computer help

kierkegaard1 · computer help

my desktop that ive had around 18months is now slow as hell. i know its cos i download a bunch of crap and im sure its virus'd or w/e. firefox keeps freezing. i cant watch vids online as they keep skipping every couple of seconds. there's a delay just writing this.
basically what i want to do is a factory reset, except ive lost any discs that will have come with the machine. so how can i restore to factory default??

providing this can be done, i'll also need some advice on best way to save all my hem stuff inc that postgros thing or w/e its called.

one more thing, my gf's laptop keyboard seems screwed. everytime she types certain letters, other letters come out. for example 'h' comes out as 'hj' she did a factory reset and problem is still there. anyone have any ideas??

U Cook Socks

Stop downloading porn imo.

sandman369

forced

u can try running some online virus scanners as well... such as,

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

as for a factory reset?... I would just go to the manufacturer's site, punch in your make and model and hopefully they have dl's for your machine there. worked for my last laptop anyway...

Wannawin

BetMagicMoney

others advice is good.

as to postgres you should be able to export your entire database using the pgadmin tool

blsmur

I run AVG free
it keeps my computers safe from virus

you may have a trojan which would be bad , typically porn sites and wares have virusses and trojans but avg seem to deal with it well

my laptop 2 years now and now problems with speed

Borg7

format the pc

doodiewiz

tbh honest what you describe is really scary. If you look at facebook, bank etc on that computer all of it could be compromised. I had facebook password stolen and bank account emptied....microsoft essentials is free and lightweight on your PC and a really good firewall...definitely sounds like a reinstall. If you right click my computer and go properties you can get your serial number for windows OS if its a legit copy. Then you just need a OS download. May be able to get it from Microsoft website for free perhaps - not sure...

DentyT

Formatting your PC is most likely your best bet, but have a crack at using CCleaner and a few of the other tools mentioned.

As for your girlfriends laptop, I'd consider plugging a usb keyboard into it and seeing if you get the same problem? If you do, you can be pretty sure it's nothing to do with the keyboard and may be some kind of virus (I think there's a few that do weird things like that). A few other things you could try are:

Try pressing FN+Num Lock

Also try to reset the bios settings...
-restart the computer
-on booting up tap Del, F1, F2, or F10 (whichever yours requires, there's a bunch of variants but if you look carefully it should say something like "To enter... press F8" or whatever.
-once you're on the setup utility page, move around using the keyboard and find "restore factory settings"
-save changes and exit

Hopefully one of the above will help. If not, google around a bit more than I did, can probably find a solution somewhere.

kierkegaard1

thanks for help. i have that cccleaner and it did clear virus' before. i just, essentially, want my pc from scratch. is that what formatting does? how do i format?

kierkegaard1

i think ill just buy a new pc

DentyT

Yeah, formatting is essentially getting it back to how it began, minus any hardware wear and tear.

You just need a windows operating system CD. Ask around friends and family, anyone thats bought a PC recently, people sometimes have the operating system CD's lying about.

If you do decide to buy a new PC, check out http://www.cclonline.com/ I got my PC from them a few months ago, extremely good value for money and you can customise your system to the spec's you want.

Can be a bit daunting if you don't know much about PC hardware, so if it's the route you choose send me a PM or add me on skype and I'll give ya a hand.

sandman369

lol damn rich hotshots! Meh, too frustrating, just buy new one.

The Angler

If you have a lot of files on your desktop that can slow down your PC. Also it's worth checking to see how many programs are running at start up. To do that type msconfig into the search bar in the start menu and hit enter. Click on the tab at the top of the new window that's now open and select startup. You can remove the tick from the box of pretty much everything, just leave your anti virus etc.

Click to see full size image

It's probably also worth doing a scan of your registry - Ccleaner has an option for this - just make sure you save a backup when prompted to do so.

If you don't have a windows CD and motherboard driver CD reformatting is going to be a pain in the arse as you'll have to find out what motherboard you have go to the website and download all the various drivers for your specific model as well as go download a copy of windows from a torrent site and find out what your windows serial number is before you start. You could always go the route of paying someone to do all this for you, it's cheaper than buying a new PC if that's your alternative.

YATHINNK

Pin-Up-Poker

Use another laptop to find a list of viruses and their file names and delete them from the registry, some of them are well named to sound like they're part of the OS. That's if you don't want to wipe your computer.

If ya' do, we have a few OS disks laying around, I'm sure we could post you one.

As for your girlfriends, that's probably nothing to do with the software, send the bugger back, it's usually free repairs anyhow.

Borg7

when u boot pc, it'll say something like "press del/F12 to enter bios" or something like that.
press that button when u startup and u'll be in bios.
when ur in bios, change the boot priority to CD/DVD, so that the pc boots from cd, not from hard drive.
insert windows 7 cd, save settings, restart pc and u can format+reinstall windows7

BetMagicMoney

kierkegaard1

thanks, just need to find this f disc now.

pc is def working much faster since i took the advice to stop it starting a load of programs at startup

BetMagicMoney

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