Re: Sticky Computer Problem:

"Robert" <magineeer@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

Ok, I'll take a whack at asking some questions here, but it sure would help if you put in shorter paragraphs and line breaks between thoughts. My replies in line.

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 computer, running with XP Home Edition
and am connected to the Internet via DSL. It usually is fairly smooth
running and fast enough for my needs. A few days ago when I was about
to turn it off there was an alert saying to turn it off to in order to
download updates.

Ok, here is where some info needs to be listed. What updates were installed? Where these from windows update or Norton or what?

I had seen this before so I wasn't alarmed. However,
the next day when I turned on my computer the desk top loaded as
normal but Internet Explorer doesn't function at all and my other
applications are slowed down considerably. I have over 25 gigs of free
space on my hard drive so it's not a matter of storage and I haven't
added anything new and there's only (1) game on it, Jedi Knight, Jedi
Academy.
It acts as if there's a virus. I have Norton Antivirus, A- Squared,
and Spybot.

Personally I recommend against Norton Home security products; even when not otherwise problematic they are resource hogs. There are better, and in some cases free, alternatives. I don't know anything about A-Squared.

I have run all three and only Spybot came back
with anything saying my Microsoft security was disabled which I
believe is normal since I'm running Norton. It won't let me do a
System Restore either no matter what date I choose.

What won't let you do a system restore? Do you mean system restore gives an error when trying to restore or some message about not being able to restore? Details are important. The failure in system restore might be due to to the presence of Norton. System Restore is a valuable tool in just such a case, and the fact that it can't be used possibly because of the presence of this 3rd party program is a good reason not to use that program. See the troubleshooting tips on MVP Bert Kinney's system restore page.

http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html

Another option to system restore is to remove via Add/Remove programs whatever updates were added when this issue first started. Unfortunately we have no information on what that was.

I finally tried disabling the Norton Antivirus and it finally let me
online but the computer is still 'not right'. It doesn't let me see
my email yet loads other pages as normal

Email where? Yahoo, google, some other online email service, or do you use an email client such as Outlook Express, Eudora, etc?

and if I try and do anything the application hangs up.

What do you mean do anything? Do what? What application, do you mean Internet Explorer?

It's as though my system is in a locked loop and cannot access the
Internet as I normally did.
It shows that I have an Internet connection but whenever I enable
Norton I get an alert which says that IExplorer is attempting to logon
to the Internet (recommended): and
shows proxy settings detected and just hangs there,..... whenever I
click ok the alert it comes right
back.
As I stated at the beginning, my system was running fine before all
this started to happen.
I'm not saying I don't believe those of you regarding your comments
and Norton products but I'm just pointing out there wasn't a conflict
with them on my system before this. The system was fast and easy to
use and hardly any wait time at all.

And I'm not saying Norton is the cause of all the problems, but it probably is the cause of the system restore problem, and even when it runs ok, it is a resource hog. Though you say the system had been running fast with it, it would be even faster without it.

I tried turning off my Automatic
Windows update and I got an error message from Norton. Does anyone
know of a way around it, or just let it stay that way?

Why do you want to turn off Automatic updates? No I don't have a clue about Norton. Symantec tech support is the best resource for that.

Going on the principle that my computer software 'seized up' in mid
download, even though the computer gave the message to turn it off to
download updates and 'something' obviously happened. I remembered that
I had bookmarked the site and was able to gain access in that way.

Bookmarked what site? The windows update site? You can get there manually from Internet Explorer | Tools | Windows Update.

> Once in, I checked my computer and it showed no updates available, I
then ran all available software updates,

What does "all available software udpates" mean? Ran them from where?

then checked again and found
quite a few updates to download. I then went back to look for XP
updates to download because I remembered seeing (8) of them

This is very confusing here. Where did you check again? Where did you find quite a few updates? And then you went back to look for XP updates? I thought you just did that?

but when I saw Internet Explorer 7 download I clicked it instead thinking it
would bring 'back up to speed'. It validated me and it seemed to
download everything fine, however near the end I thought I saw an
error message about not being able to download something and another
message flashed by with numbers, and not gaining access. It just
happened so fast. Then the computer did a self re-start and came back
up with a prompt for restart but it's as slow as ever.

It's not a good idea to apply more updates when the system is running well. This just adds more unkowns to the mix making troubleshooting that much harder. Fix the underlying problems first.

Then after being online for a few minutes it gave me a message that my updates
were almost finished, so I figured that's why it was so slow. Again it
shut itself down and then prompted me to start-up again. However it's
still sluggish and I still has the problem of Norton not allowing me
to go to sites otherwise I get a alert message,

This is unclear, Norton not allow you to go to sites? What does that mean? What alert message? All this is moot though, because there are so many intertwined issues here.

so I have to disabled Norton. Should I re-run the Explorer download?

No, fix the system first.

Also, is it possible
to hook up one computer to another? Don't you have to have separate
DSL lines etc coming into the room to power and connect to the
Internet? Where does the cable usually connect into? Any suggestions
or advice would be appreciated.

Yes it is, but where did this question come from? What are you trying to accomplish?

First thing I would do is investigate what updates were installed in the first place. Go to the windows update site, do a custom scan and look in the left pane for update history. See what updates, if any, were installed that night. Then go to Add/Remove programs and remove those updates.

Of course it might have been something other than an update from windows update, such as a Norton update. You haven't specified what it was.

I would also troubleshoot what was wrong with system restore to get it running using MVP Bert Kinney's page. Then do a system restore to before all this mess started.

Uninstall the Norton products. Afterwards visit the Symantec site to get their removal tool to remove more of the vestiges, unfortunately it is hard to get rid of Norton security products.

Then for anti-virus install Avast (free and my choice), AVG (free), or NOD32 or Kaspersky, neither are those free. For firewall install one of these: Sunbelt Software's Kerio Personal firewall (free and paid), or Comodo Personal firewall (free).

Lastly, I don't know what kind of system you have set up for backup and recovery, but I recommend you look into getting a drive imaging program and an external hard drive. I currently use Acronis True Image Home, version 10. I use this to daily image the system to an external hard drive. Images can be full, incremental or differential (saving on time and space for subsequent images). Images can be made on a drive or partition basis. Restores can be done on a file, partition or drive basis. It also does file backup and drive cloning.

You can purchase a preassembled external drive or put one together for less cost by placing a bare drive in an external drive enclosure ($20 range). A 320GB setup will cost less than $100.

Then if something damages the system restore from a recent image and in about an hour you are back to a running state.

Good luck.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Sticky Computer Problem:
    ... and am connected to the Internet via DSL. ... download updates. ... I have Norton Antivirus, A- Squared, ... download, even though the computer gave the message to turn it off to ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Sticky Computer Problem:
    ... and am connected to the Internet via DSL. ... I have Norton Antivirus, A- Squared, ... download, even though the computer gave the message to turn it off to ... download updates and 'something' obviously happened. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Security Updates
    ... If it helps just one Norton 'victim' it was well worth it, ... Internet Security and Firewall Options ... There is no-charge for support calls that are associated with security updates. ...
    (microsoft.public.security)
  • Re: PC Crashes whilst connected to internet
    ... > Since installing Norton System, ... > disable the Norton Internet Security program. ... Know that even if you have the normal updates for Norton, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: SP3-For a home user; WHY?
    ... updates apply to anything I use it for. ... casual user would even want to update for? ... Set your system restore to it's minimum size. ... Limit the size of your internet cache. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)