Computer geeks please help.

**nitestokker** · 01-30-07, 12:04 AM

As most of you know, I am currently disabled but I still need my computer for work stuff. I have been having problems with my system stalling, freezing, dropping the internet and a lot of other crazy stuff for no apparent reason. I had Norton installed as well as some other firewalls and stuff, but something must have gotten through to mess my stuff up. This is my question: Can I just replace my hard drive or do I have to replace the entire system? God, I hope I can get away with just the hard drive. Help me please.

**carolina** · 01-30-07, 12:17 AM

You could always reformat, no need to replace it.

**BigRich** · 01-30-07, 12:21 AM

Originally Posted by carolina

You could always reformat, no need to replace it.

+1

**nitestokker** · 01-30-07, 12:32 AM

I'm a retard. Please tell me what that means.

**Ducky** · 01-30-07, 01:32 AM

Assuming you're in windows XP, you can just pop in your XP disc and reload windows. If you choose restore, you shouldn't even lose your files, if you choose reload, then you'll lose your files but save your system.

**Doc_Holliday** · 01-30-07, 01:41 AM

before you try that stuff..PM me for a pretty good anti-virus program. Norton and McAfee are the most popular, therefore more hackers design viruses to bypass those programs. I use one that was designed for corporations, and always rates higher tha those 2...no gaurentees, but worth a shot before you re-format

**OfficerResource.com** · 01-30-07, 01:44 AM

Before you go and Reformat you should

1

http://www.trendmicro.com/hc_intro/default.asp Try this link. This link is a pretty good online virus scan. If something got through it should find it.

2

If that does not work try a system restore. Try to go back about a week before you remember having problems and restore your system.

If that does not work you will want to back up your important files/photo's and then reformat. When you reformat your hard drive you will wipe it clean and starting new. You will lose all info on your hard drive!

**CountyFourteen** · 01-30-07, 05:58 AM

the trendmicro like reca said is very good, I wouldn't do a system restore (cause if you have a worm or viris in non system files they will still be there), a format and start over is best if trendmicro doesn't help you.
Some other questions: do you have enough space to run your programs? Do you defrag regulary? I could go on and on....but find out if you can if you have a worm or viris first......

**BEB** · 01-30-07, 06:21 AM

First thing I'd do is backup important files.

Then I'd do the online scan - TrendMicro is a fine option.

Have you installed any new software lately? Especially something around the time it started acting up. Did it just start acting up all at once or did it start small and get progressively worse?

Is it a laptop or a desktop? How old is the computer? Any strange noises lately, including it getting quieter? What is it's placement (desktop, floor, cubby in desk...)?

Have you noticed any patterns when it acts up? Never does it until the computer's been on for ___ minutes or you leave it on all the time and it crashes as soon as you do _____? Is it locking up with any program you run or just when you open ______?

When you say the internet connection is dropping - what kind of connection? (DSL/Cable/Dialup) If DSL/Cable, does it stay dropped until you reboot or come and go?

My first thought is cooling, especially if the computer is a few years old. Or is sitting next to a heater duct. The internet dropping part doesn't fit that though. A virus is always a possibility, though most won't lock up a computer. Some will, but most either wipe out data or they sit and spy. See if the scan turns up anything and if it doesn't let's go through those questions and see what else seems likely.

**CountyFourteen** · 01-30-07, 06:22 AM

one of the problems you will encounter is if you are having trouble staying on line, is being able to run trendmicro or another very good free program called AVG, hopefully you have a very fast connection.
It is hard to tell someone over the phone or computer how to fix things, I am willing to try if you wish and you can pm me to make arrangements...I am not a geek, lol but worked 15 years on computers, networks, and lasers at "SRS" aka lovingly known as "the bomb plant", and worked at the pentagon and the world bank, installing equipment etc. Although I made 6X the money doing that job, I never loved a job more than law enforcement....it isn't all about the money as you know. Good luck

**Ducky** · 01-30-07, 08:35 AM

In addition to what the Misters Amazing up there have said, when was the last time you got in there and cleaned the dust out? That alone has a massive impact on your system. A $5 can of air can save you a LOT of grief.

