Date: 03/14/09     Keywords: virus, spyware

My workplace has recently had an outbreak of the conficker virus and i've been kinda paranoid about my computer at home. I noticed today a process called "System" with PID 4 that is running at 62,936 K and staying there that I hadn't noticed before. I don't know if I didn't notice it and I'm just being overly paranoid or if it wasn't there. It has no "User Name" associated with it and it only uses 152 K of virtual memory.

I recently scanned with Malwarebytes Antimalware in both regular and safe modes as well as AVG in safe mode and Spyware Doctor in regular. They only came up with a few weird things that I wasn't familiar with but didn't seem all that bad.

I am preparing to just switch over to Ubuntu but I have about 3 years with this computer and I am kinda attached to it.

Using Windows XP Home SP3 by the way.

Thanks!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/956099.html

Date: 03/14/09     Keywords: no keywords

 When I connect to the internet is says I'm connected. My A.I.M and other messengers work fine, but when I open my internet explorer or Firefox it does not show up. The computer never gives me the "page cannot be displayed" page. It is just a white screen and seems as if it's loading, but nothing shows up. There is nothing wrong with my connection, because the internet on my other laptops works fine. Help please???!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/955762.html

Date: 03/13/09     Keywords: no keywords

For the last little while, I've been having issues installing programs. I've been battling a few nasty variants of the Brontok worm and I think I got it/them (at least I'm fairly confident I killed them all) and I think I'm either still dealing with the aftermath or this or I somewhere messed up my registry. I'm running Windows XP Service Pack 3 and do I have all the CD-ROMS which came with my Dell laptop purchase last summer, if it helps any.

On start up, I get this window all the time, for starters. Have had it for a while, thought it'd go away once I got rid of Brontok.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/955448.html

Date: 03/12/09     Keywords: no keywords

Hi, everyone -- I'll be getting DSL in a few days, and the company usually only provides DSL modems. Their one combination modem/router is a 2Wire model. My dad had one of those for about a year, and the signal never reached beyond the room where the router was, so I'd like to avoid it if possible. I have a Macbook running Leopard, and my roommate probably has a PC running Windows. I'm looking for two things: recommendations for a reliable, reasonably priced router, and pointers to a guide on how to set it up. Any help would be much appreciated. :)

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/954969.html

Date: 03/07/09     Keywords: software, security, virus, spyware

What is the best way to remove virus, spyware, adware, anything malicious really>?
Is running my security software in safe mode the best way to get rid of all these things>?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/954654.html

Date: 03/07/09     Keywords: no keywords

Please help me, i'm so confused! You will be my hero...


I have a bunch of music files that my computer says it is unable to play. It gives me this message:

"The selected file has an extension (.m4a) that is not recognized by Windows Media Player"
 

It then gives me the option of downloading a program off of the internet that will be able to play my file. But I have no idea what program to download. I need help! :(

I'm confused!!!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/954555.html

Date: 03/06/09     Keywords: no keywords

I discovered that some random folders that I have on my external drive are actually leftovers from when I (stupidly) upgraded to Vista and obviously went back to XP.

The thing is that now I can't seem to completely get rid of them. Any idea how I can do this? I've tried going into safe mode and deleting them from there, but no luck.

Thanks in advance :-)

x-posted

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/954234.html

Date: 02/28/09     Keywords: no keywords

Hello,

I have just had some missfortune and would love some help. I introduced a mini cd into my cd drive... (which did have some kind of apropriately sized tray for it) but it fell somewhere inside, it never came out.
I can open the cd drive as usual, the empty cd tray slides out when I press eject. And the mini cd is still somewhere inside. Where I can't see it.
Also, since that has happened, whenever I indtroduce a normal sized cd into the drive, the computer won't read it.

What to do do??

I have this, by the way... http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/HP-Pavilion-Slimline-s3000.jpg


Thankyou very much!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/953656.html

Date: 02/28/09     Keywords: no keywords

Hello there...

I recently reformatted my computer. My computer runs XP and it's a HP. The reason I'm here today is to see what I can do about this message that pops up about 10 minutes into playing The Sims 2. I actually went to the sims community on livejournal for help. They recommended to re-install DirectX? So I did and it still has the same error message occuring. I also updated my NVIDIA driver (I believe that's the correct terminology... lol). Still no luck. Is there anything I can do? I'm not too great with computers, but I still hope someone can help me...

