Slinky

[I Am]

Do me a favor and post a message to the forum telling everyone Slinky's 'puter is messed up again. My apologies for the silence.

[dsm]

Do me a favor and post a message to the forum telling everyone Slinky's 'puter is messed up again. My apologies for the silence.

Slinky,
I take this is you (certainly Slinky talk

Computers that connect to the Internet are the bane of our lives (virii & crashes) but open up a world I sure don't want to miss. So I guess we are stuck with them & getting them messed up every now & then.

Slinky I hope your 'puter gets well soon

Cheers

DSM

[Slinky]

Thanks to I Am for forwarding my post to the forum. And thank you , dsm, for the empathy.

My two granddaughters occasionally use my 'puter w/their iPods and their mp3 and iTunes which is where I THINK my problems began. I've removed every iTune file I can find.

I do do music on my 'puter BUT it is copying my old 45s, LPs and tapes to my 'puter, make a few CDs or DVDs, but mostly for my flash drive. Hubby got me a new car radio that will play the flash drive music. A 4 gig flash drive will get me almost to Lexington, KY w/o the same song playing twice. Ahhhh. Sure beats radio stations fading in and out and constantly changing tapes or CDs!

Anyway, had my 'puter guru over and THOUGHT we had it fixed. But - w/in 1-2 days one of the granddaughters was here and on 'puter. I had also deleted AOL's IM which she uses. She made 14 tries to access AOL IM. What else she did, who knows? I wasn't home to tell her what 'puter guru and I had done and that I didn't want her or her sister on my 'puter any more.

To shorten the story. I'm back to square one. 'Puter is slower than molasses in January. When I play my music (I use Roxio's SoundStream) I can't run ANYTHING else w/o SoundStream skipping, hissing, etc.

Task Manager keeps coming up w/these "scvhost.exe.exe files. I've Ended them. I've turned 'puter off and back on. When a message box does pop up and when can be inconsistent. When I open SoundStream I get a message to the effect that there are two of them open, switch to and then it runs okay. As long as it is the only program running - OR - this latest may or may not hold true the next time I shut my ''puter off and start it again but it SEEMS that maybe if I open SoundStream BEFORE I open my dial up then 'puter and SoundStream work just fine w/no problems. At least it fixed it this time. I won't know until I shut 'puter down and turn it on again.

I'm not ready to do that yet. I miss not keeping up in the forum but too often the 'puter has been running soooo slowwwww it just hasn't been worthwhile to do so. I risk tossing the 'puter out the upstairs window in frustration.

A couple of people have PM'd me for pdf Clinical Manual files. I WILL send them - BUT - since I'm not at all sure that this isn't some malware we haven't found ("we" being my 'puter guru) I don't want to risk passing this problem on until we HAVE solved the problem.

[SaltLakeJan]

Mornin' Slinky,
Sorry about your 'puter - mine is both a bane & pain to me And, life would be pretty boring without it. My year and a half old 'puter got a bug that ate the harddrive - after $$$ in repairs, I gave up and got a new one .

Using the theory, you can train a horse to behave, I am trying to train this 'puter, it isn't taking to it real well.

When Slinky isn't posting regularily - she is missed.

Jan

[ozij]

Don't toss the computer out the window, Slinky. Use it as a decoy - keep it just where it is, let the granddaughters use it till they're bored by the malfuctioninng, and meanwhile....

Buy yourself one of thost tiny little netbooks (I'm using and Asus Eee1000HE, and the Samsung NC10 is as nifty as anything) and keep your very own little 'puter locked in a drawer unless you're using it. Those things weigh 2 to 2.x Lbs.

O.

[Hawthorne]

Ozij - I have been considering a netbook or notebook to have for just a few things and as a backup machine.

I don't know much about netbooks and laptops but wondered if the one you have and the other you suggest, have a disc drive to load software - like cpap software.

Thanks!:

[Babette]

Uh Slinky - PASSWORD?????

Seems the simplest solution to keep them off your puter.

LOL,
B.

[jnk]

Some of the "nettops" have been looking tempting lately, too. Cheap. XP. Tiny.

[Catnap]

By the way, many music sites are among the easiest places to pick up a virus. Most of the people who work for my company work at home on their own computers, and our tech staff will help them with any problems they might run into, but the tech guys have gotten to the point where they refuse to touch computers that have downloaded music from some sites because the sites are known to be virus-mongers. I don't know that iTunes, specifically, is one of these, but the "brand X" sites can be trouble.

