PC Pals Forum

Technical Help & Discussion => Windows PCs & Software: Help, News & Discussion => Topic started by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 08:07

Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 08:07
Last night I downloaded and installed F-Security, before it would install it wanted to uninstall AdAware and AVG, I click yes. After it installed it asked me to re-boot and when I did it would get as far as the desktop and turn off and restart again and just keep doing it, over and over. On one re-boot I tapped the delete key and went into Bios and reselected Default, but it seemed to make little difference.
It was late and I was tired so I turned the computer off at the front and went to bed. This morning same thing, but it became slower and slower.
Sandra suggested that I try to repair XP as it may have been damaged when F-Security deleted the other software. Also the mouse and the key board stopped working.
After a couple of hours of trying different things and waiting a long time for each page to load it finally reinstalled windows, but when it re-booted it fail again. The page stated something like " Windows has shutdown or closed to prevent damage to your computer, if you have recently installed new software or hardware uninstall". Also it said something about the drivers.
I manage to get it into safe mode, but didn't know what to do once I was there. So I uninstalled F-Security first then I ran Belarc to see if it would tell me something, only that I now have to install all the XP updates again.
So I tried Sandra the software,(sandra was in bed by now) couldn't connect to computer, didn't understand that?
Ran Everest all I worked out from that was that the computer was running hot and not all the sensors were working and the fan sensor wasn't working, fans were running fast.
In other words I have no idea what I'm doing, so HELP.
 :blush:  :x
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 02, 2006, 10:24
Oh Gawd!!  I suppose this is my fault for bullying you into installing F-Secure.  :blush2:  You shouldn't have had all those problems, but possibly you should have uninstalled AVG via Add / Remove Programs, as it may not have been uninstalled properly.

Forget about Belarc, Sandra (the software) and Everest for the moment.  What is the status of Windows now?  You said you reinstalled Windows, so you used the Windows CD to run a Repair installation, yes?  Unfortunately, while that may have repaired any Windows problems, it wouldn't have fixed any problems with installed programs.  I think you just need to uninstall everything which might be conflicting, and start again.

You said you can boot into Safe Mode, yes?  If so, uninstall AVG, Ad Aware and F-Secure via Control Panel > Add / Remove Programs, and see if things revert back to some sort of normality.  If F-Secure won't uninstall, I have a removal tool I can send you by e-mail.  

If none of them appear in Add / Remove Programs, then they may have been uninstalled, but not removed from your startup menu, in which case, try Start > Run > type msconfig and click OK.  Go to the Startup tab, and untick anything related to F-Secure, AVG or Ad Aware, then try to reboot.

Hopefully, you can then get your machine running as it was, and you can choose whether to install F-Secure again or not.  I didn't actually realise you had AVG on there, or I would have advised you to uninstall it first - sorry.

You will obviously need to get your Windows Updates again, if these have disappeared.  Sorry about this, Kate.  I bet you wish you'd never heard of PC Pals!  Think how simple you life was before you joined us!  :grin:
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 10:34
How else can I learn about computers, I need to stuff them up first.
Please don't feel bad, I shouldn't have been doing it at 1.00am
I think something was wrong before I installed F-Security.
It was running hotter as the fans were coming on, which they inly did when I was running a scan. And it was running slow, so before I installed F-Security I ran a couple of scans and it was fine.
I have turned it back on and it has gone to boot disk failure insert system disk and press enter.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: sam on July 02, 2006, 10:36
Quote
simple you life was before you joined us


oh yes!!

well at least life after us wont involve identify theft! .. cause you have no computer left to be hacked into, lol!
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 10:45
Bit hard to press enter or F8 when the keyboard no longer works.
So I'll have to play musical keyboards if you want me to do anything as I'm using the PB and it's keyboard and I'll have to swap it back and forth.
I don't think I can get to safe mode now, I think I could only do it before after I had reinstalled XP. :?
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 10:50
Quote from: "sam"
Quote
simple you life was before you joined us


oh yes!!

well at least life after us wont involve identify theft! .. cause you have no computer left to be hacked into, lol!


