Computer Trouble (Major Vent)

[Hound dog]

Anyone who knows me knows you don't mess with my computer. Killing it could very well get you killed. This is not an understatement as my computer is my safety valve against a family of difficult children.

Since I bought this mega computer I haven't been successful at keeping anyone off it. It doesn't matter that they each have their own computers. Somehow mine is more attractive to them. Nichole at least has a plausable excuse, she can't use hers when the baby is asleep since it's in her room. But husband and Travis I catch on mine on a reg basis....and they each have their own laptops!

husband is nortorious for distroying computers. It's all that knowledge he "thinks" he has that does it. Refuses to admit most of his know how is outdated by ten years. Travis knows computers and how to fix them....yet is also prone to wearing them out super fast with all the programs and such he's comstantly downloading onto them, and getting viruses ect.

Not horribly long after I bought this computer last year I was having fan issues. Travis took the cover off and we got the problem fixed. It was about 3 months later when I realize he had never put the side cover back on. Then when I had a hissy over it......(you wouldn't believe the amount of hair generated by 2 dogs inside and a cat) He "tired" to put the cover back on then, but told me it was bent and he couldn't get it on. (it was also missing the screws by then)

Yeah. Nearly skinned him alive over that one. But compromised with blowing it out reg instead.

So.....last night I'm trying to wind down to sleep. Was actually here attempting to post when the computer locked up. Nichole had come home from clinicals and needed to look something up. So under my direction attempted to restart the computer. No go. So I had her turn it off, count to ten, and turn it on again.

Then as it's "loading" we here a loud clicking. It won't complete the load. Just goes on and off the windows start up screen. I ordered Travis down to fix it. (mostly because I've been catching him on it alot lately) So he goes to look inside......and has the nerve to grumble about how dirty it is. I ripped him a good one. That is his fault over the cover thing, not mine. (and Nichole has been hinting she thinks Travis is sabotaging the computer so I buy a new one and he can have this one) So he checks and decides my hard drive is fried.

I went from POed to livid in less than 2 seconds.

I happened to be talking easy child home from work (so she doesn't fall asleep at the wheel). Now easy child knows my computer is my sanity saver. I can focus on my computer and tone out all the gfgness in the house. Without it........well, it ain't pretty folks. I told her if the hard drive was gone there might be some dead people in my house come morning.

Travis, now in fear for his life, has rigged the computer to work. He has another hard drive plugged into it working off Lennex?? Yet all my stuff is here. My computer just looks handicapped with this spare thingy sitting on top of it with all these wires coming out of it.

easy child said sister in law has a friend who owns a computer repair shop and she'll have sister in law call him for me.

See.....my kids know.......PMS and menopause..... is nothing compared to Mom without her computer.

I can't figure out how, if my hard drive is "fried" all my stuff is still here. That doesn't make a bit of sense to me.

So no happy tday for me today. Still livid. Ready to go computer shopping again dammit. I might have just enough left of my school money to swing it. Might. But there goes the dentist and doctor appointments.

Of course this just had to happen. I'm taking 2 online classes next quarter. Someone just shoot me.

 

[Marcie Mac]

Lisa - when you get it fixed, put a password on it..

I will ask Jamie when he gets up to look at your post - If windows is halfway loading, then maybe its not a fried hard drive - maybe just the connection wire was jogged lose. Did you try to load Windows in Safe Mode??

Too bad you don't live closer - he could build you one that rivals the Pentagon's for next to nothing LOL But I know its not funny to have the thing go down - its like being put in solitary confinement with nothing to do.

Marcie

 

[crazymama30]

Yep, daisy I understand. I am that way with my lap top. It is all I use. The other day I was working on a paper, and I wiped my keyboard off. All of a sudden my display got weird, went black, and when it came back on it was upside down. I had to hold the laptop up in the air to read the screen. Even the mouse icon was upside down. If you moved the mouse up, the one on the screen went down, etc. I flipped out. I had a paper due the next day. Thankfully my sis fixed it. I hate computer problems, they are next to car problems.

 

[mom_in_training]

A lil late chiming in here but when you boot it up do you hear any beeps or do you just hear an endless like winding noise? Like it wants to boot but never does. You probably have a new one by now or have replaced the hardrive.

