Question:
ok, so my cousin came over on Saturday and networked my and my brother's computers so that he can get access to my broadband connection. He also upgraded my pc from win 98 to Xp pro.
Since then I have had all sorts of problems.
First my pc has slowed right the way down, is that because of the upgrade or the network?
second I keep getting pop up's they are grey windows which all contain some sort of web address and ask you to cut and paste the address into your browser, I have run my spybot scan and my drweb anti virus which have solved alot of the problems except this one, any ideas?
third, internet explorer only works once every ten times you click on it, and when it does work it is very selective over which pages it allows me to load, hence why I've had to wait til I'm in work today to post this request. I also have opera but any page I put into that says the directory is not found.
lastly, it keeps shutting down, it pops up a message that a file (all of them .exe) has closed down and my computer can no longer function so it will shut down, then it counts down from 1 min and shuts down. The problem is that it's a different file every time it comes up, I think I'm up to about 7 so far after that I gave up shut it down for half and hour then started it up and it worked fine for about 3 hours then the problem started again.
Any help with hany of these problems would be great.
Thanks
*V*
Answers:
sounds like a virus for the latter problems
As for the XP upgrade, I went from ME to XP on an old PC a while ago with only 128MB installed and slowed right down. If you've only 128MB then that will probably be why, if you've more than 128MB or that was upgraded at same time, check that the correct memory amount is showing as installed
Answers:
For the grey boxes download and install google toolbar, works wonders stopping the little bleeders and also make sure you're firewalled and AV'ed up to the eyeballs
Answers:
Those Grey Boxes are due to the Messenger Service.
Go Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services
In the long list find 'Messenger'. Right Click on it, and choose Properties. In the Drop Down box, change the 'Startup Type' to 'Disabled'.
Download this file called 'Hijackthis':
Open Hijackthis.
Press 'Scan', Bottom left of screen.
Press 'Save Log' Bottom left of Screen.
Popup comes up, save file wherever.
Notepad opens. Go Edit (top of notepad), click Select All, Go Edit, click Copy. Close Notepad.
Close Hijackthis. Then Reply to this message, and Press CTRL + V on your keyboard when typing your reply.
Then we can see what is going on with ur PC.
Answers:
Oh and that Shutdown one is due to the Blaster Virus shutting down a Remote Procedure Service.
You need:
Then go to:
And click Download (Top Right of screen). Then run the file. Should fix that problem.
Answers:
thank you all, I will try those tonight and let you know, the annoying thing is my brother's pc is working fine, he was on the net last night and kept moaning at me cos my pc kept restarting I nearly hit him.
thanks again
Answers:
To compliment strikeeagles reply earlier....
Windows XP should run fine within 128MB. Its not till you start some heavy duty applications that you will find that you have problems; for example, MS stated that 256MB is recommended for their office suite (not sure if they still do). These are a few of my thoughts:
a) I would have personally done a complete rebuild, rather than upgrade, as its more stable. This may well account for the strange browser behaviour.
b) There is a fair chance that the PC is intrinsically fairly slow (CPU) as it was a Win 98 machine. XP is a heavier and more demanding OS.
c) One of the main factors for speed issues post XP install/upgrade is that you must defrag. I would recommend execsoft diskeeper or similar.
Answers:
the problem there is I can't defrag, that problem has been since I've had win98. I took it to several different people and no one could work out why, my cousin thought maybe the upgrade would work but I left it for 4 hours and it didn't even get past the analyzing mode, thou if I just run the analyze it works no problem.
My machine could have had XP on it when I first got it but at the time XP had only been out for a short time and I didn't trust it so I got reliable old Win98 instead.
*V*
Answers:
the problem there is I can't defrag
Odd. You could try downloading a 3rd party defragger and see if that has any more luck. I use Diskeeper Lite. It's free and you can download it
Answers:
When you Defrag on Win98, if anything...and I mean ANYTHING tries to access the Hard Drive, while you are defragging...it will start all over again. So if you have a screen saver coming on every 20 minutes...it will actually cause the defrag to start again..over...and over... =) Nice Huh?
XP does not do this fortunetly, so defrag should work fine.
Oh ye and it takes hardly any time to defrag in XP. 98 could quite happily defrag for hours and hours...XP generally takes under 30mins, for even large drives.
So if you cant defrag, I suggest you have a dodgy HD, which XP/98 cant read.
You might need to boot ur PC off the XP install cd and enter the Recovery Console. You will then need to execute this command: 'chkdsk /r'
That will try to find bad sectors on ur Hard-disk and recover any information it can from them.
Answers:
thanks for all your help, the defrad problem is next on my list.
Last night I managed to get rid of that worm and managed to get rid of that messenger pop up. I ran addaware and it seems to start up no problem which is a relief.
Now it's still running slow which if I sort out the defrag problem that should solve that one, or at least make it less annoying.
I also still have the hit and miss problem with my internet explorer, last night it worked alright for ten minutes and then the pages weren't loading I know it's not the connection because my brother uses the same connection can access it no problem. Any suggestions on this one would be helpful.
BTW I don't have a screen saver set because it slowed my pc down even more, would the internet connection access the hard drive? because that is the only thing I can think was running at the time of my scan.
*V*
Answers:
You are correct with regard to screen savers - some steal CPU cycles even when they are inactive.
Re: IE. Check the connection and proxies. Tools | Internet Options | Lan Settings.
IE will cache files to the hard disk - usually right in the middle of the Windows file system - which is really stupid!! Check that the cache is not too big - 5MB to 10MB is more than enough for most users Tools | Internet Options | Settings. If you know what you are doinf and have a spare partition then you should move this and any other temp directories. If not, then don't worry too much about it.
If you are seeing strange things in IE then try clearing the cache.
Answers:
Ok guys just to update you on the on going saga.
Got rid of all the worms and viruses and it worked properly for 5 minutes then ran really slow. So last night I thought I try some of the defrag fixing ideas, and it's not running any programs at all.
I can go into my computer and control panel and get into the start menu but any program I select will not run at all. Also it won't shut down, it logs off and then just sits there.
What on earth have I done now?
*V*
p.s thanks for all the help so far as you can see I'm a bit of a jinx things always happen at once.
Answers:
now my computer will only start up and shut down, no icons appear no start menu, have I lost it altogether?
I'd hate to loose all my saved work etc.
*V*
Answers:
hey i thought i would put in my 2pence worth, the problem has probably come from the fact he did an upgrade as opposed to a clean install. my bet was there was stuff lingering on ur old os that hasnt like being upgraded. If i were you i would backup the files you want and do a clean install of XP - ie format and start again. if youve only got an upgrade XP cd dont install the old os simply throw in the XP cd and install, it will ask to see a win 98/95 cd to show that you have a copy but thats it.
ive never liked "upgrading" some software just don't like it.