The General "Computer Issues" Thread

[En Sabah Nur]

Hey um I have a question, maybe someone could help ?


Well, I have 2 computers, and my vista just broke down a month ago, and I was wondering if anyone could help..

Well, my vista has a problem where everytime I try to start it up, it starts to load, but every time its about to go to the start-up screen it turns black, and all I see is my cursor on screen, I don't know what to do about it, is it broken?

Turn off your pc, unplug it from your power outlet. Then push the power button a few times to discharge any remaining power in the capacitors. unplug any and all card readers (internal/external) memory cards, usb devises, flash drives, and mp3/ipod players. Wait a few minutes and plug the power cord back in. Turn your pc on without plugging any of the non essential usb devises and see if that starts your computer. if it does, restart and plug your usb devises one by one to isolate the one that causes the boot problems.

 

[WolfieKiwi]

I'm using Windows XP and I have a small yet irritating issue with scrolling on my internet browser and Microsoft Word. (For browsers, I use Firefox more than IE, but they both have the same issue.) Anyway, the transitions are basically choppy and lag every time I scroll up or down.

Also, I'm not using a mouse, so my laptops' touch pad/scrolling pad could be the key to the problem...but I'm not so sure.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

I'm using Windows XP and I have a small yet irritating issue with scrolling on my internet browser and Microsoft Word. (For browsers, I use Firefox more than IE, but they both have the same issue.) Anyway, the transitions are basically choppy and lag every time I scroll up or down.

Also, I'm not using a mouse, so my laptops' touch pad/scrolling pad could be the key to the problem...but I'm not so sure.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

to rule out your touch pad, can you connect any basic usb mouse to your laptop and see if it still happens.

Also try going into the Mouse settings in your Control Panel and check your settings there.

 

[WolfieKiwi]

to rule out your touch pad, can you connect any basic usb mouse to your laptop and see if it still happens.

Also try going into the Mouse settings in your Control Panel and check your settings there.

I already checked the control panel on the mouse and everything seemed to be working fine.

I also took your advice on inserting a usb mouse, and there were no scrolling issues with anything whatsoever when I used it. --So it looks like I'll be getting a mouse for my laptop. Thank you!

 

[En Sabah Nur]

I already checked the control panel on the mouse and everything seemed to be working fine.

I also took your advice on inserting a usb mouse, and there were no scrolling issues with anything whatsoever when I used it. --So it looks like I'll be getting a mouse for my laptop. Thank you!

it could be just dirty or it could be malfunctioning censors. Try to take a can of air and dust the pad. Also damp a little windex on a paper towel, so it will only be damp not dripping, and wipe the pad when laptop is off. If that doesn't work, the sensors went bad, so usb mouse might be your only option.

 

[SuperPhillip]

What is a good video creating program?

I just want to show an image or two while an mp3 plays.

I have Camtasia Studio, but for some reason it doesn't read all mp3s...

 

[PowerZord]

Something weird happened to my Acer Notebook Laptop last night. I had plenty of Hard Disk space avaible and suddenly I see a red bar telling me I only have 3.50 GB left from 50GB hard drive. and I think this happened when I configured my MSN to scan files with my AVG anti virus. (I wanted to send a .ZIP file but MSN doesn't let me unless an anti virus is configured or I install their Mcafee.)

How can I fix this? I don't have programs that run over 30GB. My biggest program is Photoshop CS2.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

Something weird happened to my Acer Notebook Laptop last night. I had plenty of Hard Disk space avaible and suddenly I see a red bar telling me I only have 3.50 GB left from 50GB hard drive. and I think this happened when I configured my MSN to scan files with my AVG anti virus. (I wanted to send a .ZIP file but MSN doesn't let me unless an anti virus is configured or I install their Mcafee.)

How can I fix this? I don't have programs that run over 30GB. My biggest program is Photoshop CS2.

did you install something, update something? Anything at all?

 

[Mynd Hed]

When dealing with a full hard drive, I recommend a freeware program called WinDirStat.

http://windirstat.info/

It scans your hard drive and gives you an easy-to-understand, visual look at all your files and folders with each one sized proportionally to how much hard drive space it actually takes. That way you can easily figure out what's eating up all your space and delete accordingly.

 

[defunctzombie]

Something weird happened to my Acer Notebook Laptop last night. I had plenty of Hard Disk space avaible and suddenly I see a red bar telling me I only have 3.50 GB left from 50GB hard drive. and I think this happened when I configured my MSN to scan files with my AVG anti virus. (I wanted to send a .ZIP file but MSN doesn't let me unless an anti virus is configured or I install their Mcafee.)

How can I fix this? I don't have programs that run over 30GB. My biggest program is Photoshop CS2.

My computer at work had half of it's space taken, which was odd because I hardly have anything on it. There were two culprits:

1. It still had an old beta of Microsoft Antispyware, and one of the log files was 4 gb. So I canned it.

2. The other was a Symantec anti-virus temp file that was in the 10s of gigs.

I recommend Disk Cleanup and getting rid of some things that come up (if it's a big chunk of space. You can leave the kb stuff). If you have any old data hog programs (like the Sims for instance) you can get rid of some of those.