Some trojans can corrupt your boot up sequence. Happened to me a few months back and had to reformat on an older computer. I knew the hard drive was not fried bacause I still heard a series of beeps while booting but not the winding sound. (Not good beeps though)

 

[susiestar]

I HATE computer problems. I have my OWN laptop and NO ONE touches it but me. Even when Jess wrecked the screen on my old laptop she didn't get to use mine. She got to go back to the old one that husband was supposed to have gotten rid of but didn't.

Even husband doesn't touch mine. It is always amazing to me how I can use mine everyday, for substantial amounts of time, with very very few problems, but those in my family who download every single ever'lovin' "cute" or "cool" thing have a problem every couple of months.

but if all your stuff is there it problem is NOT the hard drive. Get someone NOT a family member to check it out. Then put a password on it that no one can figure out. And change it FREQUENTLY.

 

[Hound dog]

mit no beeping. It was clicking, distinctly. Might be a trojan, but I don't think so. Personally, I think it was one of Travis various programs messing things up perhaps, as he said that the computer was searching for a program on a part of the computer where it wouldn't be able to be........or something like that. Over working itself.

Appears to be fixed. (keeping my fingers crossed and hoarding the rest of my school money just in case)

No trojans were coming up on Norton though. We did an in depth scan several times.

 

[Star*]

Daisy......

You need to download C Registry cleaner - it's a free program -and I'm sure you can do it without any help

BUT.....at this point - MY BEST suggestion would be to GET IT OUT of that house, get it to a tech - PAY THEM to do the registry cleaner, and get rid of junk....and make a BACK UP DISC just in case - NOW today...

I'd rather you be without it for 2 days than have to buy a new one.

And then? When it comes back? HANDS FLIPPING OFF - PERIOD...

This is your future - NOT just a toy! Putting programs on and off and on and deleting is harmful.....
and apparently in your home can get you killed..

WHY would anyone chance that with YOUR stuff?

Ask the computer guy for a LOCK also for your tower......Seriously they are not that much - and you need it.

 

[mom_in_training]

Using Norton is the biggest problem as well as it being a hog when it comes to memory and does slow down your computer. I am not by any means a Norton fan. Its a known fact in the tech world that Norton is not as good as everybody thinks. You are not getting the security that you pay for. It does not catch everything that it should be catching. Just helped my sister clean out her computer recently for the same thing. She could not get online or anything but I walked her through it. There are two programs that I use (Primarily Kaspersky) Kaspersky or nod32. But never together (To many conflicts if you do) Anyway, I will do the 30 day trials from their web-sites to aid in cleaning out an infected computer. Norton is behind the times as far as being up to date. The updates for example that Kaspersky has this week might be the same updates that Norton does the following week. They are not really focused on the quality of their program anymore and have not been in a long time. My sister dumped her Norton and went with Kaspersky.

Her system was supposed to be protected with the newer Norton program that she had running but ummmmmm it did not stop that bad boy trojan. Another good program is Malwarebytes. You can get a free download from their site as well. Just don't use the Anti-Virus and the Malwarebytes program at the same time regardless of whatever program you choose to stay with or go to. It can create conflict and bog things down. I do not clean out computers for a living or anything but do so quite a bit because I like a good challenge.



Another is spybot search and destroy. http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

I have used both programs like the ad-aware by lavasoft and spybot and have had good results. Reason why I use two different ones (But never run at the same time) is because one or the other very well could be more updated then the other. I always make sure that they are both updated and will run each program seperately. You could have spyware that one of these programs will catch but the other does not on the same machine. I also have used AVG and for the most part due to my being vigilance have had good luck with it. What is most important is keeping it all updated. If your computer is really buggy right now though, I would go fetch yourself a 30 day trial of either nod32 http://www.eset.com/ Or do a 30 day trial with Kaspersky. http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/

All they ask for is an e-mail address and no other personal info. This can help you clean out your computer prior to getting AVG. You get the benefits of using a full program for 30 days verses with AVG your limited because it is free. Once the 30 days is up you can just uninstall the program and be done with it. Its also important that you uninstall your current anti-virus before you install any other anti-virus program. Just to let you know Kaspersky install is blocked if you have AVG on your computer even after you uninstall it. Just in case you if needed here is the link you will need.
AVG removal utility: http://www.grisoft.com/us.download-tools
run the file AVGREMOVER.EXE
wait until the utility finishes its work
restart your easy child
rerun installation of Kaspersky Anti-Virus version 2009

