Plastic Nev

Also, regarding fitting a firewire port, it is highly unlikely it could be done unless the motherboard has the facility built on it. I have noticed that Firewire is becoming a bit obsolete and not being fitted to a lot of newer computers, or even auxiliary equipment either. Possibly because there has been some talk of USB3 coming soon, which should have a much higher speed again. If you do have that slot though a firewire card should be available to fit it. In my case I have the older soundblaster card in my now four year old XP lappy, though I think that may be the earlier type of expansion slot in mine, not too sure. Nev.

F Secure have discovered a fake antivirus that at first glance looks like a Firefox and Adobe Flash player update, more here on the F Secure site- Rogue AV Masquerades as a Firefox/Flash Update - F-Secure Weblog : News from the Lab Also a bit more on it from PC Mag here- Fake Firefox Update Page Pushes Malware | News & Opinion | PCMag.com F Secure say they have blocked the site responsible. Nev.

Hi manick and welcome, being a musician of sorts myself I feel sure we will try our best to help. Nev.

I recently installed Open Office and was pleasantly surprised by what you can do with it. Though I haven't a need to do what you need so haven't looked into it, but I would guess that you may be able to do all of it in Open Office, rather than messing about with Microsoft word. One thing I did find and is a handicap to me, Open Office will not open or see Microsoft Works Word 8 files, which I had on my old computer. I have to convert all Word files to .doc files first to read them, plus as you found you cannot do much with them afterwards.

Thanks all, and as I suspected, just another registry mangler to be avoided. The greatest concern comes from Starbucks post regarding other forums banning IObit software in general. Edited to add, now I have had time to read through the post on the Malwarebytes forum that Starbuck gave the link to, Thanks for that, I will now be urging anyone who has been suckered into thinking this is a good bit of software to think again. A company or organisation that blatantly steals software or parts thereof, must also have some other agenda they are keeping quiet about. I would hope that the Malwarebytes team do take legal action. Once again thanks for the comments which can be passed on, I was suspicious but had not heard of it before, so hence the question to those on here that I respect. Nev.

Hi, it isn't often that I get a question I can't answer readily, but would appreciate any opinions from our other members, technical and otherwise regarding this cleaning software. Available from here- Advanced SystemCare Free freeware download - One-Click Free System tool for PC tune-up and maintenance. Registry repair. - Best Freeware Download Normally we would all recommend staying well away from system cleaners that meddle in the registry, however this one does seem to have some reputation from non technical users as a system cleaner. They report a general improvement. Not so sure myself, hence why I ask the question, has anyone else had any experience of it and can give an accurate report? Nev.

Hi, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. First one that comes to mind may just be connections, have a good look in the port itself to make sure the connector leafs haven't been bent or broken. Second one is to turn off the power, remove the cover, you will then see the cables from that front port and where they plug into the mother board, check they haven't become loose on the motherboard, remove the plug and replace to be sure. Nev.

MIJ, has now submitted logs in our security section, Starbuck is currently dealing with it. Until that is finished, and to avoid any confusion, any other problems arising can then be looked at here afterwards. Thanks, Nev.

