Just use your neighbors laptop on your internet connection as you normally would use your computer and see if the problem pops up. Just plug it in to your network and use it. No need to change settings or anything. Use the same method you connect your main PC with. Such as if you use the PC wired then disconnect the wire from your machine and plug that into the laptop. If you use a wireless connection for the PC then connect the neighbors machine wirelessly to your network. If the machine is working normally then we know it is a problem with your machine and we can go from there. If you start experiencing the same problems with the laptop as you are experiencing on your machine then we know it is a problem with the internet.

If all works normally with the neighbors laptop then try to assign the static IP to your machine as described above.

Ok, here are the results: the problem is with my computer. I had no problems with the neighbor's laptop. So, I went and followed the instructions on that link. The ip address with my computer is dynamic. When I got to the point to put in the DNS servers for Google, I had no problems except that I don't have any ip info to put into the top part of that window. In the section where you are supposed to choose an IP address, I don't know what you put in there. So, I left the area blank. After I rebooted, the address is still dynamic, and the ip id is the same as it was before. In using my computer for a few minutes since then, the problem is still here.

Ok good to know we can narrow it down to being a computer problem then. Now we can follow some troubleshooting steps. On your computer click start -> Run and then type in cmd and hit enter. In the window that comes up type in ipconfig /all and it will come back with an IP address. Just use that when assigning a static IP. Also make note of the subnet mask and the default gateway. Use those numbers and then the Google numbers for the DNS servers. See if the problem persists. If so we will get more aggressive with the troubleshooting.

Also you said you use Firefox, do the problems occur in IE as well?

Is there a way to extract the music from a YouTube video? That's the only format of "Christmas Wrapping" by The Donnas I can find! Go figure...it's usaully the other way around.

http://www.youtubetracks.com/

Nice site, never heard of it. It would have done it the hard way and rip the video to flv, convert it to avi and then separate the audio track out using vdubmod. But that is way easier!

Ok Rick, here's the status. I wanted to test everything to answer your questions, that's why it's taken me a while to get back to you.

I did everything with the IP address config, and there is an improvement by maybe 25%. So, I went to IE and tried all of my usual websites that I like to visit every day. The problem is there also, but there is an improvement compared to Firefox. So, I went and deleted Firefox from my computer and then reinstalled, but there was no improvement. Then about 2 hours ago, I had two sites (this is one of them), that I could not get to load at all on Firefox. I went to IE and after several tries was able to get it loaded, but it was difficult. So I rebooted and am back to 'normal', if you want to consider having problems getting pages loaded as being 'normal'.

Open up a command prompt (start -> run type in cmd and hit enter). In the command prompt window type in netsh winsock reset and press enter.

It should come back saying you successfully reset the winsock catalog. Reboot the machine and keep your fingers crossed. Let me know how it goes. If this doesn't work my next step is rebuilding the whole TCP/IP stack but lets take it one step at a time.

Sorry, Rick I didn't work. I hate to keep doing this to you, but I'm getting tired of having to hit reload all the time to see webpages.

Ok not sure why I didn't think of this first(I'm an idiot sometimes) but try re-installing your the driver for your network card. If you go to the website of whoever manufactured your computer and plug in your model number on the support page and find the section for download drivers. You should come up with one where you can download the network(ethernet or wireless depending on your hardware config) driver and install it. Try and download the one with the newest date available.

Another option is to try and do a system restore(start->programs->accessories->system tools->system restore). Choose a restore point from before the problem started happening. You will not lose any pictures or documents you created since then so do not worry about that, it only messes with system files that may have gotten corrupt.

If all that fails, then try to reset the TCP/IP stack by clicking start->run type in cmd and press enter. In the window that comes up type in netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt and press enter. If that does not work then I am at a loss for more options! I would call the manufacturer of the machine and see if they can replace the network card under warranty as it may be faulty.

I had a funny thing happen to my home machine the other day. A while back, I downloaded some sort of virus that completely took over the machine, to the point where I couldn't access any of the programs or even shut it down. I turned it off with the manual power switch, booted it up again, and the same virus software came up. I gave up the machine for dead, since, as I've stated before in this thread, as it's an ancient p.o.s. with a cracked screen, and I took that as a sign to buy a new one. I tried it last night again, just on a lark, and it worked. I ran a Malaware scan, then downloaded Windows Security Essentials, and cleaned out any problems they found. Should I be hesitant to use it from now on? Any other recommended fixes I should run first?

I know you all are queuing up your "Mike is a Luddite" jokes. I know I should probably get a new machine, but the whole process just stresses me out. Too many options and too many decisions to make. Mac/PC, processor capability, RAM, hard drive size, monitor, desktop/laptop, sound options, etc. Bleah. It's also such a huge expense for something that I only use for Web browsing and occasionally for work stuff. Maybe I should just get one of those $400 notebooks and be done with it.

