Date: 10/07/07     Keywords: no keywords

This morning I turned on my computer and when it was attempting to boot, an error message came up. It said "disk boot failure insert system disk and press enter." First, I just rebooted the computer and the same message came up. I then did what it said (inserted the system disk) and it said it couldn't recognize the hard drive. So, I turned the computer off, unplugged all the cables, and opened it up. I just wanted to make sure everything looked okay and it looked just fine. So, just for kicks, I removed the cables from the drive, made sure nothing was bent, and carefully plugged the cables back in. Everything from the inside was fine. I plugged the computer back in and turned it on. From then on, it booted normally with no problems. It seemed very strange.

Now, I know that the error usually occurs when there is a problem with the boot sector. I'm just worried the problem isn't completely fixed and could come back. Are there any suggestions that I could do to permanently fix this problem? I am using Windows XP and my computer is about 3 years old. I don't want to have to spend time reformatting the hard drive again because I just did that less than 2 weeks ago. Any suggestions, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/825534.html

Date: 10/06/07     Keywords: java

This is a minor thing, but I can't seem to find any sites online that explain how to fix it.

I like to follow sports games online using ESPN's GameCast. However, when I open it in FireFox, the window is too small! About half of the info is cut off. There is no scroll bar, and it won't let me resize the window. What can I do to get FireFox to open this window full size?

What I've tried:
1) Telling FireFox to ignore Javascript resizing of windows.
2) Making sure new windows open in new tabs. GameCast opens in a new window anyway, when I right click the link and instruct it to open in a new tab, it just opens the main scoreboard page again in a new tab.

Help!

EDIT - I did just find an interesting workaround. I have the plugin for FireFox that allows you to open sites in a new Internet Explorer Tab. I opened the scoreboard page in an IE Tab, then clicked the GameCast link. It opened the GameCast page full-size, in another IE tab! Weird, but it works. I'd still like some ideas, because I know there's an easier way.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/825131.html

Date: 10/05/07     Keywords: no keywords

Alright.

I have a problem with my internet connection.
I run on Windows Vista and have Comcast Cable internet, I've called Comcast about a million times and all they tell me to do is reset my modem and router.
The router I have is Belkin Wireless G.
I have had the modem connected directly to the router, and had been using that to connect to the internet on my laptop for months.
All of a sudden it just stopped working.
First, my network wouldn't even show up in the list of available networks to connect to.
Comcast reset my modem, and now my network comes up in the list, but won't connect. It says I have limited connectivity.
I clicked diagnose to see what it would come up with and it said my DNS needed configured.
I called comcast again and they said to flush it.
I tried that, by going to the command prompt and typing in ipconfig/flushdns and I got the message in the command prompt "The requested operation requires evaluation" So I don't even think that worked or did what it was supposed to.

Ugh please help me.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/824981.html

Date: 10/04/07     Keywords: html, virus, web

This is an odd problem. I can access every site on the Web except for LJ. Every time I try to go there I get an 'Explorer has caused an error in MSHTML.DLL. Explorer will now close.' message and then I'm kicked out. I can get to LJ clone sites just fine.

I cleared my cache and ran my virus and ad-block programs in normal and safe mode but it hasn't helped.

Help!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/824763.html

Date: 10/04/07     Keywords: google

Okay, I need to get my hands on Windows XP Media Center Edition. Where can I legally / lawfully purchase such a thing? I found it on Amazon.com (Googled it) and found it for as little as $120 and as much as $450. I figure there can't be such a huge price difference, so the $120 one must be illegal, right?

I need to reinstall Windows XP Media Center on my computer so then I can get the restore disks from Sony to restore my Vaio laptop to factory settings (long story, don't ask) so I can have it back in working order again.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/824324.html

Date: 10/01/07     Keywords: no keywords

Ok, so I'm good with coding and such but not when it comes to finding programs. haha. My friend want a program where he can set up his computers and control them from one computer. Also he wants to be able to have multiple screens open and be able to drag stuff from one to the other. Have any programs I can suggest to him?

ty!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/823852.html

Date: 10/01/07     Keywords: no keywords

Sorry for those of you that have already seen this, but I thought that I would try over here too. So, I used to have a Gateway laptop, that I have since replaced with a Toshiba laptop. This is my problem. I have Motorola Phone Tools that I used to use to create my own ringtones and to transfers stuff from my computer to my phone and from my phone to my computer. Since I changed computers though, MPT does not work. I think it has something to do with the fact that I was using Windows XP before, and now I'm using Vista. I have managed to fiddle around with it and it works for the most part now, but, I now have a large problem that I just can't seem to fix. I seem to be missing some type of mp3 codex, and this is keeping my from being able to make my own ringtones, which is the reason why I use MPT to begin with. I tried switching to several other programs, but they all tell me the same thing, missing mp3 codex. I can play music fine on my computer, iTunes works fine, Windows Media Player works, the only thing(s) I can't get to work are anything that I try and use to make a ringtone. I have tried to fix this by downloading several codex(s?) from different sources, but nothing seems to work. Anybody out there that can help me? Please? I know this got kinda long, if someone could tell me how to do a cut I would be very happy to do so.
I can't get my computer to work with LAME, so any help there would be appreciated, because I have been told that this could solve my problem, but when I try to get it to run, it comes up with a error message that it can't open up the file type.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/823623.html

Date: 09/29/07     Keywords: microsoft

How do I import fonts into Microsoft Word (I have XP and 2000)?

