RandyL

Hi bootneck; Welcome to the forum.

Here in the USA a 6mb download unlimited access costs about £31 or $50 at todays rates. At least where I live. This includes support. In the UK prices are slightly more competitive if you have decent support. You are lucky shrimply. I cant even get 48kb dialup for £7.34 a month.

A lot has been tried so there is not much left to try that I know of. I'll add what I can. 1. Go to this FLASH AUDIO TEST PAGE to see if Flash sound works and that you have the latest version. 2. Check the Youtube and itv player to make sure the sound volume is not turned down or muted on the players themselves. 3. Go to the Yahoo Messenger Options and check your sound settings there. If you can't hear audio in Messenger chat make sure that sound level is not turned down or muted. 4. To determine whether or not this is an IE problem or setting download and install Firefox (en-US link) and try Youtube again. (Note you may be asked to install Flash for Firefox) 5. When you uninstalled IE8 did web sounds work in IE7? 6. From the Control Panel Add/Remove uninstall all Java and Java updtates. Reinstall Java. 7. Uninstall Adobe Flashplayer and plugins for it. (Note you may have to reinstall Flashplayer for Firefox). Also in Explorer navigate to Downloaded Program Files and by right clicking the properties of the Active X files look for the Flash related components and remove those too. Reinstall Flashplayer AFTER a reboot. Or better yet run the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller before reinstalling. Reboot first. 8. Uninstall the itv player in case that is part of the problem. To me it seems to be a Flash and or Java issue but possibly a third party program is the cause. Whether it's an IE add-on or something else is hard to say without knowing what is on your computer. Anyway that's all I have for now.

I think you have it sorted if I'm not mistaken. If you have then it seems to be a lot easier than Outlook Express was. OE was ok for for the address book but the mail store was problematic at times. Buggy. Thanks for the feedback shrimply. You are always the good man.

Have you tried booting into safemode?

Just to add what little I know. If the hard drive was damaged during an improper shutdown you should hook it up to another computer and hope you can retrieve your files. Are you sure you are not choosing safemode with command prompt instead of just safemode? Were you given the option of choosing Last Known Good Configuration? In the link given by Tootech you can perform a Microsoft System Restore or do a Factory image recovery and you should also read the section Backing up files during recovery. If you are unsure which direction you should go ask first.

Hi Robin; It would also help if you could tell us why you think you need to install flash and java as you likely already have it installed. Are you trying to update to newer versions? Are online videos like Youtube telling you that Flash And Java needs installed or updated? If you are using Internet Explorer as your browser which version do you have? IE7 or IE8 perhaps? Have you tried downloading the updates or updated versions from the official Sun Java or Flashplayer sites?

I think rainman said he has shield deluxe running at startup. I'm not familiar with it but I wonder if it's doing a scan at startup. The only other thing I can think of is a faulty piece of hardware. For instance I recently had a comp with a bad CD/DVD drive. It took forever to get past the POST screen. But after that it would logon to Windows just fine and ran great. Once I disconnected the CD/DVD drive it booted straight up. Just a thought.

Hi curly; It seems your problem is not with installing Windows as that worked just fine twice. The problem arises when you attempt to install daemon tools. We all know what those tools are used for. I would say this falls under rule 4 of The Rules and as such we can't offer support on this matter. If you have any other issues feel free to ask. Thread Closed

Go to the appropriate forum section by clicking on it. Once there click on the blue New Thread button near the top left.

In my opinion it could have been IE8 which is buggy with XP or the fact you had two active firewalls running. Or a combination of the two. It could have also had something to do with your security suite. If you really want to know what worked do a system restore to mess it all up again. Then try one fix at a time. That's what I would do because I can't stand not to know what caused an issue. But I think you might be happy to just leave it fixed. I'll miss seeing you members and wish you well.

Does Trend Micro Internet Security Pro have a firewall? If so are you using that and the Windows firewall?

As snow has noted not all antivirus programs or firewalls are detected by Windows Secucurity Center. Mine included. As he said you can turn off the alert.

You need to be logged on as Administrator. Next try uninstalling the toolbar from Programs and Features in the control panel while in Safemode. If that works then run the scans suggested by snow again.

Hi Gazelle; What is the make model and number of your computer?

You're welcome quaytec. Thanks for letting us know,

Look at my last screenshot and try to restore to a point before this happened. If you can't then we are fast running out of possibilities. 1. System Restore is not an option. 2. No malware was detected after following our guide. 3. Removing policy restrictions via Superantispyware made no difference. 4. Tootech and Snow both touched on creating a new user profile account which you did. 5. I notice the one constant on the new account is Pokerstars. Consider uninstalling it. Given the above steps and the fact that the new account is totally messed up in numerous ways if you compare it to a normal setup then it would seem the next best step is to reinstall Windows. Backup all your data. If you have the option use the recovery options for your computer to invoke the built in restore to factory settings or use the disks you made when you first got your computer to do the exact same thing.

Thats good to hear Trace. If you have any more questions just ask. Thanks for letting us know too,

Check for restore points older than 5 days. [ATTACH]338.vB5-legacyid=650[/ATTACH]

Also tic the Show restore points older then 5 days.

Try a System Restore jt. Open Computer and click on your main drive to highlite it. On the Command bar click System Properties. On the left side click System Protection. Click the System protection tab. Click the System restore button and choose a point before this happened. Note you may have to tic "Choose a different restore point" to show older dates.

jt on the off chance your Programs folder got deleted check in your recycle bin.

Ok let's see if malware has changed your policies. Open Superantispyware and click on Preferences. Click on the Repair tab. Click on Remove Explorerer Policies Restrictions to highlite it. Click on the Perform Repair tab. I'm not sure but you may have to reboot.

Hi jt; This is usually caused by malware but try this first. Type "Programs" without the quotes into the search for files box. There is a small chance the folder has been moved. You'll likely see several results so open any "Programs" folders you find to look for the correct one.

The month of July has come and gone. In July we reached our goal to help cover some of our costs thanks to all the generous donations. I can't thank everyone enough for that. To everyone who contributes either money or advice or both I want to say something very important so please listen. It is thanks to you that FPCH is alive and well. It is thanks to you that thousands of people have got help and will continue to get help. It is thanks to you that people are learning from us all. It is thanks to you that this community not only survives but is thriving. May the month of August be as good as July. May the forum be as good in the future as it has been in the past. Thankyou FPCH donators. Thankyou FPCH helpers. Long live the forum.