SOME COMPUTER HEALTH - TOOLS

[nonesuche]

Shell-

The avatar site can be accessed via photobucket, or you can go direct to www.meez.com and begin there. Using it via the internal link inside of photobucket is easy in that once you've made an avi, it will save it in various sizes to your album?

Pretty fun stuff, be sure to check out all of the animations, so funny !

[Shell]

Thanks for the link to the meez site, looks like fun

this is a fyi-Today a website was advertised on TV and my daughter said it was the site that scammed her. It is a free credit check site. She visited it and then began getting charged on her bank account on a monthly basis. She called the bank and told them she did not sign up for the site and never agreeed to a monthly charge. All she did was go there for a "free" credit check. How can this company get away with doing this?

The bank took off the charges and made sure her account was not charged again. I am wondering who should be notified...it is not right that a company can advertize on TV and get away with what seems to me to be a scam. Ideas anyone?

[GreatOwl]

This may only be for Mac users, but I ran across a program which is really helping me out.  It is called Safari Prairiefire.

It seeks out duplicate bookmarks, bookmarks that no longer work and those that may have been forwarded to different url's.

I have over 5000 bookmarks right now and it is helping decrease that number quickly.  Every time I have upgraded browsers, lost track of where I filed a bookmark or combined bookmarks from different versions they have been multiplying like rabbits.   This has been going on since the 80's.

I might actually be able to organize things so I can find them.

[ospainter]

Hi Sandy,

Here is what I know about hard drives.

1. If you turn pc on and you can't get past Black screen, then it is very difficult to retrieve data from that drive. This means your pc won't power up.

2. If you turn pc on and you get past black screen to blue screen, then most everything is retrievable. This means your pc will power up. You will just have to take the hard drive to someone (and I would call around) that works on retrieving info. from a hard drive.

I lost my hard drive last month. It is under warrenty, took it in, guy said he was the best in the business, then said my pc would not power up, he installed new hard drive, I told him I wanted my old hard drive to seek other help, he didn't like it but Oh well. I knew that was not true because I could get to blue screen. I called another business, took it in and 2 days later, I had everything back up. Cost me about $60.00. They also wiped the bad drive after retrieval, took it back to "best in business man" and told him to stick it where the sun don't shine.

So you might have to call a few people, but don't allow anyone to format/erase your drive.

My son Network Engineer (away from here) helped me find someone locally.

Dugga here can help you more than me, but these are my thoughts.

OS

[sandy leiva]

Hi Sandy,

Here is what I know about hard drives.

1. If you turn pc on and you can't get past Black screen, then it is very difficult to retrieve data from that drive. This means your pc won't power up.

2. If you turn pc on and you get past black screen to blue screen, then most everything is retrievable. This means your pc will power up. You will just have to take the hard drive to someone (and I would call around) that works on retrieving info. from a hard drive.

I lost my hard drive last month. It is under warrenty, took it in, guy said he was the best in the business, then said my pc would not power up, he installed new hard drive, I told him I wanted my old hard drive to seek other help, he didn't like it but Oh well. I knew that was not true because I could get to blue screen. I called another business, took it in and 2 days later, I had everything back up. Cost me about $60.00. They also wiped the bad drive after retrieval, took it back to "best in business man" and told him to stick it where the sun don't shine.

So you might have to call a few people, but don't allow anyone to format/erase your drive.

My son Network Engineer (away from here) helped me find someone locally.

Dugga here can help you more than me, but these are my thoughts.

OS

thanks for the info iwill try to get someone as the blue screenpops up.  Many thanks sandy l

[ospainter]

Hi Sandy,

Here is what I know about hard drives.

1. If you turn pc on and you can't get past Black screen, then it is very difficult to retrieve data from that drive. This means your pc won't power up.

2. If you turn pc on and you get past black screen to blue screen, then most everything is retrievable. This means your pc will power up. You will just have to take the hard drive to someone (and I would call around) that works on retrieving info. from a hard drive.

