Help - kids have killed the computer

ckerrd

Browntoa wrote: »

also noticed that your version of Vista is out of date , only SP1 when service pack 2 is out there and internet explorer 8 is a must

go to www.windowsupdate.com

I think IE8 is a personal preference, rather than a "must"

JasX

Perhaps installing NVidia system monitor (or another program that does similar) and seeing how many internal temperature sensors it picks up? that way OP could see if any are spiralling upwards and upwards and if crashes are co-incident with them hitting a particular level....

http://www.nvidia.com/object/system_monitor.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.05.html

macman

I assumed that Santa had bought them a new PC, if so it should not still have Vista SP1 on it?

kwikbreaks

ckerrd wrote: »

I think IE8 is a personal preference, rather than a "must"

The French, Australian, and German governments would take issue with you on that one - they've issued a warning to their citizens to quit using all versions of IE due to unpatched vulnerabilities.

enigma52

macman wrote: »

I assumed that Santa had bought them a new PC, if so it should not still have Vista SP1 on it?

he didn't say 2009 though

dogmaryxx

kwikbreaks wrote: »

The French, Australian, and German governments would take issue with you on that one - they've issued a warning to their citizens to quit using all versions of IE due to unpatched vulnerabilities.

Microsoft will release a fix for the now notorious security hole in Internet Explorer later today.
The patch will be released at around 6pm UK

mufadv

had a similar problem once.. remove your HDD.. use it as a slave in another PC.. and scan it through the primary HDD of that machine.. its mostly a viral infection.. a bad one on that

rumpelstiltskin_2

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I am not sure whether I have a hardware or software problem.

Be nice if I could confirm if it was hardware as I could take it back - only purchased in December - I mean Father Christmas brought in December )Just in case the kids are reading this)

I have ran malware, anti virus etc. and have found trojan.vundo listed.

I am going to have another try at cleaning things up at the weekend.

Just one quick question though.

I I buy a windows 7 upgrade and install this will it clear everything (including any nasties) and solve my problems.

As we have not had the PC long there is nothing on it that we are bothered about losing

Thanks

HO87

Apart from the most recent security issues with IE I'd always recommend a move away from IE to Firefox. Besides the fact that it is far less resource intensive, its a lighter installation and is inherently far more secure that IE by a country mile. Migration to it is simply a matter of a few clicks (it will import your settings from IE).

Tick and fix
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {5C255C8A-E604-49b4-9D64-90988571CECB} - (no file)

The symptoms suggest there may be a hardware problem. As has been suggested either with the CPU fan failing to reach speed or a loose heatsink or alternatively - depending on what machine you have a loose heatsink/cooler on the northbridge chipset.

Does the machine have onboard graphics with shared memory? Depending on the type/configuration you may be able to adjust the settings but the usual means of resolving the problem would be to upgrade the RAM to the maximum the machine will accept.

fiddiwebb

Hi

When you say "It runs for a few minutes then grinds to a halt - it will run for a while in safe mode but even that grinds to a hat after a while."

Do you mean the computers operating system stops and freezes on screen when it is running or does the computer itself make an noise and physically stops working?