Plastic Nev

Just to add, I see you used a registry repair program, these programs are next to useless, and by removing registry items can do damage, we never recommend them for that reason. A system restore will hopefully recover registry damage if any has occurred. Nev.

Hi, If you know the way through to system restore, and can select a restore point that is previous to when the problem started, I would certainly give it a try. That will at least rule out any recent software changes as being the cause. If not sure how to get to system restore in Windows 7 let us know. Nev.

Hello Brian, and a warm welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Whatever your problems post them where relevant and we will do our best to help. If not sure exactly where to post, then use whatever operating system section applies, and we will take it from there. Nev.

Sorry to say, it looks like we are getting to the end of the line here, you can try, and I would do so, try Recuva on the EHD as 4ndy suggests, to see if anything can still be recovered from the as yet unused portion, but I don't hold out much hope of retrieving everything. The real problem started when the EHD was reformatted, if you had come and asked about that and not reformatted we would possibly have had greater success. Nev.

OK, the next move is to isolate whether it is a browser issue or something else, the simplest way is to install a different browser and run that, see if the problem occurs on that. There are quite a few browsers around so try one at a time till you find one you like and see how it goes. Common well known and used are= Firefox. Opera, Chrome, Safari. Try Firefox first and see how you get on. Nev.

OK, everything is now looking to be some damage to the files, why? I can only assume that happened in the original virus attack rather than since, but you never can tell. Anyway, I have trawled all over the place looking for anything looking promising and I have found a free download for a file repair software, have a look here and give it a try, you never know it just might be what you need. http://www.filerepair1.com/ best of luck, Nev.

OK, thanks, there is something strange as explorer shouldn't be anywhere near that. I have let our security guy Starbuck know you have posted the OTL logs etc as attachments, so he can take a look see if there is a malware presence causing it. Please be patient as he may be busy elsewhere. Nev.

OK thanks for trying, though I wasn't too hopeful ;) Let's go through some things then and see if there are any clues. First right click on a file again, do you get a "Take ownership" if so try that first, if that does nothing go to the bottom of the list and lets have a look at "Properties", Under the general tab for "Type of File" it should say "MP3 Format Sound (.MP3)" If an MP3 file originally. For WMV it should say "Windows Media Audio/Video File (.WMV) If they show as that, (Let me know if not, and what it says) We need to look at the "Security" tab in the properties box, it should list you under Group or user names, and it should also have ticks under Allow in Permissions for Everyone except no tick at all for Special Permissions. Next to look at is the details tab, scroll down to folder path, it should read = C:\Users\your name\My videos. C: being the drive it is on or other letter if different, My Videos being the folder it is in if a video file. Let me know if anything different shows up in those searches. Nev.

The Elephants Graveyard. A baby elephant is feeling sick and knows that his time is not long, his mother also knows this, so when he says I think I am going to die, his mother tells him that elephants don't just die anywhere, they have to go to the special and hidden elephants graveyard to die. She then tells him how to get there, the journey takes him many weeks, and already weakened by his terminal illness, when he finally gets there it is very late and just going dark. He falls asleep, leaning on a big old bull elephant and manages to stay alive and rest for all of that long dark night. Eventually the sun rises and the new day starts, the baby elephant and the big old bull both wake up simultaneously, so the big old feller looks down at the little baby and says, "Hello little feller, have you come here to die?" The little baby elephant looks up at the big old bull elephant and with a puzzled look on his face says "No, I came here yesterdie"

Hi Paul, The desktop icons first, right click on an empty area of the desktop, go to "View", is there a tick in the box for "Show desktop Icons"? if not put one in. Next the tool bars, I assume you mean in browser windows or do you mean the bottom task bar? let us know which you mean please. Nev.

HI, Good to know at least that DVD drive was one of the problems and sorted by removing it. Have you looked in the task manager? Click start, then in the search box type, or copy and paste,= taskmgr Click on or select taskmgr.exe, then select the processes tab, have a look under memory as to what is using the high amount, let us know what you find. It should also tell you on the bottom right "Physical Memory" in % Nev.

Hi, this may be worth a try, on any one of the files that won't play, right click on it, in the box that opens click "Properties" In the properties box click the tab for "Previous versions" if there is one it will come up, click on "Restore" and hopefully that should then play. If not there may be something else to try, so let us know. Nev.

Being a simple sort of guy, I assume you mean to turn off the voice over when Avast updates, and you don't want to turn off the missus. :D I haven't tried this, but I think this is the way to turn that voice over off. Open the main Avast panel, then click settings, select sounds, at the bottom is a tick box for "Use voice over sounds, (when available)" remove the tick and see if the voice over has gone at the next update. Nev.

Hi, I assume you mean the home page of your browser which again I assume is Internet Explorer. Just to try and prove a point have you yet tried a different page as the home page, just for an example you could try ours for Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, but any other page would suffice. Also what anti virus have you got installed, also which firewall, and any other security products such Malwarebytes or other antispyware? If so have you run any scans with them, sometimes virus or other malware can change home pages. Nev.

