Reformat!!!

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Creed3

Creed3

VR.org Supporter
Supporting Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
856
Location
Virginia
Hi Everyone!
I just wanted to let you all know that sometime within the next week, I may not be posting as much, if at all. I have been having problems with my computer over the last week and I think I am going to have to do a complete reformat to fix it. That means I will be setting up everything from scratch again. I tried to fix the problem by doing a restore, but that didn't seem to help much. I won't be reformatting until I can get the things I need to keep saved on a disc. What a pain this is!:mad: :(

Take Care!
Gail
 
Do you have a virus raising cain with you? Is it something that can be fixed by installing over top of your current install? Talk to me, it may not be as bad as you think. ;)
 
Ross has a very valid point. I have a nasty machine at home (only one of the three on the network) that has had Win98 re-installed over itself about 3 or 4 times. Each time "fixes" it for 6 months or so, with little effort.

You may have some ill-behaved software that is corrupting a couple of files, which could cause wild problems.

Tell us what's happening -- maybe we can wreck it more from here <g>.

SteveE
 
Tell us what's happening -- maybe we can wreck it more from here .
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If we can't fix it, we'll make sure that you can't either. :D Just Kidding with you. Don't take that seriously.
 
Hey Ross!
I know you are only kidding!:D Right about now I am about to throw this computer out the window. I did cause this problem myself. What I GOOF I am!:p :p :D :D I have sent you a PM trying to explain what has been going on. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks and Take Care!
Gail
 
Ross,
No, my computer is an HP. Before I bought my computer, I tried to do some research and found out that Compaq really isn't the best you can buy. I'm sure I don't have the best you can buy, but I have heard a lot of people have trouble with Compaq.

Take Care!
Gail
 
Try the install over the current one and let us know what happens. Compaq's are a class of there own or should I say a class of the unknown. I've never been able to get one of those to work right yet. :)
 
If you re-install over a past installation, you might lose some internet settings. If you are on a networked connection like DSL or Cable modem, watch out for that. If you use a dial-up (phone line) modem, not much likely to go wrong there.

Some Windoze presets may go back to the original defaults, but it should be usable and just an inconvenience to reset them as they come to mind.

HTH and good luck.

SteveE
 
Gee-

I've been using a Compaq Deskpro for several years now. It's been wonderful. I clean it off a lot with the AOL cleaning programs (history, temp files including offline ones, and cookies), Norton Clean Sweep (which can safe clean all the difficult areas like the Registry), Ad Aware and I go into Window and get rid of the accumulated .TMP files, check the recycle bin and make sure that's clean. I also regularly erase old mail, make sure I've permanently deleted any temporarily deleted mail, then I do a Windows maintenance including the defrag. Sometimes it has to be done more than once, why I'll never know, but I can tell by the way the computer acts that it isn't right. I have a virus scan on all the time, and I never open any mail that I don't recognize, just delete it right away then permanently delete it.

Unless the the main disk or mother board get fried somehow with a power surge, I hope that it will stay OK for a while yet.
 
Thanks for the info. I don't need to re-install, but the information is helpful to me and others who might want to know. I did re-install once upon a time and found that I needed to re-install my ISP disk and had lost all my emails that were saved and the addresses. Have found since then that I could have gone into find and they might've been discovered. Live, practice, learn. :confused: :D
 
I've been using a Compaq Deskpro for several years now.
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Ahh, I see where you get all the patience now. :D

I'm not knocking the computer, but if something goes wrong, it's nearly impossible to fix without running the restore cd and reloading everything. I have a friend that has one and she is anything but computer savy. I spend more time trying to straighten her machine out then anyone elses. I absolutely hate that thing! Compaq doesn't allow you to fix things a normal way. This is what I hate about them.

I'm glad to hear that your happy with yours and it sounds like you've been around the block a few times with it and know it well.
One thing I may suggest, is to get rid of Ad Aware and go with Spybot Search and destroy for now. Lavasoft hasn't had an update since September and there are a lot of new things that Ad Aware doesn't detect. Lavasoft says that there will be version 6.0 sometime beginning in February, but until it's there, I won't hold my breath. ;) Spybot Search and Destroy Here
 
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Ad Aware is really redundant, because most of that stuff gets deleted along the way anyway, but I use it when I don't want to go through all the other hassle, to get rid of some of those install yourself programs that attach themselves to the computer. It was free, so I instaled it. Is Spy Bot free?
 
Yes Mam it is free!
It detects tons of things that Ad Aware never even came close to.
I've had it on this computer for about 3 weeks now and they've updated their lists 3 times in that 3 weeks. I like it. I will check out Ad Aware 6.0 when they release it, but until then, Spybot rules.
 
Hey guys, Ross, can you tell me what is wrong with my computer? It is SO slow, and it says that the CPU useage is at 100%, but I usually only have one or two programs running at a time. It says it is low on virtual memory. Kevin put in memopry...it is at 256 I think now, it has a 1.1gig processor, and a 40 gig hard drive. My internet should scream because I have DSL, and it is set at a pretty good level...I don't remember what, though. IT's the HP pavilion 310n. It's only 1 year old, and don't laugh, but it is replacing an E-machine. Don't ever get one of those peices of crap! Anyways, now the HP just got REALLY slow! Any ideas?
 
Joy - is the e-machine one of those that you get and send only email. I got one for my dear nurse cousin. She isn't computer savvy and wouldn't use a computer anyway, but she does use the email machine every day; she can't type and doesn't send much. She lives in Texas and it's really convenient to email her to save on long distance calls.
 
Nope, an E Machine is an actual computer. They can be had cheaply, but as any Emachine owner will tell you, they aren't that great. Problems, problems, problems. You can check them out here: http://www.e4me.com/
 
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