Arrghhhh......

[Anime Goddess]

Okay I don't know if this is just me or what but this is the thrid time I had to come back on this board -_- Everytime I came on the board it shuts down my window and then scews up my computer by freezing it....does anyone know what could be doing this cause it gets really annoying cause I wanted to read a post and then all of a sudden it just freezes and shuts down [img]confused.gif[/img] Does this happen to anyone else??

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ April 07, 2003 06:35 PM: Message edited by: Yaoi Manga Girl ]</font>

[tenjou_sama]

Er, I don't have that problem...I'm not sure what's wrong with your computer either...Sorry! ^^;;

[Anime Goddess]

Ohhh that is alright ^^ It isn't doing it any more...atleast I hope not...argh I hate computers.

[Anime Goddess]

Never mind it is still doing it....and I don't know why?? Whenever I come on though and it scews up on me it says this "windows explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close." Now does anyone know what I could do about this problem cause now I have to copy and paste everything since I can't be on the board for more then 2 mins....this is really bad cause I want to post and read stuff but I can't >__<
and if I go on to a public computer it is fine...so I am guessing it is my computer. But see I don't know how to fix the problem. So if anyone can help please I would be really greatful ^^


@ risu-chan - I would post this in the right spot but I don't feel like rebooting my computer again -_- So I just wanted to say that I finally got my Scanner back! I am so happy cause now I can scan YAY [img]wink.gif[/img] Oh and if there is anything going on with the mangas that is importent please email me cause I can't really get on to the board...>.< and until I figure out the problem I will have to use another computer or I will have to figure something out. SO sorry for the problem....

[Anime Goddess]

Okay so now I am using Netscape and it is really slow...but atleast it lets me on the board ^^ But I am guessing it is my Internet Explorerer that is causing the trouble. But how would I fix that problem??

[Risu-chan]

(putting on my Tech Support Grrl hat)

I'm posting here since you can get to the board through Netscape, and in case anybody else is running into similar problems. So here goes my web troubleshooting checklist?

1) Is America Online your service provider?
AOL has got Issues with the rest of the Internet. (AOL would probably like it better if the rest of the Internet went away and we all had to pay them to suffer through their guided-content version of it, but that's bitter experience as an ex-AOL member speaking there. Don't get me started on the irony inherent in the fact that someone hacked my AOL account *on their server* and they denied it had ever taken place; I was working for an internet security company and not using dialup at the time the hack happened, and I was out of the country at the point where insane charges were being put on my credit card... er, I'm supposed to be troubleshooting, not ranting, sorry. ^^; [img]wink.gif[/img] Anyway. AOL does seriously cause problems for a lot of people who want to see a lot of sites on the Internet. Unfortunately, in my help-desk experiences with AOL-related issues, the only advice we've been able to come up with is "get a different service provider because AOL won't listen/try to fix it."

If you're not using AOL...

2) What operating system and what version of Internet Explorer are you running?

Depending on the age of the OS or the IE release (and how recently you've patched it), some of your issues could come from there.

2b) If you're on Windows, and it's a recent enough version to still be supported (i.e. 2000 or XP), when's the last time you (or someone with administrator login) ran Windows Update?

Service packs are important. They're massive patches for the core of the OS. They can also be impossible to remove if they break something, so make sure you have backup copies of any significant data files before you run a service pack installation.

Security patches are also important. Microsoft releases patches for new major security holes frequently -- almost daily. I've gotten into the habit of running Windows Update on all my current-enough-to-be-patchable systems every Monday morning.

3) Do you have antivirus software? How recently have you updated its virus definitions? How recently have you run it?

The answer to that could also be related to your problem... as could:

4) Do you know what malware/spyware is? Have you downloaded/installed/run anything like Ad-Aware (www.ad-aware.com)?

If you haven't, do so. You'll probably be amazed at what it digs up. Also, just like antivirus software, make sure to keep checking for new definitions and re-running it every so often.

Let me know what the answers to some of these are... the more you can answer for me, the better chance I'll have at taking a decent remote guess...

