RandyL

I don't use driver update utilities. What I do IF I need a driver update is get it from the manufacturer. For instance if you have a HP computer you can see if newer drivers are available at the HP site. Or if say you need newer drivers for a Nvidia graphics card you can go to the Nvidia site for them. Personally I don't trust such utilities to be accurate.

There might be something in the BIOS that can be changed. Just a guess.

System Restore now before it's too late. Otherwise you will need to reinstall from recovery to get it back to normal.

Sorry to butt in Match but I'm wondering if he may have installed a suite instead of just the FREE Avast Antivirus. digerrlee did you uninstall AVG first? SAS is not an antivirus program like Avast or AVG. Running Avast and AVG would be a problem but not SAS as SAS is an anti-spyware program. To me it sounds like a firewall issue.

Well I'm well confused. I can't find your system specs but it does appear to support Vista. Just exactly how many drives do you have both internal and external? Is your main drive partitioned? What are the drive letters for all drives and partitions. That's not possible if you expect the programs to work. Are you moving shortcuts? Seriously craig backup everything now as I think you may be getting in over your head.

Although all three of these issues may seem similar it is also likely that they are not the same issue and would have different solutions. As such I would ask that if you are seeking help to start a new thread and leave this thread for Aminda. Thanks

Craig can you please keep this in one thread and not start a new one? Thanks. If I add the sums of the two drives it's still a pretty small drive. (60Gb to 70Gb) That's pretty unusual if the laptop is new enough to come preinstalled with Vista.

Welcome phil and thanks for the compliment.

Are you saying you looked in "My Computer" and the memory card does not appear in the listed drives?

Can you please provide the exact specs for this adapter. Good to see you again.

Hi again Casswilf. I know of the program but do not know how to use it. Perhaps someone else can enlighten you. However since this is set up through your place of work it's probably set that way by design as a security feature I would think. What does your boss or workplace IT say about this feature or setting? It's probably something that they should be dealing with. It's not that we don't want to help but it might be something that needs to be dealt with on their end and not yours. Besides we wouldn't want to offer advice that someone else might use in the wrong way to backdoor security. Now if your internet connection itself is getting timed out perhaps we can offer some insight into that depending on how you connect. Let us know. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Is this some startup theme or something else you downloaded and if so from where? Perhaps you can link us so we can look into it. If so then that is likely the source of your problem. These things can be fraught with issues and malware alike.

I assume you're talking about the anti phishing toolbar. Norton 360 is not a standard pre-loaded trial version on new computers as far as I know. Do you have the latest version installed? Have you run Liveupdate on it? If so it should appear with the latest version and updates of Norton 360.

After you get done with the above steps let us know how it is running. I think after that you need to post a HJT log to help determine if you are clean and to identify possible sources of the infection. Malware repairs may also be needed in this case. Please download the latest version of HijackThis from Trend Micro and save it to your desktop. Download HJTInstall.exe to your desktop. Doubleclick HJTInstall.exe to install HijackThis. By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis . Click on Install. It will create a HijackThis icon on the desktop. Once installed, it will launch Hijackthis. Click on the Do a system scan and save a logfile button. It will scan and the log should open in Notepad. Include this log in your next reply. Notes: Do not use the AnalyseThis button, its findings are dangerous if misinterpreted. Do not have Hijackthis fix anything yet. Most of what it finds will be harmless, or required for your computer to run like it should

That's what we are here for. But we also appreciate any help or advice you may have to offer. Welcome to our forum.

That is a good point. It really does sound like that all available hard drive space has been used. longdoggg has your dughter by any chance attempted to reinstall Windows?

That's great mij. Goku has a way of figuring things out. His insights can be brilliant. Thanks Tootech. Thanks Goku. I have a feeling it was a team effort on your parts. I learned a thing or two also.

Yes Tootech. I am referring to the plug-ins from their site. However I did not download and install those. I just have the basic Irfanview installed.

That would be a big fat no. Excel is a Microsoft Office program. That version is way to old to install on Windows 7. Even Office 2000 is not supported on the slightly older Vista. I know not only because of research but also because I could find no work arounds that would work when I actually tried it. Your files would not be lost. You just need a program that is compatable that can open them. Of course a newer version of Excel or Microsoft Office should do it as it would be backwards compatable although you may need to install a converter from them. Also the free Open Office should be able to make your files readily available to you. That's what I now use and it opened my old Office 2000 files just great. All you have to do is set the open with option to use Open Office. Very simple.

Well I don't see those options in mine but I do see some plug-in options that I never installed so I surmise that you are referring to such plug-in options. For now try opening a picture in Irfanview. Click Image. Click Resize/Resample... There are a lot of options for resizing there using various methods.

Glad you got rid of it bob. You have a great year too.

If it is a recovery disk is it the one that came with your computer? Is it windiows diamond 2010 or windows black 4.0 that you currently have installed?

Firefox works just fine on Windows 7. No problems at all. Firefox Bookmarks: Bookmarks>Organize Bookmarks>Import and Backup Internet Explorer Favorites: Press the Alt key if you don't see "file". File>Import and Export>Export to a file. Do the same thing to import Bookmarks and Favorites onto the new computer. I can't help you with Norton. I don't use it.

Hi jim. Have you tried reinstalling it? Are you using the latest 4.25 version?

As Jelly Bean said there is a very real chance you are infected and the above steps are likely to help. Of course with the information you supplied I might comment on a few things. You bought the PC a few months ago. Mcafee may have been preinstalled as a bundled trial version. This is common on new PC's. However after a period of 30 to 90 days (probably 30 with Mcafee) you would no longer be able to update it which in effect makes it worthless. If you are getting a message that it is not turned on then it might be Mcafee or Windows Security stating that fact. Although Windows Security does not always recogize certain security products (Windows did not recognize my Mcafee on Vista but does on my Windows 7) it might also be that Mcafee is giving you that message. If it truely can't be turned on then malware has indeed infected you. The point is that if your trial period was up and you did not subscribe to updates then it's the same thing as running unprotected. As such you need to do what Jelly Bean said and run the scans in the guide if you can. Not being able to login to certain sites is classic malware signs. MSN or Hotmail is well known. There is however one other thing to consider as well. the website doesnt have a certificate Some secure sites have certificates registered such as hotmail, banking sites and more. They register them so that security programs such as Mcafee can run a check to make sure they are legit and not phished or hacked. It is possible that Mcafee is blocking those sites because they have not updated their certificates or because Mcafee needs updating to check for them or you need to install Windows updates. As Jelly Bean said you have classic signs of an infection. At the very least you might be running unprotected with an outdated security product. In either case you need to run some scans then get fully updated protection. And also make sure you have all of the Windows updates.