Plastic Nev

Fast cat http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/plasticpig/Monorailcat.jpg

Hi Tony, for your safety on that machine, until you have got all the needed stuff on disk from your mates computer, please go off line. While the spyware, trojans or worse are on it, there is a great risk they will be talking back home so to speak, and downloading worse stuff onto your machine. If you have any personal details on it, that also may be being sent to someone ready to empty your bank account if those sort of details are there. Once you have the disks burned with Malwarebytes, Superantispyware, and the ATF cleaner, you may be able to get them installed directly from the disk, then run them. If there is a problem, by all means come back and tell us so we can help you to install and run them, but in the mean time keep it off line please for your safety, and maybe help prevent the rubbish from being spread on to someone else. Thanks, Nev.

Hi, I won't be back until about eight thirty tomorrow (Wednesday). Unless Maynard gets some photo's before me, I will show you where on the motherboard the sound card is likely to be, and describe in more detail how to remove it. Bear with us and we will do our best to help. Nev.

Hi again, yes it is best to turn off power when removing a PCI device to prevent static or surges causing damage, not to mention the electric shock risk. The PCI based sound card is mounted on the back of the PC by one screw usually. Remove the screw then unplug the card. Once that is done, and you then first delete any existing drivers. (The faulty card may have damaged the software) Then re install the Realteck drivers, your on board sound should then work. If not let us know as there may need to be something done in the BIOS, but we will save that one for only if we need to.

Hi JakasE, and Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help mate, I am a little confused here, but if I am right, your PCI based sound card appears to be dead, and seems to be the cause of the blue screen etc. If you disconnect all power, then remove it completely from the machine, boot up again, and then make sure you have the drivers installed (or reinstall them) for the AC97 on board sound. It should work OK from there, using the original on board sockets (for speakers/Headphones). Let us know if that sorts things or not.

Hi, Glad that the Open Office is of use to you as recommended by Maynard. Now we know that you do not actually have the full version of Microsoft Word, and only have Word Pad, that goes a long way to explaining why you were having problems. Good luck with Open Office and I am sure you will find it will do all you need. Nev.

a good idea for those with a garden or bigger plot of land for growing things Tootech. The old vinyl records soften at fairly low temperatures so hot water will allow you to mould them to any odd shape, Match. However CDs are made of tougher stuff and won't normally soften until you get to dangerous temperatures, so moulding them is out of the question. The only use I can think of is as a packing under a wobbly table leg. Any more ideas folks?

All too often it is assumed that some level of knowledge of computer use is known, where quite clearly many come for help without that level of knowledge. I have in the past seen even a lack of knowledge in the ability to copy and paste, one of the first things taught in most of the basic computer courses. Many people come to computing without having been to any form of course or further education facility as also I did. I had to learn from scratch myself with the odd bit of help from friends. To go to your particular problem and give some more meaningful help I would like some more information from yourself as to the problems you are having. On the basic start of this, you state you have a problem, and that is the low resolution you mention and covered in question 1. 1) A work screen that's as wide as possible and with a better resolution than the fatiguing one of Microsoft Word. To try to answer that, first, how big is the screen in total that you have? and also how much of that screen is covered by the page in Microsoft Word? I will hopefully show you how to get the best out of this program before we look for alternatives. There are many avenues to explore, and this can even be down to lowering the screen brightness if glare is causing fatigue.

Following on from a thread elsewhere, we all have made some duff or poor quality CD or DVD disks that are now useless, so what can be done with them? Some have said use them as coasters for drinks to sit on. However I had a bad experience doing that, the liquid (coffee) spilled and stuck it hard down to the worktop. So has anyone got a novel or different use for a duff CD? No prizes as such, but a congratulations or very well done will be issued for the best use.

Hi Doug, we could create a competition thread for the best use of a duff CD :D I once used a duff one for a mug of coffee, some spilled, ran under the mug, down through the hole in the middle, and stuck the damn thing to the work top. :eek: In fact I am off to the off topic forum to start that competition!!

So long as that enclosure has a USB connector it will do the job OK but will cost more than an adapter cable on its own. You could go to the link given by Tootech and buy the adapter on line, but if the only other way forward is the enclosure, then go for it. Nev.

It has recently been found Susan did a charity recording of "Cry me a River" some ten years ago. Her voice then should have given someone a clue as to her talent. She should have been "discovered" years ago. Have a listen to that ten year old song here- YouTube - Susan Boyle secret song!!

