Posts by Catweazle

That 'old box', I'm afraid, is one of those 'nasties' ya reckon ain't on that 'pooter, so ya just might have to go down that road agin or simply just give up!

Either that, or it's a piece of software, loadingat startup, that's trying to 'phone home' and look for an update ;)

Thank you, yes.

Visit Dell's website and download the most recent Windows XP audio driver for the particular model of Dell computer. Visit www.nvidia.com and download the most recent Windows XP driver for the GeForce display card. Install both and see if the problem persists.

Simply provide the full model number for your Dell. Also, check display properties (right click a blank area of the desktop, choose properties, then
settings. It will say 'xxxxxxx (monitor) on xxxxxxxx (display card)' )

I think we can be quite confident that your Dell is fitted with a Santa Cruz soundcard.

Has this just occurred, or has this particular PC always done this?

If it's a recent occurrence, what have you recently changed on the PC -software? hardware?, settings? .........

hahahahahahaaaa!!

I'm still curious about where that 'Marsupial moderator' tag was dreamt up from. Until I find out, I'm really unsure whether he's a Rabbit-eared Bandicoot, a Hairy-nosed Wombat or a Fat-tailed Dunnart!

:D

[img]http://teatreehollow.com/gallery/Oz_Animals/Bilby_or_Rabbit-eared_Bandicoot.jpg[/img]

There are no 'temporary internet files' in the registry!

Tha advice given by DMR is the most thorough method of removing temporary internet files, and in Internet Options you should also use the 'Clear History' button on the 'General' tab. If you also change 'Days to keep pages in History' to 0 you will have less problem in future.

There are quite a few situations which can generate that STOP: error message. For some 'known issues', work through this list of Knowledge base Articles

I would agree that the situation would have resulted from a change to your system which was made prior to the problem arising. You should think back and try to remember any changes you made to software, hardware or settings just before this first happened.

What brand and model number is that PC please kriskakerra? I've seen some of the proprietary systems (big name brands like HP, etc) which create 'hidden' user accounts as part of their Warranty & support package, but having an extra account entitled 'a' sounds a bit bizarre.

I'm confused about what you say about not deleting and instead "removing" ... I'm only given the option to delete the account.

In XP that is correct; the option that appears is named "Delete".

Which is why, in the original comment, I said " And I hate it even MORE when people like Microsoft use the term inappropriately and confuse people!"

MS seem to think it fine to use the term 'Delete' rather than 'Remove' for the procedure, further adding to confusion inexperienced users have about the term. It is an annoyance of mine that they do so. We get far too many problems which result from inexperienced Windows users using 'Delete' when they wish to remove some unwanted feature from their system, rather than the correct removal process. Microsoft adding to the confusion in this way is, I consider, irresponsible.

And as stated, to be able to remove an account, you must be logged out of it, and the account you are using to perform the procedure must have 'Administrator' privileges.

I hate that word 'Delete'. What I said earlier was 'Remove'.

The only things you should ever 'delete' are your own, unwanted data files. Everything else should be 'removed' in the proper way!

And I hate it even MORE when people like Microsoft use the term inappropriately and confuse people!

/end rant!

Make sure you are logged out of the old account before you try to remove it. You can't remove an account that is currently logged in.

I mean your documents, images, music files etc, etc. Program files are NOT 'data' files really, in any meaningful way. You could consider them to fall into a similar category to 'system files', as they are part of the way your system operates.

You should think of your 'data' as the information you have stored on your system.

Are all your programs available when you use the new account? If not, they can be made available with changes to system settings ;)

Copy some of your data files to 'My Documents' in the new account. If you can access and use them, good. Copy all your data files across to the new account and remove the old, useless one.

Please let us know how it goes, because if you can't access them it will mean you have 'File Protection' enabled for your original account, and we will need to give you assistance with accessing them again. It simply sounds like you have a 'Permissions' problem, as DMR suggested earlier.

