Plastic Nev

Sorry, but we cannot help with what is obviously a pirated version of software, it is against the forum rules, all I can help with is to advise you to reinstall the original Windows operating system, and start from scratch with that only. If you wish to use any upgrade we can only advise to buy from the relevant suppliers. Nev.

Hi Sina, also from what you are saying I understand that you removed the battery for storage, how long was the laptop without its battery? Bios may now have reset to default which could be the source of the problem. Ken may know more about that though. Nev.

Hi Sambo, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, Two things are a worry, first can you explain a bit more about this infinium disk, what exactly is it? Also where did it come from and why if a Windows upgrade did it need drivers? Secondly, we never recommend registry cleaners, they are useless and do more harm than good. The only cleaner we will recommend is C.Cleaner without using the registry section. Do you have or did you make a recovery disk? you may have to use it to get your system at least back to the Windows7 home premium. Nev.

Free music software for music notation. For those of us who play an instrument, can read music, and like to write your own, I have recently found a notation program that very nearly is as good as the top end and expensive Sibelius or Finale. It is called simply "MuseScore" and can be downloaded from here= http://musescore.org/ It can also handle MIDI files and present them in notational form, this is handy for learning or just playing, any well known piece that has been written and published as a midi file, of which there are hundreds of sites on the net. In most cases for musical experimenting, these files can be added to or otherwise altered to customise or jazz up a piece too.

A bit old now but for others benefit C.Cleaner is safe as long as the registry side of the cleaner is not used. No registry cleaner is safe, not only that, they are not necessary. Registry files are all important, even so called orphaned files, as they may contain some part of the code for something else to work. For video conversion to a DVD playable format, the best free one I found is AVC, "Any Video Converter" from here= http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ Nev.

Hi, and congratulations from me to, the graphics card was one of those things we might have got to, but as it was, none of the symptoms pointed in that direction. Usually you would see strange things happening on screen when they go wrong, which would have put us straight in that direction. I hope all now is well, and please stay away from registry cleaners, C.Cleaner is a great tool, just as long as you don't use the registry side of it, as it will help keeping the accumulated ordinary junk files out of the system that do cause slow downs. Someone with much more knowledge than myself some years ago described the fact that so called orphaned files, or damaged files in the registry are totally ignored by the Windows operating system, it is clever enough to recognise and step over them without slowing anything down, so the registry is best left alone for Windows itself to manage.

I certainly would use system restore because right at this moment we, and not even you, know for certain that it is an update at fault. Let us first determine that by doing a system restore. If the fault goes away it is likely to be an update, if the fault persists, we will then know to look somewhere else. At the moment we are all up in the air and not knowing anything for sure. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Providing that the Advent hard drive still works yes it can be done but you will need a full copy of the operating system that is on it, or the copy of the operating system that was on the Toshiba, preferably the Toshiba disk or disks. Do you have the Toshiba disks? At the moment the operating system that is on the Advent drive, Windows XP or whatever, is seeing an entirely alien environment and will refuse to boot. Nev.

Only just seen this Jim, I take it the CRT monitor works OK so proving the computer itself is OK. From there you are looking for a new monitor. As far as I am aware there is little difference between makes of monitor as far as reliability, I cannot honestly say I have seen problems with any one particular manufacturer as far as monitors are concerned, so it is more a matter of what you want in size and cost really. Nev.

Some printer manufacturers have issued driver and firmware updates for running their equipment on 64bit windows7, but only for newer stuff, have you looked at the Epson site for updates for your model? Nev.

Glad you got a speedy response and all is well again, thank you for the report back too. Nev.

It should say "Sound Video and Games controllers with an expansion arrow to the left, click the arrow, and you should then see Realtek High Definition Sound, double click that and the box that then opens has three tabs, General, Driver, and Details. Hopefully you should also see either a yellow or red exclamation or question mark with some of this. If so, it means there are no drivers for the sound system, so click the drivers tab, then "update Driver" You will then be asked how do you want to search for driver software, I doubt that there will be any already on you computer at this point, so click the first option to "Search Automatically for updated software. Windows should then search and find the relevant drivers. The drivers got lost when you reformatted the disk before the full install of Windows 7, hence why no sound now. Hopefully it is all that is needed is to get the drivers on board again, if anything different please let us know. Nev.