Look at this guys site, Just kind of scan through it all to include the forums and security. He was the guy that had the show TechGuy Labs a while back on cable networks. He advertises for Nod32 and says all the time that its the best anti-virus but then again he advertises for it sooooo... I can personally say by my experiences that the Nod32 or the Kaspersky has caught trojans that Norton let through and never did detect. So he is right about Nod32 being an awesome program. He has had great things to say about Kaspersky as well.

http://leoville.com/#

I copy pasted some of this mess from another post. The AVG I realize does not apply to your post but thought to leave it there just in case the other readers might be interested.

 

[mrscatinthehat]

In my house husband has two towers and a laptop, I have one tower and a laptop and easy child has a laptop. No else living in the house. No one messes with anyone elses computer unless the other person knows about it. I mean we even respect easy child's computer and she is a kid. She knows when we are checking it out.

husband told me the other day he came over and used my computer. My head spun around (think exorcist without the pea soup) and he told me why and I calmed down. But who boy do I understand. And husband does computer and electronic work on the side. But we just have a no contact rule for everyones electronics.

Sorry they don't understand the threat of death.

hugs

beth

 

[mom_in_training]

Lol Like the others here have said, Put a password on your computer. That would definitely be an additional preventative measure to have along with whatever security program you choose to either get or stay with.

Your comp appears to be fixed... Awesome. My opinion, Go fetch one of the programs mentioned above just in case.

 

[Shari]

So sorry, Lisa. It is so annoying. We only have one computer and its supposed to be a "tool", and right now, easy child has downloaded you-tube videos until it is almost toast. He "swears" it doesn't hurt a thing, however, it is too slow and he has stopped using it and started using his girlfriend's, and guess what...her's is dying a slow death, as well.

Literally, it takes 5 minutes or longer to load a page anymore. I don't use it much.

I appreciate the info here; I was going to just take mine in, but I'll give these other downloads a try (if they'll actually download onto it....ugh...)

 

[Hound dog]

Thanks mit I'll give them a shot soon as I have the time. I'm not a huge fan of Norton, but I didn't know what other programs were out there and how good they were.

As for passwords.....they don't help much around here. Travis can usually get past them. (and believe me, I'm creative) husband is scared to come near the computer right now. lol And Nichole just doesn't have a choice when Aubrey's asleep.

Actually, as soon as my nursing exam is over, I'm planning on wiping the computer anyway and reloading with Vista. I can add the new virus programs and such and be good to go. Of course if I don't have to wipe it, that saves time and effort. So may do your way first.

Hugs

 

[mom_in_training]

Np, Its all pretty time consuming but worth a shot... Much better then having to reformat. If you do decide to do a reformat make sure you back up whatever is precious to you 9 (Pics) and or important files. I have an external hard drive that I keep my back up on or use it when I clean other peoples computer. Been lucky so far, Have only had to do a reformat on one computer other then the one time I had to do on mine. External hard drives are pretty cheep these days. I picked up a 750gb at Cosco for $105.00 last month. I had a coupon for $30.00 off. Whooo-Hooo. Look for the sales.

 

[susiestar]

Daisy,

I would be going into Travis' room and taking HIS things. Simply to let him know how it feels. Otherwise the computer would go into a room I could lock adn NO ONE would get to go in there. Not with-o taking doors, etc off.

This truly IS your future. It is a tool, NOT a toy, not a gaming device. You have a right to have it secure and for your use exclusively. Charge them $10 per downloaded ANYTHING. You tube, song, each AIM message, whatever. Find some way to motivate them.

I can understand Nichole using it for school when Aubrey is asleep. But not the rest of them. Heck, my husband has had me take the mouse and keyboard a couple of times when we only had one computer. And I locked them in my trunk because he was spending ALL DAY ALL WEEKEND on it, and all night from the time he came out of the bathroom after work until he fell asleep. We ahd very young children (Wiz was 3 the first time I did it!) and I got tired of it.

There simply must be a way you can lock them out. Ask at a computer repair store what you can do to lock a techie (not a trekkie!) out.