I will admit I was tempted to just unplug it and put it the hall cupboard with the PB. And get on with what plans I did have. Oh well.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: sam on July 02, 2006, 10:56
if you do that, it will probably work later!
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 10:59
Ignore it and it will sort itself out. I wish. :laugh:
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 02, 2006, 11:03
The boot disc error message relates to the hard drive, I think, and it can sometimes just go away on reboot, but in this case, it sounds more likely that it's related to the problems you had last night.  Could it possibly be coincidental that you have a hard drive failure?  :?  I'm afraid I'm a bit out of my depth with hardware problems, and I don't want to make things any worse for you by speculating.  It could just be that Windows is screwed, and there's a way out of this, but I can't see how all this could have been caused by F-Secure.  Even a badly uninstalled program shouldn't cause problems like this.

I suggest you wait for Sandra, or someone with more expertise than me, comes along to help.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 11:09
Ok Thanks Simon, I might try posting on the other forum. I'm really not sure what to do now that it has gone back to boot disk failure. I was going to leave it on this afternoon, when I had it in safe mode, but the fans were going and it was running a bit hot so I thought it would be ok to turn off. If I had know this would happen I would have left it on. Oh well. (Bug**r)
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 02, 2006, 11:23
Not being funny, but how hot is your weather?  It does make a difference.  We are currently suffering nearly 30°C here, and my PC always runs a few degrees hotter than usual in this climate.

One suggestion might be to actually do as it says, and when it asks for the system disc (Windows CD), insert it and press Enter.  It may just require some files in order to load Windows.  Worth a try at least.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 11:26
I actually did do as it asked and it went to looking at the setup configuration and then it went to black and didn't come back. So I turned it off.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Sandra on July 02, 2006, 12:06
Sorry that I had to go to bed last night MB but I thought that you were well on your way to being sorted when I left.
It was just 4am when I crawled into my bed  :roll:

If you can get into safe mode then you can disable the bit that makes it reboot when it says its shutting down to prevent damage.

Go to My Computer/Properties/Advanced.
Click on Settings in the Startup and Recovery part.
Then untick Automatically Restart in the System Failure part then click OK.

Reboot and hopefully it will now boot into full windows and you can see if there are any problems with drivers etc in the device manager.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 12:16
No need to apologise Sandra the computer and the problem aren't going anywhere. Unfortunately.

Yes I thought it had been resolved when Windows reinstalled, but no.

I don't think I can get it to safe mode, but I'll turn it back on and see. It was going to boot disk failure. :(
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Sandra on July 02, 2006, 12:31
If it still says boot disk failure then repeat what you did last night and reinstall xp again then as soon as its running untick the box as described above.

If its reverted to boot disk failure though it sounds as if theres a virus or something on your pc thats affecting your boot.ini file  :(
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 02, 2006, 12:47
OK I rebooted and I hit the delete key and it went to Bios, did that and it rebooted and I hit F8 after putting the CD in the drive and it came up Boot menu. I clicked on boot from hard disc WDC whatever and it did.
It loaded windows and I'm looking at my desktop.
Its saying that windows has recovered from a major fault or something and it wants to send an error report.
So should I unplug this (PB) from the internet and connect the 8383 or should I look for whats installed before hand.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Sandra on July 02, 2006, 17:30
As long as you have unticked the Automatically Restart box and have some AV program on then by all means connect to the internet and see how it goes  :)
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 02, 2006, 18:39
If F-Secure uninstalled AVG, and hasn't been installed properly itself, she may not have any AV protection, San.  :(  Also, if all of the Windows Updates have been lost, wouldn't she have to reinstall SP2?  :( :(
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Sandra on July 03, 2006, 00:12
Her version of XP will have SP2 already on as its only a couple of years old, I think.
The AV thing may still be a problem though.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 02:28
AVG wasn't uninstalled, thankfully.
And spent an hour and a half downloading and installing all the updates.
Had to install WGA Notification though, it wouldn't let install all the rest automatically and after doing a couple at a time I installed it and the rest just flowed. :?  After spending the entire day on this I just wanted it done.

