fair price for help?

Fran

ppf,

It must be confusing getting all these different suggestions.

It would be helpful if you answered scoot's questions in reply 18 (rather than attempt all sorts of bits & pieces all at once).

Have you got Windows Firewall switched on? (Start/Control Panel/Security Centre). If you have, check that your Norton Firewall is definitely switched on (click on the Norton icon and look at the settings). If Norton firewall is on try turning off Windows Firewall.

Rex_Mundi

Well for a start i'd remove norton

I knew someone would end up saying this. As the OP has said, it came with the computer and has been working fine since 2003. It is OBVIOUSLY not the problem here. I think the OP is having enough problems without being confused by what are purely personal opinions on this product.

You keep getting a message about Nvidia. This could indicate a problem with a driver of some sort.

As fran said, the list of questions in reply number 18 is a good place to start.

On a seperate note............

One of the local computer shops near me charges £20 1st hr, then £10/hr thereafter.

Wow that is so cheap. I pay my cleaner £10/hr !!!

mike_paterson

Remember to run a defragmentation of your hard drive too Start - Programs - Accessories - System tools . Also try a disk cleanup too in case you are running out of space.

Last resort is to save any important files/documents to CD and then re-install windows - this is geberally much easier than it sounds !

prettypinkfairy

Thank you everyone. Guess what? Im going out tonight! I have a life away from this damned computer!!! Yes I can download somethings , albeit very slowly Something , I can't remember what , said it would take 5/10 mins and took 40!. I have been unable to download any free security stuff or opera and firefox which I have just found out about whilst trawling these sites . Everything is extremely slow , even offline. I have had Norton antivrus 2003 which I was doing a full scan on once a week for last 3 years and bt yahoo free spyware for about a year and I do a scan on that about 3 times a week because it doesn't take long . I have aso always periodically removed my cookies. These 2 programmes I have run every day since the problems. They dont report any threats , only e.g about 7 gtracking cookies today on bt one, no recommendations for action but I remove them anyway. I have windows firewall which is on. When I installed Broadband I had to turn off all security which I did but it wqs only off about 10 mins and I turned it straight back on. I have removed old lead and fitted filters on all phones and double checked all this. My computer is about 6 ins from phone point and I do not have any dvd players or freeview or modern equipment. There are no yellow triangles or exclamatiom marks in my device manager section. I am going o leave it now for tonight. I will have to give it to the computer man I think . I will let you know how it goes. Just one last question though because I can't believe he can be cleverer than you all . Does he need to know my problems specifically or can he just sort of plug it in and get a general clean up and overhaul. I am aware that this might sound a daft question but thats how basic my knowledge is. I'm the same with my car I just have to trust the garage man and even I know how stupid that is ! love you all Have a great evening . ppf

rogerramjet

Usually, someone with any worth would be able to sort it quite quickly with what you have mentioned especially when they have the computer in front of them.

Just out of curiosity, you have actually removed the cable to the modem which you used to connect with? just a thought as it maybe you are still connecting through dial up instead of the broadband connecting (I kept my dial up connection to check emails on an old account which wouldn't let me do so through the broadband connection)

There is always the possibility the broadband modem is faulty as well, I recently helped someone who had problems, they'd had a new inline filter box installed, had telephoned their service provider on numerous occasions for advice and when I saw the modem I knew that was what faulty straight away....put my modem/router onto their system just to confirm and connected straight away.

Most modems being provided these days are the alcate speedtouch 330....if this is the one you have check to ensure both lights are showing solid colour...if one is flashing constantly (right one if I rememer correctly) then the modem is faulty.

vultura

The more info on problems you can give, the better. So make it clear its slow both on-line and offline, etc.

As a side point I would recommend replacing Norton Antivirus 2003 with a new version, as they have made a few changes to the scanning engine and what threats it can detect in later 2004/2005 versions.

Edit: Check your PM too.

scoot1on1

Thanks for your informative reply PPF its ruled out a few other possibilities but if you can bear to answer a few more questions

1. Go to Control Panel > Internet Options > Connections Tab ...Is the "Never Dial a Connection" selected

2. You have said that everything is running slow offline also, have you installed any new programs after you installed Broadband

3. When you start your computer up do you have a lot of Icons in the tray near your clock (if so use the right mouse button and click exit/disable, but leave your Norton Virus running)

4. When you disabled Norton and installed broadband did the computer run quicker (may get shot down for this, but try disabling it again and see if computer runs quicker)

5. Not sure if you know (maybe someone who has Norton could tell me) does Norton come with its own independant Firewall, If so maybe turning off XPs firewall may help

6. Since getting Broadband have you opened and clicked on any email sent to you from someone you don't know, and opened it.

