Computer Help & Tech Support

[jokabofe]

chris - i did a fresh install... format the hard drive and install windows xp media center edition. i was just saying that i was upgrading from xin2k to xp. so this is the first time i've used xp...

and i'm about to open the case and start ripping stuff out if i can't fix this crap soon....

[Chris]

Ah, I misread then, I believe.

Damn, don't know what's going on....  

[Jedi Idej]

I've always been a proponent of slash and burn. Screw soil augmentation, especially since it's a recent reformat. Reformat and re-install again.

I've had this happen to me before, albeit with Win98. Sometimes files don't load properly; it happens.

[Ben]

When I click the Back button on my browser, it backs up two pages sometimes. I'm guessing I need a new mouse on that one.

I'm also having a problem where every time I open a new window, Internet Explorer encounters a 'problem' and needs to close. WTF?

[CorranHorn]

I'm also having a problem where every time I open a new window, Internet Explorer encounters a 'problem' and needs to close. WTF?

IE is quite the buggy little bugger, on my old PC, running WinME, IE would crash on average 5 times a day. This tends to be because of resource requirements by IE which is heavily integrated into the Win9x/XP infrastructure. Do what I did,  and go Mozilla, an open-source web browser based off the Netscape engine. It makes IE and NS look like an Atari 2600 compared to it's SNES-goodness.  

Mozilla.org

a) i can't seem to turn my pc off. not that i shut it off all that much, but when i click the shut down icon, it just restarts.

joka, what was the fix you tried? a clean re-install of XP could do the trick if as previously mentioned not all of the files were installed the first time. you may want to look into installing from a different copy of XP as well just in case the copy you have is flawed.

[paploo]

Check to make sure all of your hardware is on the windows HCL (Hardware compatibility list). If it is try to format and install it again. Windows installations sometimes just fail. if they are an unexpected/untrapped error you may not even get a message that tells you there is a problem. If both of those dont help, try kicking it

[Boba Binks]

a) i can't seem to turn my pc off. not that i shut it off all that much, but when i click the shut down icon, it just restarts.

I had this problem with my Compaq desktop a few years ago. There was something about WINXP that messed up some of the systems codes. I am not sure what codes they were but the techs at Best Buys told me to change something int hte Config and it fixed the problem.

Or if you want one option that I was told was to hold the power button after the shutting down screen appears to turn off the CPU.

[DSJ™]

Whoa. I just had the strangest thing happen. I just refreashed the forum page & my PC started to what looks like it was shutting down. It came up as "Please Stand By", then shut down for a minute & then came back without loosing a thing.    Everything is back as nothing happened! WTF?

[Angry Ewok]

Written from my Macintosh, instead of my Windows laptop.

! ANGRY !

Okay so I switched off my laptop this afternoon and it gives me some kinda bull about explorer.exe not wanting to quit, so I force it to quit - hey, I'm a busy guy and I force crap to close from time to time (Call Of Duty, Quicktime, Quake, etc), so I didn't think anything of it.

Fast forward to this afternoon -

I switch on my laptop, everything's normal. I go to My Connections from the Start button, I dialup while listening to 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', I go to AIM to harrass Chris Berry once I'm online- and then something weird happens. The laptop locks up, and I get major ass lag from hell.

I reboot.

Now that I'm back on the laptop, the toolbar/start button jazz is all gone, all the stuff on my desktop is gone (Trash, shortcuts, etc), and the right click doesn't work.

I hit CTRL+ALT+Delete, the Task Manager opens, and I see my CPU Usage is at 100%. I've got no idea what the hell is going on, as I'm an idiot with computers - BUT - I managed to pull up Norton and I'm scanning for viruses as we speak. Of course, the Norton thing expired not long ago, so I don't know if that'll be any help.

Help, somebody. Tell me what to do.  

[paploo]

in the task manager you will see a processes tab.sort by the cpu by clicking the title and see what is using your processor. If it is explorer or system idle process you probobly have a serious problem. if it is a virus you should be able to clearly see which one. Also check your event viewer control panel->administrative tools->event viewer, and see if any service failed to start. dont be terribly worried if you have a lot of stuff in there it is quite typical i have 3500 events and my pc is fine. report your findings and i can try to help you through it

[Angry Ewok]

Okay, I rebooted and I've got 20 processes, CPU usage at 100%, umm, here's the top 3 biggest memory users...

svchost.exe - system - 00 - 17,504k
explorer.exe - Brad Smith - 99 - 12,992k
spoolsv.exe - system - 00 - 4,064k

That 99 is just bizarre looking, because the rest of the 20 something process things are 0 to 1-3.  

[paploo]

does the explorer consistantly stay at 99% or is it fluctuating

[Angry Ewok]

I've watched it for some time and it may have flickered down to 97 once or twice, but otherwise it's concrete at 99.

[paploo]

what about the event viewer

[Angry Ewok]

Okay I had to reboot because it was slowing down to a stop - meanwhile, where do I find the control panel, starting from the desktop?