Download the following programs, which you will find linked in the 'Helping Yourself' sticky:

AdAware
Spybot Search & Destroy
CWShredder
Stinger

Reboot your system.

Immediately after the POST screens and before you get to the Windows Logo Screen during the Boot process, press the <F8> key. You should get a menu with several boot options. Choose 'Safe Mode'. When you get to the logon screen choose 'Administrator.

Install and run each of those programs in turn, and allow them to remove anything they find which they report as suspicious. Reboot into 'Safe mode' again after running each of them.

Reboot again and see if your system's functions have returned. Report back to us and let us know of any remaining problems please. If you've never used malware detection and removal tools, you will definitely have malware on your system, and I suspect that a virus/trojan may have slipped through your protection as well ;)

Have you tried the Adware/Malware renoval tools as well? Follow the advice in the 'Helping Yourself" topic from the 'Security' section of the forum, and remove any instances the recommended tools find.

You should have controls on the monitor itself which would allow you to move the screen image back to where it should be. Either in a push-button menu system, or behind a drop-down cover (if it's an older monitor)

Quite possibly someone has fiddled with it and moved the image sideways. Just adjust it back to where it should be.

I'm unsure about MusicMatch, as I've never used it and can't find any reference to disabling it at startup in their FAQ.

But Nero is a simpler matter. Is it the packet-writing component of the program used for CD-RW sessions that's loading? If so, and if you don't use CD-RW disks anyway, then simply uninstall the component. I never install that part of Nero on any system anyway, as I find it rather useless, and it's the part that loads when you boot up. (In-CD? I think that's what it's called?)

For other stuff you don't want, Go to Start -> Run and type msconfig

On the 'Startup' tab, do a bit of investigating to trackj down the entries in there and work out what they are (expand the columns and work them out from the directory they're located in is one method to work it out. Google is another)

Deselect any entries that you don't want to load, and then click 'Apply'. Simple, eh?

Perhaps you 'end-tasked' somthing you shouldn't have?

I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would do things the way you've described. It sounds clumsy, potentially problemmatic, and rather silly. If you've unwanted or unecessary programs loading at startup, then use a combination of uninstalling programs, setting the preferences or options for others to stop them loading, removing unecessary items from the Startup Folder, and altering the settings for startup in msconfig to achieve the result you want.

heh heh.......

cozzy, maybe you should do that Format and install now. I think your machine might have gone mad!

The site's working just fine for me :lol:

cozzy, if you want a guide to format and reinstall, then the link in my sig leads to a couple of articles I wrote recently for people such as yourself, covering the tasks of preparing for and performing the format and install in a comprehensive manner.

Installing Google Toolbar is the quickest and easiest way to block pop-ups for IE.

But the ones you're getting sounds like they're coming from something installed on your system. Make sure AdAware and Spybot are the latest versions and updated, and run them from 'Safe Mode'

Please follow the solution offered in this topic:

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread7507.html

What web browser do you use. It sounds like your security settings have been set too high to allow the movies to be viewed.

Perhaps the CMOS battery is dead or dying? sounds likely to me. I'd replace it to see if that fixes things. They don't cost much ;)

OK, I'm curious. How DO you solve the problem?

Do you press F1 and everthing works OK? Do you press F2 and have to make changes in BIOS Setup to continue? Do you get stuck at this point and can't proceed?

If you're getting stuck, check that you've configured the drives correctly. Primary drive - Jumper set to 'Master', drive attached to end connector of primary IDE cable. Secondary drive - jumper set to 'Slave', drive attached to middle connector of primary IDE cable

And don't forget to change everything back over if you swap them.

Perhaps I should clarify a little what I was saying. I wasn't really suggesting that the Socket 754/Athlon64 based system is a bad choice. I was simply trying to indicate that the higher rated Athlon XP processors are still quite capable, and that budget needs to be taken into consideration for purchasing choices.

If the Socket 754 motherboard/Athlon64 combination fits within budget, then yes - that's the best performing combination currently on offer. The future upgrade path for replacement processors for the Socket format doesn't look too rosy, but by the time the system has outlived it's usefullness, then motherboard/processor combinations for the newer Socket 939 format should be an affordable alternative anyway.

