2 Next
Topic: Just a word of caution!
HeyBeautiful88's photo
Sun 09/06/09 12:56 PM

Sorry offtopic

Hey Andy,

Do you work for a company fixing computers or yourself? Do you freelance? I need my laptop fixed and I think its a matter of wiping everything off and reinstalling everything with the restore disks I have. I had to do it once before about a year ago (this computer is a lemon and I'm getting a new one, but still want to try and get this one fixed) and I was almost able to do it myself but had problems with the drivers. So I paid Best Buy $200 to do it.

Is that about right? Any advice?


Ruth-
if you ever have to Wipe your computer again, for any reason...
The first thing that I would recommend (before you cannot get on the internet anymore... if this is the ONLY PC that you have) is going to the Manufacturer's website and Downloading the Key Drivers for the Exact make and Model that you have - designed for the operating system that you intend to put back on the machine.
There is always "fluff" stuff that you can download... so the Key stuff would be:
Video Card
Chipset
Audio
Wireless
Ethernet
Touchpad
Modem

This way, when you re-install your OS... and the Device Manager has those Dreaded Yellow Question Marks... you are Prepared!! Also, Sometimes, if it is a Laptop that you are re-doing... it won't Exactly KNOW it's a Laptop til you download some proprietary software to tell it!
Just thought I'd throw you my 2 cents! winking

AndyBgood's photo
Sun 09/06/09 01:41 PM


Sorry offtopic

Hey Andy,

Do you work for a company fixing computers or yourself? Do you freelance? I need my laptop fixed and I think its a matter of wiping everything off and reinstalling everything with the restore disks I have. I had to do it once before about a year ago (this computer is a lemon and I'm getting a new one, but still want to try and get this one fixed) and I was almost able to do it myself but had problems with the drivers. So I paid Best Buy $200 to do it.

Is that about right? Any advice?


Ruth-
if you ever have to Wipe your computer again, for any reason...
The first thing that I would recommend (before you cannot get on the internet anymore... if this is the ONLY PC that you have) is going to the Manufacturer's website and Downloading the Key Drivers for the Exact make and Model that you have - designed for the operating system that you intend to put back on the machine.
There is always "fluff" stuff that you can download... so the Key stuff would be:
Video Card
Chipset
Audio
Wireless
Ethernet
Touchpad
Modem

This way, when you re-install your OS... and the Device Manager has those Dreaded Yellow Question Marks... you are Prepared!! Also, Sometimes, if it is a Laptop that you are re-doing... it won't Exactly KNOW it's a Laptop til you download some proprietary software to tell it!
Just thought I'd throw you my 2 cents! winking


That's ten cents these days thanks to inflation. Don't sell yourself short!

Dragoness's photo
Sun 09/06/09 01:48 PM
I can vouch for Andy on this one. My mom's computer got invested using Avg, we uninstalled it and that damn Norton she had hanging about, which is quite a job and installed Avast home on her computer. I had to do all of this by phone since she is in Okla and I am in Colorado but we got it done. I had her put Advance system care free on her computer to and we cleaned it up. She is a much happier camper and I do not have to do so much with her on the phone now about the computer.

Thanks Andy for the help, you answered my thread about free anti virus ware a while back and that is why I went with Avast.

Ruth34611's photo
Sun 09/06/09 04:02 PM
Thank you very much, Andy. flowerforyou

I will definitely be using the Avast for my new computer when it gets here. And on my old one when I figure out what's wrong with it. It is less than 2 years old and I've had lots of problems with it ever since the 1 year warranty expired. The fan doesn't work and its constantly overheating. ohwell

I think I just got a lemon.

no photo
Sun 09/06/09 04:35 PM
No anti virus will protect against a neglecting user, Yes some are better then others but in general if you surf safe don't open whatever you see and use you common sense you will not have a problem.

No anti virus can protect you against a virus it does not know about, people need to update daily and be careful and they will not have problem but if you don't then no matter which one you have you will suffer.

Been using the free version of AVG and I surf a lot download a lot do peer to peer torrents and so many other things and had only one problem in the last 5 years and it was my mistake.

jeffterry's photo
Sun 09/06/09 04:44 PM
I use Avast and havent had a problem yet. I use lifehacker.com to stay on top of the newest protections. They have a great community that seriously knows their "collective" stuff.
At work we have Norton Corporate and it does work, but is really really slow.
But it's all about user awareness.

AndyBgood's photo
Sun 09/06/09 04:48 PM
Norton (Symantec) Invented slowware for computers!laugh laugh laugh laugh laugh

Ruth34611's photo
Sun 09/06/09 05:07 PM
oops

And thank you HeyBeautiful88! Sometimes it hard to tell who's posting what from your Blackberry.

HeyBeautiful88's photo
Tue 09/08/09 11:33 PM

Just thought I'd throw you my 2 cents! winking


That's ten cents these days thanks to inflation. Don't sell yourself short!


You know what Andy...
Thanks winking for the Tip!
You are absolutely Correct

HeyBeautiful88's photo
Tue 09/08/09 11:34 PM

oops

And thank you HeyBeautiful88! Sometimes it hard to tell who's posting what from your Blackberry.


You are Most Welcome Ruth!
Anytime I can Help!
I think I will Seriously have to take another look at AVAST Myself!

HeyBeautiful88's photo
Tue 09/08/09 11:38 PM

I can vouch for Andy on this one. My mom's computer got invested using Avg, we uninstalled it and that damn Norton she had hanging about, which is quite a job and installed Avast home on her computer. I had to do all of this by phone since she is in Okla and I am in Colorado but we got it done. I had her put Advance system care free on her computer to and we cleaned it up. She is a much happier camper and I do not have to do so much with her on the phone now about the computer.

Thanks Andy for the help, you answered my thread about free anti virus ware a while back and that is why I went with Avast.


Dragoness-
Both of my Parents live out of State.
I couldn't Survive without using a free program called "LogMeIn" when it comes to fixing their stuff from afar!! It's kinda like PCAnywhere if you're familiar with that program.
You should give it a try!!!!
Simply logmein.com - I support over 2 Dozen folks using the Free Version!

Atlantis75's photo
Wed 09/09/09 03:23 PM
Nevermind the fact, that AVG also installs an extra service (that runs in the background), and I found AVG to be taking up too much resources = slowing down the PC more than other lighter antivirus programs, such as Antivir.

mo_muirnin's photo
Thu 09/10/09 10:35 AM

Nevermind the fact, that AVG also installs an extra service (that runs in the background), and I found AVG to be taking up too much resources = slowing down the PC more than other lighter antivirus programs, such as Antivir.


Yep, AVG has watchdog, linkscanner and 2 others, which use quite a bit of CPU. Been well over a year and a half since I used AVG, will never ever go back to that!

no photo
Thu 09/10/09 11:46 AM
I've been using AVG now and Spybot for some time and have had good performance with them. However, it would seem that perhaps I will consider switching to Avast and add CCleaner to the team as well given the experiences posted here.

shoesmonkey's photo
Fri 09/11/09 07:09 AM
I'm no guru that's for sure. All I know is, I have free Norton, AVG 7.5 and, I'm using Mozilla. I don't get any problem's that I know of. Except of course, my friggen chat won't work with IE anymore. It does with Firefox though.

JustBlaze1981's photo
Fri 09/11/09 11:03 AM
Sounds like Safe Mode would come in handy....
And yes AVG is garbage..

2 Next