RandyL

What's changed Dave? From the time you did a System Restore to now has anything changed. New programs or settings perhaps. Or maybe new hardware added like that printer again? What antivirus do you have? Do you download music? Have you run any malware scans? Have you tried doing a chkdsk? Do you have your Dell recovery disks? How about Windows updates? Do you have the new ones? Has this problem resurfaced after a Windows update? I could go on and on but the point is that the more information you can give us the better chance the issue can be isolated. Hope to hear from you soon but I may or may not have time in the next few days execpt for Admin duties but there are many fine members here who can assist you.

In the context of this thread naming them or linking to them would not be considered spam.

H nick. Java 6 Update 17 is the one you need. Of course even if you uninstalled all of them you could always redownload from java.com: Java + You

If you want to link to a thread you can just copy the address and paste it in the text body. The forum will turn it into a link. If you want to create a hyperlink type what you want the link to say. For instance you could say "this thread". Next hilite "this thread". Next click the little globe icon in the message body. Choose Type-http and where it says Url paste the address of the thread you want to link to. If you want to link to a post in a thread use the permalink in the uppper right corner of the post.

UK Air Force. Very noble my friend. A laptop drive to desktop drive cable converter is very cheap. A caddy slightly more. However please wait for chiaz on this matter as he will likely know more on how serious this is. As for what else needs to be backed up, how to do it or if it even needs to be done is another story. Personally I'm a a fanatic about everything backup but first things first.

Thanks Tootech for taking an interest in this. Althoug we don't usually deal with password issues this one I'm going to allow based on information known only to me and the staff. Of course Tootech you know better than anyone the line to draw. I trust you completely on all matters.

Gilly there are not many people on at the moment but be patient. I'm sure others will post as soon as they can. We have many hardware expert members.

Hi borojamie. It does indeed seem that you have some very serious issues. You probably are infected and it seems serious. I suggest you wait for our resident malware removal expert to reply. His name is chiaz and he is formally trained and quite excellent. If backing up is a high priorty there are ways to do it even if you can't get into Windows but even the easiest way involves removing the hard drive and connecting it to a caddy or using a laptop to desktop adapter cable. I see you are using XP Professional so I hope you have not encrypted the files you need. Even if you have not you still may need to take ownership if you slave the drive and want to backup the files. First things first though. What is your main priority? Also I would wait for chiaz to weigh in on the seriousness of this issue.

I'm not the expert here but CPU-Z says that your original memory is PC2-4200. Yet crucial says that your motherboard does not support PC2-4200. If I'm not mistaken any new memory should downsize to a lower speed but it might make a difference if your motherboard actually supports that RAM which according to crucial PC2-4200 is not supported on your board. I don't know why your original memory worked by itself but not with the new supported memory but does it work with just the new stick installed and not the old 512? Crucial is noted for being exact on what works and what does not so I would only use exactly what they say is supported and nothing else. According to them the new memory is supported and works. The old is not supported. So to sum it up: Both sticks work by themselves. Both slots work. The two do not work together. Unsupported old memory does not work with new supported memory. I'm thinking that if you follow crucials advice and get two gauranteed supported sticks then they should work just fine together. Now crucial support said there might be a compatability issue. I would go with that. They also said a BIOS update might resolve it. They didn't actually know. And be forwarned if a BIOS update goes wrong your computer is trashed. Not worth taking that chance for only a 512mb stick if you ask me. Like I said at the beginning I'm not an expert on memory so you may want to see if some of our other members or techs have some thoughts. Many know quite a bit about memory issues and such.

I believe the crucial scan you linked to will only be available for a limited time so I copied some info from it and posted it below. Note that the green text is mine. We were not able to determine the manufacturer and/or model of your PC, but we were able to complete our scan with information from your motherboard. MS-7173 (RC410M-L) Motherboard (MS or MSI is Micro Star) Currently installed memory Each memory slot can hold DDR2 PC2-8500,DDR2 PC2-5300,DDR2 PC2-6400 with a maximum of 1GB per slot Maximum Memory Capacity: 2048MB Currently Installed Memory: 1GBAvailable Memory Slots: 1 Total Memory Slots: 2 Dual Channel Support: No CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel CPU Family: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.06GHz Model 4, Stepping 9 CPU Speed: 3052 MHz Q: What memory goes into my computer, and can I mix speeds? A: DDR2 memory with support for DDR2 PC2-8500,DDR2 PC2-5300,DDR2 PC2-6400 speeds. Q: Do I have to install matching pairs? A: No. No, you can install modules one at a time, and you can mix different densities of modules in your computer. But if your computer supports dual-channel memory configurations, you should install in identical pairs (preferably in kits) for optimal performance Q: Does my computer support dual-channel memory? A: No. Your system does not support dual channel. Q: Does my computer support ECC memory? A: No. Your system does not support ECC. Because ECC and non-ECC modules should not be mixed within a system, install the same type of modules that are already in your system.