If the higher initial cost of the Socket 754/Athlon64 path is a factor which impacts too heavily on the budget, then the Athlon XP or Pentium 4 processors, coupled with a good quality motherboard, still provide the 'heart' of a quite capable computer system, which should address your needs for some time to come yet. The lower initial outlay for a motherboard/processor combination for one of these platforms would free up more of a limited budget to allow for other system needs to be more adequately met. Let's face it - hard drive storage space and plenty of RAM are vitally important factors in a Video editing system. Have those needs been addressed in the purchasing plan? I'd consider a video editing system to require a Gigabyte of RAM and a couple of large capacity …

I think you'll find that a suitable motherboard costs more as well. Compare the price of an ABit NF7-S motherboard (which is a high performance, fully featured Athlon XP motherboard) with the cost of a decent nForce3 250 chipset motherboard for Athlon64 (which is the best in class for that processor choice).

oops, sorry. I forgot to respond to this earlier.

That's exactly what i meant, Alex. I wouldn't really advise anyone to feel pressured to switch to A64 and Socket 754. It'd be better to 'patch up' just yet, and wait for Socket 939 with PCI Express slots a bit further down the track.

High-end games machines are the only ones that'd have you looking at A64 and Socket 754 just at the moment.

Tools -> Internet Options -> Content

Click on the 'AutoComplete' button, and turn off the settings there!

;)

Recent XP 2500s don't usually overclock as well as some of the earlier issues of the chip. If you're counting on running one at 200MHz front side bus you might just be in for a bit of disappointment!

On the other hand, when looking at Athlon64 I think RAM compatibility is the wrong thing to be worried about - you should be concerned about the Socket format! A64s will be moving to the Socket939 format sometime in the near future, and those jumping in to the current Socket format might just be left with a rather limited upgrade path.

For the moment, I'd suggest an XP in the 3000+ or 3200+ models, or a P4 at about the 3 GHz range would be ample.

For Video editing, the most important thing to look at in your purchase is decent RAM (which you can reuse later) in copious amounts, and heaps of drive storage space, preferably SATA drives for future proofing.

For Windows 2000, then, I believe it's Solution 2 from this guide you're most concerned with.

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/other/motherboard/problems.htm

It would also be wise to uninstall any onboard devices as well, such as sound, LAN, USB and so forth, before changing the boards over.

And anyway, all you needed to do to reset CMOS was to pull the blasted battery out, and replace it a few minutes later!

BUT::

Always disconnect the power cord from the system, AND the ATX connector from the motherboard before resetting CMOS, whether you do it by shorting the jumper or by the good old backyarder's battery trick. There's less chance of problems that way.

Good luck with that mobo, by the way Dani. Power flicks are nasty little things!

Follow this guide, for best results:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/move_harddrive.htm

Marking this topic solved.

Fdisk is a good way to wipe the hard drive. Remove the existing partition, create a new one in its place, and then format. That's the procedure I personally always adopted when using Win 9x versions.

But whether its Fdisk or Format that is to be used to clean the system drive, either tool must be run either from a Windows boot diskette or from the Windows CD itself. Neither method will work if you try to run them from within Windows, or even from the 'Reboot into DOS mode' function of Windows 95 or 98

You are definitely going to need to provide us with the make/model of your laptop, I'm afraid!

That all sounds very non-standard. Most keyboards have a key which doubles up for single and double quotes.

You may have software installed which is re-assigning the output of keypresses on your system. A list of the installed programs you see in 'Add/Remove Programs' (from Control Panel) might help us to identify what it is, if that is the case.

You said at the outset that you "got it formatted"

I have to wonder if the job was done properly. If Windows was simply installed again 'over the top' then that is not a format, and any existing problems would have been retained or gotten worse.

If it was actually formatted and installed correctly, perhaps there is something in your computing activity which is causing corruption to your installation. A read of the "Helping Yourself" sticky in the Security Forum section may be in order.

