Solved! Not sure how it may have happened, but the MBR was apparently hosed. After working with this thing for a while, I finally realized that I've seen a similar problem before, on a system that a...

SATA drivers. I've heard lots of people talk about them, but never needed them. I've installed XP, 95, DOS 6.22, and various flavors of Linux onto SATA drives, using the same procedures I use for...

I have a friend's Gateway MA7 laptop, because it had a horrible virus problem. The only anti-virus on it was McAfee (which is worse than nothing, in my opinion), and it had such an infection that new...

Yep, its running good now, thanks to your help. Marked as solved, and credit given to you. Thanks for all your help!

It's running much better now, thanks to your help with this! Latest HJT log:


Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 11:23:31 AM, on 8/23/2009
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT...

Sorry it took me so long to get back, things have been a little hectic here lately. I've had HJT fix everything you said. What made you say that those items were a problem? Are they just known...

OK, here's a new HJT log (fingers crossed!):

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 3:40:36 PM, on 8/16/2009
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer...

OK, I rescanned with Mbam, and it shows clean now. I've also tried to access various AV websites, and Microsoft, and it works now. So, what do you think, Rik, can I call it good now?

OK, mbam finished scanning, and I finally have a chance to post the log. I really need to learn how to "read" and work with the registry. I don't know how to tell what's bad and what's normal, or...

Which of the processes that HJT shows is "suspect"? Again, I'm not trying to second-guess you or anything, I'm trying to learn. Everything there looks pretty well "normal" to me.

I've finally had...

Which log are you referring to? I know the AVG log does, but it took care of all of them. Do you mean that if it found that many, it probably missed some, or do you see some in the Hijackthis log as...

I've tried to install Malwarebytes, please see in my original post, where I said, :





BTW (and please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to question your knowledge, just learn...

As the title says, I can't access any anti-virus website, or Microsoft update, as well as getting random popups. I suspected the Conficker worm, so have ran two different removal tools (one from...

No, they don't. All flavors of Windows can, will, and do, at random and for no obvious reason, query the COM ports. Why, I have no idea. Maybe it thinks someone stole them while it wasn't...

This was a fairly new install anyway, so I just went ahead and dumped everything and started over (and loaded DOS first, like I should've done to begin with). Thanks for the ideas!

Problem found! I was trying to over-complicate things (as usual). I simply moved the wireless router behind the switch and let it act as DHCP for all computers, instead of just for the laptops. My...

My current setup:

Two desktops and one laptop running WinXP, and one laptop running WinVista. There is a router where I connect to my ISP (local wireless system), that runs to an eight-port...

If I'm understanding correctly from the website linked to above, VirtualBox is a program that actually runs under Windows, or Linux, to allow another OS to be ran from within the "host" OS. If thats...

This may not be the correct place for this question, but I can't find anywhere it really seems to fit, and this seems like the best place overall.

I have a system with WindowsXP and Slackware...

I'll have to check that later. I'm running Linux and WinXP dual-booted on the system in question, and I had to reload XP. That, of course, wiped out lilo, and I haven't had a chance to try to reload...

I've installed Slackware 12.0 to my Acer Aspire 5520, and the sound doesn't work. It recognizes the soundcard, and it appears that the drivers are installed, but I don't get any sound. Where should I...

Solved! I edited the inittab file as directed, and X now starts automatically. Thanks for the help, everyone!

Ah, that's much better. I haven't tried yet to set the runlevel to make it start X automatically, but I did try typing "startx", and it did indeed start X. Thanks for the helping hand. I'll get the...

I've just installed Slackware version 12.0 on an Acer Aspire 5520. When I boot to Linux, I just get a command line. Why am I not getting a GUI? I selected for X and KDE to be installed during setup,...

UPDATE:

Problem solved! It was the video card. Most likely something to do with the screwy "MGP" slot on this strange mobo. Oh, well. I'm running a 64 MB ATI Radeon 7000 PCI card for the moment....

Moz, thats certainly an idea I didn't think about. Now that you mention it, that could very well be the problem. Instead of an AGP port, the mobo has an "MGP" (Mach Speed Graphics Port), which is...

I'm trying to install Windows XP Pro to a system with a Mach Speed MK8-939A mobo, AMD Athlon64 3200+ CPU @ 2.0 GHz, and 512 MB of RAM. I've tried this on three different HDDs now, with the same...

I don't, but all indications point in that direction.

You can install anything you want on a drive with no MBR, and reliably use the information without any problems, the drive just won't boot. I've done this several times before. I used to have a...

Umm, no. Why would "drive utilities" require almost 1 GB of space? Also, how could you reformat the partition containing the operating system, boot the system with a CD that has less than 150 MB of...

I've searched for and found other instances of my problem on here, but the answers given weren't helpful to me, so here goes:

I have an install of Windows XP Pro that failed to boot, with an...

Yeah, I'm just not that comfortable with Linux yet. I can usually handle Windows, and DOS is a piece of cake, but I'm more likely to screw up Linux. Remember the display resolution problem you helped...

Thanks, James, I'll give it a try in a few days. My Windows machine is down right now, and I'm using my Linux server to handle web surfing and email. I'd hate to hose it and have nothing! Hopefully,...

How do I get the functionality out of the rest of the buttons on my 5-button scroll mouse? I'm using a Microsoft trackball. The info on the label on the bottom is:

"Trackball Optical 1.0 PS2/USB...

I'm working on an E Machines (not mine, I wouldn't own one), that I think has a hard drive issue. The drive is readable, but the MBR and boot sector are either bad or corrupt. What I want to know is,...

OK, I can now find it and run it from a console. Now I just need to figure out how to add it to the applications menu. Don't tell me how yet, let me beat my head against the wall a few times trying...

Sturm, I'm guessing I need to type that in a console? Does it matter what directory I'm in when I do it?

I've installed a package, "electric", which is an electrical/electronics CAD program, with Synaptic Package Manager. Now that its installed, where the heck is it? I can view the actual program files...

Ah, but he didn't suggest how to do it;) ! However, I did acknowledge and thank everyone who helped. Modesty's a good quality, but take credit where its due, James!

SUCCESS!!!

I am now posting with Debian, and my screen resolution is 1024 X 768! Thanks to all for advice and suggestions, but credit for the "kill" has to go to jbennet, as I used his final...