Hi trishlons. What add-ons are you using? What antivirus program do you use? This thread might get moved to the malware removal section in the future.

Hi matt. Unfortunately rule 5 of The Rules prevents us from offering support on password issues. I suggest that you go to Network vulnerability scanner, security scanner and port scanner. They have a number of support options available from FAQs to chat and inbetween.

I wasn't aware of that chiaz. Thanks for letting me know. I learn something new every day.

gbizzer it's important that you follow the last steps by chiaz so please do. For instance Reset System Restore might be needed to prevent an infection from returning from within the Restore files. If you need any help with how to do that just let us know.

Hi shrimply. Try right clicking one of those power point files and select properties. Click Advanced. Under file attributes tic both boxes. "File is ready for archiving" "Allow this file to have contents indexed in addition to file" I'm wondering if indexing on some level may provide what you want. Indexing is new starting with Vista I believe. Maybe it only speeds searches or maybe it can provide more indepth searches. It seems to me I remember on my Vista that PDF files contents were always showing up in my searches which actually annoyed me. Too many results. I disabled indexing altogether. Anyway it might be something worth considering although I'm not sure it will help. Another thing to consider in Vista is to use advanced search options to search in non-indexed locations. (search may be slow) I know these aren't absolute answers for you but it might help you or others looking at this come up with an idea or two for you.

If SBC is not in add/remove programs it's probably been uninstalled but look closely for anything Yahoo. How many toolbars do you have now? To delete temporary internet files open IE. On the IE toolbar click Tools. Click Internet options. On the General tab you will see it. Superantispyware free edition does not need to run at startup. Click Preferences and choose your startup options. Also you can change your preferences for updates there too.

Hi Turnips. Can you please start a new thread and detail exactly what your problem is and what you have tried so far? To start a new thread simply click on the 'new thread' button http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/images/bluedemon/buttons/newthread.gif

Well it sounds like you followed the instructions correctly. I assume you also uninstalled the drivers first before reinstalling them like the instructions said. So if it isn't a software installation issue it might be one of two things. 1. The usb port is faulty or the usb controllers need reinstalled. Will other devices work on the usb port? 2. The webcam is faulty. Can you try the webcam on a different computer?

Hi Dawn. If your model has it you can do it. How to launch the Windows Recovery Environment

Hi ron. We really need a whole lot more information. make/model/number Exact error messages Exact details on the steps. What recovery disk? No offense but you need to give us much more to go on. There are thousands of computers with tens of thousands of hardware components and millions of software out there. What computer do you have. Desktop or laptop or netbook? What software is on it? What do you use it for? Do you have antivirus protection? I could ask a thousand more questions but the point is that is there anything more you can provide? If not this could take a very long time. We want to help so please tell us anything you can.

With the disk in the computer can you go to My Computer and view the contents of the disk? If so there should be an exe file you can run. Is this the error? Amcap: What to do if I get the Error message: Sorry, you have no video capture hardware?

Hi chris. Just a guess here but have you tried burning them to a DVD-R or DVD-RW? Maybe the compaq can't read DVD+RW. Have you looked at the contents of the disk when it's in the compaq to see if they can be seen?

Thanks for the info chiaz.

mmm. I also see some old winsock entries. Did you ever have another AV like AVG or Norton? If my previous post doesn't help perhaps an uninstaller for old AV's or a Winsock fix might help. Just a thought. Try my previous post first or wait for others.

Hi old tymer. I'm going to bet you use IE and have way too much going on with it and running at startup. I see references to a a lot of toolbars and these can cause issues. Some more than others especially if you have a lot of them. These are some that I see on your computer. Alot. Google. MSN. Windows Live. Yahoo. Stopzilla. Personally I would uninstall all of these browser helper objects and see how it runs. Of course you could Reset IE which would disable the toolbars. Notice I said reset not restore. Another reason I suggest to actually uninstall is because I really don't like Stopzilla. In your case it's not just a toolbar but a protection program too. Uninstalling all these BHO's will get rid of any of the other crap they may have installed. Which leads me to my next point. Too much protection of the wrong type can be just as bad as too little. For instance I see references to these on your computer. Avast. Antivirus program or suite. Sbc Yahoo Online Protection (yop.exe) A full anti malware suite. Stopzilla (Siteguard) I have a feeling that these are actually conflicting with each other. For instance you should never run more than one real time protection antivirus program at the same time. I'm not up to speed on the SBC protection but I am a big fan of Avast. I suggest at the very least to keep only one and definitely get rid of Stopzilla. Others may have more ideas on your issue so don't go away.