Computer Support Forums - FreePCHelp.co.uk

power supply unit

novice — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:08:30 GMT

My comp is running with a Q-TEC PSU 650W triple fan .. It is actually had it, making alot of noise. I can't seem to find a new replacement and don't know what to but any Ideas please what is compatible .I run windows XP Prof. thankyou

New Worm Locks Documents with Password

Starbuck — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:58:17 GMT

Malware researchers from Panda Security warn of a new worm, which locks all documents, presentations or emails found on infected computers with a password.

Dubbed Clippo.A, the worm copies itself as PICTURE.EXE and SOUND.EXE to all folders on the system, as well as to removable drives or network shares where it has write permissions.

Its payload involves dropping a file called FILE.EXE in the root of the C: drive and adding a "load=c:\film.exe" startup registry entry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows.

Most importantly, the worm it sets a 721709031350 password to any Word document, PowerPoint presentation or Outlook email it finds.

Malicious programs, that block access to important files or operating system features usually ask for money in order to restore normal functionality.

Such programs are collectively known as ransomware,but this doesn't appear to be the case with this threat.

"[�] The purpose of this worm is not to obtain financial gains but just to annoy users," the Panda Security researchers note.

Clippo stands to show that even though it is a rare occurrence these days, file damaging malware is not extinct.

Clippo affects Windows 2003 and XP, as well as previous versions of the operating system that are no longer actively supported by Microsoft.

It can be rendered inactive by manually removing the registry entry and deleting the c:\file.exe file, but a full system scan with a capable and up-to-date antivirus program is highly recommended.

The network shares accessible from an infected computer and all removable storage devices plugged into it should also be scanned.

Source:
New Worm Locks Documents with Password - Softpedia

Graphics Card Picking Help

Beefers — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:11:40 GMT

Its the first time ive started to re-vamp my rig, and ive been on the prowl for a new graphics card contemplating loads of them.

Im at the point now where im sorta lost as to which one is right for what i want. I've got around the �150 mark (about $230) to splash out on one. I want it for gaming FF14 hopefully. And i want a nice framerate with it.

Ok so im asking for quite a bit. But ive several questions i want answering, so i dont disapoint myself or waste my money!

Ive got a 750W PSU didnt pay allot for it which worries me a tad, but if it struggles i will be prepared to buy another. And got a PCI-E slot as far as i know.

Now for my questions:

- Do i get ATI, Nvidia or neither?

- Whats the difference between all of them? (ive been going by the MB/GB's but have been told thats not always the case)

- Where should i buy one from? (i found Amazon fairly handy with a good range of them)

- Why do some look totally different, and yet have the same spec and are of the same series? o.o

A total novice as you can probably see, so any advice from you more experienced people out there is much welcome. Ty

Also I had a Nvidia Geforce 8600GT(p402 8600GT 256MB), which broke out of warrenty, got a new one from dell which broke 5-6 months down the line again! ''oh sorry sir only 3 months warrenty on that, you will need to buy a new one'' wtf? ''... um i dont think so''.

- Anywhere i can get it repaired?

Slow laptop - Infected?

Jellybeans27 — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:13:30 GMT

Hi all,

I made this thread earlier today, and have been referred to you guys for some help : http://www.freepchelp.co.uk/forum/wi...-more-ram.html

With re to the thread, I have been using CCleaner for registry fixing, but have backed up the registry every single time.

Any help will be appreciated.

"No Signal" after upgrade

br8nd4n — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:23:20 GMT

Hi all,

New to the forum and wondering if anyone could be able to kindly assist me.

I have an Athlon AMD AM2 quad core desktop with an onboard Nvidia GF8200E graphics card and a 450w PSU. I have purchased a second hand ATI radeon 3870 HD graphics card to upgrade to which I have slotted in to the the PCI-e slot. The card appears to power up and the fan spins however I have "no signal" from the monitor. The card came with no disk however I have downloaded the drivers. I have checked obvious stuff like making sure the DVI cable is plugged in properly etc.

Can anyone please explain to me where I am going so terribly wrong!

Kind regards and thanks!

Slow Laptop....Do I need more RAM?

Jellybeans27 — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:31:23 GMT

Hi all,

I have a HP Pavillion dv9000 laptop with the following specs:

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58
1.0GB RAM
Nvidia Geforce 8400M GS.

I've bought the laptop brand new in December 2007, and have maintained it well. Never had any problems or overloaded it...only had a few games installed and thats it.

However, over the last 12 months or so, it's been EXTREMELY slow on startup, sometimes taking 6 or 7 mins to startup from when I press the power button. I thought it might have been the startup programs, so cleaned them up, and also uninstalled all of my games and any software that takes up a lot of space on the HDD. I've also defragmented a lot. None of this has made a difference.

The thing I don't understand is why it suddenly got slower and it hasn't done it before?

Is this a RAM issue, i.e. do I need to upgrade to 2gb? Would it make much difference and solve my problem? I would like to go higher but I believe it can only take a max. of 2gb.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

Will.

Getting a new laptop for university, need some help

TheSlee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:33:34 GMT

Hi,

I have been recently looking at laptops (on a fairly tight budget) as I go off to university soon and I don't currently own one (and my desktop is a tad too big :P) and I was just wondering if I missed anything on 3 models I have been looking at.

