Tootech

Are you sure you mean 2000? It is different to XP. If you have a copy of Windows XP and a licence, boot from the XP CD, delete the old disk partitions and continue to install XP. That will remove all traces of Vista. Be prepared to use another computer to download the hardware drivers, or do that first and save them CD to use after XP install. Also, I would recommend making a recovery DVD for your Vista Operating System if that is possible, before wiping the hard drive.

Hi Nev, Seems like your are about there for what you need - that is good news!! The only thing you ought to check is the updates status. If a repair install was carried out you should run Windows Update. Automatic updates may take a good while to get you up to date. Try it from here: Microsoft Windows Update Once you are up to date I think you are sorted. Don't worry too much about Windows Defender, it doesn't defend you from much at all. If you need an antispyware program have a look at malwarebytes. http://www.malwarebytes.org there is a free version you can run once in a while.

Remove your security products before running the upgrade - I've seen one recently and Kaspersky was blocking it, and as you say there was no clue as to why it was failing.

Hi, Its an interesting question, and no doubt you've seen that there is significant debate about what data is actually recoverable after a wipe. The scrap PC drive you can destroy by taking a hammer or similar to the circuit board. It doesn't destroy the storage platter itself but no one excepting a skilled hard drive engineer would be able to do anything with it. The circuit board contains data specific to that drive and swapping for another similar board wouldn't allow access. Course you could just take the lid off and take a hammer to the circular platter - foolproof!! The working PC - bottom line is just how private and important was the data held on that drive? Professional software will wipe a drive to UK government standards, but for most of us that isn't necessary. Have a look at these two solutions, both will wipe your drive fairly securely. Darik's Boot and Nuke | Get Darik's Boot and Nuke at SourceForge.net Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format. This is a commercial solution that I use ZeroData Hard Drive Wiping Software After using it I have scanned drives with recovery software and the drives are totally empty. Hope that helps...

To clarify my post as I hadn't seen DSTM's post, the info on the Techguy site suggests your machine was a Vista only unit. I havn't a clue why DSTM's link shows that model as XP-Vista. Here is the link I used for reference. http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={efd78417-d33f-4348-96aa-8ace336a2f39}&CatID={ea94e44f-a1b0-46a0-a42d-4423971708c0}

Hi, Its almost never impossible - its more about how much work you need to do. Your laptop didn't ever ship with XP, but looking at the spec most parts of it will work just fine. The only potential issue I can find is the wireless card. You could change it for an Intel 3945 as they are cheap as chips on ebay or follow this forum thread, seems to work for others. wireless driver for XP : Advent Software Issues / Chat | Advent Support The other option is go to Windows 7, far superior to Vista and will no doubt have all the drivers your system requires.

I think your friend may have done a repair install - based on the lack of restore points and some programs working, some not. By the way - do you have any important data backed up should something go wrong? You ought to do, using a USB flash drive or external hard drive. Try to remove Windows Defender from Add/Remove Programs. Run Windows Update - you may need to run it a few times to get up to date and depending on what has actually been done to your computer. Once it is up to date download and install Media Player 11 from here Windows Media Player 11 Reboot if it hasn't been done automatically. Then download and attempt to install Avira - it may if you are lucky overwrite the old install or it may remove it first. Do the same with Safari. Youtube problems are probably down to flash player corruption. Download and install the latest version from here Adobe - Web Players (Flash player link is there too) See how far you get, Windows Defender should reinstall ok, iTunes may need Revo Uninstaller Pro to remove. If it doesn't work out you may need to do something called an sfc to check all your Windows files. Do you have a Windows CD that came with your computer?

Nev, the first questions are: What was happening (or not) when it would not start and How did your friend manage to 'kick start' it? Can you have a look in Event Viewer>System log and see if there are any hard disk errors - entries relating to bad blocks and /dev/hdd0 Oh, and after you got it going did you attempt a System Restore?

Tricky one I'd say. Have you tried 'Last Known Good Configuration' from the Advanced startup options? Next idea Do you still have the original download for the program? If so, try reinstalling it from Safe Mode and then restarting your PC. Hopefully that will repair the damage it has done. If that works, uninstall it again and see what happens. I also found a bit of useful info on the Screenpass website - I'll post it so everyone can see it as I think its worth having a look at it further. GINA There is an updated document thorugh the Screenpass help search - the info is the same.

