Topic: I have computer related questions. Can you help?

[DAaaMan64]

What? Viruses don't just activate or run themselves. At some point you have to tell the code to run. Just plug that bitch into another computer and scan it or grab your data. Then I would wipe that thing.

[TheBlackCat]

What? Viruses don't just activate or run themselves.

Depending on your windows version and autoplay settings they most certainly can.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm gonna get an external enclosure and hook it up to a old laptop and scan it from there.

If the laptop gets infected... no one cares. I'll just wipe that and try again. But there may be some data on this drive that I want and I can't even boot the computer up anymore. It was my #1 computer until the one I just built (and my girl got a new laptop the other day too).

Do you think I can just partition the drive and install Win7 on that computer and then virus scan it?
I really don't think there is anything too important on the drive, so I won't shed a tear if I never see it again.

[BlackNMild2k1]

The other computer at my moms house just bluescreened too.

won't boot past the intel inside screen. what can I do?
I'm blaming Norton for this becuase we've had nothing but problems with this program on every XP machine I've installed it on.

Help me please.

I have the HP recovery disc & the the WinXP disc, but it's no good since it will not boot past the first screen on start up.


edit: Computer fixed, and 1st computer is about to get formatted and have Win7 installed next time I go there. Hopefully that solves all problems.


Norton is still saying that there is no virus protection though. If it wasn't free I wouldn't use it.

[DAaaMan64]

What? Viruses don't just activate or run themselves.

Depending on your windows version and autoplay settings they most certainly can.

You can't autoplay a hard drive you plugged into with SATA/IDE.

Norton is still saying that there is no virus protection though. If it wasn't free I wouldn't use it.

Try out other free virus programs, many of them are much less irritating then Norton. Seems most people use AVG these days.

[BlackNMild2k1]

What? Viruses don't just activate or run themselves.

Depending on your windows version and autoplay settings they most certainly can.

You can't autoplay a hard drive you plugged into with SATA/IDE.

So I should plug it into the other computer that bluescreened earlier today?
take what I want to keep and then wipe it and install Win7?

[DAaaMan64]

What? Viruses don't just activate or run themselves.

Depending on your windows version and autoplay settings they most certainly can.

You can't autoplay a hard drive you plugged into with SATA/IDE.

So I should plug it into the other computer that bluescreened earlier today?
take what I want to keep and then wipe it and install Win7?

Oh man, your computers just **** on you don't they? What the hell browser are you using that you have all these problems? Also note that a lot of the time Blue screens are caused back bad hardware, not just software and viruses.

As far as what you should do, just listen to BlackCat, if autorun off a sata/ide harddrive is some how possible like he is sure of, just do it the safest way possible.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I blame it on Norton honestly. That's when all the problems started.

The 1st computer was barely ever used and only left on because Magic Jack was hooked to it, the upstairs I fixed but it's because My mom downloads crap and ignores the pop-ups warning her of stuff.

When I was on that computer everyday, there were never any problems. But the installation of Norton is when everything started to go wrong. but only on the XP machines.

[DAaaMan64]

How to keep a computer running nice in 2 steps:

1. Don't use Internet Explorer. (Use Chrome, FireFox, Opera, or something else.)
2. Use your best judgement about what you download, don't download a ".exe" unless your sure of what it is and where it comes from.

Advanced suggestions:
1. Learn to use msconfig + google. (msnconfig can be used by pressing start -> run -> msconfig. Under the Startup tab, carefully manage what is starting up with your machine. You can google process your not sure about.
2. Learn to manual eliminate threats. Computer running weird / slow? Look for a weird process running in Task Manager, google the name of the ".exe".  That will tell you if it is a safe exe. If it is dangerous, if simply kill the process and delete the .exe wherever you find it. If you can't kill or delete it, reboot in safemode and delete the bitch.  Also look into turning of shitty slow services if your really in need of speed. (You shouldn't be)

I run a Windows machine with and without a virus scanner. I do not need to constantly reinstall windows or "run scans" or any of that bull ****. All I do is the above.

GL

[BlackNMild2k1]

let me give a more detailed description of what happened.