 

[PowerZord]

did you install something, update something? Anything at all?

Nope. Only configured Avast to work on Windows Live 9.0 since I needed to send a Zip file. and that was the quickest way for me to send over 100 pictures.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

I still haven't gotten my printer to work, nor have I been able to install the foreign language packages that I wanted, but now I have another question. Um, I just tried to load a CD into iTunes, only to see that my computer wouldn't read it. So, I went to My Computer and my computer doesn't seem to have notice that I have two internal disc drives. What in the name of Primus is going on?

 

[En Sabah Nur]

I still haven't gotten my printer to work, nor have I been able to install the foreign language packages that I wanted, but now I have another question. Um, I just tried to load a CD into iTunes, only to see that my computer wouldn't read it. So, I went to My Computer and my computer doesn't seem to have notice that I have two internal disc drives. What in the name of Primus is going on?

so what you are saying is that your pc does not recognize the optical drives in your pc? I had that problem before.
You need to do this:

Microsoft Windows XP

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
4. In the right pane, click UpperFilters.
   
   Note You may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click UpperFilters only. If you do not see the UpperFilters registry entry, you still might have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry. To do this, go to step 7.
5. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
6. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
7. In the right pane, click LowerFilters.
   
   Note If you do not see the LowerFilters registry entry, unfortunately this content cannot help you any further. Go to the "Next Steps" section for information about how you can find more solutions or more help on the Microsoft Web site.
8. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
9. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
10. Exit Registry Editor.
11. Restart the computer.

So basically remove the LowerFilters and UpperFilters. You might have only one of them, so remove it. Hope this helps.

Also, if you see the drives now but itunes still can't play the disk, reinstall itunes.

And if that does not help do the following:

Microsoft Windows XP

loadTOCNode(3, 'moreinformation');

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click System and Maintenance, and then click System,
3. On the Hardware tab, click Device Manager. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
4. In Device Manager, expland DVD/CD-ROM drives, right-click the CD and DVD devices, and then click Uninstall.
5. When you are prompted to confirm that you want to remove the device, click OK.
6. Restart the computer.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

 

[PowerZord]

My hard drive problem solved itself... now.. I got another huge problem. I have Windows Vista with SP1 installed, on an Acer laptop. and I can't seem to be able to transfer files from CD's. I need to transfer a folder with 400 pictures and after 147 it stops, hangs, and freezes. I try copy on small bunches, but at the fouth row it freezes... How can I fix this?

 

[En Sabah Nur]

My hard drive problem solved itself... now.. I got another huge problem. I have Windows Vista with SP1 installed, on an Acer laptop. and I can't seem to be able to transfer files from CD's. I need to transfer a folder with 400 pictures and after 147 it stops, hangs, and freezes. I try copy on small bunches, but at the fouth row it freezes... How can I fix this?

look at the cd, it might be scratched, and once it gets to a certain picture that it cant read due to a scracth, it freeaes. Also the cd might have a currupted picture. Try to isolate the pictue by moving pictures by row. Once you get to a row that it freeses on, move each picture at a time. The cd might also be currupled to a certain point, so after lets say 400 pictures, the rest are unreadble. try opining the cd with wista and view them in thumbnail form so you can see all the picture prewiews. if some dont open, they cant be copied.

 

[PowerZord]

look at the cd, it might be scratched, and once it gets to a certain picture that it cant read due to a scracth, it freeaes. Also the cd might have a currupted picture. Try to isolate the pictue by moving pictures by row. Once you get to a row that it freeses on, move each picture at a time. The cd might also be currupled to a certain point, so after lets say 400 pictures, the rest are unreadble. try opining the cd with wista and view them in thumbnail form so you can see all the picture prewiews. if some dont open, they cant be copied.

That was my problem! after a certain picture lets say 135-147 pics, it froze. I had to move them by small batches. They took a while to show in thumbnails.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

That was my problem! after a certain picture lets say 135-147 pics, it froze. I had to move them by small batches. They took a while to show in thumbnails.

so you were able to move them all? did the cd have any scratches on it?

 

[PowerZord]

so you were able to move them all? did the cd have any scratches on it?

Mostly all.. I had to leave out like 5. it took me awhile.. from 5 to 5. I checked the DVD-R, yes I noticed scratches, Should I burn another copy of that DVD?

 

[En Sabah Nur]

Mostly all.. I had to leave out like 5. it took me awhile.. from 5 to 5. I checked the DVD-R, yes I noticed scratches, Should I burn another copy of that DVD?

don't burn the DVD from that DVD, if pc can't read it, it won't burn it. Unless you want to back up the pictures you transfered into your pc from your pc as backup.

 

[PowerZord]

It seems it's only that specific folder that was corrupted by the scratch, since it transfered all other folders with almost the same amount of pictures without any problems. Thank god, I was able to transfer out %97 of that folder. (I'm a Photographer and I'm constanly backing up my pictures..) Anyway, Thanks for the help!