BeeCeeBee

In XP the PF stands for Page File and refers to all of your available memory including virtual memory. That is what Dalo was looking for. All of the information that he asked for (spiking or throttling will be on that same performance page. If you know how to take a screenshot do so at the right time.

Unlike Windows 7 or (I believe Vista,) in XP the task manager should open directly when you press Ctrl + Alt +Del at the same time. If you do not see it on screen look for a small square green icon in the system tray and open it.

The most obvious answer (although not necessarily the correct one ) is overheating. It is quite possible that got pretty dirty and dusty inside during storage. Do you hear the fans running? If so do they seem to be abnormally fast or slow? Finally do you hear any other odd sounds like a clicking or grating sound?

It does not seem as if your problem is related to Windows 7 if it ran for 20 minutes. Leaving aside malware as a cause for the moment, it seems as if your PC may be overheating. Has it been cleaned recently (or at all?) What diagnostic program are you referring to and what is the make and model of your machine?

I assume you mean that you would like to have it so you can open it from the taskbar, simply drag it there from the program icon. It will stay until you unpin it.

The purpose of these forums is to provide solutions here and not by email. I urge you to edit your post for your own protection and remove your email address. There are automatic crawlers that do nothing more than troll for email addresses and use them for all sorts of spam both incoming and outgoing. Eventually a staff member will probably do that for you but, if you still can, I suggest you do it yourself.

Is there some reason why you started a new thread? Have you ever restored an older version of the registry?

The first thing I would do is have this looked at by someone on the security (malware removal) team . I am sure they will read this and give you some instruction. That being said, AVG (while certainly not my favorite) is not enough. You need a good antimalware program as well (perhaps 2) Again, I would wait on this because it will probably be included in any attempt to disinfect your computer. It would also be helpful to know how you are using CCleaner. If you ar using it to fix, clean or "Optimize" your registry that may also be the cause. CCleaner is great for cleaning out the general stuff such as Temp files but once you start using it on the Registry without knowing exactly what you are doing, it can cause you all sorts of pain.

Increasing your RAM will make things run faster but a lack of RAM in this case does not account for 6 or 7 minute startup. Somehing else is causing that. I would look at the possibility of an infection. I do not see any reference to scans performed as part of the process you followed to nail things down. What antivirus and/or anti malware programs are you using?

If you follow the directions given above by PseFrank and KenB you will find that accessing the old drive is no more difficult than using a flash drive. It is simple enough that even I can tell you how to do it step by step if need be. A professional is probably not necessary at this point and the caddy will certainly cost you a lot less. That being said, you will also have to reinstall windows on the new drive. How you do that will depend on what discs you have or if the system is on the hard drive. If the noise is coming from the drive itself it may be a sign of a failing hard drive. No matter what, your first step has got to be getting that data copied.

If it give you any comfort it is unlikely that any of your photos are carrying a virus but I would be very careful to do new installations of all programs and not try to carry over any .exe files that you may have downloaded. This is true even if the scans (that you must do as Ken stated) show up nothing.

It is not incorrect but IF (and IF is a very big word here) they actually send you the disc for your model specifically and IF you have not changed any of the hardware you should get the specific drivers for the hardware installed when the machine was built. If the disc is more "Acer Universal" then the generic drivers should get you going. Hopefully you will get the right disc from Acer and driver updates should be unnecessary unless something is not working.

You seem surprised. It is the "Actually" that threw me. :D

I have a feeling that during your attempt to fix the wifi problem you may have created a new profile. Go to your control panel and, under "users" see if there is anything new. It is possible that you are logging in on that new profile. If it turns out to be the case you can always access the old profile or at least the data through safe mode.

Have you looked at your drive using disc management (Go to "computer" right click and select "Manage" when the window opens select "Disc Management." It should show all your drives. Take a look at your external and see if it has a second empty partition. It may be that your backups were in a separate partition. If that is the case, deleting will not remove the partition. With the cost of external Hard Drives getting more and more reasonable, why would you remove your backups. You are in danger of losing everything if you are not careful.

After her performance there was some suggestion of lip syncing. That was both denied and dispelled when she won her group. While there does appear to be a bit of an oddity in the way her mouth appears when she forms her notes she quickly demonstrated the truth. This little girl is a star!

Try this for a quick work around. Open up the two drives side by side. Now pick a folder where you have data on both. Try moving the entire contents from one to the other. If the file is not already there it will be added.If it is there you will be asked if you want to overwrite (replace ) it. If you are pretty sure they are identical you can say yes or even yes to all. Once that is done you can go back and do the reverse. Now you should have 2 identical folders.

The method suggested by Synapse is the simplest and will work just fine for you provided that the reason that old computer refused to start was not the result of a failed HDD. If it was, all you can do is hope that it will perform well enough as a secondary drive to enable you to access and move the files. May I make an additional suggestion here. If you have a large enough flash drive or an external drive of any kind and you are able to access the needed files, move them first to that other drive without performing any scans and then scan them all on the flash or external before moving them onto the PC or laptop. My only reason for saying that is to prevent the scans from further damaging the old drive. Of course if it was just a virus or malware that was causing the old computer not to boot the step I suggested is not necessary. But since we do not know that, better safe than sorry. The need for thorough scanning is important and should not be skipped, it is just that it does not need to be done on what may be a damaged drive. It should be done, however, before moving them to the computer.

OK what version of Windows7 are you using and what is the Windows Experience Index for your machine (specifically for graphics.) If you are unaware of the numbers just type WEI in the run box and one of the options should allow you to check your index.

There does seem to be something going on with Hotmail as we speak. By pure coincidence I found a blank email this morning from a hotmail account of a member of this forum. It was totally blank but did show a list of recipients including people I know from here (RandyL for one) and names that are not familiar to me at all. These must be part of the persons own address book since most of them are unknown to me. I have notified the "sender." I wonder if it has something to do with getting in through MSN messenger because I supposedly received it twice and one was to a hotmail address that I have not even looked at in many months but only used as a messenger address.

Maybe originally, not now. (I am pretty clean, bathe regularly :D ) But saying that, once you are on a spam list it is easy for anyone to copy your email address to their outgoing mail (not being a spammer I would not know exactly how they do it but I assume there is database software that would do it for them.) Another way to get it is from hijacking someone else's email that contained your address as outgoing. That being said, my comment was that it was not necessarily an infection. It very well could be and should be checked. My only reason for saying that is to not panic anyone. Now if this is a persistent problem and email comes at you that seems like someone has read your contacts or address book. they probably have. :)

I don't agree that it is necessarily a sign of infection although it clearly may be. More likely her email address has been obtained and the spammer has used it to make it appear that an email came from her. Look into the message source if you are using mail client and the real path will show. I have a clean computer yet from time to time I get an email that says it comes from me. There are many ways that spammers and worse can get hold of an email as well as a list of recipients. For that reason it is never a good idea to send a mass email (like forwarding a joke) to all your friends. Do it one or two at a time.

Before this were you getting a manufacturers Splash screen or a POST screen (where the screen is black but you can see it loading) Try F2 on startup and see if you actually get to the bios. (You may want to give us your make and model if that doesn't work since they do not all use the same key but F2 seems to be used the most.

And yet here you are :D

I am really not a hardware expert at all but I do not see how it can hurt to try. I would first make sure that it is connecting to the unsecured network. That would at least indicate that the card is compatible etc. You will then have to reset security in your router and make sure that they key (WEP etc.) works. Keep in mind that you will need the key when you first try to log on after it is in your router. WPA2, I believe, is the most secure but not all computers and cards are capable if they are to old. But, again that is coming from an admitted non hardware expert. :)