If it is possible are there only certain types of font files that will work?


TIA :)

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/823079.html

Date: 09/29/07     Keywords: no keywords

I am not computer savvy.
Our computer crashed and my brother brought it back to life with some disk or whatever he borrowed from a friend. The problem is, when I tried to put in a CD or upload iTunes it says some sound device is needed or something of the sort and my brother [who got a free iMac] probably would have downloaded whatever was necessary, but seeing as he he has his own computer and is a selfish brat won't even bother. "Do it yourself." he said. Let me repeat: I am not computer savvy. Can someone PLEASE tell me what/where I can legally download or what I have to do to fix this?!!!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/822952.html

Date: 09/29/07     Keywords: software, browser, virus, google

A pox on virus writers. Damn you all, you complicate everything needlessly and should suffer accordingly! But you won't, which is the greatest injustice!

Anyway. I got some virus protection software from Verizon, my ISP. Ever since then, when I click the "send" button in my browser as I'm composing emails with gmail (google mail), *nothing* happens. Other than the little depression graphic for the actual button looks like its being activated. But it LIES! Cause as I've said, nothing, in fact, happens. As in, the mail is not sent.

Anyone know a fix for this? I've tinkered with the software, and haven't found a way to resolve this. I'm guessing its just a pesky setting, but I'm uber annoyed and if anyone has a fix I'd be much obliged. If not, I'll be satisfied with some sympathy. ^_^ I'm also open to the possibility that it might not be the software, and just a coincidence with something else, but I'm skeptical. I think the virus software is by far the most likely culprit.

X posted

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/822751.html

Date: 09/27/07     Keywords: no keywords

Hello. I have a CDROM, just R not rewriteable, that I had put a whole lot of files on and I tried to view them but can't. I think the problem is that the files are 'read only'. I cannot change this though I have tried by right clicking the name and trying to untick the 'read only' box. It doesn't work.

I can't view the file no matter what type and I can't copy the files to my computer.

I think what happened is that I had copied the files to cdrom after loading them from a cdrom and that is how they became read only because I noticed that my files became read only if I copied them to my harddrive from cdrom. I must have copied them back to a cdrom later on and not realized the problem.

I'd really like access to these files. Many are picture files that exsist on no other of my cdrom's.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/822438.html

Date: 09/26/07     Keywords: microsoft

Ok, i've never had this problem before. I have XP home and I installed WMP9. Everything works fine except for the 'Skin Chooser' Tab. When I click on it, it hangs for like 1 minute (with the 'busy' cursor in front of black or white screen in WMP), and after it finally loads, it displays the skins available like normal, but selecting one of them also makes it hang for a while, but then it loads the skin properly. I've used WMP9 before I reformatted, and it never did this.


It always ran smoothly. Now, i'm not sure why this is happening. All the skins are completely compatible skins that i've used before and never had any problems with. i've been looking all day for a way to repair/uninstall WMP9, but i've found that well, there is no way. I had System Restore off at the time it was Installed (despite the warning to turn it on .. stupid, I know) .. and so there is no way to completely remove it. I have no idea why microsoft would make it so embedded in the system so you could never remove it.

That doesn't make sense and it's quite annoying. If you don't want to have something on your computer, you should be able to uninstall it if you want, but things like this make it feel like this is really Microsoft's computer and not really *your* computer, since they have control over what you do .. Anyways, My computer came with WMP 8 pre-installed, and I have no restore points before I installed WMP9. I tried reintalling it, the Skin Chooser Problem still occurs, one line of code that you put into your 'run' box and that's supposed to 'roll back' to a previous version .. that doesn't work, it simply prevents WMP9 from running so that you have to re-install it again .. and that's a waste of time, and basically, nothing works.

If I can't find a solution to it, i'm this close to Backing up my data and Completely formatting and Reinstalling Windows again, but that's time consuming and I really don't want to do that .. so can someone help me with this problem? I would very much appreciate it, since I don't know what the problem is .. thanks alot :)

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/822087.html

Date: 09/25/07     Keywords: no keywords

Okay, I'm pretty much tearing my hair because of this...

Does someone have the (bleeep) drivers for the Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC Network card? Without them my PC keeps restarting itself, and I've searched for them in the Realtek homepage without any luck.

