Hafoi Bin Ereafower

Sounds like something Russell Crowe should be doing in the arena. But - - - there I was gently browsing my Facebook page and an item seemed interesting about a strange apparition on an ice flow - I clicked on it and instantly up came what appeared to be a Microsoft warning page saying my computer was locked. Only way out of it was to press power button on Windows 10 lap top - wait - then power up again. First thing I did on power up was to go into settings and security to scan for probs and I got a warning (after the scan ) about this here Trojan lurking in my downloads file. I was offered (in Windows Defender) an opportunity to erase which I did (think there were three options- one offline) Anyway - Defender went away and after much chuntering - - - nothing - - - - no "your problem has been cleared" message - nothing. Now being a worrisome sort of elderly chap - I closed down the laptop and went away and had a "think". After my "think" I came back started it up and went through the scan process again and this time there was no "alert" about Russell Crowe's Trojan -it appears to have been defeated. Aaaah - but has it - - is my question to the esteemed experts of PC Help. Chap's (esse's) is there something else I should be doing - so I can sleep soundly ? HBE

Well - that took a long time - several hours in fact as the resetting software whizzed away doing it's stuff. Followed instructions (except the one about network adapters as only just seen that) and all seems to have gone well. I did back up all the old files to a separate storage disc everything I wanted to keep - and these files will only ever be accessed by a "day to day" use computer -not the now single use Acer. My only other observation would be - - what a load unneeded "guff" get's stuck on a reload of W10 that I had to go through to uninstall - - from games to unwanted MS software. Only thing I couldn't find a quick way of getting rid of was XBox - so that remains but nothing else. I also loved the way Cortana guides you through the install of all this pernicious stuff in the most delightful way using the most persuasive of language to convince the installer it really really is just what you most desparately need to make your life complete. Needless to say I resisted her "temptations" and also went through all the permissions and turned em off - as it will be single use I don't need "suggestions" !!! Checked to see Defender was on and Hey Presto - all seems well. Thank you once again chaps - it's great to know you are here to help. Your's, HBE.

What Ho Chap's - - as ever you come up trump's - - that's not Donald you understand ! First off - my apologies I was not crystal in my explanation about my old Acer - - it was born with Vista - - then - to get to W10 (after various MS deadlines being missed) I updated to W8 so I could get (free) to W10 - - - so after my usual long winded explanation - yes it does have W10. Your description of how to provide me with a sole use lap top just for banking will be applied and when done I'll report back. Best wishes, HBE

Many salutations chaps - have not been here seeking your help for many moons - as the world has kept turning together with my electronicary stuff. Now though although all is still well with the Ereafower gizmo's I have a question which troubles me and it's to do with W10 - - well maybe not - but is in a round about sort of way. The story - - - - I first came to these boards seeking help for an ailing Acer and that very nice man KenB set me straight - once fixed it soldiered on for for many a year in wife's hands till finally it's Vista OS started to give up the ghost - and I came back and got it sorted again - it went in the cupboard when I inherited a Dell Inspiron and before I could use it - another nice man called Starbuck helped me with a booting prob. So I've now got an estate of two W10 laptops, one aging Samsung Android smartphone and a middle aged Samsung Tablet. Ye gods I hear you crying will he ever come to the point ! - - - well here goes. In this lockdown and as an Aged P - - - after many years of resistance I've been forced into Internet banking and I hate it because it makes me feel insecure - so Dear Chap's here's my question - can I dig my old Acer out of it's cupboard and get it's W10 OS to wipe everything off the laptop - leaving just W10 - - the old Acer would then just get used for one sole purpose and not used for tinterwebby things. The plan would be to continue using W10's antivirus stuff. Is it a plan - or is it barmy - even if it's barmy can it be done ? Your's, HBE

Aaahh Ken B believe twas you - twas you - that many moons ago when I was having a prob with my ancient Acer (which I've still got and working - but back up) said Defender ok - - and so it has been. As you say if it's good enough for Starbuck etc etc - - - very reassuring, I'll pass on to offspring. Ta muchly. H.B.E.

