RandyL

Hi again. I meant no disrepect. I was only hoping to ascertain the facts as I often do with those type of utilities. If you have done a complete reinstall to original factory conditions and the problem still persists then it is obviously not related to the tune up program. I'll leave it to the experts and wish you the best of luck.

Hi Needafix; I appreciate your honesty and I'm glad you understand the issues involved. You sound like a great person and I really wish we could help you. I mean that. Unfortunately I can only refer you to The Rules. If for any reason you feel slighted please feel free to contact me via a Private Message. I'm ok with that. However we would appreciate you staying as a member. Perhaps we can all help each other in other matters. In any case you are more than welcome here. Good to meet you.

The basics. Toolbars, for instance file, edit, view,tools, help and the other functions of a basic browser toolbar. Quick Launch, Taskbar, System Tray or Notification Area in Vista. The power of right click and the context menus. Shutdown, sleep, hybernate, logoff and switch users. Create new folders, save files to folders and rename files and folders. And for those with kids how to create a user account instead of an Admin account and password protect the main admin account.

These statements seem to contradict each other. FinitySoft was flagged by Mcafee and caused a temporary hang on that page on my system. If these programs have not done too much damage already I agree with Tootech that you may need a full system cleanup. The first thing I would do is uninstall them and then do a complete set of malware scans. In my opinion AVG is not enough to protect you.

As Jelly Bean has said it does sound like a Firewall blocking it. But since you uninstalled Mcafee that only leaves the Windows firewall as AVG free does not have a firewall. Uninstalling Mcafee any suite should remove the firewall as well as the AV. As covert said you really should look at a different AV and he linked you to what we suggest. As far as coincidence is concerned you may be right about that. I would try disableing or better yet uninstalling AVG free temporarily and see if that solves the problem. Reboot after an uninstall.

Ok fair enough. The guys you paid can't help you. I suggest not going there again. 1. Go to the Crucial site I linked to. Either run their scanner or enter your computer or motherboard specs and see what memory your model uses and what maximum size it supports. 2. Check the results against what you actually have installed now. 3. Put your old memory back in. Does that work? 4. Switch your memory to different slots or remove one at a time to see if you have a bad stick or slot. 5. You think they copied your OS and software to the new drive. Did they use a program such as Acronis or Norton Ghost to do this? 6. Did they reinstall Windows and your software to the new drive? 7. Do you have your XP disks? You might need to actually install XP to the new drive if they have messed up the imaging (copy) of the drive. 8. Do you still have the original drive and is Windows still on it? The point I'm trying to make is we need to know exactly what they did and how as well as exactly what the new hardware or RAM is and exactly what you had before and exactly what your computer actually supports. It's obvious that whatever they did is the cause so you need to isolate the changes and how they did it. If your RAM is the correct type and you have not exceeded the maximum then it must be the only other thing they did which is "copy or image your old drive to the new drive. If that is the case I suggest that you backup everything and use your XP disk to reinstall Windows to the new drive.

Ultimate Boot CD or UBCD has a lot of useful tools but what I use it for mainly is Hard drive dignostics. It has most of the manufacturers tests. Needs to made into an ISO CD.

Hi pksimages. Before I assume anything can you please try something.? By the way I think you mean desktop background not screensaver. Open Taskmanager by clicking Ctrl-Alt-Delete holding down each key in that order. Once in Task Manager click File then click New Task. Type explorer.exe and click OK. Does that restore your desktop?

randle did you take this to someone to have it done? If you did and it worked before you did you should have them fix it and get what you paid for. I'm not sure what you mean by that? Did you reinstall Windows on that drive. Also try using the old RAM and see if you have any problems. Maybe you have the wrong type. Check with Crucial. Have you checked with Crucial to see if your hardware supports 4 GB? More is not always better.

Don't worry about it Jelly. Everyone has things to do. It can't be helped.

Shrimply try doing a System Restore to before you renamed the drive. I messed up my drives in Windows Millenium years ago and System Restore fixed it. Welcome to the wonderful world of Vista quirks. You're not alone. Myself and others have the same issue. These days I wait until I turn my computer off before removing any cards or unplugging a USB device such as my digital camera. I've never found a fix for it. They are just like a hard drive or optical drive. They are going to stay listed I'm afraid.

Happy Birthday Once Again DSTM. I'm glad I can share that message with you once again Doug. :):):):):):):):):):):)

Yes Fantic. It's usually very easy to unplug the laptop drive. Then you just connect the drive to a desktop as well as the power lead.

In my opinion Fantic it is the best and safest option. There may be other options but why run the risk?

Fantic as Tootech said every time you start your computer you increase the chance that your files will be unrecoverable if your hard drive is failing. Also any other steps you perform runs the same risk. If you want your files that should be your first priority. Installing your OS from a different disk than what was supplied to you will definitely cause your files to be lost. Running the Vaio Recovery Wizard from the media kit you have will also probably lose your files. I think you are confusing the XP Recovery Console with the Vaio Recovery Wizard. Either way you should attempt to save your files. After that there is no need to use whatever other XP disks you have as the Vaio disks supplied with your computer will reinstall XP just fine.

If not losing your photos and files is a major concern as you have said then that should be your first priority. What I have done in the past is get a laptop to desktop drive adaptor. Then I slaved the laptop drive to a desktop computer. From there you can copy the files and burn to disk. Hopefully since you have XP Pro you didn't encrypt those files. You still may need to take ownership of those files before you can copy them though. Sony support isn't the best in my opinion. I can't seem to find your model which is not uncommon. But I do believe if you use your recovery media kit that you might be correct. A full recovery might be your only option which will cause a loss of your files. Exactly what do you have in mind by using a different XP Pro disk and what does it say on it?

Hi everyone. I agree with snow and Plastic Nev as to what's going on here. Often times these types of tools can cause Windows to not even start let alone function properly. Keep your data backed up. Guys just to mention that Black Viper has some extensive information on Services such as a complete list and the default settings for the Services. He also has some reg fixes for restoring settings such as Default Windows XP Service Pack 2 Services Start Key and Default Windows XP Service Pack 3 Services Start Key I'm wondering if these would be of any use in this situation.

Hi Barmoor. Plastic Nev is a great guy. We are lucky to have him. Any friend of his is a friend of mine. Glad to have you here and please do help anywhere you can.

Hi 0725. I wish you the best of luck here.

That's true Tootech. Even if he was using an email client like Outlook once the password is changed Outlook can't connect to the server from his stolen computer. That would apply to any email service. Thanks for pointing that out.

Hi tismehi. To change your FPCH email address and password look at the top of any page. Right next to your avatar just underneath your welcome message use Click here to edit profile. Once in your User Control Panel just look on the left and click Edit Email and Password. You said you were using windows livemail. If you mean Windows Live Hotmail then it's a web based email service and all you have to do is go to it from any computer and edit your details on the mail website. Good luck.

I still have the options on the Google USA. at the top. www.google.com - Google Search Web Images Videos Maps News Shopping Gmail more ▼ Groups Books Scholar Finance Blogs YouTube Calendar Photos Documents Reader Sites even more »

Double clicking on your screen shot attachment a couple times I see Univerasal Pl... is set to Disabled in Startup Type. Snow will most likely comment on this.

I can't get to it either. It appears that their server is down.

Some Dell computers have had this problem. Is this a Dell? There are a lot of causes so try what was suggested,