The General PC Questions Thread

Chris Davies

Chris Davies

Chief PESsimist
Staff
14 May 2003
UK
Tranmere Rovers
Normally when this kind of thing happens I'd do a format, but this is a problem with my girlfriend's PC and no way can I be arsed to sit there formatting for ten hours while I put on her dad's games, her games and her sisters games, smilies, music, media players, favourites, web-downloaded games and bucketfuls of spyware.

Her dad installed WinCleaner and then, because it installed something he "didn't like the look of", he ran System Restore. He hadn't heard of "Add\Remove Programs", but anyway - now certain games refuse to run. Battlefield 1942 runs fine, for example, but Battlefield 2 comes up with tons of seperate *.fx errors, e.g. "particle.fx (huge long error code) LOWPSMODEL", over and over. The Sims 2 also refuses to run (the game generates an "exception" log, i.e. a crash log, which says the crash occured with "kernel32.dll" - although the filesize and version number is identical to mine).

I've tried installing DirectX 9c again, installing the latest NVIDIA drivers again and reinstalling the games - no joy. I thought if I un-restored the restore point it would work - no joy. I've searched high and low for Battlefield 2 players who get a "LOWPSMODEL" error - no joy.

Please save me Superman. :(
 
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Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Have run several times, no problems found. :(
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

format the fucker, dont be such a lazy sod ;) after all his daughter is servicing you, the least you could do to repay him is service his PC. LOL
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

footyfan said:
format the fucker, dont be such a lazy sod ;) after all his daughter is servicing you, the least you could do to repay him is service his PC. LOL
Click to expand...
Agree.:lol: partition her files! - and tell him to only have a couple of games on at once in the future - the greedy f**ker! Tell them they should have partitioned if they wanted to save some files....
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Have you tried jumping back yet further in system restore?
 
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Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

The earliest point in System Restore, the beginning of the month, has been restored to today and it's exactly the same. Looks like I have no choice but to format, right? :(

It's a Dell PC - will I have a nightmare trying to format it with all the Dell stuff pre-loaded onto it (I've never seen a PC with so much crap installed on it from the word go in my life)? I've heard some nightmare stories. Plus the drives are SATA, with the first two hard drives being seen as one (the second one is a mirror image of the first, which I don't think is neccesary really seeing as it would surely be better used as a backup for cases like this rather than being there purely in-case the first one blows up). I've not had to format a Dell or a SATA RAID PC before. I'm quaking in my boots.

Damn you, System Restore!!!
 
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Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

I was sure Dell set-up a ghost image on a partition on the main HD anyway, any sort of documentation around for it? I am pretty sure you could reboot it then press and "F" key and it will restore it to the factory default.

Failing that I would format it, family PC's are always full of shit and need a good clean up once a year or so.

I still recommend Microsoft's antispyware, it's fantastic, I have not had a spyware attack for close to 8 months since using that.

EDIT: I am pretty sure that I don't need to tell you this but I learnt the hard way. Before a format I always have a good browse through the device manager and take note of any drivers needed etc. I end up compliling the lot together on my own restore disks as such.
 
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Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Jack Bauer said:
The earliest point in System Restore, the beginning of the month, has been restored to today and it's exactly the same. Looks like I have no choice but to format, right? :(

It's a Dell PC - will I have a nightmare trying to format it with all the Dell stuff pre-loaded onto it (I've never seen a PC with so much crap installed on it from the word go in my life)? I've heard some nightmare stories. Plus the drives are SATA, with the first two hard drives being seen as one (the second one is a mirror image of the first, which I don't think is neccesary really seeing as it would surely be better used as a backup for cases like this rather than being there purely in-case the first one blows up). I've not had to format a Dell or a SATA RAID PC before. I'm quaking in my boots.

Damn you, System Restore!!!
Click to expand...

Had to format mine yesterday and am still getting it to its oldself now

MicroCunts fault
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

I dunno mate.... how about deleting all files that are "spyware" by yourself?

or

try Windows Defender... great-free antispyware cleaner made by microsoft)...

_-_(make this a sticky if you want... it's a great tool!)_-_
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

It's not the Spyware that's the problem, it's the computer not playing games because of a System Restore that should never have been done.

It's days are numbered - I'm going to format it on Tuesday.
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Agree with wolf hook about M$ spyware prog - it really is very good.

Good luck with the format - at least you have a fairly good understanding of what you're doing.....I was talking to a dopey mare today at work and she had bought a second hand pc with windoze 95 on it and so much crap on that slowed it down, no protection and years of malware/spyware/adware etc off a neighbour. Finally sickened of using this, I directed her to PC World :lmao: to where she will be in good company, with sales staff of her knowledge band.:D
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Haha, my God the years I spent there before it clicked and I thought *Harry Hill style* 'ang on a minute! You don't know wot you're doin' do ya?! You're only makin' it worse!! In your bed!!

I was lucky enough for my sister to start going out with a guy very high up at IBM when I was about ten and had my first PC bought for me. Every time I fucked it up, he'd fix it and tell me how I'd fucked it up and how to fix it. I've learnt more from that method than I did from years at college.
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Okay, I'm typing this from a newly formatted crapless Dell PC. Was a NIGHTMARE to format though, had to get RAID drivers put onto a floppy and then press F6 during the Windows XP setup, and even then it was telling me the drives were "XP incompatible", DESPITE the fact that Windows XP was installed on one of them!!

In the end I had to go into the RAID BIOS and remove all RAID associations before it saw that there were three blank drives ready and waiting. Took me 24 hours to figure it all out though!

