3 as a music cd? Are you trying to burn both MP3 and CDAudio to one disk? Normally, you burn MP3 as a data cd, and you do not mix MP3 and CDAudio on one disk.
  25. Like Parrotgeek said net send. However note that most people have turned off this feature (messenger service) since it has been hijacked by spammers. If you enable it, you will start getting mysterious popup ads which resemble a grey Internet Explorer window (most offering to turn off annoying popup windows which resemble grey internet explorer windows).You do not have to have IE open , just a connection to the internet to get this really useful spam . I would instead suggest you get a LAN messenger client and install it on your machines. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/interchat.html http://www