Plastic Nev

Hi Adam, can you tell us a bit more about the computer, make and model? If however if it is a home or local build, you may finish up having to remove the motherboard from the case in the hope there is a label or even etching in the printed circuit underneath to give us a clue. Plus of course, once it is out of the case and cables disconnected, you may then see something more that may have been hidden while inside. Nev.

Sound advice from Kelly about the possibilities of malware being responsible for that proxy server change. do run the scans mentioned, and if the slightest hint of trouble, do post in our malware removal section for our expert to have a look at. Nev.

OK, I know you are desperate for a fix, so understand you posting on multiple forums, at least thanks for that honesty Normally we refuse help on the grounds that advice from different sources can conflict and possibly lead to expensive damage to your system. So having said that, if you have a trawl round you will find some folk have a dislike of Western Digital drives. From your event log reports it does look like you have a pending drive failure, so I suggest replacement, and with a different make. Also having looked on that other forum, I see mention of both CCleaner and also the drive controller, all possible faults. The drive controller would need a new MB to fix, if that is indeed the problem. If you used the registry cleaner part of CCleaner that also can make a real mess of your registry. In these operating systems since the advent of XP there is absolutely no need to even consider trying to remove bad registry entries, the operating system itself recognises and ignores them anyway. Nev.

Hi Liann and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. I hope you find what you need. Nev.

Hi Again I was hoping there might be a reason for the problem of double speed recording within the preamp, but not that I can see from the tech info I can find on it. So we have two possibilities now, either the sound card is not installed correctly or there is something peculiar about the condenser mic you are using. The simple one is have you access to a non condenser mic, either ribbon or dynamic of some type and see what the result is. The next thing is to completely uninstall the drivers for the sound card, then also the card. Reboot then reinstall the drivers, then the card. Oh, also have you plugged the speakers into the speaker out on the card, not the socket on the computer frame. You didn't answer that last time. Nev.

As a separate post I will suggest that you uninstall all your anti-virus, while off line for your security of course, then reinstall just one copy or version of whichever antivirus you are using. Hope that helps. Nev.

Hi Volcano, we could finish up with problems here mate, especially on an issue like this being security related. All too often advice from one forum can clash or be in at least a conflict with the other, yet both forms of advice can still be right if followed individually and not both at the same time. It is when both are followed at once where one recommendation and fix can cause damage if the other recommendation or fix is also followed. It is for this reason that we put together, with help from other forums, this simple statement-- "It has come to our attention that you have posted for help on another forum(s). We do sympathise and understand that you want your problem solving as quickly as possible. Posting on multiple forums, however, is not the answer. Whether this is a malware or other problem you must realise that a great deal of time is spent by moderators and helpers in researching possible solutions for you. Under normal circumstances we do not begrudge you this time at all. After all, that is why we are here. It is, however, very frustrating to find that our colleagues on this, and other help forums, are being asked to spend time on a topic that is receiving assistance elsewhere. There is also the problem of conflicting information. There is often more than one way of solving a particular problem and if you are receiving assistance from two or more sources, this will invariably conflict or be duplicated. Either way this is a waste of helpers’ time. As you have posted on two or more sites you now have a decision to make. We are happy to help you here but you must inform the other forum(s) of your choice so that you are not wasting other helpers’ time. Similarly, if you choose to get assistance elsewhere please let us know and we will close the thread and wish you luck solving your problem." I hope you understand and will let us know which way you wish to go from here, Nev.

Hi again, in the sound recorder you say you made sure it was selected for playback, but is the M Audio selected for record as well? it should be by default I think. However can you tell me the full details of the preamplifier you are using for the mic, make and model, then I can have a look up for it and see what I can find. Nev.

Hi, have you tried the Windows sound recorder? what result do you get? Nev.

Hi Elaine, This is nothing to do with your present problem, I will leave that to those who are already working on that, but you mention you have a problem with getting screenshots. There is a splendid little program called MWSnap, you can download it free from here- Mirek's Free Windows Software MWSnap 3 is the second one down the list. Once downloaded, installed, and opened, you will see "Any rectangular area" on the left, click that, then "Snap any area" and you can then use your mouse pointer to lassoo any area, click once done and you will be presented with a snapshot of that area, just click file, then "save as". Select JPEG from the drop down menu, then save to whatever folder you have for uploading to here. Hope that is of help. Nev.

Hi, I use Audacity, but don't know the other program. However in audacity, once you have a track loaded, go to "Edit", select "All", then go to "Effect" find and click, "Change speed" in the window that opens, percent change should be set to 0.000 also check on the change pitch, this also should be at zero for percent change. If they are OK, you may need to look in the settings of your M Audio cards control panel for similar type of settings, if there are any. Also, if you look in all programs, and accessories then entertainment, you should find the Windows sound recorder, try using that and see if the speeded up effect is happening there, if so it must be a setting on your M Audio card. Nev.