I am thinking that the best one is the Medion Akoya E5211, (MEDION� AKOYA� E5211 Notebook) all the reviews seem to be very positive and it seems to offer good specs at a good price, the only downside is the short battery life of 2 hours. it seems too good to be true and I am worried that I have missed something as I know that sometimes reviews are biased by the shop and sometimes the actual specs are lower than displayed as the parts are not so good.

THen I was also looking at the Toshiba L300 12i (Satellite Pro L300-12I - Product Specifications - Toshiba). This also seems to have good specs, very similar to the Medion, but with a smaller HDD and a slightly weaker CPU.

Finally there is the Acer Aspire 5633 (Acer Aspire 5633WLMi review from TechRadar UK's expert reviews of Laptops and netbooks) which is last on the list, but it also seems to have good specs for an affordable price (I am buying on eBay, not for �689.00 :P)

any input would be greatly appreciated, as it stands, I think the Medion is the best one, but any input will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

My PC Moves Very Slow

Soulwing — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:53:12 GMT

Well, I was usually turning on my PC when I saw that it was a bit laggy. I thought it was because of startup programs so I ignored it and entered in a game (Warcraft III), when I saw that I have huge un-playable lags.
I thought then that it was just a virus or something so I scanned with Avast but it found nothing. Then, i've CCleaned it and verified the startup programs and such, but still nothing. I've scanned again with Avast and then with Norton and BitDefender and other softwares (malwarebytes I think) and others but the lag didn't stop.
Then I checked the Task Manager and I saw the the CPU Usage was going to 100% when I was opening a folder or right-clicking desktop. I've reinstalled my windows and without installing anything (not drivers not anything) I checked again the CPU Usage and it was the same. I've checked the Processes but none were taking much usage. I've tried to run in Safe Mode, it was running a bit faster but still same CPU Usage.
I've cleaned the dust within a few weeks ago so I doubd this would be the problem, and as far as I see it's not overheating.

My Laptop Specs.:
OS: Windows Vista Home Basic SP 2;
Memory (RAM): 1 GB
System Tipe: 32-Operating System
Processor: Genuine Intel(R) CPU 575 @ 2.00GHz

Someone can help?

PC powers up but won't boot up

mollie — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:07:05 GMT

I have a self built pc running on windows xp - home.

All of a sudden, pc wouldn't boot up, power comes on, motherboard power light is on, but no beep to indicate system start up. Screen stays black, the drives don't respond either. Have checked the hard drives on another pc, I have 2, both are fine and virus free.

Any suggestions as to what to try next?

Hard drive Installation

viva1angel — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:26:51 GMT

Hi guys, i am new here and dont know if i am posting in the right place but i am in need of help.

Ok, So. my HD went Belly up on me a couple of days ago (looks like corrupt Software)

Anyway... Other half went out and got me a new HD... Only to Find he Bought a Sata drive. my Motherboard is IDE.

Was told by One Friend Just to Buy a new PCI card and then Use the Sata as normal.

Went to Local PC parts Shop and they say, Nope. wont work that way... it wont load your OS on Boot up?

I cant really Afford to go out and buy another hard Drive.

Is there any way of making this PC work with the Sata Drive?

Would appreciate any help

thanks
Emma

Remove previous version of Windows

gambitgsy — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:46:40 GMT

Guy

Just installed windows 7 and when i turn the PC on it shows a previous version (which i guess was my xp) and i have to choose. I must have done somthing wrong when i installed but i dont want to have to do a total reinstall again! Is there a way to remove this old version as its taking up a lot of space!!

Thanks in advance :)

Really slow internet. Spyware?

BaggyG9 — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:42:20 GMT

Hi to all, i have been experiencing some problems with my internet, its extremely slow, i need 20 minutes to download a 1Mb file and i can't even download a <15mb file. It takes some time to load pages and some times it doesn't even load them. I scanned with avast, windows defender and spyware terminator and nothing came up. When i searched google i found a programme called hijack this and i scanned but i don't have such an experience to analyse it. The problem is not with my internet connection because i tried with another computer and it works fine I would be very grateful if you could help me, i have to go to my job this Monday and i NEED my computer.

P.S I apologize if my English were bad

Thank you,
- Andreas

Just sniffing

Old Wolf — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:06:09 GMT

Back for a sniff round.

:eek: :D :)

Hard Drives

robgood — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:50:41 GMT

I have a spare hard drive and not being an expert would like to know what would be the best way to use it.

Just keep it as a spare?
Install 2 hard drives?

Your expert advice would be welcome.

Rob

Windows Automatic Updates

monkeyboy — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:58:02 GMT

Hi guys.

I've been encountering a problem with Windows Automatic Updates on XP. I've seen said problem on numerous PC's, so I've ruled out coincidence for that reason.

When WAU are activated/turned on, the performance of the PC, or the speed in which it operates, is halved. They are slow to respond and hard drive access is pretty constant from boot thereon. Deactivating Automatic Updates resolves this issue. (when wuauclt.exe has gone).

Granted, all three PC's were 512mb RAM or lower, but even so....

I wondered if anyone else had come across this or, more importantly, why this occurs?

Thank you in advance.