2 computers in the house, both on XP. Upstairs (my moms) & downstairs (mine).
My mom uses IE even though I tell her not to and provided her with FF & Chrome.
McAfee always did a decent job of keeping the computer clean, backed up with Malwarebytes and System Mechanic Pro.

Downstairs my computer was always fine. Never a problem. Used only FF & Chrome. McAfee, Malwarebytes & SysMechPro.

Comcast decides that they don't want to give McAfee for free anymore and Norton was now their provided PC Protection package. so you are forced to switch. I install Norton on both machines. After about a week or 2, both Windows Firewall and Norton Total Care (or whatever it's called) says that "There is no Virus Protection on Your Computer". So I uninstall and re-install Norton on both machines. a few days later, same problem.
So I contact Norton about it, and they do some remote access to look at the downstairs computer (I'll just mimic whatever they do on the upstairs if necessary) and they uninstall MalWarebytes saying that it is incompatible.... uninstall and reinstall Norton again.
the next time I visit my moms house a week or 2 later, the computer isn't responding and I find out that it had blue screened.

So i reset it and it loaded up fine but now I see the "There is no Virus Protection on Your Computer" message again. I start looking at all my programs again (no one has used this computer since the last time I used it with the Norton guy), notice nothing out of the ordinary and then my computer bluescreens again. I reboot and contact Norton again dropping the blame on them for their faulty software supposedly not doing what it's supposed to do (Norton telling me there is no virus protection when Norton is the Virus protection) and they take remote control again. several blue screens later, all he did was uninstall and reinstall Norton and leave the case as "Open" since after 2 hours of nothing, I had better things to do than watch him not do anything to fix my problem that his company and their software created.

in the meantime, it's running smooth on the Win7 machine, so I decided to just install Win7 like I meant to many months ago.

[MegaByte]

Norton fucking sucks.  It's screwed up a number of computers in my office.  I used to recommend Kaspersky back when there was a free version available, and the same with Avira, but nowadays, Microsoft's own offering is pretty good (coupled with Malwarebytes or SuperAntiSpyware) http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

[BlackNMild2k1]

I got a new problem that I can't seem to fix.

Windows 7 Ultimate on my computer and recently the energy saver option just stop working.
I checked the settings (which seem to be fine) and even turned on the screen saver, but neither of them work.

all night the monitor will stay on if I don't manually turn it off.
Any suggestions?

[bustin98]

Can you try a different monitor?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Can you try a different monitor?

No, but i've been reading about this online and I'm certainly not the only one having this problem.
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7desktop/thread/c91674b0-110d-4503-b7ff-037b6eb507dc

[BlackNMild2k1]

turns out that it is my magic jack causing the problem.


solution: Unplug it, forward all your calls to your cell phone or let them goto voicemail.

[TJ Spyke]

DAMN IT. Windows will no longer even boot up for me. I no longer have the start up disc (and they no longer make it since my laptop is about 5 years old). Gateway is willing to do it remotely, but for $99 and I don't have that. I don't want to lose everything saved on the hard drive. BTW, I typed this on my DSi.

[BlackNMild2k1]

virus?
can you remove your HDD and hook it up to another computer?

[TJ Spyke]

I don't have access to another PC (except at school).

[BlackNMild2k1]

better get a friend to download a Windows disc so that you can do a repair on your system.

[TheBlackCat]

Have you tried using a bootable CD like parted magic and a USB hard drive?

[greybrick]

Microsoft's own offering is pretty good (coupled with Malwarebytes or SuperAntiSpyware) http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

That is some sound advice, the difference between these and Norton is just phenomenal.

[Kytim89]

I have a 120 GB external HDD(2.5 laptop ATA) that whenever I plug it into a computer it says that a drive for the device can not be found and it does not show up in My Computer. Does anyone know how to fix it?

[BlackNMild2k1]

have you tried downloading the driver so that it can be found?

[Kytim89]

have you tried downloading the driver so that it can be found?

How would I do that? Also, if I plugged this hard drive into a machine, would it be able to read the HDD?

[BranDonk Kong]

Find the make and model of the hard drive...and download the driver from the manufacturer's website. If you can get the driver, and the HDD actually works...then it should be able to be read by a "machine" I suppose.