Hi, I have just re read through in case I missed something earlier, so let us just have a recap on what happened. First, some short time after buying your laptop you finished up with a bad virus which forced you to re install Windows which sent the laptop back to what is called factory condition. Is that correct? You had also a large number of music and video files stored on an external hard drive, however after restoring the laptop to factory condition, it refused to see all the files on the external hard drive, and told you the drive needed formatting. You did that and reformatted the external drive, then found all the files gone from the hard drive, however you found and used a file recovery software to rescue those files, in doing so you put the files onto the laptop rather than back to the external drive. Is that also correct so far? Now the Windows media files and only those that were on that hard drive, cannot be played or recognised by any player, yet non WMV or WMP files are OK? If you can just clear this up I will have perhaps a better idea of what we may try next. After a few answers and replies, things sometimes can get confused when new information comes to light you see. Nev.

I would think the files are not compressed if file size is the same as original. I am not happy about that report which I assume came from AVC when it tried to open the file. I am sorry but it does look like corruption has happened to them. As I said earlier, the EHD cutting out due to poor connection is the most likely reason for that corruption. I will leave it open in case someone has any idea's as to how to rescue those files, but if not, it looks like they are gone. Nev.

Hi, what is the file extension to those files, is it just WMV, or MP3 or is there some more either before or after those normal letters? I am thinking perhaps a file converter program may throw some light on this, there is a wonderful and free download you could try called Any Video Converter, if the files are corrupt and unusable it will at least tell you so, otherwise it should be able to handle them or at worse tell you they are compressed, though normally it can handle that too. Here is the address to download it from= http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ I suggest trying one or perhaps several through it, it will convert any video file, to any other format, if the file is OK. You may then be able to view them if it will convert them to say AVI or similar. Nev.

Hi, There are a few things I can mention here, but first if at all possible via maybe a friend, can you try this external hard drive on a different computer. That is so we can rule in or out the player on your laptop, and also the files on your External hard drive. Also I would suggest a new USB lead to try and stop this cutting out, the worry with that is that files can be damaged which are stored on that EHD, and could be the reason why some will no longer play. Let us know if it is possible to try it on a different computer or not and I can possibly go from there. Nev.

Hi, if you look between the outer metal of the case and that cage, you should see plastic clips, similar to those in my previous photo's, though different to my machine the principal of removing the plastic outer will be the same I would think. Nev.

Hi, you will need a USB to either SATA or IDE adapter, the type depends on the drive type itself, as this is an XP machine I would think it is most likely to be IDE but more recent machines did use SATA. To be sure you need to remove the hard drive, which you will have to do anyway, and check. IDE is a broad but thin ribbon type cable, SATA is a much smaller cable, this is the easiest way to tell. Here is a google image of IDE cables. http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1170&bih=860&q=IDE+cable&gbv=2&oq=IDE+cable&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3431l6922l0l8445l9l9l0l2l2l0l271l1278l0.6.1l7l0 And here SATA cables http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1170&bih=860&q=IDE+cable&gbv=2&oq=IDE+cable&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3431l6922l0l8445l9l9l0l2l2l0l271l1278l0.6.1l7l0#hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=SATA+cable&pbx=1&oq=SATA+cable&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=88669l91550l0l98324l7l7l0l0l0l6l1260l4331l3-2.2.1.1.1l7l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=876273256b2fe292&biw=1170&bih=860 Here is a dual type adapter, which will connect either SATA or IDE to USB. Plenty more and possibly cheaper if you search on Google, or from any reasonably large computer hardware retailer. http://www.usbnow.co.uk/p52/USB_2.0_IDE_&_SATA_Cable_%28with_Power_Supply%29/product_info.html Once the adapter has been acquired or bought, they are not expensive by the way, you connect the drive at one end, and just plug it into the USB of the working machine. The drive, if OK will show up just the same as any external drive such as a flash drive would, access to files is exactly the same too. Hope that is of help, Nev. Edit, You nipped in Ken while I was writing that. LOL.

Hi, I don't know where the manufacturer gets the idea from that bluetooth is an embedded feature of Windows 7. I have the professional version and can't find any reference to bluetooth on mine either. I would be looking to a dongle that will work with the 64bit system as Randy says. Nev.

Hi oldtrucker, Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Oh dear, Norton still doing one of its old tricks and blocking something I am afraid. Similar happened to me many years ago with a pdf file blocked in the help section of a program. I didn't even know it was there till I removed Norton in favour of a different firewall and antivirus. I don't have Norton so I can only guess, but it must be somewhere in the blocked list, but what you are looking for is a block against any part of Adobe Flash player I would think. Nev.

Only a suggestion, but till BD sort out their problems I would be removing it and installing a different AV. Nev.

Hi 4ndy and welcome to the mad house, plenty of digital chaos here at times for you. Nev.

Hi, if the disks you have are the original recovery disks for both the Windows7 operating system, and the relevant drivers, yes you can use them. It will reinstall the system back to the condition it was in when bought as that is where you want to be. The hacked or pirated software seems to have damaged things, so please don't reinstall that. If you really wanted the extra things it provides, the upgrade done legally isn't that expensive if bought through a licensed dealer and what is more, it will come with all the right drivers too. Nev.