Hi Jim, to help things along till one of our security guys gets to you and to save a bit of time, please follow everything below, Because you are not able to connect the machine to the net, download the items to another machine and transfer them using a memory stick, or pen drive or similar.-- Step 1 Download TFC by OldTimer to your desktop Please double-click TFC.exe to run it. (Note: If you are running on Vista, right-click on the file and choose Run As Administrator). It will close all programs when run, so make sure you have saved all your work before you begin. Click the Start button to begin the process. Depending on how often you clean temp files, execution time should be anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two. Let it run uninterrupted to completion. Once it's finished it should reboot your machine. If it does not, please manually reboot the machine yourself to ensure a complete clean. Step 2 Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop. Make sure you are connected to the Internet. Double-click on Download_mbam-setup.exe to install the application. When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings. When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked: Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware [*]Then click Finish. [*]MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan. If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself. Press the OK button to close that box and continue. If you encounter any problems while downloading the updates, manually download them from here and just double-click on mbam-rules.exe to install. [*]On the Scanner tab: Make sure the "Perform Full Scan" option is selected. Then click on the Scan button. [*]If asked to select the drives to scan, leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button. [*]The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient. [*]When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found". [*]Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process. [*]Back at the main Scanner screen, click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found. [*]Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected. [*]When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad and you may be prompted to restart your computer. (see Note below) [*]The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM. [*]Copy and paste the contents of that report in your next reply and exit MBAM. Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you will be presented with 1 of 2 prompts. Click OK to either and let MBAM proceed with the disinfection process. If asked to restart the computer, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware. Step 3 Download OTL to your desktop. if you have problems, try this download link: OTL Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted. When the window appears, underneath Output at the top change it to Minimal Output. Check the boxes beside LOP Check and Purity Check . . http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/starbuck50/new/newOtl2.png Now copy the lines in the codebox below. Code: netsvcs msconfig %SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.exe /md5start eventlog.dll scecli.dll netlogon.dll cngaudit.dll sceclt.dll ntelogon.dll logevent.dll iaStor.sys nvstor.sys atapi.sys IdeChnDr.sys viasraid.sys AGP440.sys vaxscsi.sys nvatabus.sys viamraid.sys nvata.sys nvgts.sys iastorv.sys ViPrt.sys eNetHook.dll ahcix86.sys KR10N.sys nvstor32.sys ahcix86s.sys nvrd32.sys symmpi.sys adp3132.sys /md5stop %systemroot%\*. /mp /s %systemroot%\system32\*.dll /lockedfiles %systemroot%\Tasks\*.job /lockedfiles %systemroot%\system32\drivers\*.sys /lockedfiles CREATERESTOREPOINT right click in the Custom Scans/Fixes window (under the blue bar) and choose Paste. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/starbuck50/new%20forum/scan-fix.png . Click the Run Scan button. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/starbuck50/runscan.png Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan wont take long. When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL. Please copy (Edit->Select All, Edit->Copy) the contents of these files, one at a time, and post them with your next reply. In your next reply, please submit: MBAM scan report Both reports from OTL Thanks.

OK Jim, let one of our experts take a look, I do agree it sounds like malware of one sort or another. It is up to you of course, but if there is nothing of importance now on the drive, a full reformat would possibly be a sure way to sort it out. However it can sometimes be interesting to find out what exactly has caused the problem, and how it got there in the first place, by submitting a log to our security guys. Spammers?? oh him, I got rid.:D

hi Jim. That is surely a bit of a mess at the moment, just so we can understand a little better, can you list what it will do, I assume it boots up OK, but what comes after that, can you open programs, documents etc. or does it do nothing more? We will need to know that much to direct you in hopefully the right direction. Nev.

Hi Wendy, it sounds a little unusual as all mails are kept on the hotmail server, not your computer. However to rule out anything on your computer, can you use a different one? if not yours perhaps a friends. Log into Hotmail on that computer using your log in details and see if you can access everything then. If yes, there is something wrong with your hotmail settings, if no, then there is a fault at the hotmail server. In that case I suggest sending them a mail for help. Nev.

Hi Bowler, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. To ask the obvious, have you checked the speakers, preferably on something else, and also are they fully plugged in? Next is, can you have a look in device manager for us and let us know if there are any yellow or red exclamation or question marks next to the sound, video and Games controller. To get to the device manager window, click start, then run, and type, or copy and paste into the box- devmgmt.msc Then click OK. Once the window opens scroll down the list to find the sound, video, and games controllers and click the + sign to expand it, let us know what you find. Nev.

Hi all, I have just advised another member with a similar printer problem, again a HP machine. In that case the member had already sent Mail to HP support and waiting a reply. I have had good results from their support myself, though it didn't resolve a compatibility problem I had with another program, it was the programs fault not HP. So I would try asking HP support over this as those drivers they offer should work on W7. Nev.

Hi again, this now does pose some odd questions, from the HP site I looked at earlier, all the information available gives the impression that your printer is fairly new, not dating back to 2003. it is now obvious it may not have a USB port, being that old. In the past I have dealt with HP support and although they couldn't help with a compatibility problem I had, they did at least get back to me with what help they could give. So see what they say, though I do expect them to tell you the printer is too old to be able to run it on W7, but you never know, they do support some other older machines. Nev.

Hi and welcome Seedy, I see you have been busy already, good of you! To get where Dalo is takes a lot of hard work, but with dedication and above all else enjoying doing it, you can do it too. Like everything else worth doing, the best way is start at the bottom and work your way up, that way you know you have done it the right way. Best of luck, and I hope you get the qualifications you are after, but believe me, the learning never stops. Nev.