Perhaps a good move would be to wipe clean and start over again. For advice and assistance with doing that, read this topic:

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread6632.html

If your problems are replicated on a fresh, clean install, then it's time to check for hardware problems in your computer itself.

You must be using Windows' native drivers to run on that TNT2. NVidia's 'reference' device drivers should add more functonality:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

This is worth a try:

Right-click 'My Computer' and select 'Properties'

Choose Hardware -> Device Manager

Expand the entries for DVD/CD drives, right-click each in turn, and choose 'Uninstall'

Reboot your system, allowing Windows to redetect and reinstall them, and see if the problem persists.

Can you access the folder and files from 'My Computer'? What error message do you get if not?

Can those CDs be read in a different PC? It might be the CDs themselves which are at fault. They may have been written with a session writing software package, and incorrectly 'closed'.

That'd depend on the display card you have. Different display cards have different controls.

If you have an NVidia display card, for example, the control would be found by right-clicking a blank area of the desktop and.....

Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> cardname -> Color Correction

and adjusting the slider.

The controls for your card would possibly be slightly different, but they'd be in the same general location.

Point one:

I don't care what the specs for a particular item of hardware says - it is ALWAYS best to manually configure drives as 'Master' or 'Slave', and to use the appropriate cable connectors - end for 'Master' and middle for 'Slave'. The drive manufacturers might think their component is 'uber smart', but it has to interact with the rest of your system!

Point two:

Somehow, Boot order in BIOS setup has been disrupted (probably by that 'uber smart' drive trying to take over things because you didn't manually configure it) Get your drives correctly configured and then make any necessary change to 'Boot devices' order in BIOS setup.

Some tips:

* Don't install every handy, helpful, wonderful thing you see advertised as 'making life easier for you!' They will usually make life harder, not easier.
* If you are trying to install something, and get one of those dialogue boxes asking "Do you wish to intall......." something else, then DON'T!
* Update both AdAware and Spybot Search & destroy, disconnect from the internet and close all browser windows, and run the tools again, removing anything they report as suspicious.
* Follow any other relevent advice in the 'Helping Yourself" topic in the Security forum section.

Then obtain a copy of the Microsoft Security CD mentioned in this article:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread4998.html
and use it to install Internet Explorer again, over the top of your current installation.

I had the sasser virus... is your computer giving a countdown warning before it shutsdown? if so, it may be the sasser...

you guys 'disagree' alot in here... we should all hold hands sing the pepsi song then roast marshmallows for smores!

Well I haven't seen much evidence of that. We do suggest and consider alternative causes and resolutions for problems, and that's to be expected. There are very few PC-related problems which only ever have a single possible cause!

In this instance, the fact that the problem persisted after a format suggests that a driver issue is a more likely cause than a viral issue. Blaster or Sasser worms can immediately reinfect systems which are permanently online via Broadband, but I've not heard of that happening to a system connected via an internal dial-up modem.

If you want a Windows 98/Windows XP dual boot, then install Windows 98 first.

Loading earlier versions of Windows AFTER a Windows XP install is shaky at best, and I'm not surprised that it failed after a migration.

Windows 98 should be on your C: partition, and the boot files for Windows XP will be written there as well. Windows XP will automatically configure the dual boot, and set itself to be the default OS

I've split this off as a new topic and moved it to the Security section as appropriate. Please do not 'piggyback' such questions onto existing topics in other forum sections.

heh heh........ :)

Ta

This should be posted in the 'Security' section, cozzy. I'll move it there so you can get the best help available, but your first step should be to read the "Helping Yourself" stickied topic in that section and follow relevent advice there.

Welcome to TechTalk, by the way! :D

With an Award BIOS, it's highly likely that pressing the <Delete> key repeatedly while the machine is first turned on will get you into BIOS setup.

Make no changes other than the one to disable the 'Case alarm' or 'case alert' one mentioned, and make sure you 'Save & exit' when you've made the change.