HIT: Problem PC

[Dawn Sardes <Dmsardes@AOL.COM>]

Before I begin the hit, I want to thank everyone who took the time to respond
to my question on how to help my Windows 95, Pentium I class PC work more
quickly.  I have done a few of the suggestions and it has speeded up
appreciably (maybe not as fast as it was when it was new, but neither am I,
so, what the heck).

Although I would like to reformat the C drive, I can't because I have
programs loaded on it which I cannot replace.  You know, those deals you get
to load stuff on your personal PC to work at home?  Well, I'm not a teacher
anymore, and I no longer have the disks to reload (had to return them to my
district after using).  But, the suggestions to turn off both the "Fast Find"
feature and the screensaver/background displays, plus Ending Task all
background programs in Task Manager did allow me to run a complete Scandisk,
without restarts.  Also, I followed the suggestion to "FIND" all *.tmp files
and DELETE--there were over 800 of those suckers in there!  How do they get
there? My computer is now much faster since doing these things, although it
still won't go to sleep and sounds like it's racing.  And I am saving my
pennies for a Mac.  And I'm going to get Norton Utilities for that Disk
Doctor thing in the meantime.

Anyway, about 30 people emailed me asking that I compose a hit, so here goes.

1. 9 wonderful people wrote suggesting an option I had not thought of:  Buy a
Mac
-----
2. Open Scan Disk, press control-delete-alt and END TASK on ALL background
programs except the Scan Disk one.
-----
3. Dawn, your computer does not have ADHD, is not obsessive-compulsive or
manic-depressive.  It obviously has ODD--oppositional defiant disorder. Your
letter really cracked me up though.  Post a hit because my PC's doing the
same stuff.
----
4. I just loved your letter!  And if it helps, mine has been doing similar
things for the past three months (including the ScanDisk bit - it flips
between files and folders), since I deleted an infected file.  I too, run
Norton.  I haven't done a defrag because the scandisk won't 'go', so I plan
to ring my tech.  The lack of defrag could be why the machine is going
slower and slower. I don't seem to have lost anything in the 3 months.
anyway, I'll be watching the list with interest, to see what
people-who-really-know-computers say.
-----
5. I have these types of things happen all the time to one of the twelve PC's
I have in my media center. I bought Norton Utilities and ran disk doctor. It
fixed one just fine. The others which have had the rumblings recently didn't
respond as well. I ended up reformatting the hard drives. This does end up
taking about two hours depending on how much stuff you had loaded on to the
computer. Each item, driver, etc. has to be reinstalled and network
communications remade, etc. But since I did that, those grumblings stopped.
Supposedly Scandisk and defragmentor in the Accessories under system tools
should be run weekly. But I get the same message--something is writing to
your. . . .Scandisk has started and stopped 10 times. . .The reformatting
helped. It is a lot of work for someone who is always busy.
---------------
6. Luckily none of your suggested solutions will have to be used. What you
will
have to do is to sort some software problems out....no physical harm has
come to your computer :-)

I'll try and deal with each problem but I think I am going to need you to
reply to this email giving more a more specific diagnosis.

First off, those files you found with strange letters in them are not always
gobbildy-gook. When a file opens like this it either means that they are not
a text file or that the format in which they are in is not supported by the
program you have used to open the file in. (Try opening one of your Word
documents in that little program called WordPad...chances are 1/2 of it will
be gibberish. Not because they are but because WordPad doesn't understand
Word documents too well). A suggestion here is to NOT delete files that you
do not understand or that are in the Windows directory unless you know what
you are doing.

Next is the problem of your husband's disk....You should either check all
disks before using them with Norton (Find out if you can set Norton to do
this automatically...unfortunatly I am not familiar with Norton. I use Dr
Solomons and it runs in the background 24hrs a day checking anything I
copy/read/write onto or off a disk or the internet which as I'm sure you'll
agree is a nice feature) If you followed the correct procedure to get rid of
the viruses you mentioned then they should not be a problem anymore. Have you
kept Norton up to date? [I HAVE] You should and run it regularly [I DO] and
get it to check ALL your files even if it says there is no need to do this it
doesn't hurt to let it poke inside compressed files for instance or to try
and guess if there are files with unkown viruses in them. Hopefully I have
made sense to you. If not give me a shout and I'll try and explain it more
clearly :-)

For the scandisk problem I think what you need to do is to start Windows in
Safe Mode (See Win95 manual for details) [LOST IT WHEN I MOVED]and to run
scandisk from there. In Safe Mode Windows will not have loaded any background
programs. Safe Mode may take a while to get into and your PC may groan and
grind a bit...don't stress...part of the process :-) A suggestion when
running scandisk is to
delete lost chains...Don't convert them into files as 99.9% of the time they
become even less useful and take up space. Once you have done this...a few
of your problems will hopefully have been cleared up.
Try clearing your HD up a bit before doing this. Run "Find Files/Folders"
and search for "  *.tmp  " (without the " ") and delete these files. They
are temporary files and can safely be deleted. Next right click on the
Interente Explorer icon and delete your Temporary Internet files and your
History. Next using explorer goto the C:\Windows\Temp folder and delete its
contents. Restart and run scandisk (in safe mode). You should then
Defragment your HD...this might help with your PC's lack of speed.

The sleep mode is not critical and should be sorted out at a later stage
when the more serious problem are dealt with.  Another thing is to restor
those files you deleted previously if you can as they may be important system
files. If you have emptied them out of your recycle bin then don't worry I'll
help you out. Remember to empty your recycle bin of all the files I told you
to delete. If you are unsure at any
stage rather email me for clearer instructions. :-)
------------
7. Why don't you go to the documentation on your virus protection program and
use your emergency disk to start the computer and clean up the viruses?  We
use McAfee at school and this method has worked.  The corrupted data is
booting up as your C drive is booting and this is why it is always good to
use an alternative booting-up method when trying to get rid of viruses.

If this doesn't work, you can always go to Norton's technical support site
and see what a technician can tell you.
---------
8. Hi Dawn,  The only thing I know enough to comment about is that the screen
saver and back ground on your display need to be off to use system tools.
Otherwise it will make the comment about restarting. (it will always say
ten times)
Start  Settings  Display Background Screen Saver
---------
9. It sounds as if the viruses are still at work and are continually writing
to
the hard drive...if it were my pc I would now format C: and reinstall the
system software...
---------
10. I don't know if this will help, but I had a two year old PC running at
snail
speed with odd  quirks and I would constantly hear the hard drive spinning.
My tech person told me to go to the control pannel and click on Find Fast
and disable it- close & stop, the thing constantly indexes everywhere you go
& what you do and writes to c - my machine works a lot faster without this
little frill. Don't know if it will help yours but it is worth a try.
---------

Dawn Sardes
dmsardes@aol.com
Teen Services Librarian
Cumberland County Public Library
Fayetteville, NC 28311

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