Thanks in advance.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/953534.html

Date: 02/24/09     Keywords: web, linux, spam

OK I'm really looking for two things here.

1. I have multiple email accounts that I would like to consolidate into one portable space. I don't know if there is a webmail program that I could install on my webspace or something that could use pop email (the one that my webhost uses sucks and i hate it). I have a lot of mailing lists and all kinds of crap saved into thunderbird, but whenever I want to send an email I have to use this computer and that's becoming more and more of a pain in the ass. I've tried zenbe and I don't like it. I don't want to use gmail's feature to import pop accounts because i'm not too crazy about gmail (or any other free webmail for that matter) having access to all these emails that i'm using for my other thing. I don't want to use like portable thunderbird because it's not cross-platform (i use linux, windows and mac osx all on a regular basis) and I would like it to be web-based so I don't have to fuck with my flash drive every time I want to check my email. Something like this has to exist, and I'm sure it's free,  I just don't know where to look anymore.

2. I would like to know where I can send text messages from the internet. I don't know if just emailing a phone number works all the time. I send text messages to multiple people on a pretty regular basis (not spam but reminders about meetings and stuff) and I'm eating up all my text messages on my non-unlimited plan. This also must exist too, I just don't know where to find it.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/953129.html

Date: 02/22/09     Keywords: asp

Hey hopefully this is a quick fix

I'm having troubles connecting to my home wireless network. The network works with my room mates computer and my computer can connect to other wireless networks but won't connect to ours.

I have an Acer Aspire 5100 and I'm running Vista.

Any help would be great. Thanks

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/952590.html

Date: 02/21/09     Keywords: no keywords

Windows XP SP3
Outlook 2007

I recently set up my Outlook 2007 Inbox on Exchange. Since my calendar didn't transfer from the former IMAP account, I simply exported and then imported back in to the appropriate place. However, I now cannot delete the redundant secondary calendar- the option is grayed out. Any ideas on how to fix this? It's not horrible, but it's a bit annoying.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/952492.html

Date: 02/20/09     Keywords: virus, antivirus

Hi guys and gals,

I yet again default to your wisdom, this time for something heavy duty. I have what I assume is a Trojan. I tried on the laptop yesterday and was greeted with a desktop that said I was infected, a new admin user, no internet connectivity and no ability to run any of the malware or antivirus programs (they will not run when double clicked). When I try to control alt delete it tells me the function was restricted by the admin. When I switch to the new admin user (even in safe mode) it lags during boot and will not bring up any programs. I can control alt delete in admin, but when I try to run anything from this menu, it cannot connect to the enternet nor will it bring up any programs.

One possible solution is that a friend has malwarebyters on a flashdrive. Anyway I can get my laptop to boot from the flashdrive to solve the issue?? I really do not want to pay 200.00 to geek squad for this. :(

Thanks for any help!!!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/952124.html

Date: 02/18/09     Keywords: no keywords

I don't know if anyone here can help, but I've just about pulled my hair out over this. My boyfriend worked on my PC yesterday for hours trying to fix it, but still no go.

Basically, my PC has been infected with something. Something bad. It has jacked all my settings. There are icons on my desktop that I did not put there. The main thing is that whatever is on my computer is not allowing access to the internet, nor is it allowing access to anything administrative. I can't search, view properties, print, add/remove programs, nothing. It won't even allow installion of anything through the disc drive; my BF finally got around that some way. Whatever this is, it's a mean SOB.

Anyone have any experience with something like this? I've tried doing internet searches, but can't seem to find anything that describes my exact problem.

I'm working off my craptop at the moment, but I want my PC back! I

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/951970.html

Date: 02/09/09     Keywords: no keywords

Okay, so most people know that if you're connected to the Internet, and you put a new CD into WMP, it'll do a quick search for the CD and fill in all the info for you. I'm connected wirelessly (router got fixed, finally!) and just put in a new CD, and WMP didn't do the info-filling-in thing. Dunno if it was the CD itself or if WMP just doesn't like wireless internet. I don't think there's anything wrong with my connection, signal strength is "Excellent". Has anyone else had this problem and if so, how did you fix it? It's more just annoying than anything else, I hate having to go into Library and typing up the info myself, which I had to do here.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm using WMP 10; I used version 11 for maybe a week before realising that I hated it, so I downgraded.

EDIT again: Okay, it's not the CD; I just put another new one in and it still won't fill in the info.