**TXCharlie** · 03-02-07, 03:43 AM

Originally Posted by nitestokker

I had Norton installed as well as some other firewalls and stuff

Nite,

It's a bad thing to mix firewalls (plural), and a bad thing to have more than one antivirus program running - They can conflict with each other.

First thing I'd try is to see exactly WHAT you have running that you possibly need to un-install - Just leave one firewall installed, and one anti-virus installed. You can un-install the junk by goung to Control Planel... Add/Remove Programs

But first before you un-install anything, maybe you can give us a list of what's running, in the way of anti-spyware/anti-virus and firewalls.

And if you have shareware trials that have expired, junky little games that you never play with anymore, etc, then un-install those too.

ALso check your task manager and see if things like IEXPLORE.EXE are listed more times than you have Internet Explorer windows open - That can simply be because IE window(s) crashed and hung their connections. After a while, the computer uses up all its internet connections - SO if you see phantim IEXPLORE.EXE's in the Task Manager, just save yourself some effort and reboot your PC.

Ditto if you try to open an Internet Explorer window and it gives you an hourglass for a while but never does open.

Also, make sure all the Microsoft Update patches are installed if it's Windows 2000 or later, and updates are either set to automatically install (for a DSL or Cable Modem line) or if you're using dialup, you run it and install it yourself. Windows has thousands of bugs, many of which Microsoft has already fixed, but I can't tell you how many people never even get those updates delivered to them, because they don't take advantage of the automatic update features..

All that being said, if you decide to get a new harddrive, temporary remove the old one, then install Windows on the new drive - Then you can stick the old drive back in the PC on the other IDE channel, and you can read it as drive D: instead of C: - That way if you had any files on it, they're still saved on the old drive. You can just leave them there (if you think the old drive still works ok) or you can copy whatever files you need off of it into your new drive.

Keep in mind however that everything you want to run after that (Office, Antivirus, etc etc) will have to be installed fresh on the new drive - you CANNOT just run them off the old drive, and you cannot copy the program fiels from the old drive to the new drive and expect them to work - the only things that will work are your documents, spreadsheets, etc.

If you have to revert back to the programs on the old drive, there's two ways to do that also: You can either set it up to dual-boot (I won't even attempt to go into that here), or you can just take the new drive back out and it should then revert back to the old drive when you turn the power back on.

I hope I didn't confuse you more than I helped - It's better to find a local geek that can sit there and diagnose problems as they pop up

**deputy29** · 03-02-07, 12:44 PM

I know nothing about computers, but I can tell you if things aren't working right don't uninstall internet explorer. Been there, done that and it cost me plenty. Can you tell I know nothing about computers.

**dadyswat** · 03-02-07, 01:05 PM

If you put in a new harddrive and put the old one on the other channel it will need to be a slave. You may also buy and external housing for the old harddrive, if so leave it set to master. You should be able to just plug it in to your USB port a bingo! you still have your old files plus you have a portable harddrive to take with you.

**dadyswat** · 03-02-07, 01:06 PM

If you put in a new harddrive and put the old one on the other channel it will need to be a slave. You may also buy and external housing for the old harddrive, if so leave it set to master. You should be able to just plug it in to your USB port a bingo! you still have your old files plus you have a portable harddrive to take with you.

**TXCharlie** · 03-02-07, 04:51 PM

That's true, one drive's jumpers need to be set to "Slave" and the other to "Master" if both drives are on the same cable...

And your other cable (IDE channel) probably already has your CD drive on it, unless your system has SCSI, SATA, Firewire/IEEE 1394, etc available (usually SCSI, SATA, and Firewire ports are only found on the newer or higher-end PC's, but SATA especially is getting cheap and popular. We're starting to use cheap $200 SATA drives in particular for our servers' RAID-5 arrays where we used to use $2,000 SCSI drives)