[Anime Goddess]

Okay I will answere to my best:

1)No Aol is not my service provider thank god it isn't ^^

2) well see I am not to sure of what version but when I upgraded to windows xp i updated everything..(I hope that helps...sorry I couldn't be more specific)

3) yes I do have a antivirus software. It is AVG 6.0 and I haven't updated it's virus defination in a while....^^;;;; and I run it frequently.

4) And no I haven't heard of or know what malware/spyware is??? But if you say it is good I will download it cause I need to figure out what is going on. And thanx for the help ^_^

Ohh and I probably won't be downloading it right now though cause it is 10:18 and I want to be fully awake when I do download it. So I will do it tomorrow and see what I find out with it ^^;;;

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ April 09, 2003 10:18 PM: Message edited by: Yaoi Manga Girl ]</font>

[Risu-chan]

Okay, that helps -- second round of debugging questions:

(I can't be completely sure on this one 'cause I'm at home and don't have my Win XP test box to play with, but I'm pretty sure this functionality lasted across versions...)

When you right-click on the "My Computer" icon and select Properties, then the General tab, what does it say under "System"? (For example, mine right now says Microsoft Windows 95 4.00.950 B, IE 5.5.50.4807.2300, which basically translates to "ancient arcane and too-old-to-patch thing kept around as a word processor 'cause it's a laptop and highly portable." ^^;; [img]wink.gif[/img]

Yours should say something like Microsoft Windows XP with a string of numbers, and hopefully IE 6.0 with a string of numbers. I can tell from those whether or not you've got the latest service packs and security patches -- or at least I can tomorrow afternoon when I get back to the test bed. ^_^

2nd question:
How did you upgrade to Windows XP? Was Windows XP the first OS installed on this particular hard drive and you brought data from a previous machine, or did you install Windows XP over a previously-existing operating system?

If you installed it over a pre-existing OS, you're likely to run into more problems than if you installed it from scratch.

Just a general computing tip: Although very few computers come pre-installed like this, I personally work with so many test machines (and so many handmedowns since I'm a tech writer and we don't "need" "real" computing power ^^; [img]wink.gif[/img] that here's how I install everything:

1) If it's a hard drive that's already been used, I back up any files I want to keep to CD. Then

2) I take out any partitions and format the hard drive twice, and check it for bad sectors. Then

3) I split it into two partitions -- a smaller one for the C drive and a larger one for the D drive. Then

4) I install the operating system and application software on the C partition, and keep *all* my documents and data on the D partition.

The only time I've ever lost data on a machine partitioned that way was when the drive itself physically went bad. When the OS is on a different partition than the data, you can change OSes however you like (including completely reformatting the C partition and reinstalling the same or a different OS) and the D partition doesn't get touched.

I also make sure that I format the D partitions as FAT32 (or anything that's NOT NTFS) because of the ridiculous quantity of problems with getting any other operating system to read an NTFS partition, but then I've done things like take a machine from Windows XP to Windows 95 to Red Hat Linux in the space of two days...

(sweatdrop) Someone tell me if this makes sense to you, or if I've gone off the deep end into geekspeek beyond the ken of normal mortals. I really have no perspective on what an "average user" considers "normal tech level" anymore; I've been eating sleeping and breathing computer systems ever since I got my first full-time job. Which is incredibly ironic considering that in college I was an English and theater tech major with an established computer allergy -- I could make the things break just by looking at them cross-eyed.

(Of course, I still can and do; I've just learned to put that talent to a far more highly-paid use than "software breaker and irritator of support desk personnel." Now that I've determined enough of the pattern to be able to write about how and why the things break and how to fix them, I can call my irrational gift for computer destruction "quality assurance testing" and earn several thousand a year more than I would if I were *just* a "manual writer"... ^___~ )

(yeah, I'm rambling again. Truth is...)

(looking around)

(shh... I took the splint off for the evening. I had to write an essay in Japanese! Don't tell the doc...)

[Anime Goddess]

1)Okay when I right-click "My Computer" I get a bunch of #'s but no IE 6.0
2) Well when we installed XP we had windows me and then we put in Windows XP. So ya lol.
Oh and it makes sense to me atleast some of it does ^^;;; and to tell you the truth if I where eating sleeping and breathing computer systems I wouldn't know the difference either. But I would love to know as much as you ^0^