The only thing that was left of F-Security was the exe. file on the desktop so I deleted that and, (sorry Simon) FireFox went as well.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: sam on July 03, 2006, 02:35
well I hope you put FF back on later! :-) ... who knows what garbage got through IE. Then again if you are a cautious user who doesnt go to pages that teenages will go to, then you are probably as safe as Clive with his avant... (shame about those unwanted sheep popups eh?).. but then again he is as paranoid as someone who smokes canabis 5 times a day! :-)
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 02:43
I forgot to say that when I rebooted it, the old problem returned, the fans were going full blast and nothing on the screen.
So we took the battery out and put it back 10 mins later and rebooted and went into Bios and reselected, rebooted and now everything ppears to be fine.
I think maybe it was headed towards this before it failed, maybe the F-Security was just a coincidence.
It was running hotter and was slowing down leading up to this. :?
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: gmax on July 03, 2006, 02:48
:? if only people would partition their hard drive then clone c drive to the
partition, if anything does wrong, restore c drive , norton ghost is a good cloning program :wink:
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 02:50
Quote from: "sam"
well I hope you put FF back on later! :-) ... who knows what garbage got through IE. Then again if you are a cautious user who doesnt go to pages that teenages will go to, then you are probably as safe as Clive with his avant... (shame about those unwanted sheep popups eh?).. but then again he is as paranoid as someone who smokes canabis 5 times a day! :-)


I'll see how it goes Sam, I might try again if all runs well. But as they say " If it aint broke, don't fix it".

I might try a simple Firewall like Kerio, had it on the PB.

I'm not as paranoid as a pothead, but I am fairly cautious. :laugh:
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 02:53
Quote from: "gmax"
:? if only people would partition their hard drive then clone c drive to the
partition, if anything does wrong, restore c drive , norton ghost is a good cloning program :wink:


If I knew how to do it I would. :?

It did, at one stage yesterday, ask to go back to a restore point but I didn't have any.
I was shown how to do that once, but unfortunately I've forgotten. :?
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: gmax on July 03, 2006, 03:46
ok here's a guide, how to use"ghost" i prefer not using windows restore, it's
not all that reliable , http://ghost.radified.com/
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 03, 2006, 07:57
Well, I'm glad you're up and running again, Kate, but sorry you gave up with Firefox so soon.  I think the problems were partly due to a conflict of AV softwares, but there seem to be some hardware issues there as well.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 08:05
Here's something curious I deleted the Hotfix Toolbar as it wasn't working properly anyway.
I then decided to throw caution to the wind and install FF again.
When I installed it and ticked it to be my default browser it came up with the Hotfix Toolbar.   :?  :shock:
Is this because I haven't restarted the computer after deleting the Toolbar?
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: sam on July 03, 2006, 09:12
either that or it is some form of spyware

As for ghosting your disk, thats probably a little extreme. Though partitiioning your drives is advisable... keep all your sensitive data on a seperate partition. However, unless you have two physically seperate drives it isn't going to help you if you have a hardware fault!
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 09:25
If I have deleted FF and then later on install it again wouldn't that be a clean install. Later on as in the next day.
If so then why does it appear that this is the FF I deleted, as it has all my bookmarks and the Hotfix Toolbar attached.

So it seems that FF never left this computer, when I went to File Hippo to download it, it just revived it on here.
How do I now delete it as it has been deleted from Add/Remove Programs.


BTW the Hotfix Toolbar isn't attached to IE anymore.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: sam on July 03, 2006, 09:28
Quote
If so then why does it appear that this is the FF I deleted, as it has all my bookmarks and the Hotfix Toolbar attached.


well it probably saved all your configuration settings, like so many uninstall programs do.