I don't see any problems using it, just be wary when transmitting personal information over it. Use it for everyday websurfing or whatever you would do. Just don't access bank accounts or anything like that unless you are sure the machine is cleaned out. With that said, if up your budget to $5-600 and you can get a real solid laptop that even though would be consider somewhat low end for today's standards, would run circles around your old one.

How does one post a pic from a webcam so that it no longer updates? In other words a 'still' photo.

Thanks

Depends on the program you are streaming it with. Probably easiest to just take a screenshot (Press the print screen button on the keyboard) and then paste it into MSPaint (or photo editor of your choice) then crop out everything you don't want and save it to a .jpg.

Ok, I see what I was doing wrong. I always did a right click copy and posted the link, thinking that each picture had it's own separate address; id number. I'll try this method next time.

Personally, for that kind of stuff I like ScreenGrab Pro by Traction Software. No doubt that there's something better out there, but it's worked pretty well for me.

Actually this is now built into Windows 7. It's called the snipping tool.

Hi Rick! I am trying to access a webpage that I keep getting the message, "warning! You are seeing this message because your browser keeps repeating requests for the same page. Kindly set your browser to not automatically detect when the page has been updated." I am getting this message in Firefox, IE and Chrome. I looked at the tutorials for all three browsers and I thought that I've disabled it on all 3, but apparently not (I'm on windows xp). The firefox version is 3.5.6, the IE version is 8.0.6001.18702IC, and the chrome version is 3.0.195.38 (if any of these numbers mean anything toward the problem). Thanks for your help.

Is it just the one website? Or are all sites doing it? If just one site, which is it? It could be a programming error on the site itself. I appologize in advance for any delays to my responses as I am only able to get online at work during quiet periods. I just moved and my computer is not setup at home yet.

I did that stupid thing I do sometimes where I somehow made the toolbar at the bottom of the screen in Windows XP twice the height it needs to be. It doesn't affect anything, obviously, but it's really annoying.

Click to view attachment

Does anyone know to change it back to the shorter height?

Hover over the top edge of the taskbar and you will see the cursor change from the standard pointer to a double arrow pointing up and down. Click and then drag down to bring it back to normal size. Then when it is where you want it to be right click and choose the menu option for "Lock Taskbar." That will prevent you from accidentally changing its size again.

Do whatever you did to make it bigger, but in reverse.

Rick yaaaaaay

Rick help! I tried to play a DVD on my computer and I keep getting this message from WMP



I updated my computer yesterday SO WHAT DO I DO?

Sounds like you don't have an MPEG-2 decoder plugin. Try installing the k-lite codec pack and see what that does for you. WMplayer was never very good at playing DVDs. If all else fails, try VLC player, it will play just about anything.

I ended up getting help from HP, but if this happens again I will try this

Rick - Out of nowhere, just this afternoon, the sign-on for my Yahoo account started using Auto Complete. Although not that big of a deal, I'm not very comfortable with it. I went to the Auto Complete settings in Internet Options and unchecked all the items using it, as well as deleting everything in the history. Still doing it. What else can I try to remedy it?

BTW, why would it just start happeneing all of a sudden like that?

Do you use Googletoolbar? That has an autocomplete as well. may need to disable things in there.

I don't use it. I have a Google account if that makes any difference, but I don't use the toolbar.

Did you inadvertently check off the box on the sign in screen that says "keep me signed in" ? You can also use ATF Cleaner to delete all your cookies and temporary files that may clear things out.

I always have that checked. I'll try to run the cleaners. Thanks.

Auto-Complete is a browser activity that you may have unknowingly authorized, or a program you trusted did something you would not ordinarily allow. And it is preventing you from changing that behavior.

If it just started, I would undo whatever last things you did before it happened.

I didn't do anything different than I ususally do. Eh, I'll just deal with it. It is my computer and I still have the sign-in seal. Thanks anyway.

Rick, I have an interesting problem. One day I did a cntrl-alt-del and had the normal popup occur that shows any conflicts. I was browsing on that to see what the other tabs show when I hit a key on the keyboard. I don't know what keys I hit except that it deleted the menu bar across the cntrl-alt-del popup (you know the area that says 'file, edit, view, etc. along with the tabs). I have tried every f key and combos of keys to try to figure out how to get that back, but I have been unsuccessful. The only thing that I have figured out is that the escape key closes the window. Any suggestions?

Do you mean the task manager? If so, double click on a blank area of the border. Not on the inside where the running programs are listed, but outside of that box. It's hard to explain exactly where you need to click so hopefully I've made it clear. If not just keep double clicking different areas until you get the menus back.

Try hitting the Alt key when in that menu too. It'll bring up that menu bar if Windows has it hidden.

Alt key will work in most cases, but not for the task manager.