EDIT drei: After extensive Googling, I finally fixed the problem.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/951261.html

Date: 01/31/09     Keywords: no keywords

Not in Exlorer 7 for XP
Not in Firefox
I have
I have no clue what I have done. All of a sudden, the videos just sit.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled Norton 360 - and they wouldn't play while I had Norton uninstalled.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled Flash

The youtube site won't even come up on firefox - it sits with an error saying "waiting for s.ytimg.com"
The site would come up on Explorer, but the video box stayed black when I clicked on a video.

I changed something somewhere - I thought I was adding www.youtube.com to a list of sites in explorer, but now it won't even go to the youtube site - it just sits loading...

What do I do now?

This just started in the past couple of days.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/950801.html

Date: 01/27/09     Keywords: no keywords

I am having problems with my Western Digital Hard Drive.

The computer recognizes the drive and has assigned it a letter. I can see the drive in Windows Explorer and I can see all the files on the drive.

It will work for a few minutes, letting me open and play files (mostly mp4 and avi). But then when I try to add certain files to my iPod, the iPod starts to add the file, then stops. And after, i can't open any of the files. The same things happens after I start to play one file in RealPlayer and then try to play another.

I still see them in Windows Explorer, but the message I get from RealPlayer is that files can't be located. Shutting down and restarting the hard drive isn't working.

Last night I hooked the drive up to another computer in the the house and tried to move as many files as I could off of it. No problems except that certain files it said it couldn't move.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/950371.html

Date: 01/25/09     Keywords: browser

Problem: My USB ports don't want to work anymore. I received an iPod Shuffle for Christmas and was able to download iTunes and set it up with no problems. It worked fine for about a week but then all my USB ports balked on me and I don't know what to do. My mother also received an iPod Shuffle, could attempting to accommodate both on one computer have screwed something up?

Operating System: Windows XP, Version 2002, Service Pack 3

Browser: IE and Firefox

Experience: Beginning to Intermediate

Problem started: About a month ago.

Steps Taken: Everything on this page and this page and this page. I also reloaded iTunes, restarted umpteen times and sacrificed to Baal. The iPods themselves work perfectly well.

Error Mssg: USB Device Not Recognized. One of the USB devices on this computer has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/950192.html

Date: 01/25/09     Keywords: no keywords

Hello,

I recently cleaned my new laptop screen with one of those travel sized patches from iKlear Screen Solutions but it has left streaks left and right all over the place...

any recommendations on how to get rid of the streaks and what to use for proper cleaning of the screen the next time around.. the screen is WLED 1440x900 if that makes any difference..

thanks for any help in advance

- Kumar

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/949793.html

Date: 01/23/09     Keywords: no keywords

We have a small home network which is a mixture of PCs and laptops and all the computers run XP Pro.

Three of the PCs are in effect 'new'. Two are out and out new and a third has been freshly installed. All updates are the most recent, i.e. SP3 and its various updates.

Our problem is that none of these PCs can see or connect to the network. They can all happily access the net (via a router) and the other computers can see and access these PCs, but they cannot even see themselves in Network Neighbourhood.

We've run the 'Set up small home network' wizard (several times); they all have the correct network name, but for some reason they simply can't access the network as such.

We're both fairly computer literate and are used to setting up and maintaining the network, these aren't the first new computers we've added and we've never had this problem before. And it isn't just us; our neighbour (who in fact supplied the two new computers) has had the same problem with another two news ones.

My theory is that it is something to do with XP SP3 - as it's the common factor between the two new machines and the one we reformatted. I think that somehow it's fine if your computer is already hooked up to the network and talking to it (all the existing computers are up to date as well with SP3), but if you download all the updates on to  a clean machine before the network has been set up something in SP3 is causing a problem. But I just do not know what.

Our network is very important to us, and whilst the new machines can be accessed via our other computers, that really isn't a solution to the problem. We've got to the stage where we are going to roll the non-brand new one back, take off SP3, get the network set up and then reinstall SP3. It's the only thing of which we can think.

However, before we do that (I really am loath to lose the various programs I've already installed on one of the machines) I thought I'd ask here is anyone else has come across this problem or if anyone has any suggestions as to what we might be missing/what we could do. If we'd never done it before, I could understand missing something, but it's something we've been doing for several years.

Can anyone help, please?

Thank you in advance.

NB. I am about to log off for the day so I won't be able to answer any possible additional question/suggestions until tomorrow.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/949744.html