What Ho Chaps, No1 daughter is debating across the dinner table about using a paid for antivirus prog - specifically Norton. She asked her Aged P what I used and I said those nice people at FPCH had said Windows Defender was OK to use and it came as part of W10 and I liked things that were free ! I've been using it now for several years and it's one of those things you just don't notice if it's working or not - - I've not had any problems it's just there and I assume it updates at the same time as W10 does. So dear chaps what's the current thinking should No1 daughter (and me) go for Norton antivirus - maybe it covers some stuff WD doesn't or is WD sufficient ? Regards, H.B.E.

Well chaps my promised update. As previous episode - the laptop is behaving like a laptop should - starting and closing down quickly, no crashing, freezing and moving quickly (well enough for me) between screens etc. So great - except - - occasionally (particularly first thing in morning ?) still got the BIOS screen on start up saying "reset date and time" so off I went into town and followed Rustys advice to replace it and buy a button battery CR2032. Fortunately Dell on this model placed the battery under a three screw panel so after removing main battery and the panel there it was - simple job. Since fitting new battery approx 10 days ago absolutely first class - no recurring problems - so chaps feel I'm not tempting fate by saying we've cracked it ! Looking back at the saga - - as a little used laptop with an old operating system clearly there was something wrong both with the original OS and the button battery. My downloading of W10 and not doing a "clean install" exacerbated the problem and mixed the OS's - - it's no wonder it felt "poorly". Rustys' s advice to run the check disc system gave me confidence the laptop was in decent condition and redoing a clean W10 install solved most of problems - replacing the button battery did the rest. So once again many thanks - it's great to know you're here to help. H B E.

What Ho You Chaps, Well, I went ahead and clean installed W10 wiping out all the files held and coming up with a system (be still my beating heart) that seems to work. So far I've just started up six times but now it's quicker to boot and it closes down in under a minute compared with 5 to 8 previously. It also seems snappier in operation - so with a fair wind and a hey-ho to the gods - we've cracked it ! I will gradually over the next few days build back in the files I want and things like Google bits I want to use - testing as I go to see if any of them interfere with the way it operates but so far so good. I will of course report back my progess and keep on the backburner Rustys your suggestion about the RAM facility and it's battery - it's the same one my watch uses ! In the meantime many thanks to Rustys and all you chaps for providing a resource which we of the less enlightened brigade need to use from time to time - as the archers of yore used to say - - "more strength to your elbow" Your's and with best wishes, H B E

I really shouldn't have "counted my chickens" one came home to roost again and the machine text file appeared again this morning on start up so I F2'd and the time and date had reverted to the old one - - - so I changed it to current time again and will see if it works this time. It also crashed again badly late last night and took several goes to restart. I will go ahead and reinstall W10 and see if the crashing problem can be eradicated. Then seeing the results I'll think again. I will report back. H B E

Good evening from Blighty Rustys, Well following your good advice and with several start ups today believe we've sorted the start up prob of the machine text screen appearing. Most of the start ups and use today have gone well until this evening when it crashed again and was difficult to get started again and needed two shots to get it going. I was in You Tube at the time and at other occasions it has crashed when using Google or in Gmail - - all Google offerings. Now I have read of circumstances where versions of the dear chaps at Microsoft and Googles offerings (them being at daggers drawn) have not worked as well together as in years past - - is this possibly what I am suffering from ? At this stage I think I would like to attempt a reinstall of W10 could I have your advice on how best to do this to achieve the cleanest reinstall. Regards, H B E

Rustys, Yes it does still crash and this morning on start up the machine text screen came up again and I pressed f2 to correct the time and date I had previously reset the time in Windows but not on this screen - - I have now changed the time on the machine text screen as well. I have restarted the laptop a couple of times and each time it has started up ok - no machine text screen and with the correct time. I will continue to close down and start up through the day to see if it crashes or restarts with the machine text screen. The only other clue I can give you which I haven't mentioned before is it has always taken a long time to shut down - on touching the close down on the start menu the screen closes and goes blank but the "On" light and the "Hard Drive Working" light continues to flash - also the fan continues to work for roughly 8 to 10 minutes. Every other laptop I've had stops working completely within at most a couple of minutes. Thank you again for your help with this. H B E

