pbuckne

I wanted some opinion on antivirus software. I have used a number of different products over the years, ranging from Norton and McAfee to Avast, AVG, Antivir and F-Prot. I have recently begun using Avira, which offers a free trial version for download. http://www.avira.com/en/download/downloadproductform.html/id_prd/5/index/0 Anyway, I turned up all the scan options, and have been finding things that never came up before, on my system and other peoples systems. I have used products like spybot, ad aware se, and e-wido, aluria, etc, and all have done well, but the antispyware feature built into avira has done the best out of all of them. Incidentially, I understand they have a division dedicated to the USA coming soon, www.avirausa.com I believe they have a free version for Unix based machines as well.

Are you using a PS2 keyboard, or a USB one? You might try using a different one in the interum, in leiu of the above working. Other BIOS keys are F1, F8, F9, (these are much more rare than DEL) or you might try using the DEL key over on your number pad. It could be something as simple as a defective keyboard, just a suggestion. Good luck Peanut.

It sounded like a PIII board, so I googled your motherboard number and came away with the usual thousands of hits. It looks like a mainstream Intel board, so you can google the rest by tightening the search. Your ceiling is closer than you think, it being a PIII board, you may wind up wanting to build one yourself, or purchase a second, newer machine.

The idea of working with national providers like AOL, Juno and PeoplePC is exactly what I am after, I would rather not sign up folks myself and the like, too much hassle, and far too many end users just don't know what they are doing, I would rather see them making that support call to someone else, and continue to work as the 'node'. Thanks for the encouragement. I have a small business doing computer repair that has a good name and makes good money, but I would like to see something else going on for the community that also makes me money. Does anyone know any books, any online resources I can get my hands on that will help me get started? I have a couple of guys who can configure the software, but they have no experience with licensing or other things than I do. I am a hardware guy, and I know I can build whatever servers are needed, etc, I just need direction on configuration. Thanks, Pbuckne

I agree with the above, and would add this: Do you see the screen flash blue for a second before it restarts, if so you need to turn off the restart on error under system properties. You may want to blow out your systems CPU fan in case it is heavily dust covered, it could be causing it to overheat. Does the system restart during other heavily disk intensive activities like running an antivirus or spyware scan? Have you installed the latest patches for the game? Does this only happen on the one game or a lot of them? Have you installed the latest drivers for your video card?

Hopefully I have used the term correctly. I live in a fairly rural area of the United States, we have only one highspeed internet provider locally, and only two that provide dialup, but neither one have coverage for the entire county. Here is my question: I am interested in knowing what it would take to start up a 'Point of Presence' if you will, DUN/RAS that would log people in to AOL (yuck) and other national providers. I understand that I would need to contract with them to set this up, but a lot of people would like to have alternatives to the local brand of internet, whether they want faster or cheaper. Are there websites I can visit that are informative or documents or books I should consult? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

It sounds to me as though a file in your system.ini or registry run keys is linked to something on the web, such as a picture or something. Unfortunately if this is the case it requires going into the registry and having a look. This requires some pretty decent computer knowledge and nerves of steel (not to mention backing up your registry first) Your run keys are located in the registry under \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run in the same section of the registry you will find the runonce and runservices keys, with almost identical keys located at: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and runonce and runservices The problem is knowing what to delete. You have to be very careful rummaging around in your registry, else your computer may come up with an even more serious error.

Since you blew away all that was there before, you can restart the install process, deleting the partition, and tell the XP setup to repartition the drive, using whatever partition size you want. You will want to format both partitions before proceeding to install windows on the first partition.

I guess knowing for sure what version of windows you are running would help. You might also try plugging it in to a different usb port to see if it will redetect. Does it have a small activity light on it, and if it does, is the light on, or does it come on when you plug it into a different usb port. If not, have you tried plugging it into a different computer?

The simplest suggestion is to download, update and run adaware, spybot and aluria, then follow it up with a very thorough antivir scan from www.free-av.com. This could very much have to do with spyware, or trojans, I have seen it many times. It could also be a number of other things. Have you tried downloading and installing leechget (www.download.com)? It is a very nice way to get you downloads faster, whether or not you are having a problem getting them in the first place. Kind of generic answers, but let me know if it helps.

Can he pull an IP address, it didn't sound like he could, but if he can, then go to another machine and download winsockfix from here (you will have to have winzip or another zip program). If all the above does not work, then make a startup disk for windows 98 in the control panel, under add and remove programs. Once the floppy is complete, restart the computer with the windows 98 cd in the drive. If it is set to boot from floppy, it will use the floppy diskette. If it is set to boot from cd, it will prompt you to either boot from harddrive, or boot from CD. Choose CD. Either way, the next question will ask if you want to boot with CDrom support. Choose to. Once it boots up to an A:\ prompt, then start looking for which drive letter contains the 98 CD. This could be D:\, E:\, F:\, etc, depending on how many drives your laptop has. Once you find the 98 CD, type cd win98 then hit enter. Type in SETUP then hit enter. You will want to follow the prompts through the setup program until you come to a prompt that asks if you want to install to c:\windows.000 or something similar. Make sure to backspace it down to c:\windows, and then continue. The next thing to watch for is the 'save system files' prompt. Choose yes, and it will save his data. Walk through the rest of the install. Let me know if that helps.

I would agree with the spybot, adaware, and antivirus scan. Make sure all are up to date before scanning. There is another program I like to use called aluria (www.download.com) that I have found will find and eliminate a lot of spyware too. I couldn't hurt.

You may want to follow that up with another scan with a program like aluria, you can download it from www.download.com I would also get another antivirus. Try uninstalling the one you have and downloading the one from www.free-av.com. Once you turn all the configuration options up, like heuristic scanning set all the way up, if finds almost anything virii and even some spyware. I use it to cover my rear when working on a clients machine. You never know what small piece of spyware might remain just waiting to do it all over again. You can also download a program called enableregedit.vbs, which almost always works to re-enable the registry. You never can be too helpful.

Most of us will need more detail before we can post an educated answer. Are you upgrading to windows 98, if so, from what version of windows?

I would check to make sure you are pulling an IP address. Then make sure you can ping something out on the internet, such as www.com (worlds shortest webaddress). If you can ping out, but nothing works, I would suggest trying a program called winsockfix. You can download it here: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=257 I have used this many times when an overlay or back and wipe/load seemed the only option. It repairs your winsock files for you, which is a pain to do manually (seems obvious from the name, but) and I have seen an incredible success rate with it. It even offers the option to do a registry backup before proceeding. Hope it helps.