[5aces]

If you have the patience,I would recommend this site:http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Read the instructions carefully and follow through with malware removal for your operating system.

If you still have problems,register with the site and post a request for help in the Malware Removal Forum.

Now,this is a tech site but the people on there are very much like this cpap crowd and will truly help you out of a computer jam.

Highly recommended.Good Luck.

[Babette]

I just bought a refurbished ThinkPad for $799 less $299 trade in. XP but no Office. Came with Open Office, which is working fine for me.

Has an "optical drive"; i.e., DVD/CD and can burn CD's. Not sure if it can burn DVD's. Don't care.

Alot of the new little notebooks DON'T have a CD drive. Beware.

So far have loaded EP and EV on it, downloaded ITunes, and BURNT CD'S TO ITUNES sucessfully without any noticeable problems.

I suggest buying CD's used online (Amazon is my fave source) and then burning them to your Itunes or Windows Media and NOT DOWNLOAD MUSIC FROM THE NET.

Also, FYE stores cell used and new CD's very reasonably priced. I've bought used CD's for less than downloads, and then I have backup, and can play them in the car and at home. Yes, it's less techy than downloading music, BUT IT'S SAFER.

I still think you should lock your g-kids out of G-ma's computer with a password, then tell them "Oh sorry! I got a virus, and I just have to keep it secure now." And then offer to buy them a cheapie netbook and install a wireless router, and they can play on that.

I think that's what my Mom did to me... Well, at least she installed a wireless router and gave me a POS laptop to use. However, she hasn't password protected her desktop yet. For that matter, she hasn't password protected her WiFi, either...

LOL,
B.

[6PtStar]

I am running on a Dell Mini Laptop now. It is about the same as a lot of the net books and in the $300+ range with XP Home. My desktop is out. I have been worried about it for a while, it is a little over 4 years old. Took it to the shop and thought they fixed it but it lasted about 5 hours and it went out again. Still in the shop. I may have more money in it than it is worth. Cost me $145 to get it out the first time. The little keys and small letters on the screen are tough for my old eyes but it works. I had Encore Pro working once but it went south. Encore Viewer works fine. It was a pain to get Encore pro to work. It had a "Compact Version"of the SQLdata base that EP did not like. Had to go get the full version off Microsofts web site. I did get it to work once but I tried to import the data from my desk machine and it messed it up and have not got it to work again. The file Data had more and different files in it than my desk machine. It may be because the Mini has Service Pack 3 built in and I have not been able to figure out how take it out. I know SP3 has caused some problems for others.

Does not have a CD drive. I have had to load everything on to a external hard drive and load from that. Some thing I have been able to put on a thumb drive and load. Does not even have a plug for a monitor so i can't plug my big monitor. 10" diagional screen is small.

If I don't show up for a while like Slinky you will know what happened to me also.

Jerry

[Pugsy]

Hey guys,
No need to go to majorgeeks forum if someone has malware/trojan/virus problems. If you have questions or want some immediate things to try just send me PM or post off topic here. I have been specializing in malware removal for over 6 years now. I know lots of little tricks, all the tools I suggest to be used are free and I can do HiJackThis log analysis work. Never a fee. I do it just because I love to help people and get immense satisfaction out of killing the dirty SOB's. All done via email with an occasional phone support if need be. Other computer things I dabble in but malware removal is the one thing I am really good at.
Brenda

[ozij]

Wow, Brenda (Pugsy) that's great to know!

Hawthorne: It's as 6PtStar and Babbette noted:
No CD (or DVD) - I copied Office from the DVE to a USB drive for installation
Small keyboard -- but some are smaller than others, I touch-type and have thin fingers, so no problem for me.
160G hard disk
Small screen - but I never feel a need to connect mine to the larger screen on

The lack of weight is wonderful, they have 1G of memory standard, and you can add another G on your own easily to some of them - more difficult to impossible on others.

I'm running it with 1G memory, Office 2007 - love to ability to take anywhere, use it quite a bit in the living room -- with Logitech's LapDesk -- an accessory I can't recommend highly enough.

O.

[mars]

Hi Slinky

If your computer is a desktop then my suggestion would be for your visitors to bring along their own hard drive, enclosed in a removable bay.

You would have to install a removable bay rack in your computer, and put your main hard drive in a removable bay.

Your visitors arrive, you take out your hard drive, and let them loose. They then only mess up their own hard drive, and you can let them have responsibility for that.

Suggest you also run an antivirus on their hard drive before installing. You can do this through a second bay or a USB connection.

Everybody wins.

cheers

Mars