Sometimes this malware prevents Malwarebytes running - if that happens follow this guide Remove Security Tool and SecurityTool (Uninstall Guide)

Just a quick post, I havn't got alot of time this afters. If your drive is corrupt because it is actually failing, please don't Ever Ever run chkdsk or any other disk utlity. Do as JB says, hook it up to USB and copy your data over. If you get delayed write errors then stop. Your best option then would be to use Knoppix boot CD as when copying a faulty drive it will reset the disk controller on error and carry on copying if indeed it is retrievable.

Bit of a correction here - the board you have linked to Nev will take newer Core 2 CPU's. The system spec quoted runs an E1200 - slow as a snail, especially with only 512MB memory. Quote from the website. You can speed that system up substantially. Something like a Dual Core E5400, 2GB DDR2 RAM and labour would cost you about £170 inc labour at a local shop. You could do it yourself for about £100.

Nice one :) Personally I wouldn't trust a drive that has thrown a wobbler, but if it works ok, jobs a good un !!

Talktalk MTU is 1432. Set it, save it and reboot your router and PC. Forget the +8, thats only for testing MTU using the ping command. That means the problem is with your LAN connection, not your Internet (WAN) connection. Your title of the problem adds confusion - if you can ping websites, DNS is working correctly. Open DNS is a nice tool and it can solve webpage loading problems, but I don't think it your problem here. Stick with an ethernet cable rather than wireless for the moment if you can. Do you know how to run an ipconfig /all from the command prompt? I guess you do judging by the amount of work you have done already. When you lose your webpages, run an ipconfig /all and look at the IP/DNS and Gateway settings and post them please. It is possible your router is playing up - I've seen them work and then lose LAN, reset and work again, but for now post the ip settings.

I received that very same email - quite convincing and looks like it is from the Facebook team. Hopefully all A/V programs will pick it up and delete it on sight!

Another alternative I have tried recently is PC-BSD 8.0. It is based on Unix, very stable, very secure. Looks nice and runs well, just not everyones cup of tea. Worth a look for all those computer geeks out there - you know who you are :rolleyes: PC-BSD - Home

Yeah, it does put a drive icon on the Desktop, you'll probably need to make the USB stick writeable as Knoppix puts all drives in read only mode automatically.

Thats getting a bit deep - if I had this one in for repair I would get hold of the specs for the recommended memory and the sticks you have fitted and compare them. I have looked and the Value range don't seem to have published specs which leaves me stuck. I think its worth posting the problem on the Corsair forum to get some response from their tech clever dicks. Mainly with reference to any differences between the modules you have and the recommended modules for 2 x 2GB configuration, which have a different part number. Are they different modules or the same, just packaged differently? I don't know. The manual references the chip density and Single Sided/Double Sided configurations which means that the board could be sensitive to the correct sticks.

Can you post the component part numbers you used in your build. Motherboard, CPU, memory, hard drive and video card. It may help track down what is wrong.

Dave, maybe its worth running a disk health check, especially if there were no signs of infections before it stopped booting. Something like bootable Seatools. Then get the data off it using a USB stick and a bootable PE or Knoppix. My thinking is that if its a disk that is playing up, you may not find out until its too late and the priority could be to get the data off it, then sort it out. Just my ten penneth worth :)

I've had a look on the Corsair website - the memory you have is only recommended in a 2 x 1GB configuration for your board. There is a slightly different part number recommended for the 2 x 4GB config. That may be the problem. Corsair link Welcome to Corsair :: Memory Configurator

Post the Service Tag of your Dell and someone will be able to look up the spec and help you out.

You should be able to connect your headphone socket on your Dictaphone to the mic socket on your laptop, play it and record into your PC. You'll need to play around with the settings of volume and mic sensitivity in your control panel to get it right. I think sure mic boost should be switched off - that will be in your sound settings, To record onto your computer use something like Audacity, see link. Record in stereo or mono - I doubt it matters too much at something like 16 bit, 16kHz. Audacity Audacity: About Audacity

It won't be in Vista, it may be an administrative account, but it won't be THE admin account.

Can you just clarify - did you previously download and run the uninstaller Armageddon linked to, or remove Norton using the Add/Remove? Thanks :)