7. Has the homepage (think its Yahoo with BT) been changed to some other page you don't recognise ie. when you open Internet what is the page you see

8. Have you rang BT and asked if the line is ok? When you pick up the phone can you hear any crackling or noise

Some of the questions above relate to your slow Broadband connection but Im still a little puzzled as to why your offline activities have slowed down also, this usually points to a Virus or Trojan or maybe a drain on computer resources.

If your Virus software is up to date etc this would rule out that side of the equation, which then leaves us with either a trojan(which your antiVirus program may/may not pick up) too many programs trying to run on your computer at any one time, or the reason quoted above, a fault with the modem.

I hope you had an enjoyble evening PPF, and if you want to just give your computer into a shop and get it fixed witout the hassle of answering all these questions I completely understand as I would hate to have to wait as long as you are for internet connection that is 10X slower than the usual internet rate but if that is the course of action you take, could you please let me know what the cause was.

Jon

peter_the_piper

It may well be useful to look at the task manager to see if any wayward program is hogging all resources. Right click just above the clock (bottom right corner) a box will pop up. click task manager and from the top tabs choose processes. Scroll down the page and see what is using all the Cpu, mine currently is System Idle which uses about 97%. If there is anything else using a great deal this is your problem. Lets us know here before ending it or deleting it.
Peter

prettypinkfairy

Thanks . I have checked and all I have is System Idle using 95% of CPU. I do have Never dial a connection selected I have not installed any new programmes My homepage was bt yahoo and it did keep changing and had lots of ads running literally from the minute I went to Broadband. I went onto MSN EXPLORE because of all the problems. Anyway I remember I did something I have never done before and that was to enter a couple of competitions online which I found mentioned on one of the MSE BOARDS. On Saturday I got really worried because I had 11 junk e mails from people with foreign names and I have never had anything like this before . I thought I had got onto a singles type list or something as they had subjects like Be my Friend and although I did not open any I had a laugh but my friend said god turn off the damn thing, you do internet banking and all you money will disappear. So I have ben terrified ever since. However that has been since the problems started. ( on 15/8) Tonight I have had several error messaged where things have encounterd problems and had to shut down. I will give it to the computer man He is picking it up on Tuesday and I will ask him to give me a Technical report so I can let all you lovely helpful people know. Thanks to all. PPF

prettypinkfairy

Computer man took it on Tuesday morning. Be back in less than 24 hours. Got it back at 3pm Friday. I wasn't here so asked OM to ask him for ]exact details of problems even if it was very technical so I could let some friends know who had been trying to help. He said it was just viruses and malicious stuff and that there was something on there that had been there months. He also said that Norton was rubbish and he has installed webroot spyware and I notice that there is also Trend micro internet security. He said these were not the free stuff (which is rubbish ) . HE WAS ALSO ADAMANT THAT THIS RUNS ON ITS OWN AND SORTS EVERYTHING OUT AND I DO NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING AT ALL . Told OM that the spyware is cheaper from his firm and he is sending a bill. Still don't know cost ! OM TOO POLITE TO MAKE A FUSS. Well yesterday I found that search results were Ok but certainly no faster than before Broadband and I COULD NOT SEND E MAILS. This morning I have only been on the BBC LEARNING SITE but I then tried to download Firefox and got a message saying poblem encountered had to close. Tried to download Opera and same happened . Then when I tried to go to my yahoo page it would not open .Sent report and microsoft reply was that it was cause by IBIS TOOLBAR CREATED BY iDownload and a warning sayng that it shows ads ,collects info and changes settings on pc,e installs without notifying you and does not provide info about publisher or a way to uninstall. Instructions were to remove under add/remove programmes but if Ibis toolbar not listed the try by downloading lavasoft etc (with links) of course I cannot download anything so unable to do it either way. I ran the webroot syware and nothing comes up. So looks like he was a waste of time / I really want to cry now. Can't get hld of the guy today. Let you know when I do.