From the speeds quoted so far, I am assuming that you are getting the Virgin service via the telephone line anyway and you are not on cable. Rather than BT via the telephone line, I would be looking at prices and deals from the independent ISP's, some of them can be extremely competitive. Have a good look round at what is on offer, both the prices and the data cap imposed, plus what excess charges are for going over the cap. As far as the original question of which security system you install once a better or cheaper service is found, there are some good all round antivirus and complete security suites available, but also a lot of rubbish too. Have a look here these people do independent testing of all security software. http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/quarter-22011/ Have a good look round at what they have tested and found, you will be surprised. Nev.

Hi, although at the moment we can't help with very much, once you have made that system legal, if there are still problems there are quite a few things can be tried. Just either obtain a genuine copy of of Windows7 and re-install the system, which is the most preferable, or get in touch with Microsoft and explain the situation, it may mean paying for it but they can sometimes validate the system as it stands. Not the best way though, as it may already be corrupted as pirated copies quite often are. Nev.

OK, you really do need to get that system sorted and there is only one reasonable way forward, as we now know it is a Compaq machine, you can try sending them either a letter or E mail asking if there is a possibility of them sending a replacement recovery disk. It may cost a small sum, but I doubt it would be the same as the full cost of a full XP disk. You will need to send all details, model name and number, and possibly approximate year of manufacture. If you can obtain a disk by that method, remember that it will delete everything you have, so if you have an external hard drive, make sure everything is copied or backed up to that, if no drive then a large number of DVD or CD disks will be needed. Nev.

Hi Rondylan, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. If it used to run at the quoted speed or something near that, the most likely cause will be either the BT hub going faulty or perhaps a line fault. Is the phone connected to the same line? If so can you hear any background noise such as crackling or fizzing sounds on the handset? If the line itself seems OK I would be asking for a new home hub, they don't last for ever and I have known of other router type connections going slow over time. Other members may ask you to try some tests that I am not too familiar with, these may help to pinpoint things a bit more accurately for you. Nev.

Hi again, with a system this old, motherboard drivers may be difficult, one problem being that Packard Bell is now part of Acer which doesn't help. However, rather than the motherboard drivers, I am a little worried about the Windows system itself, do you have the disks for the original system just in case? When Ken gets back he may also have some more idea's too. Nev.

Hi Morag, Starbuck is now off on holiday for a week, however I will first offer some advice, others may also. Now the hard drive has been replaced the computer will now be just the same as when first bought. I must ask, did the repair technician re-install the original operating system, or a new one? if so please ask them if it is a legal install, you may have been billed for it if a new one. Install the Norton if you wish or haven't yet done so. It would pay to also install Malwarebytes, this is an anti-malware in general detector and remover and is useful to complement the anti-virus of the Norton. Download and install the free version from here= http://www.malwarebytes.org/ Click the white button for the free version. Once installed, always check for updates first, then run a scan at regular intervals to ensure the machine stays clean of spywares and other malware. As for your other question, hard drives can fail for all sorts of reasons, however laptop hard drives do get more punishment in knocks and bangs which will shorten their life, however it is extremely unlikely to have been virus or other malware, they cannot do physical damage, only software and operating systems are damaged by malwares. I am also glad to know that everything was backed up so there is no data loss from the duff hard drive. If keeping that drive, at some stage you may find a need to recover something from it perhaps, if so let us know and we can advise how best to do so. If on the other hand you do not wish to keep it, don't just throw it away, someone else may recover it and any sensitive data that will still be on it. Totally destroy it so that all recorded data is lost and cannot be recovered by anyone, therefore protecting your privacy. Nev.

Hum, if restore points aren't working that suggests a messed up system overall. That could be due to a variety of reasons, but malware being one of them, I suggest first a scan with Malwarebytes. If you already have it, update and run a scan, if not download Malwarebytes free from here= http://www.malwarebytes.org/ Once downloaded and installed, send it off for updates as the download is sometimes a few days out of date. Then run a quick scan. Once it has done, it opens a document with the results, copy and paste those results here please. Nev.

Possibly is the cause, if you update MSN to the newest which is Windows live messenger you may find it goes OK then. Nev.

Just one thing to mention as I run Open office, and found that open office doesn't like works word 8 files, unless you change them to the older .doc file name extension. Nev.

You could go to device manager, click start, then run, type or copy and paste= devmgmt.msc that will list all devices, a double click on each will then open a small window, click the driver tab, then "Update driver" A bit long winded I know but the system searches the net for relevant updated drivers for you. Nev.

Just one thing left that might work, go to system restore, and hopefully there may be a restore point far enough back in time to before Messenger stopped working correctly. You won't lose any files or folders, but any programs installed since that restore point will have to be re-installed. Nev.

Hum, running short of idea's here, Ken may have something when he returns, please be patient. Nev.

Do have or can you borrow an XP disk? Nev.