Quote
So it seems that FF never left this computer, when I went to File Hippo to download it, it just revived it on here.
How do I now delete it as it has been deleted from Add/Remove Programs.


File Hippo? Why didn't you get it from the FF site?
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 09:31
I have File Hippo in my favourites and it was easier than looking up the FF site. :?
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: sam on July 03, 2006, 09:35
what is file hippo, can it be trusted not to add spyware?
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 09:41
I have it and Major Geeks for software downloads.

http://www.filehippo.com/
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: sam on July 03, 2006, 09:54
well its probably fine, it looks clean... and it states:

Quote
100% FREE from Spyware and Viruses!
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 10:32
Quote from: "sam"
Why didn't you get it from the FF site?


Do you mean this one?

http://www.thingsthatmakeyougoaahh.com/2006/04/real-firefox.html
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: sam on July 03, 2006, 10:37
trust you to bring in the cute animal! :-)
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 03, 2006, 13:45
OK you want cute, this is cute.


(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi70.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi84%2Fmistybear_2006%2F1140013992.jpg&hash=04f981f2e87f49b3e4f98ecb00ea111d54478ed2)
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: sam on July 03, 2006, 13:51
looks like the cat is ready for the firing squad!
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Clive on July 03, 2006, 14:37
Awwwwwwww.  I've left mine gnawing on a lamb bone.   :laugh:
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 03, 2006, 16:54
Firefox saves your configuation settings, bookmarks and plugins in a separate folder, so that if you need to reinstall it, you don't have to go through everything from scratch.  If you had previously installed the HotFix toolbar, it would still be there when you reinstalled Firefox.  Did you not use the Email Notifier (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2595/) plug in I found for you, which was similar to HotFix, but without any spyware, and was developed for Firefox?  Or is that what you are referring to when you said it came back?

Also, you really should download Firefox from the Firefox site (click link in my sig), as you risk incorporating spyware by downloading from other sites, and further, may not be getting the latest version.

Sorry, I'm bullying again!  :mmm:  ;)
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: gmax on July 04, 2006, 03:09
Code: [Select]
looks like the cat is ready for the firing squad! :D
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 04, 2006, 05:41
Quote from: "Simon"
Firefox saves your configuation settings, bookmarks and plugins in a separate folder, so that if you need to reinstall it, you don't have to go through everything from scratch.  If you had previously installed the HotFix toolbar, it would still be there when you reinstalled Firefox.  Did you not use the Email Notifier (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2595/) plug in I found for you, which was similar to HotFix, but without any spyware, and was developed for Firefox?  Or is that what you are referring to when you said it came back?

Also, you really should download Firefox from the Firefox site (click link in my sig), as you risk incorporating spyware by downloading from other sites, and further, may not be getting the latest version.

Sorry, I'm bullying again!  :mmm:  ;)


You're not being a bully Simon, you're answering my questions, thankyou.

I use those other sites to see what's new and available, and one of them is all freeware, saves hunting around for them. :wink:
I've never had any problems with anything I have downloaded.

I deleted Hotfix before I reinstalled FF. The email notifier part of it was no longer working with IE, so it was pointless having it. That's when I decided to reinstall FF with the thought of adding the Email Notifier that you had found for me, but when it came up with the Hotfix Toolbar :argh:

So if you could tell me how to get rid of the Hotfix Toolbar from FF.
And is it any point to reinstalling FF from it's own site, won't I still get the Hotfix Toolbar with it?
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 04, 2006, 05:43
Quote from: "Clive"
Awwwwwwww.  I've left mine gnawing on a lamb bone.   :laugh:


That's one hell of a cat you've got there Clive.