Next Question (Oh Great Ones):

I'm going to perform a backup of the hard drive tomorrow so that if this happens again, I can say over the phone "press this and this and the backup I made will be restored". What's the best program to make a backup with? The "Backup" tool in My Computer (when right-clicking a drive, clicking "Properties" and clicking "Tools"), Nero BackItUp (which claims it's piss-easy to restore a backup with, which is handy) or something else entirely?

Cheers guys.
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

If you have a nice clean install, just as you like it, ghost it with Norton Ghost or similar. It'll take an exact mirror snapshot of everything, and dump it ino a big file which you can split over DVDs or dump to a spare HD. At any point in the future, you can load this ghost image and blast the hard drive back to how it was at that point.
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Used Norton Ghost, cheers for that Babs.

Last question for now; a rather stupid friend of mine has forgotten the password for his dial-up internet connection (IE has saved the password, so he can get online, but he'd like to know what his password is). There was once a program called "Password Recovery Pro" which would reveal a password by moving the cursor over it, but I've just read that it doesn't work with IE, unfortunately.

Any programs out there he could use to reveal his password?
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Could he not just speak to his Internet Service Provider?

DJ
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

He's too embarrassed. :roll: I've told him to do that this morning though.
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Jack Bauer said:
Used Norton Ghost, cheers for that Babs.

Last question for now; a rather stupid friend of mine has forgotten the password for his dial-up internet connection (IE has saved the password, so he can get online, but he'd like to know what his password is). There was once a program called "Password Recovery Pro" which would reveal a password by moving the cursor over it, but I've just read that it doesn't work with IE, unfortunately.

Any programs out there he could use to reveal his password?
Click to expand...


So its like that? A friend eh?? :mrgreen:
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Imagine if it turns out that he (do we still call you Chris? :-s) actually services PCs for a living but really has to come here for answers. :lol:
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

New one; I've got an external USB hard drive, but when I turn it on, A) it takes two minutes to stop the access LED from flashing, what's XP doing to it? and B) when I try to use the safe USB device removal icon, it always says that it can't currently be disconnected. My PC stays on for long periods of time where I need to disconnect it but don't want to corrupt the data on it, obviously. Any hints?
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Got a virus scanner?

Can you set exceptions on that particular drive letter, or to not check usb devices?
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

babs said:
Got a virus scanner?

Can you set exceptions on that particular drive letter, or to not check usb devices?
Click to expand...
...*Cough*

:applause: Cheers, yet again, matey. :)
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

New questionnn. (short and sweet this one)

I've got a Pentium 4 2.53GHz with 512mb of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200. Battlefield 2 jerks like hell and Oblivion is unplayable, the frame-rate is literally around 1fps in the jail section at the very start of the game. Considering I can't upgrade the processor on this motherboard (and I can't afford a new motherboard and processor), do you think that buying another 512mb of RAM and/or a new graphics card would stop Battlefield 2 and Oblivion from jerking?

If so, can anyone recommend a graphics card (the cheaper the better, although obviously if it won't help the framerate then there's no point)?
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

I have an AMD 2800+ (lower clock than yours) with 1 gig of slow ram, and a Radeon 9600XT card (nothing special) and I can play both those titles just fine.

Granted I can't play at full resolution or detail, but still both very playable. I'd say try the RAM first, it's very cheap and will help with everythin you use the PC for, not just games. A graphics card that'll cope with Oblivion at full detail etc will be into the hundreds at this point, and would be bottlenecked with only 512MB of RAM too.
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Okie doke, say for arguments sake I tear myself away from Guitar Hero for long enough to go and get an extra 512mb of RAM (if I can remember what type it is, there's nothing you can go to in the BIOS or in XP that tells you what type it is, is there?) - and say the games are just as slow. What graphics card would be enough for BF2 and Oblivion to run smoothly (forget on full detail, I haven't won the lottery yet)?
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Okay, never mind... Next question. :oops:

My internet speed, when downloading, is 250kb/s, which I'm more than pleased with. However, browsing the internet takes a DECADE. This time last week, I'd click "home", and Evo-Web would be on, fully loaded, in less than five seconds. Now, it's over a minute (timing out on several occasions) to load up a website.

My ISP are saying it's something I've done, seeing as the download speeds are fine - but over the last few days, I've formatted, used a different router and even a different PC. Same thing. And today, I've just realised the upload speed is less than 0.1kb/s.

What could this be down to?
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

which browsers are you using? sounds like DNS hijinks to me, try the support pages somewhere like zen/pipex/eclipse and manually enter their DNS server IPs as your DNS IPs.
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Tried IE and Firefox.

Just tried some different DNS servers (from here, don't know if it's up-to-date or anything)... Seems to be a bit faster, not lightning fast but definitely an improvement.

I'll have to give my ISP (E7even, NOBODY USE E7EVEN) a ring tomorrow - the fifth in a week, and about the hundredth since starting with them (with no exaggeration). Not that they'll answer the phone...
 
Re: BABS! Other PC experts too... HELP!!!

Reported them to the OFT now, it's got beyond a joke. The internet has been at full speed today - for two minutes. Then it's been off for a few hours, and now it's back on, with a download speed of 1kb/s. If anyone reading this is considering joining E7even, don't.

Anyway, next question (I should rename this thread to "Chris's Computing Questions")... Does anybody know any Visual Basic bits and bobs?

For a little personal project to save me from going mad, I've started writing a little program similar to "Deal Or No Deal". Well, I say "started writing"... I've got a text-file with everything I need the program to do, but no clue how to convert it from English into VB.

Simple one first - what's the code for taking a value and storing it (i.e. if there's a text-box where someone enters their name, how do you take that information and store it)?
 
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