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Computer Issues and Perhaps a Hiatus

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My computer is all fritzed, I'm guessing by what the kids these days call "Malware" but my generation called 'devils.' My various programs to protect me all say everything is fine, but in the last three weeks these symptoms have appeared in my Windows XP.

  • First my DVD burner slowed to a halt (the last DVD took 8 hours to burn)
  • MS Paint launches without any controls or color swatches.
  • USB devices aren't detected anymore.
  • Add Remove Programs in Windows lists no programs.
  • Everytime I click a link in IE a new window opens.
  • The clock is suddenly wrong, and I cant change it.
  • It randomly beeps.
  • I need to try three times to launch Photoshop, and the third time it works.
  • After about an hour, all internet browsers just kinda stop working.
  • The cursor doesn't appear when I'm posting on this board.


With it being summer vacation and being away from the office, with my homestation possibly being down (or me re-installing Windows and setting fire to my whole block) I may be incommunicado for a while.

To you all, I say "courage."

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"courage" back at ya, and good luck in fixing your computer problems.

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Good luck TB.  But don't say you might be going away for a while.  bkev said the same thing, and we never heard from him again.

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TheBoost said:

  • MS Paint launches without any controls or color swatches.

This sounds like a Zigfried virus.

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Meesa give u unabongo!

You can never go home again, but i guess you can shop there.

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My advice if you can read it, back up everything.

If you can, boot up a copy of Ubuntu from a flash ram.

Nuke Windows from orbit install Ubuntu and run all your Windows programs through WINE and never, ever use Internet Exploder (it's the only way to be sure).

I've done this for lots of people with clogged up machines and afterwards they have no further successful viral attacks and their computers run lightning fast.

And change your passwords for everything.

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It sounds ore like a hardware issue than a virus/ mallware issue.

Try changing your CMOS battery on your motherboard and take out your memory then put it back in again. If this don't help then scan your hard drive within windows (you'll probably have to schedule it to do this task when windows restarts).

With the problems you mentioned about DVD's taking ages to burn, random beeps , the clock and usb devices not being recognised sounds like a motherboard problem. Try starting windows in safe model to see if these problems go away. If they do then you can bet its a windows/driver problem. If all this fails then before reinstalling try system restore to an earlier point before these problems started happening to try and fix this.

ANH:REVISITED
ESB:REVISITED

DONATIONS TOWARDS MATERIALS FOR THE REVISITED SAGA

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Good luck with fixing your issues. I just got over some serious malware and my laptop still runs a bit slower than it usually did.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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yeah good luck! I've had more than my share of computer problems. A year ago my laptop's motherboard and graphic chip melted, sent it to repair, came back like brand new. A month ago or so, almost the same problem, wouldn't even turn on (kept going on a loop : on... off....on...off) so we asked a tech guy in a shop and he told us (as I already read on the net) that the thing was flawed from factory, i.e. that same model had caused that same problem to everybody, meaning mb death after a year of 20 h a day use (like me).

So I said screw it I'm going to get me a desktop pc, what do I need a laptop for anyway. We gave the tech guy the old thing, he said he could use those pieces, and he gave us some used parts, which I am now using to write this post. All except the case, keyboard and monitor, which I have since 1998.

Yes. I am writing on a 12 year old keyboard.  :-)

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The best keyboard I ever used was my TRS-80 MK 1 (circa 1977)

TRS-80

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Ah, 1997. Back in the days when men were real men, films were real films, and keyboards were real keyboards... Yes, those were the days!

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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And don't forget, small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Aplha Centauri.