Dear Rustys, Apols forgot to advise, the laptop is as follows, this off the "about" page. Dell Inspiron, model 1764 Core i3 M 350 @ 2.27GHz RAM 4.0GB 64 bit x 64-based processor As previous it's been inherited from a relative - it was used on relatively low basis ordering the groceries and a few e-mails and is in fine condition. It was previously used with a Logitech bluetooth external mouse and I've removed the btooth dongle from it's port and removed all the Logitech files that Revo Unistaller could find. The machine text screen came up again this morning on start up and it reads mostly as follows, "Phoenix Secure Core NB Copyright 1985-2009 Phoenix Technologies Ltd" CPU = 1 processors detected Cores per Processor = 2 Intel Core i3 CPU M 350 @ 2.27GHz 3896m RAM Passed 256kb L2 cache 3072 L3 cache detected System Bios shadowed Video Bios shadowed Fixed Disc 0:VDC WD3200BEVT-75A23TO ATAPI CD-ROM HL-DT-STDVD+/RWGT32N Mouse Initialised ERROR 0271/:Check date and time settings Press F1 to resume F2 to setup Hope this helps. Regards, H B E

Good evening (from where I am in Blighty) Rustys, Well that's a relief nothing wrong with the drive. Yes it does still happen - I would say about every 4th to 5th start up. H B E

Oh forgot to ask - - if the above say's there's nothing wrong with the hard disk what's the best way to do a new install of W10 to ensure best install. Regards, H B E

Hallo Rustys, Well that worked - although pretty much "gobbleldygook" to me. In "man on street" terms what does it indicate ? Regards, H B E Log Name: Application Source: Microsoft-Windows-Wininit Date: 9/20/2018 7:56:10 PM Event ID: 1001 Task Category: None Level: Information Keywords: Classic User: N/A Computer: DavidL Description: Checking file system on C: The type of the file system is NTFS. Volume label is OS. A disk check has been scheduled. Windows will now check the disk. Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ... 377600 file records processed. File verification completed. 6272 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ... 344 reparse records processed. 447790 index entries processed. Index verification completed. 0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found. 344 reparse records processed. Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ... Cleaning up 3277 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9. Cleaning up 3277 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9. Cleaning up 3277 unused security descriptors. Security descriptor verification completed. 35096 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal... 34597640 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed. Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ... 377584 files processed. File data verification completed. Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ... 62615608 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete. Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems. No further action is required. 297106775 KB total disk space. 46039140 KB in 146609 files. 113844 KB in 35097 indexes. 0 KB in bad sectors. 491355 KB in use by the system. 65536 KB occupied by the log file. 250462436 KB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 74276693 total allocation units on disk. 62615609 allocation units available on disk. Internal Info: 00 c3 05 00 d5 c5 02 00 fd a1 05 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 18 01 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....@........... Windows has finished checking your disk. Please wait while your computer restarts. Event Xml: <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"> <System> <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Wininit" Guid="{206f6dea-d3c5-4d10-bc72-989f03c8b84b}" EventSourceName="Wininit" /> <EventID Qualifiers="16384">1001</EventID> <Version>0</Version> <Level>4</Level> <Task>0</Task> <Opcode>0</Opcode> <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> <TimeCreated SystemTime="2018-09-20T18:56:10.554319500Z" /> <EventRecordID>2806</EventRecordID> <Correlation /> <Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" /> <Channel>Application</Channel> <Computer>DavidL</Computer> <Security /> </System> <EventData> <Data> Checking file system on C: The type of the file system is NTFS. Volume label is OS. A disk check has been scheduled. Windows will now check the disk. Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ... 377600 file records processed. File verification completed. 6272 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ... 344 reparse records processed. 447790 index entries processed. Index verification completed. 0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found. 344 reparse records processed. Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ... Cleaning up 3277 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9. Cleaning up 3277 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9. Cleaning up 3277 unused security descriptors. Security descriptor verification completed. 35096 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal... 34597640 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed. Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ... 377584 files processed. File data verification completed. Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ... 62615608 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete. Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems. No further action is required. 297106775 KB total disk space. 46039140 KB in 146609 files. 113844 KB in 35097 indexes. 0 KB in bad sectors. 491355 KB in use by the system. 65536 KB occupied by the log file. 250462436 KB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 74276693 total allocation units on disk. 62615609 allocation units available on disk. Internal Info: 00 c3 05 00 d5 c5 02 00 fd a1 05 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 18 01 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....@........... Windows has finished checking your disk. Please wait while your computer restarts. </Data> </EventData> </Event>