Hi, you could certainly do with more RAM, 190 is not enough and the computer will run a good deal faster with more RAM. However that may not be the issue with the random shut downs, it may be due to overheating. I assume this is a desktop machine? So shut down and turn off at the mains, remove the cover, touch the case to help prevent static damage and look at the fan and heatsink on the main CPU, is there a dust and fluff build up? If so clean it out with a can of compressed air (Available at most computer parts stores) Let us know what you find. Nev.

Quite likely the driver software on the disk may already have turned off the original motherboard sound system, some cards and their drivers do this. If you are connecting your speakers to the original motherboard based sockets then they may not be working, you need to be plugged into the sound card speaker outputs. Have you also looked in the M Audio control panel for the volume sliders and mute tick boxes, are the sliders up at the top for all, and there should be no ticks in any mute boxes. Nev.

Hi Denso, glad that is all it was and you are now OK, thanks for letting us know. I must admit, I had forgotten this function was there in laptops, mainly because I have the pad turned off and use an external mouse on my lappy, I can't get used to those pads at all. :D

If you don't fancy using the temperature probe at all, leave the wires disconnected and perhaps tied out of the way. When all is said and done the internal temperature sensor within the CPU itself can be monitored by the appropriate software, and is more likely to be more accurate. A silly use could be to bring the wires out of the case, connect them by a lead to a thermocouple, to monitor your own temperature, just to make sure you stay cool while reading this forum :D :D Nev.

OK, while in device manager did you have a look at keyboard as well? It is an oddity that I have not seen before, I wonder if any one else has any answers. Nev.

Hi, when you fitted the M Audiophile 192 card did you use the disk it came with? if so which order did you do it in? In most cases the driver disk should be used first to load all the drivers, then fit the card after shutting down the PC, once rebooted the card should then work OK. If all of the above has been done in that order and the mic still doesn't work, can you tell us which cable is connected to what. Thpugh not familiar with this card I think it should be, microphone connected to preamp via mic socket, then preamp out connected to Analog input on the card, (Unless digital output from preamp) Let us know how you get on, and if no result, we will try to go further. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Does this only happen when the keyboard is being used or does the pointer freeze when a left or right mouse button is pressed as well? Can you go to "Start" then "Run", type in or copy and paste- devmgmt.msc And click OK or hit "Enter" scroll down the list to "Mice and other pointing devices", click + to expand, are there any red or yellow marks against anything? Nev.

Hi Stephen, thanks for the update and although glad you are now OK, I am a little concerned that there may be a hardware fault beginning to develop. This is now the second time this fault, or similar, has happened. Do make sure all is backed up and continue to back up new work. It may fail catastrophically next time, you never know. There are so many things, including the hard drive, that this may be down too, and if it is the hard drive, you could be struggling to get any data off it if it does fail. Thanks though for letting us know it is OK for the time being. Nev.

Hi, do you have a Windows CD? if so you may be able to use it with an external CD to USB drive. Can you please give us as much details of your netbook as possible. We know that it is an Advent, but we need model number and name, this is so we can look up how to either reinstall the operating system, or do a repair to the operating system. Nev.

Hi John, thanks for the update, at least it is working again for now, but sometimes these things happen and seemingly for no reason. However that printer is getting a tad long in age. If you wish to stay with Epson they do make new machines that quite happily run on Vista so if you can afford it, I would start with a new one.

Just a quick one, for a little help with that battery, click on this link for a detailed explanation of how to find and remove it. It is an article really aimed at when the time comes to replace it, they do go flat eventually. There are some photographs so you can recognise it, and what it looks like, as well as a description of the types of fitting. Have a look here-- Replacing the Motherboard Battery | Hardware Secrets I hope that will dispel any fears as to what to do. Nev.

I am surprised Avira has slowed things down it is not a known thing about it. However most antivirus programs do use some amount of RAM, so if you have less than 500MB of RAM, then that could be the reason. For general purposes I will recommend an upgrade to more than 500MB. The days when a windows machine could run happily with around 250MB of RAM are long gone.

Hi again I hadn't seen Kelly's post earlier that is worth looking at to see what you find there. Just on the off chance your machine is running with an older chipset, try the driver download from here, if Kelly's information produces nothing. Analog Devices Realtek AC97 Audio for VIA ® Audio... Driver Download Nev.

Hi again you could try that rout and with a decent card get much better sound quality, but seems a shame that at present we can't get the existing AC97 to work first. There is something buzzing round my head and concerns what is known as firmware, but not sure where to obtain that or even if it is needed at the moment. Hang on till one of our other guys comes on line with perhaps other suggestions. Nev.