BeeCeeBee

This is where you lost me a bit. This is an office, correct? Are you saying that you have 3 different incoming lines from an internet service provider (ISP) or do you have a server somewhere. If one router is broken, are the other computers that were not on the broken server working properly? It may be very difficult for anyone to provide much advice without a good deal more information about your configuration. But do not lose hope, there are many people here who may have a far greater understanding than me.

Have you checked the TCP/IP settings as I mentioned above? Have you looked for proxy settings in your browser? How many browsers are on the computer?

I have had a look at that MOBO in the US site "newegg" and it shows as discontinued. But in the comment section there was one person who commented that he had the motherboard for a long time and that it is durable. That comment was dated 2007. So while Ken is absolutely correct and the expansion slots have no relationship to the memory slots it may be time to just say goodbye to it. Under normal usage 1GB is sufficient to get decent performance out of XP Home and upping it will certainly improve performance but not to the point that you may expect or want. So, if you have the "permission" and you have the money, shop while the shopping is good. :)

Having always used Microsoft Office Products I am not all that conversant with open office. However it does appear that Apache Open Office which, I think, is was once run by Oracle is now part of openoffice.org and seems to represent their latest offering. I am sure there are others here more familiar with Open Office but I can see no harm in giving Apache open office a try. The problem may be that the templates that you are trying to download may be very specific to Word.

There is no question about it, once your trial is over you need to buy the office products in order to continue using them. Open office should work with those templates but I am not sure. He is a download site but keep in mind that it is CNet so be careful what you click on and don't accept any recommended toolbars etc. http://download.cnet.com/OpenOffice-org/3000-18483_4-10263109.html

Where did you get the trial version? Was it from Microsoft? Has this machine ever had any Office products on it before (trial or otherwise)?

Just because this thread interests me I am going to add my 2 cents (pence): I have no problem with someone who wants to be able to administer a PC remotely. I can also figure out how what you have described must have been done. HOWEVER I don't think that you were seeing the whole picture and are assuming that the step dad's control was exclusive to only him or that the only means of administrating that machine is through the other computer. What I find troubling is that you want to create administrative rights over another computer that you "own" so that not even you can act as an administrator on that machine. If you don't see how fishy this looks then I guess you have never seen a fish.

This is one of those topics that causes me to step back and ask why? Are you trying to remove all administrator privileges and just have one machine controlled only by the other machine? If both these machines are yours why would you want to do that? Maybe I am looking at it wrong but I am hesitant to suggest a solution but perhaps a staff member here will see it differently.

First when it comes to networking (and most other issues) I bow to Kenb's expertise, However there is one thing that no forum can really do and that is actually look at your hardware. I am curious about your configuration. I know you have a router but is it a modem/router or a router connected to a modem? It may well be that one or the other is just failing or it may be the wireless card in the computer that is creating a hardware issue. If you have both a modem and a router as two separate bits of hardware which one are you using to connect using your ethernet cable?

Have you tried what I suggested first? Restoring to factory settings may or may not work depending on how sophisticated the original set up was done. Up to this point we have taken your word on how you got the computer and still do not doubt that word. However, I have worked on the assumption that the school was simply filtering the use of the internet. If this was more sophisticated then you may not even be able to perform a factory restore. If the computer came with disks for a restore then you can try them. Otherwise it was done using a recovery partition from the factory which would be on your hard drive. However there are a number of "tricks" that can be done in the bios that would keep you from doing a restore and the bios itself may be password protected so you cannot make any changes.

My guess is that they set it up with a static IP which would limit access except through their server which was very filtered. My instructions should cure that. However if they had some way of locking that IP so you could not change it we would still be limited as to how much help we can provide.

I have given some thought as to whether or not to supply an answer to you simply because we can never be sure how you came upon this computer. I am going to give you an answer because it appears that the computer is not password protected which is the first thing that someone would do ot protect against theft or unlawful access. Further I am only giving you what would be considered the basics. If what I am suggesting does not work you may have to go back to the school as someone there must have the original instructions. Find your network adapters either from your control panel or by clicking on the small network icons in your taskbar near the clock. I can't be more specific than that because I do not have an XP machine up and running ight now but this should be easy to find. When you find them you need to right click and select "properties." IN the "General" tab you will see "Internet Protocol [TCP/IP] open that up. If there are a seies of ip adresses (a series of numbers separated by dots) then you need to select "Obtain IP address Automatically" do that both on the first and second set of numbers. The numbers should now be greyed out. Save your settings and exit. Do that for both wireless and LAN adapters. Once that is done you should be able to connect to your sky ISP by entering your security key if wireless or by connecting by way of ethernet cable. If none of that works it may well be that the school has added additional protection and we cannot (or will not) help you get around something like that unless ok'd by an Administrator which is doubtful.