Mine won't even eat a mouse. :laugh:
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Clive on July 04, 2006, 07:39
She can't crunch the bone but licking every last morsel of meat off keeps her quiet for two whole days.  Bliss!!   :laugh:
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 04, 2006, 08:11
Does HotFix appear in Control Panel > Add / Remove Programs?  If so, you should be able to uninstall it from there.

Providing you have the latest version (1.5.0.4), there should be no reason to re-install FF, unless you suspect there could be spyware lurking.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 04, 2006, 08:41
I used Add/Remove Programs to delete it before I reinstalled FF.

Michael just did a search of my computer for all files of Hotfix and deleted them. He said it shouldn't work anymore.
I restarted the computer hoping that it wouldn't be there, but alas it's still bl**dy there.
If I uninstall FF now and reinstall will it still come back with the Hotfix Toolbar.

For now I will simply untick it so it doesn't show, and download Email Notifier.

And yes it is the latest version.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 04, 2006, 09:56
That's the trouble with these damned things - you can't get rid of them.

If you want to completely start again with a 'clean' Firefox, after you have uninstalled it, you can remove all of the plugins and saved settings by deleting the Profile folder, which is hidden in C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles.  In there you will find a folder named with random letters and numbers.  This is your Profile folder.  You may have to reveal hidden folders to see this, by going to Tools > Folder Options > View > then scroll down to Hidden files and folders and tick the button to Show.  Be aware that deleting the Profile folder will completely remove all of your saved settings, including bookmarks, saved passwords etc, but these can be Imported from IE again when you re-install FF.  Alternatively, you can open the folder and make a backup copy elsewhere of the Bookmarks.htm, then you can just copy it back into the new folder which will be created when you re-install.  

Also, go to C:\Program Files and delete the Firefox folder from in there.  Hopefully, HotFix will then not reappear if you re-install FF.  You could, of course, leave things as they are, if you have found a way to hide the HotFix toolbar - but you'll always know it's there, and there might be a chance that it could conflict with the Email Notifier, but you won't know that until you install it.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 04, 2006, 10:10
Thanks for that Simon,

When I downloaded Email Notifier, which isn't working at the moment, a window opened to show what extensions I already had and Hotfix Toolbar was in there with an uninstall box, so yes I clicked it and it said that it would be uninstalled when I restart the computer.
I just had a look in Tools>Extensions and everything is in there except the Hotfix Toolbar.
 :D
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 04, 2006, 16:13
Great news about HotFix!  Perhaps Firefox isn't that bad after all?  ;)  Now, what's the problem with e-mail notifier?  You probably have to go through some sort of set up procedure for each of your mail accounts, or it won't know what or where to check, and if you are running a firewall (I've lost track a bit with this - are you still using Windows Firewall?), Email notifier will need permission to access the internet.
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: mistybear on July 05, 2006, 08:53
Email Notifier seems to be working ok now. I think what happened was that I hadn't exited msn properly so when I got an email the msn popped-up, which I find irritating. And with the Hotfix Toolbar it seems to take longer to be notified and the same appears to be true of FF's Email Notifier.
I thought once you signed out of msn that was it, but Michael tells me that after you have signed out you then have to exit it as well. I rarely use it now as not only is the pop-up annoying, once it's gone I tend to forget about it.
I like having it on the toolbar as a reminder that emails are still there and it's an easy way to access all of them. With msn I have to sign out of one to access another and then sign into that one and so on, what a bloody pain.
And then if you happen to have Yahoo (as I do) or any others, Email Notifier is a very handy thing in deed.  :D

And no I haven't installed a Firewall yet. :?
Title: I have no idea what's wrong.
Post by: Simon on July 05, 2006, 09:54
Well, the Windows Firewall should give you some protection, but it's not ideal, as it only monitors incoming traffic.  You might find this useful:-

http://personal-firewall-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

These are all paid for 'Pro' versions, but I think you can get free versions of some of them.  It just gives you an indication of what's available, and how easy they are to use.   Most of the free versions work the same, but lack some of the 'bells & whistles' of the 'Pro' versions.