I lost my hard drive last month. It is under warrenty, took it in, guy said he was the best in the business, then said my pc would not power up, he installed new hard drive, I told him I wanted my old hard drive to seek other help, he didn't like it but Oh well. I knew that was not true because I could get to blue screen. I called another business, took it in and 2 days later, I had everything back up. Cost me about $60.00. They also wiped the bad drive after retrieval, took it back to "best in business man" and told him to stick it where the sun don't shine.

So you might have to call a few people, but don't allow anyone to format/erase your drive.

My son Network Engineer (away from here) helped me find someone locally.

Dugga here can help you more than me, but these are my thoughts.

OS

thanks for the info iwill try to get someone as the blue screenpops up.  Many thanks sandy l

YW and good luck,

OS

[Marlee]

My ex-MIL (but my friend) has been having problems with her computer freezing up and being very slow.  I spent an hour checking things out and realized that she had AOL VR.  I didn't know what it was so googled and what it is, is trouble.  The VR means Vista Ready.  Need I say more? 

She doesn't have Vista but AOL emailed her and told her that this was great and she should download it.  I was going to uninstall the VR and put AOL 9.0 back on for her but when you go to the AOL site they don't offer (from what I could see) anything but VR.  I happen to have a disc with 9.0 so will change it for her tonight. 

What a crock!

[Leslie]

A big thanks to whomever posted the tip about using a spray can of compressed air to clean a computer.  I am still on my first can but have noticed my system is running much better.  Plus, the can cost only $10 versus the cost of a trip to the computer store.   

[Sleeks]

A big thanks to whomever posted the tip about using a spray can of compressed air to clean a computer.  I am still on my first can but have noticed my system is running much better.  Plus, the can cost only $10 versus the cost of a trip to the computer store.   

Leslie that is always a great thing to do - but next time you need one of those aircans, PLEASE pick them up at a much less expensive place.  Just like going to a gas station and paying for air to fill your tires, it annoys the heck out of me!!!  You should be able to pick up those aircans at Walmart, Target, K-Mart, etc.  Basically any of the 'cheaper' larger department stores. 

But how true a little bit of maintenance goes a long way doesn't it.

[Shell]

In a prior post I have shared the free programs I use. I wanted to add one to the list. I ran all my usual scans but this free program found 16 additional items.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

I have a question. Is there any one program that can scan and tell me if I have been hacked or not? Maybe the things I run would catch a hack job, I just don't know. I googled and did not come up with a definative answer to....how do I know if I have been hacked?

[Jerry from Ohio]

  Gee Leslie around here a can of compressed air is only approx  3$ to 5$
  So check around  do not want my friends to get ripped off ok ?  <g>
             Jerry from ohio

A big thanks to whomever posted the tip about using a spray can of compressed air to clean a computer.  I am still on my first can but have noticed my system is running much better.  Plus, the can cost only $10 versus the cost of a trip to the computer store.   

[lexie]

I NEED HELP!!

Ever since the pop-ups started, my pages take forever to load.  I now am waiting up to one minute to log in, post, or refresh. I am not having this problem on any other site, only this one.   It makes catching up on reading almost impossible... I am getting six or seven pop-ups before I ever get to the forum index, my pop-up catches gets only half, and the others I have to click off.  I am not getting any pop-ups on any other site (the catcher gets them all). 

Is there some setting I need to change to make my pages load faster?  I am using IE7, and have had no problems with it up until the recent changes.  I am on DSL, and pages from other sites load instantly. 

Thanks.
Lexie

[Observer]

Lexie:

For the time being try Firefox as your browser. I have had a similar experience using IE. Firefox has worked great for me as its fast and the popups are very manageable.

 I downloaded this this stopzilla on IE so I could block the popups and read at BFN(Registry issues)and it slowed everything down and the popups eventually attack me so much I have to shut it down.

