Ken:
I bought a new laptop and it came bundled with McAfee. I was unable to get it to connect to my wireless N network. Tech support was no help. On my own, I finally discovered that I could connect if I turned the McAfee off.
I uninstalled it and installed Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free, gets auto updated once a week, and works perfectly. I now have it on all my computers.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Antivirus programs are memory hogs. If you only have 512 megs of memory, you're going to see a drastic slowing down of your computer. I'd suggest installing the maximum memory that your mother board can support. With the processor speed you have (2.x ghz) and the maximum memory, you'll see a dramatic improvement in your pc's performance.
TONY
"If we never take the time, how can we ever have the time." - Merovingian (Matrix Reloaded)
Lesson to all, that Ken learned on his own --> antivirus programs do *not* play well together. You should only have ONE (1) installed at any time, lest they start duking it out and bringing your machine to a crawl.
railroad analogy -- it's like a full-service brake application and trying to go uphill.
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
A tried and true free anti virus program is AVG.
http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-avg-anti-virus-free
The problem that people often have is that you have to totally uninstall Norton before trying another anti virus. IMO Nortons is totally out of control and uses up lots of system resources. It also holds on tight when you try to get rid of it. It also doesn't play well when there's another similar program on the machine. I recommend uninstalling nortons and using AVG or similar like Avast.
Good Luck
Edit: Oh and when you uninstall there will be 2 or 3 items that say nortons that need to be uninstalled.
Springfield PA
Well I think I fixed it.
Few weeks ago I was having internet problems. So I called the idiots at Charter. After 49 minutes on the phone they finally decided to set me up with services call.
Turned out to be a problem on there lines, not my modem. But, before they came out I wanted to make sure there where no bugs in the computer. (my Norton was out of date) So I download the free Charter Anti Virus called F Securities.
Computer did slow down some, but still worked. Then it started getting slower and slower. I did all of the drills I know, De-frag, Disk Clean up and Repair, Spy Boot, Windows Registry Repair and Virus scan. I even tried it in safe mode. But nothing worked.
Yesterday computer did not want to boot. So I used my Go Back program (if you don't have this you should get it) it is something like the Windows Restore but way better. I freaked when Go Back said there where no revert times I could go to. Am Screwed, well so I thought.
I was able to get on line this mourning and posted this plea for help.
I did make one last ditch effort, and uninstalled the F Securities files and the Computer is happy again.
Far as reformatting, I have done it 3 or 4 times but it had been a while. This computer that I built 7 years ago has been pretty stable. I all so back up the important files on my Laptop. It never is used on line so it is pretty safe. I all so back up important web address as well.
Far as programs, yes I have lot of them and sure was not looking forward to loading them.
Thanks for all the answers
Ken
I hate Rust
Don't forget to export your bookmarks and e-mail addresses.
Tom
Life is simple - eat, drink, play with trains!
Go Big Red!
PA&ERR "If you think you are doing something stupid, you're probably right!"
You might simply want a program like System Mechanic or Advanced System optimizer.
A good defrag and registry cleaning/compression is all that is usually needed. Also turning off a bunch of programs that are probably automatically starting up with the computer.
Do you REALLY want to reformat your "C" drive, wiping out all of your installed programs and starting over?
You must have a lot fewer programs installed than I do. I still have not recovered from the fools at the Geek Squad who reformatted mine as they grasped at straws trying to decide why one of my computers wouldn't boot. It turned out to be a bad DVD drive, but they totally messed up my computer before they figured that out. I had a RAID array, but they reformatted that, too. I lost programs, software that came with cameras, specialized software that had been downloaded from photo labs and album vendors, and drivers for specialized peripherals like graphics tablets and bar code readers. Finding and re-installing all that stuff has been a very time consuming nightmare.
I didn't lose any pictures or data files because I back that stuff up religiously. I'm glad I didn't count on the RAID to protect it.
NTFS. Copy all your personal stuff and important or hard to locate software on DVD's first.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Ken,
Reformatting one's hard drive is not a job for a do-it-yourselfer. If you don't know exactly what you're doing, you will end up with a much worse mess than you started with.
At the very least, you will need the Windows install disks that came with your computer. Back up EVERY data file and reinstall windows.
Before you embark on this radical step, however, you should try defragmenting, scan disk, registry cleaners, and other software designed to clean up the garbage without reformatting. There is even software called Partition Magic which will allow you to change or rebuild your File Allocation Table (FAT) without reformatting.
Good luck. We'll see you back here in about 2 weeks, once you've recovered.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
If you are going to stay with Windows XP Pro, I would download all Service Packs before doing anything else. Then put them on a CD/DVD for later use. This will make the Windows patching much easier after connecting back online. Not sure which web browser you use, but it would also be handy to download the newest copy (i.e. Internet Explorer 8, Netscape, Firefox, etc.)
As for the file system, I would go with NTFS. Better security features then using FAT or FAT32.
CAUTION: before reformatting, please make sure you have copies of all software and personal files. This is a critical step as you cannot get them back once the formatting has completed and Windows has been re-installed. This would also include any serial numbers needed for software installations.
Good luck,
Mike
Well it looks like it is time to reformat the computer, running like a Life Like Pancake Motor. I have not formatted a computer for 6 years or so.
I am running XP Pro and I don't remember what kind of files I should use. Last time I did my Laptop I used I think Fat 32 or something like that. Friend that worked for Gateway (he moved) said that was a bad chose. What file system would you use?
I am running a Pentium 2.4 , Intel D850EMV2 board and 512 RD Ram.
I am going to try and stay on line today with the way it is so I can see the answer.
Thank You for the coming answer.