(I use Windows XP, if you wonder)

Thanks in advance! :D

- x-posted to other comms.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/821800.html

Date: 09/25/07     Keywords: virus

ok, so I just installed the new version of AVG Antil virus 7.5 free edition .. everything works fine except for the Resident Shield. It tells me on startup that the resident shield is not installed, and when I go to install it, I can't because the option to install it is greyed out. There is no way to enable it, and the avg system tray icon is grey .. avg is set to run at startup, so i'd like to know how to fix this.

I have win Xp home.

Thanks!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/821712.html

Date: 09/25/07     Keywords: no keywords

My hard drive recently died, so I replaced it and reinstalled windows xp. However, somehow, it seems that the standard VGA driver isn't there, but I thought that it was normally included with windows. I tried to just load the ATI driver from the install CD, but it said it failed and couldn't do this without the standard VGA driver installed. I uninstalled the VGA driver (it had the yellow ? icon) from device manager and rebooted, but the install wizard that popped up can't find it anywhere...

My video card IS functioning, I'm typing this from my computer, but poorly. Scrolling is really jerky, for example.

Help?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/821447.html

Date: 09/23/07     Keywords: no keywords

i'm on my sister's laptop in case anyone is wondering ..

Ok, so I have windows xp home. My computer was working completely fine before this. My friend was installing themes for me .. and he came across a matching shutdown screen that is supposed to match the theme .. all you need to do is replace msgina.dll with a file replacer .. the original msgina.dll was 9.45 kb, the new one was 1.05 mb ..

well he did that, and after that, my computer would not boot up correctly.

When it looked as if it was going to load the 'welcome' screen where you enter your password, just a black screen and the cursor appeared, and a window flashed on the screen for about half a second, I couldn't really read it, but it looked as it it said 'starting windows' .. then it didn't load past that, it just restarted.

and the same thing happens in safe mode.

I have the original copy of msgina.dll on my flash drive, which is E:, but when I use my recovery CD in the dos command prompt, it will not accept any of my commands .. I type REPLACE or RENAME and it says 'the command is not recognized'. And it just keeps rebooting itself .. it won't go to the desktop, all I can do is use the recovery cd and the command prompt.

I don't know what to do .. how do I replace the file from the command prompt?

I really need some help .. thanks alot.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/821024.html

Date: 09/23/07     Keywords: no keywords

Alright, so my girlfriend's monitor stopped working properly yesterday. We're guessing that maybe it short circuited but we don't know. The issue is that it just won't turn on for more than a few seconds. Everything's plugged in properly, so that couldn't be the problem. I'm not very computer literate, so I can't offer any helpful advice rather than smack it. :P It's not a very old monitor either, only a year or so. Anyone have any idea what the issue could be and how to fix it before she gets a new one? 

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/820581.html

Date: 09/22/07     Keywords: virus, antivirus, spyware

Bought a desktop from a friend who reformatted the computer. Uuuuunfortunately he did so with a windows disc he'd already used once before (I'm completely technically illiterate so if I use a completely wrong phrase feel free to laugh) So the thing works pretty well and I haven't had any issues with the antivirus freewares he installed. But recently the computer froze and I had to restart it, and since then when I go to listen to something it tells me there's an audio error. My speakers are plugged in and in working condition. They worked before the crash! So anyone know what to do?

Also, on my shitty laptop I'm having TONS of problem with the internet. I use Firefox but still occasionally when I click on something it makes it open in IE. Well, now the stupid "This window requires you to be online blah blah connect or work offline" box pops up and doesn't take no for an answer! I'm almost ALWAYS on the internet, but it insists on asking me to connect to the old dial up my father had 3 years ago when it was his. And now I'm having pop-up upon pop-up (tongue twister) randomly... um... popping up... with IE whether or not I'm using it. My pop-up blocker is on so I'm assuming this is spyware or something... Also, my computer is having an awful lot of "fatal errors."

And problem 3, my laptop is RIDICULOUSLY slow, and my desktop is always on the internet. So I keep my music on the desktop and decided to delete it off of my laptop so I could connect my Iphone to the faster computer. Well, go figure, I get a pop-up on my desktop when I connect it saying I need Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher. How do I get this, or is there a way around it?

xposted to computersupport

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/820218.html

Date: 09/20/07     Keywords: browser

What does it mean when I click on the various tabs I have open in Firefox, but it won't switch to that tab? It's happened on both my PC at home and my MAC at work. The page title in the browser title bar changes accordingly, but the page remains stuck on whatever tab I successfully opened last.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/819491.html

Date: 09/19/07     Keywords: yahoo

Is anyone else getting this error when they try to log in to Yahoo! mail?

"The page isn't redirecting properly

Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

* This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept
cookies."

The thing is, I don't have cookies (at least for Yahoo) blocked or disabled. Any other thoughts as to what might be causing it?

EDIT: It's mysteriously fixed. Must have been a problem on their end.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/819397.html