[Dugga]

I NEED HELP!!

Ever since the pop-ups started, my pages take forever to load.  I now am waiting up to one minute to log in, post, or refresh. I am not having this problem on any other site, only this one.   It makes catching up on reading almost impossible... I am getting six or seven pop-ups before I ever get to the forum index, my pop-up catches gets only half, and the others I have to click off.  I am not getting any pop-ups on any other site (the catcher gets them all). 

Is there some setting I need to change to make my pages load faster?  I am using IE7, and have had no problems with it up until the recent changes.  I am on DSL, and pages from other sites load instantly. 

Thanks.
Lexie

Lexie, what pop up blocker are you using?

[lexie]

I NEED HELP!!

Ever since the pop-ups started, my pages take forever to load.  I now am waiting up to one minute to log in, post, or refresh. I am not having this problem on any other site, only this one.   It makes catching up on reading almost impossible... I am getting six or seven pop-ups before I ever get to the forum index, my pop-up catches gets only half, and the others I have to click off.  I am not getting any pop-ups on any other site (the catcher gets them all). 

Is there some setting I need to change to make my pages load faster?  I am using IE7, and have had no problems with it up until the recent changes.  I am on DSL, and pages from other sites load instantly. 

Thanks.
Lexie

Lexie, what pop up blocker are you using?

I do not have a separate one installed.  I am using th one provided with my home page by my IP provider (Bellsouth/att.net).  I am confused, as I do not have the problem with slow loading on any site other than SM.

Thanks for any suggestions you can give me.  It is really annoying.  It took me 4 minutes to get from the Forum index to post this response.  I timed it tonight, and it is taking a full minute for each page to load.

[lexie]

Dugga,

I am still having problems loading.  Pages are taking 1-2 minutes to load, although some days they are a little quicker than others.  Also, I am getting 3-4 pop-ups every page, in addition to the ones "blooped" by my pop-up catcher.  This only happens on SM... I get zero pop-ups when I go to any other sites (My blocker must be catching them all). 

While I am waiting for pages to load, I can see "tribal fusion" in the tool bar line at the bottom.  This is one site I have had blacklisted from my computer forever. 

Is there an additional pop-up blocker I can download to help reduce these?  Or, is this what is slowing down my pages?  Every other site loads quickly,  almost instantly.  I am using DSL, and have not had any problems with SM before. 

Thanks for any suggestions you might have. 

[SuzieQ]

Got a new monitor for Christmas. It is working fine, but my sound is gone. Everything is plugged in. Any suggestions, anyone?

[klaasend]

Got a new monitor for Christmas. It is working fine, but my sound is gone. Everything is plugged in. Any suggestions, anyone?

Check and see if you have a volumn control on your keyboard.  I just got a new keyboard and had the same problem until I figured it out.

[MumInOhio]

Klaas or anyone that can help!...I posted this in the Musings thread...I don't think it's connected to what I emailed you about as I found I had been to one of their sites copying a MP article. Any help would be appreciated, as most I've read and as 2NJ answered me in the other thread it does not seem to be a simple fix.

Good Morning everyone!

I need some computer help, please! I have one of these that appears to be following me around the internet. And it also seems to be extremely interested on where I visit at SM and loves it when I bookmark anything that says Aruba. Can I download a program that will over-ride it or should I call a comp. expert.
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INDEX.DAT Files
What is INDEX.DAT? INDEX.DAT is a hidden index of the Web sites you visit and the E-mail you send. It is not deleted when you use Windows to clean out temporary Internet files and so is generally available for investigative work even if you think you have cleaned out your browsing history.

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I now need to fix this as I can't do any personal things online or even save my Word docs, as that's where I was when I believe this happened on the AM of December 5th.

Thanks in Advance.

[Bearlyhere]

I just uninstalled my Real Player, my computer is now going so fast I can hardly keep up.