Further to the above you may be recording using a codec that is not recognized by all players in all computers. The extension .avi or ,wav or even .mp3 does not always tell the whole story.

I see you all over the place but this has nothing to do with any virus. This is a reinstall issue. Not to mention the fact that the OP has not been back in over a week.

Let's not forget the real possibility that the keyboard has just (i cant remember the word it is highly technical-- Oh I remember) broken. Maybe the keyboard is broken. Is it a laptop? Did you spill any soup on it? Sorry Michael, I see you are a new member. Be assured that I am not making fun of you just preparing you for what I see as a probability. When part of a keyboard fails and the rest remains OK it is usually in the keyboard itself.

I honestly don't see what the issue is here. Microsoft does not make separate windows disks for each language. If you are leaving XP installed just go to the region and language icon in your control panel and select a language. In W7 there are about 20 different versions of Spanish you can select. I believe the same to be true in XP although I didn't look as closely. There are certainly a number of choices for spanish. If that does not work with your keyboard then you can go to the next tab and select a new layout. If you are reinstalling windows either select Spanish to start with or install in a language that is better for you and then change it to Spanish in the control panel. If your control panel has no options then there is something wrong with your version of Windows. My version of XP was purchased in Ireland. There are a few differences between the newer European versions and the one in the US but those differences deal with litigation that took place in Europe and browser issues not language.

Although with what you seem to have tried it may not work but have you done a "Hard Refresh" of the page. In Firefox try hoding down the CTRL key plus the F5 key and see if that helps.

What is the make and model of the router? Most routers have a single input from the modem and multiple outputs for non wifi devices.

Actually, GazD, there is very little reason to believe that you are in the same boat at all. I suggest that if you have a recurring problem that you post your own thread and lay out all the issues. Problems may appear similar but may be entirely different. I see that you have posted this under the web browsers forum but some information about your computer would be helpful. In your profile you posted gibberish about your operating system and nothing about the computer itself. Edit: Whoops I just noticed that this thread is a bit old and probably will not draw a reply from the OP.

At the end of the day, both DVI and HDMI are capable of carrying the same quality of digital image. The quality will depend on both what is being sent as well as the monitor's best resolution. If, for example your monitor can accept a 1080p video and your computer has HD output of 1080p and the image is actually 1080p HD then that is what you are going to get on your monitor. It is, therefore, capable of showing video in 1080p (or i) resolution but is not about to magically create a better quality than what it is receiving. The primary advantage to HDMI is the ability to receive digital audio along with the picture through a single compact cable interface. This may be important if the monitor is actually a TV with a good sound system, otherwise your picture quality will be about the same.

I don't mean to be argumentative but, since this machine is unable to boot, I doubt very much that it is an overheating problem. If the machine were overheating it would simply shut down and not suggest options from "Advanced Boot Options" menu. This indicates a Windows issue. Were it not for the noise I would suspect some form of windows corruption. My guess is the hard drive.

Can you be a little more specific about the sounds that you are hearing before you take that advice and start paying out good cash. There are very few moving parts in a computer there are the fans and the hard drive. Is your sound a clicking or grinding sound. If so it sounds like a failed or failing hard drive.

Assuming you did it right the first time there is no need to repeat the process. Laptops lie around in stores and warehouses for months without being used.

Zero

I get the feeling that you were downloading something that you should not have and received an additional present of some nasty malware. What if any antivirus or anti malware are you running. This thread is probably going to have to be moved to the "Malware Infection Removal" to be handled by one of our experts in that field forum but in the meantime try a system restore to a point prior to this latest installation. My guess is that it won't let you but it is worth a try. Even if it does seem to get things back to normal it may still return. Regardless of what happens I suggest that you read the following and follow the directions there; http://extremetechsupport.com/threads/10689-Before-posting-for-Malware-Removal-help.