I just spent the last month putting together a decent gaming rig for myself. It's been about 5 years shit maybe even 6. i was overdue. Bought all my stuff from new egg again this time around only to find my PSU was doa and i was getting physical memory dumps on a set of gskill ram. Borrowed some HP ram from work and much to my suprise my pc liked it and Windows 7 has been solid ever since. Just sad I had to send back two separate items but it was nice of new egg to credit me the shipping although they claim on their site they dont do that. Shit if you ask me, they SHOULD since the items are defective.

OK got a problem with my girlfriends computers. She has an old Dell Dimension E310. We woke up today to a BSOD. When she reboots and starts normally or with last known driver setup she pops up the Win XP logo for a second before BSOD. Any safe mode configuration(normal, command prompt, networking) gets up to loading mup.sys and freezes.

She doesn't know if she has her win xp cd, it's packed away and she's gonna start looking. Any ideas on what to do? I think if she can find her cd she can boot from the cd and do a diagnostics, correct? What else can be done?

Yes, I was talking about the task manager, and it worked! Thanks for the help.

Could be any number of things. Commonly registry corruption, but could also be hardware failing. If you are feeling daring, there is a manual registry restore you can do but it is a bit complicated. Read the directions carefully and follow exactly what they say. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q307545 You will need to find the Windows CD in order to be able to do this. Alternatively you can boot from a UBCD or some other boot CD and backup the data then just reload the machine.

We're hitting a big snag, she can't find any boot, backup, driver, or windows cd. She probably lost them in move. Luckily she has her HD backed up on an external HD sp she's not going to lose anything. She's on the phone with a friend right now, sounds like he's gonna hook her up with some software cd's. I have a feeling we're gonna go out and buy a new HD for cheap, and start from scratch. Computer needed it anyway.


edit: Thanks for the quick response as always

If you got everything backed up then my recommendation would be to just reload the machine. A new hard drive is an even better idea if you are willing to put out the cash(they're actually pretty cheap, even the huge ones). The mup.sys failure could be due to a bad drive. Or a almost anything else really. It's one of those hard to narrow down errors. If her friend cannot get you the CDs I can get you a copy of just about any version of Windows from work. As long as you have the CD Key sticker on the machine and use that key during install, its completely legit.

I think i created a problem for myself or made a small one worse. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
About a week ago I moved my PC and when I did I opened it up and cleaned the fans and processor heatsink which was shockingly dirty, not a thorough cleaning but i pulled all the dust out of the fins. Since then its generally unstable and whenever I run various programs (itunes, spotify, etc) or data through the usb, the processor heats up very quickly and shuts the PC down. Itll will go from its regular temp of 40-55c to 85c in 3 minutes or less. My initial thought was that i broke the thermal seal between the heatsink and processor, but I would also thought that it would run hot all time if that was the case.
The only trouble Ive ever had with this machine was occasional shut-down when encoding massive amounts of video (this is still rare) and the rare usb error message which never seem to mean anything, just tells me i could be running faster on a high-speed usb but never actually is any slower.
Any ideas at all? Or should i just reseat the heat sink on new thermal compound?

That is exactly what I would do. Take it off completely, clean both the processor and the heatsink with 99% Isopropyl Alcohol. Get some thermal paste (I typically use Arctic Silver). You only need a small dab of the stuff. Smush it around a bit and then mount the heatsink. Make sure it is clipped in securely because if it is loose you will have heat problems.

An important thing to remember when using new thermal paste is don't leave your computer on for weeks at a time for a while. Thermal paste ideally needs fluctuations in temperature for the first 200 hours of runtime for it to set properly. So just shut down the computer at night and that should suffice. If you do not do this it will not outright break anything, it just wont work as effectively. After the 200 hours of runtime you can leave the machine on for as long as you want to.

Ill do that tomorrow, thanks. If speedfan is to be believed, the cpu fan isnt running now so ill put a better one in at the same time. This is a pain in my ass cause i have to put a new version of windows in this week, and i wanted to get a new psu, but i cant even move files off the O/S hard drive with out heat spike.

Oh and thanks for that tip about shutting off the PC to let the thermal compound to set, i never knew to do that.

Simple way to see if speedfan is right about the cpu fan is just take the side off and turn the machine on. The fan should basically always be spinning. If it isn't then you may not even need to reapply thermal paste(or the unofficial name we call it around my office is "goop") and just replace the fan instead. Check the cable from the fan to the motherboard, it might be loose.

So the fan was dead and heatsink was ok-ish, i guess it was dying the whole time. Change the whole thing heatsink and all and everything was great and cool, very cool. Then as I put the tower back where it goes the voltage switch on the PSU got caught and fire and exploding happened, luckily i had an old PSU around and it worked. Everythings ok for now. Thanks for the advice.

Glad you got it working but that's a shame about the PSU!

Is there a way to see where my bandwith is going? I'd like to know how much my pc or a laptop is using at any certain point. My connection on PS network is dragging recently, and I'm not sure why. I'd like to see what is causing the lag, if it caused on my end.

Does that make any sense?