Hi Samantha, have you tried the HP site? Have a look here, scroll down the list till you reach Windows 7 64bit. HP Deskjet 5440 Printer series- Download drivers and software - HP Business Support Center Unplug the printer, then uninstall any drivers or existing software. Then install the drivers from the HP site before plugging the printer back in. Hope that helps, Nev.

Another good converting program that I found recently that can convert almost anything to a usable file such as WMV or similar. The program is called "Any Video Converter" and if memory is correct it came from another member. It is free and can be downloaded from here- Free Video Converter - Any Video Converter Free Version - convert video to any formats, avi to MPEG, avi to MP4, flv to MPG best of luck and hope you can enjoy those video's soon. Nev.

Am I correct in assuming that running with the Ubuntu disk, the screen is fully active and you can see everything, the Ubuntu system loads OK and it all goes OK from there? If that is so then there is nothing wrong with the graphics system, from what you are saying I think you are already running graphics from the inbuilt mother board and not a separate graphics card, the VGA socket on a graphics card would be no where near the USB ports and on a slot to one side or underneath everything else. (depends on case design) That said, it does now seem to be an operating system fault, and possibly the part that controls the graphics from within Windows itself. To deal with that an operating system repair is the only option, especially if you want to retain all your data, and this can only be done with a Microsoft issue of Windows XP disk. If one cannot be borrowed, then I recommend taking in to a reputable repair shop, they should have the facilities to do a repair and if that is all that is needed it will not be too expensive. Nev.

As well as Avast, which will get any virus, you should also think about other forms of malware, to remove these we recommend "Malwarebytes" and my own personal preference "Superantispyware" which gets the odd things the others miss. Malwarebytes SUPERAntiSpyware.com - Downloads In both cases make sure you click on the free versions. Any problems with either removing anything found, or other problems, let us know and we can put this up for our security experts to look at. Otherwise have you had a look at the contents of the drive, and can you let us know what is on there, we may be able to help in removing what ever isn't needed. Nev.

I agree with Pip, here there should be a USB port on the printer to be able to connect to the computer via USB, the printer is new enough to have been built with one, so all you should need is a USB cable. Then follow the instructions on that HP link page. Nev.

The impact or percussion method reminds me of the tale that came from the old black and white TV days. a TV repair man is called out to fix a broken telly, on arrival he looks at it then thumped it. The TV sprang into life with a perfect picture and good sound. He then said "That will be five pounds and two shillings" When questioned about what was then quite a high charge, and all he did was thump it, he replied "the bill is two shillings for thumping it, the five pounds is for knowing where to thump it."

Hi Paul, have you spent any time looking at Windows 7? either trying a machine with W7 on it which is best, or at least a look at the reams of information on the Microsoft site? I find it a heck of a lot better than Vista, and also once used to the differences, XP is poor in comparison. Just my thoughts as it is a lot easier to upgrade to W7 from Vista, for a start you won't need to worry about the drivers, they should still be there with an upgrade. I can only leave it with you to decide, but before doing so I would recommend having a look at a machine running W7 and see what you think first. Otherwise, by all means go for XP, but do get the driver issue sorted out first, otherwise it won't run far enough to install XP once the drive has been formatted. Do follow everything Dalo suggests, and the order in which to do it. Nev.

OK a bit of a longer way round to see what is stored on the hard drive, first click "Start" then "computer", it should then show you Hard disk drive, plus any other drives such as a DVD or CD drive. Double click on Hard disk drive or drives. This will bring up a list of what is on it, hovering the mouse over each entry will give you some idea of it's size, but for those where it says "More than xxGB" a right click on it, then properties will give you a window showing the size, and size on disk providing the general tab is selected. Add them all up using just "Size on disk" and then Let us know what you find from there and we can go further. Another thing that may be taking up space, that could be difficult to find, is any form of malware, virus and the like. Do you have any anti-virus or other anti-malware on it yet? Nev.

Whatever it is known as, I will not take bets on whether it is the same guy. Barnett, if it was you, the answer is there on Yahoo, if not and this is coincidence the answer is still there as it is here. Buy the family licence then yes you can. If your uncle only bought a single licence, to activate your copy you will still have to buy a licence yourself. Nev.