Looks like you were proven right.

Ars Technica at least agrees:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/week-in-review-was-conficker-a-bust-edition.ars

can they be read on any other computer?
It might be the drive is acting up.

Sure, go ahead and tell the guy to dunk his laptop in warm water.

I'm not gonna say it. someone else can, but I'm not gonna say it.

why gerbil, I do believe you are correct!
but I'm in a giving mood today.

camthalion, bootskin is the bees knees when it comes to modifying your bootscreen.

I know a couple of things about the...

Change the boot order from your bios settings. you can access this when the system load screen comes up. it is the first thing you see when you turn the computer on. You want to make sure it tries...

Could I get some more information?

What operating system are you using?

If it is windows, there could be a couple of problems:

you have an IIS service running that is having trouble closing,...

I actually don't know if it matters which virus scanner, firewall, etc. that you have anymore. I know 3 very important things:

1. Backup. once a week, once a month, the 'minute' you finish that...

My first impression is that your laptop card could be going. If you haven't made any recent system changes, this could be the most likely variable.

Just to double check, the IP for your card in...

What are the specs of the laptop? how much RAM, what processor, etc?

i'm thinking you mean programming language instead of 'computer program,' and what would you be wanting to do that requires a 3rd party program to hide?

Do you mean that the computer can only log on as part of a domain? like you are being blocked at the login screen, and cant login using it as a workstation?

Or, do you mean how to reset the way...

the important statment there is: 'Created using that liscence'

What they were referring to there was doing a 'slipstream' build. This is where you take the system files from the computer you are...

tough luck on the hard lesson limetwist. The first thing I tell 'anybody' who has an operable computer when the post a problem, is to backup all their stuff.

Because even if you do everything...

CoolGamer: the vista experience score is yes, basically, a performance rating.

and it lies worse than a kid with red paint on his hands.

Usually when something like this happens, it is because it is corrupted. Possibly because the computer did not shut down properly, possibly because the hard drive is damaged.

I'm guessing the...

Ok, that means something got left behind from the initial installation.

first step, since you still have full control over everything, backup. anything that you can not afford to lose, make sure...

I browsed through the hijackthis log, but nothing glares out at me that could be a problem.

doublecheck that all the anti-virus software you use is properly updating first. also check that your...

try the disk from your desktop. if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and you'll need to order from compaq.

If it does, you might have problems with registration. the key from your laptop might...

my guess is mup.sys is currupted, but since you can't use your xp install cd, that is a problem, but I 'really' doubt its hardware on your computer, it's most likely the cd's fault.

try cleaning...

hear hear jwenting.

I might be showing utter ignorance and denial for this possible change, but put it this way:

you can make a robot that can fix failing hardware, but what happens when the...

what specs?

Windows live onecare... do I really want the company that I need to buy security software to even relatively safely run my operating system to PROVIDE said security software?

Just to be sure:
check your windows firewall, see if it is disabled, and see if you can re-enable it. a virus could set some group policies that would disable the firewall, and take steps to keep...

you might not have permissions. Are you doing it on an account with administrator priviledges?

It might be bad video drivers/card.

remote desktop doesn't use the physical card on the computer to display.

I'm assuming you've got a card to be able to play TF2, so try contacting the...

Whichever it is, there are a couple of things that could have gone wrong. If it cannot find the 'registry' it is pretty problematic. If it is a specific *.dll, the easiest solution is to try a...

give us a chance at least...

There's no info you can give on what kind of an error occured?

Had you or your son installed any programs on the machine just prior to trying to restart?

Try to boot into safemode. Hit F8 just before the windows load screen shows up. that will give you boot...

It's because your MBR isn't clean. go ahead and load your xp disk in recovery mode, and use the 'fixmbr' command at the prompt. this will reformat the master boot record, and with a clean install...

There is a free program out there by Stardock called Bootskin (http://www.stardock.com/products/bootskin/).

It will work on just about any system, and it has a pretty easy to use GUI.

I agree with your last statment there. I've been the victim of cybercrime in the past, and I don't think there are many people out there who haven't. It isn't the internet that is the problem...

yes! the thing with BartPE, is that it is a pre-installed total enviornment. you burn it to a disk, and you hit f8, f2, (or whatever the first screen tells you to to access boot options, boot...

it might be that your girlfriends pc could have a nic with some severed pins. the laptops probably don't, and the cable obviously doesn't, but if its affected that much by signal drop, then it might...

I'm thinking you re-partitioned part of your drive to get the second operating system on there. first, start a reinstall. then, when you get to the partition options page, remove all the extra...

Virtual is right on that. the OEM copy is tied to the computer you bought it. But lets go out of the box for a second and say you didn't care.

if that is the case, you'll need to do an over the...

I fully agree with this part. even as late as XP, using a static page file did give me better performance, especially when multitasking. Vista does its virtual memory very well, and with the added...

Do you have both a norton subscription and zone alarm? having two security suites running at the same time can lead to problems, and will slow your computer's performance down.

Here's the wikipedia article on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking

I don't personally overclock, because I need solid reliability, not better performance.

Well, the score is based entirely around hardware. You 'can' overclock, but I do not recommend it. If you do choose overclocking, get some very good cooling.