Laptop problems

[Mississippi Steve]

Lots of good advice, but lets start with the basics....
install Norton System Works(complete), install Spy Sweeper, install Window Washer, install Mail Washer PRO.
Do all of the updates and upgrades so everything is current.
Now run Window Washer
Then run Norton "find and fix" (Win Doctor)
then run Spy Sweeper,
Run Find and Fix again.
Now run Norton "Speed Disk"
then finally run Norton Anti Virus.

your machine will be clean, and ready to rock and roll. I have been running this software for 4 years on the same laptop with XP Home (SP2) and have never had a problem.

You might look into another ram chip... drop in a 500meg, and that will help too.

[cannabis campbell]

well when i tried to "remove" those files the error message popped up and the program closed again now when i try to open it again i get this message aargh i hate this.. screw ad-aware!

[GoldenGoblin]

sounds like your compromised
or at least its broke

i would do the whole reinstall/partition then do what mississippi says but after you run those I would turn them off since your low on resources

[cannabis campbell]

Hmm i dont know how the hell its happened but someone heres has helped since i installed that ad-aware and ran it my pc doesnt freeze or overheat anymore but obviously i will still follow everyones advice to get my laptop working as best as it can, thanks everyone much love cannabis.com!

[Mississippi Steve]

First he needs to dump AdAware.... it doesn't work. and there is a lot of spyware that when it attacks, the first thing it does is disables AdAware and Spybot. Spysweeper is updated frequently, and is currently good for some 180THOUSAND threats. CC shouldn't have to worry about "reinstall/partition" of anything.
After he runs the apps I suggested, he will have loads of room and resources again. I only have a 40 gig HD but I am only using 28% of the capacity of the HD. Every time I run Window Washer, it clears a couple of gigs of space, and I do maintenance weekly. When CC does what I recommended, hes gonna freak when he sees all the crap that is wiped from the "hidded" windoze cache files, and all traces of spy ware and tracking cookies, all of the hidden internet cache files, and then there is the internet history.....

My daughters laptop had 147 instances of spyware right out of the box.

One other thing... if your running AOL, dump it!!! AOL has an incredible amount of ITS OWN built in spyware and worms. When I deleted their pre-installed software, if took me 6 months to get rid of ALL of it, and I am still not sure about that.

[GoldenGoblin]

Here is a link for the services thing. You could search for more but this looks pretty good.

the only reason I was saying partition is that when something happens and you had to reinstall then your data would be on another partition.
just removes some of the worry.

[babystarbud]

Right,

first off, theres some bad advice here, if you dont know, please dont comment. adaware and avg antivirus are brillliant products.

dont panic or worry about partitions or anything, and certainly dont use norton products on a pc that old, that will really cripple your system because they use up lots of resources on a less powerfull pc, and avg does just as good a job with a lot less hastle.

AOL is not great as already said, but thats a problem that can be worked around for now...there are more pressing issues at hand...

....you have to assume the adware scan failed, so the next step is to re-start in safe mode as and log in as administrator, then re-attempt your adaware and avg scan.
the reason for this is because theres some nasties blocking the correct operation of adaware, running in safe mode these nasties will not be running allowing you to scan without interference.


adaware, like avg has two versions, a version you have to pay for, and a free version...it sounds like your installation prob may have been that you downloaded the paid-for version hence why it asked for registation.....it ran in the end so i guess it automaticly reverted to the free version, which is nothing to worry about, the level of protection is the same.

with msconfig open, do a google search for the individulal items to see if you want them or not, you can tell what most are from the name but some you may want to look up before stopping them.

run you scans in safe mode, use msconfig and then post your results.

[cannabis campbell]

Well I saw the thread header, and since it wasn't posted in tech, my dirty mind thought you were having an issue with something else... hee hee

But since it's a simple Q, here's my suggestion:

Go into Start- Run- msconfig and you will see all the other shit that your computer has running in the background every time you start up. Most of it is not necessary. You can turn it all off except for the mouse/touchpad driver ('pointer' might appear in the name) and your virus protection. Things should speed up significantly, and your crash problem should REALLY improve.

Under 'startup' i take it???

Whats that under 'services' ?? do i touch any of that??????????????

[Zwitter]

If the blue lines are on the entire screen, and not just the video portion of it, it could be something called "chip creep" - when heating up and cooling down causes the components inside the laptop to expand and contract accordingly, and some of the boards wiggle out of their slots on the motherboard. This happens more on laptops because everything is so snug together.

I posted that because I hadn't read it yet. If it's just the video portion, then you've been given lots of great advice thus far. I'm A+ and Net+ certified, so I'll do what I can to help.

[babystarbud]

yep, just the "start up" section