Re: Sticky Computer Problem:

On May 13, 1:56 pm, "Rock" <R...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Robert" <magine...@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]



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.
Sorry about the long paragraphs.
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 believe I was installing Windows updates.

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.

When I try and do a System Restore, I select the date, and then I
select the time and click next, and it goes through the process but
each time it comes back saying that the computer cannot be restored to
that date, pick another. I have tried numerous dates and times but it
never works. It keeps doing the same thing.

http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html
I tried to do a System Restore when I had Norton disabled but it came
back with the same message that it couldn’t restore to that date. I
haven’t done a System Restore from the Safe Mode however I suppose
that’s my next step.
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
As I mentioned earlier, I had cleaned up all this next but the
computer sent it as it was all scrambled. Sorry.
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.
I am able to see and view my hotmail account but only when Norton is
disabled. What I find odd is that it was working fine just a few days
ago and I have no idea what happened, other than that last message.


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

By application I mean to open anything such as a file etc, or like
when I see I have emails waiting I click on that and it just hangs
there, but that’s when Norton is running. Seems to be ok without it,
and I can at least get online, although jury rigged, yet I can still
tell the computer still isn’t right. It isn’t as fast or responsive
and I’ve tried playing Jedi Academy and its slow

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.

Probably so, I did try running System Restore with Norton disabled
though and it still failed.

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.

I attempted to turn off my Auto-Updates because I thought they may
have been a source of the problem by downloading bad data.

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.
(Another messed up spot)
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,
The above refers to having the Microsoft Updates site in my Favorites
because I wasn’t able to get to it via Explorer/Tools/Windows Update.
What does "all available software udpates" mean?
I means it listed about (9) separate updates and I downloaded them
from the Microsft Updates page with a pop-up screen showing the
progress and all but one was successful. I was going to go back and
try again and download the other (8) updates mentioned below when I
saw the Explorer 7 update.

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? Microsoft
Updates

Where did you find quite a few updates? Microsoft Updates And then
you went back to look for XP updates? yes I thought you just did
that? I download software updates, they had multiple updates I wanted
to download; e.g. (9) software, (8) XP and (1)Hardware.
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.
That’s the point, the system isn’t running well. I’m trying to restore
it to the way it was.
It doesn’t even give me the desk top anymore but always prompts me
now.
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?
Every time I attempt to go online and Norton is on I get the following
message:

Norton Personal Firewall
Security Alert
Low Risk
IEXPLORE.EXE is attempting to connect toa DNS server.
Program: IEXPLORE.EXE
C:Program Files\Internet Explorer\
Date/Time:
Remote Address:

What do you want to do?
Always allow connections from this program on all ports(recommended)
and whenever I click ok it comes right back and I never connect to the
site.

What alert message? All this is moot though, because there are so
many
intertwined issues here. very true which is why I’m looking for some
answers and I think System Restore from the Safe Mode is a good step,
especially since nothing else has worked.
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?
I ask this question because I’m wanting to try and save my data by
transferring it from one computer to another.
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 don’t think it was a Norton update although I can’t be certain
because the information just flashed by.
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.
This sounds like the best way although some of his advice I’m a little
iffy on.
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.
Thanks for the good advice, I have been thinking of creating a system
back up for awhile.


Robert

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Active X problem?
    ... So are the latest versions and updates of Norton ... I operate behind a hardware firewall and have Norton Internet ... >> to Microsoft and restart the application) and I have to restart them, ... > Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and CWShredder ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser)
  • IE 6 SP1 Crashes on Some not All Websites
    ... Am running IE 6.0.2800.1106IC on Win98 Second Edition. ... Was off internet for ... Went to download latest critical and optional updates to this PC from Windows ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser)
  • Re: Remove Firewall
    ... network can do the download. ... "though other sections of Peachtree" you do show internet connectivity. ... Also add the site used for updates to your trusted Web ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • 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: Possible virus in System Volume Information
    ... Can you give me the URL to download the updates manually? ... >> i'll explain how i install... ... >> when NOT connected to the internet: ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)