[DNoobie]

Hey, it's my first time here and not sure now things are run so forgive me if I'm posting incorrectly.

So my problem is shortly after I connect to my internet (Sympatico) it will freeze/lock and shut off. Even though it does that the little icon on the sidebar is stuck and I can't right cilck it or disconnect it. I've tried reconnecting it and opening up the settings but when I do that it freezes my start menu as I hover over my internet section. I'll be able to stay online for about 5-10 minutes and then it'll freeze up. The only way I can reconnect back is to restart my computer which now takes about 10 minutes, which is unusual because it normally takes about two. Same thing with turning it back on. So I'm not entirely sure what the problem is. I've also tried restoring my computer to a previous date and failed twice. I ran scans with my Norton AV and even tried uninstalling newly added programs. Can anyone help me out?

Thanksss.

[DNoobie]

: (

[morgaine300]

I'm a little surprised no one has answered this. Unfortunately all sorts of problems could be going on, but it's possible it's a virus, or that you just have some corrupted files. Use a computer long enough, stuff gets corrupted.

Viruses can also target Norton, not to mention that Norton itself can lock up your computer. Despite that you hear all sorts of recommendations for it, it's actually a piece of carp. So I wouldn't count on the scan you did with it. (You also need to make sure it's updated.)

There's others around here more qualified, but if this were me I would do the following:
1) Uninstall the Norton. If you have trouble with it, you can try to reinstall it on top of itself and it might fix any problems going on. Then try the uninstall again. (I've had Norton lock up trying to install it and had to go through this.)
2) Get one of these:
FREE antivirus software with spyware protection: avast! Home Edition
AVG Antivirus and Security Software - Real-time protection against viruses, spyware and malicious websites'

The Avast is free. It's also unobtrusive - you won't even know it's there. It'll ask which things you want when you install -- just install all of them.
The AVG at least used to be free, but I can't find a free download anymore. So maybe it's not free anymore. But there is a trial version. I've never used this one but it comes highly recommended.

Then run one or both of these.
While you're at it get this and run it:
The home of Spybot-S&D!
That's free too.

3) Once you get this figured out, start using this stuff instead of Norton.
4) If you do find anything, you may need to post back as to what to do about it.
5) If you don't find anything, it's possible stuff is corrupted. So if it were me, I'd be going about wiping the drive and reinstalling everything. You said you already tried doing a restore and that it didn't work.

Just in case, start working on backing up anything you feel you need. And hopefully someone else will have some other ideas.

Oh... as for the steps, I'd download something new first, then disconnect from the internet, then uninstall the Norton and install the new thing. You'll have to then connect again to get all the latest database stuff.

[DNoobie]

wow, thanks. Very helpful advice. Although I've done most of those things listed. I think I have to reformat as you said but my computer is one of those HP factory ones, it didn't come with the XP disks so I'll have to go buy them sometime. Thanks for your help though! I'll keep you posted if it still isn't fixed although I hope it does =[

[morgaine300]

It still should come with some way to get Windows back on it. If it didn't come with some type of restore disk, there might be a hidden restore partition. You shouldn't have to go buy Windows when you indirectly bought it with the computer. Also, at least in the past, HP's were proprietary and it might be difficult to get all the drivers you need from an off the shelf Windows.

You could check with the place where you got it from and they might know. Or go to HP's site and do a search on your specific one and see what you find. If you post what exactly you have, someone may be familiar with it.

[ITstudent2006]

As far as your issue about the freezing. I don't think I can say much that morgaine hasn't already said. Its very good advice that was given.

As far as reformatting. Yes there should be a partition on your PC. If you weren't given discs then this is what you have. (unless you delete it like I do).

Go to MY COMPUTER. You should see you're C: drive and then you should also see another drive. (I think it's D: by default) this is where you need to be to do a system recoevery. Also when you start up you should be able to repeatedly hit one of the "F" keys (I believe F11) to access this partition as well (if its got a partition)

As far as the discs go, Yeah there around $40 from HP.

Hope this helps!

Rick

[DNoobie]

Well, I've reformatted about 3-4 times now trying different methods and possibilities of why this could be happening and nothing. I don't know what I can do now.

[morgaine300]

As in, you wiped the drive completely and reinstalled Windows clean? That is, not a "fix" or installing over itself, etc, right? You got a warning that it was going to erase everything on the drive?

If that's the case...
Well, you could conceivably still have a virus because they can hide places that won't go away just cause you wipe the drive. Wiping the drive and really, seriously deleting everything on the drive are two different things and you have to have special software to do it. I've had to go this route before. If you want to try that, I can look up the thing I used. I know it's part of something called Eraser. (When I first read the problem, I wondered if it was a virus. Did you try scanning with other programs to see if they found anything?)

Or there might be a hardware or driver problem. That's not an area I'm so hot at, unless it's something obvious. (I know how to start trying stuff myself, but hard for me to explain to others.) Try going into device manager. Start->Settings->Control Panel->Performance & Maintenance->System->Hardware Tab->Device Manager. (That's XP route.) See if you have a nice pretty, undisturbed list of things, or if there's any x's or explanation points on anything. If you find such a thing, report back.

I'm really not quite sure how that could be a driver but there maybe is a hardware problem.

At this point, someone besides me needs to be posting. ;) If I were there in person, I could start messing with stuff. Hopefully someone else is going to be coming along soon...

[DNoobie]

Yeah I wiped it clean, and I've noticed that whenever I'm connected I receive way more packets then I send. It wasn't like this before. Sent: 198,437 bytes
Received: 2,658,290 bytes

[morgaine300]

That's suspicious. I can't do it at work, but let me check something when I get home.

Sure be nice if someone else posted on this thread -- hint, hint! I'm quite positive there's lot of people who know more than I do. :-)

[morgaine300]

Just another thought about the packets. I just talked to someone who said that ratio is about normal for him. However, it's not for me. (Depends somewhat on the kind of stuff you do.) Are you behaving differently on the internet cause you're having problems? That might cause a change.

I did find the program I used to completely destroy everything on the drive. It's time-consuming. I started it before I went to bed. If you don't have much to back up it might not hurt to try it. But you could also have some hardware problem. Could even be the ISP. Have you called them? Is it still taking 10 minutes to re-boot? When stuff is messed up, it can take a while to re-boot... I've seen it do that, taking 10-15 minutes or longer, but never on a continual basis.

Sorry... this is really getting out of my realm, so I'm just trying to think of stuff.