Robert Vamosi, on the second page, has it about right. I agree with most comments about Rick Broida, but he isn't that daft. He is a more than competent person, knows the risks and as he states, but in other words, doesn't take the risks. Fine, if he wants to live like that, let him carry on. It is folk with little computer knowledge, and niave about the security risks and dangers out on the web, who do need to be informed about, and use the best security available, and be advised to use it. For me, I stick with the free stuff, because I also stay away from the high risks, and yes I am boring too, but I am free of malware and intend staying that way.

Having read the license agreement, and to try to explain without all the legalese and mind numbing different clauses. In short you can install the product on one computer only. However you may also install this software on another portable machine providing the software is not in use at the same time on both machines. This is quite common in "End User License Agreements" (EULA) As a for instance, I have some music software for writing music, I can use it on my desktop, or I can use it on my laptop, but I am not supposed to be using both together, neither am I allowed to let someone else use one, while I am using the other. In your case, your sister will have to buy her own version or copy, to stay strictly in terms of both the EULA, and the law. Penalties for breaking these copyright laws can be quite high.

Just to qualify Matches statement, the sound output from most sound cards or even direct from the on board system such as the well known AC97, is just about enough to drive a pair of headphones. If a full sized set of speakers were plugged in, then the output chip may fry. Being the music and sound guy I am, the first thing I did was hook my PC into the Hi Fi system as soon as I got the PC.

Hi and welcome young feller, we are all still learning. At least till we learn whether there is a heaven.:D

Hi, and welcome Debs, It is obviously a second hand scanner, did the previous owner let you have any installation disks with it? Does it also show in "Add or remove hardware"? If so have you tried uninstalling everything of it and then try a reinstall, see if that works, just in case the first time round something got missed.

Hi Platti, I am afraid it is one of those things. I also have an external hard drive, which I bought in order to put all my intended video output onto (I am keen on doing a lot with my video camera this summer), instead of filling up my internal drive. Your experiences are now making me think of going down the road of now buying another but internal drive to fit in the case, (there is room) That way the external will be a copy of everything, and not the sole reciever of it all as it is now, and also in your case.

Of course another good way of improving start up time, is a good look at what loads up from boot, disable or stop items you don't need to start.

Ok Jud, from what you say, having done a full install of the OS with no change, like you, I am suspecting a fault now in the Realtek chipset, although it seemed more a software problem, hardware now looks to be the culprit, and a motherboard replacement is the only way to prove it I am afraid. One thing that may be worth a try if you can get one, would be a separate sound card installed and see if that clears the problem. Hopefully you may be able to borrow one, as if it doesn't work you will have bought one for nothing. The strange warning of a virus in a RAM stick should not have happened either, as once removed from a power source, as far as I am aware, all data should have gone from it, taking any virus with it. (I will stand to be corrected on that, as I am not totally sure) If you wish to leave it till the morning, Dalo will be back and he may have more ideas to go from here. Nev.

Hi lozz' and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, you don't say whether this is a desktop or laptop PC. However, if a desktop, is there any reason why you may not wish to lose any BIOS settings? I ask that as I am going to suggest removing the Battery, which will set the BIOS back to full factory default settings. Do you know how to do that? For help here is a link (saves me a lot of writing) Replacing the Motherboard Battery | Hardware Secrets Turn off all power to the machine and follow the instructions in the link to find and remove the battery, leave it out for at least two minutes, preferably five, then replace it. Power up the machine and try it now. You will have to reset the clock (time) if that brings your machine to life. Nev.

Hi Graham, and welcome to Free PC help. I have had a quick look at the spec for your machine and it shows you have two USB ports at the front and four at the rear, making six all together. Does your problem happen with all six or just one of the ports? The reason I ask is that your problem is symptomatic of a shorted pin, but unless you are using the same device on all ports, I cannot see that as being the problem. So can you tell us, first, is this only one port out of the six or all six? Second, is it the same device each time or different devices? third, are you using the same lead for each device?

Hi again Jud, it has to be some odd software problem causing this, besides the BIOS update, have you installed any program or deleted one, just before all this started? Also, have you tried removing the extra RAM you installed as part of the BIOS update or upgrade? You also say you have now tried a full re-install of the operating system, was this from a full XP retail disk or from a system recovery disk?

So, having read all of the above, what we are really saying is that the much hyped windows 7, is nothing more than a glorified Vista, service pack 3 :( I will save my dosh untill these two versions of XP I have, and the two machines they are on, have died without chance of recovery. Mind you if I get the spare cash, one of the bigger laptops with Vista might tempt me. By bigger I mean more HD space, higher spec CPU, etc. and trade in the present laptop.

However, there is already a problem with it, it looks like the conficker writers have seen it and done a work round, so you will now see the logo's anyway. See here- Eyeballing Conficker with eye-charts and maps | TalkBack on ZDNet Possibly the only real test is to try to download any of the security software it is configured to stop.