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Laptop Maintenance

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That ain't right. You could mail it to my place in So Cal, get it fixed, and have it returned in less than 2 weeks.
 
I have turned laptops or regular PCs around in a day or so. I have heard the same complaint several times from the chain stores. I know it is a pain, but hopefully you will get things back in shape soon (so you can read the email I sent you today) /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
Ron - I didn't get an email from you

I'm going back over today to find out what they did to it - then I'm gonna have them make it look like it did before I took it to them...then I'm gonna find somebody who knows what they're doing!

It is faster though, gotta admit that.
 
Well, its back in the shop for a new harddrive...there waas a file that kept migrating all around the harddrive...you'd'a'thunk Norton would've caught it...so, with the new harddrive I'm changing to Kaspersky! But I'm a little reluctant to hook the old harddrive to the computer even as an external unit when I get it back Thurs or Fri!!
 
The good thing about having a HD in an external enclosure is that the OS is not trying to boot from it. Once you have an AV program installed and updated, you can plug in the drive and then scan it.

At my job we saved a bunch of peoples files by doing this. Plus it gives some extra storage.

I have an external 500GB for music, movies, and picture files. I like it since I can turn it off when not in use. This will keep any new nasties from getting to the files.
 
Strange - when they did the scans, they found some spybots & viruses that Norton 360 had missed...the one file we can't get rid of (3 letters followed by a dash then 3 more letters) said it was installed on my computer in Oct 2002 but I only bought it mid-2004...& when you try to uninstall it, it jumps to another place or multiplies.

I'm just concerned it got onto my laptop earlier when my server was attacked.
 
One way to solve that problem is to format the drive once you get it into the enclosure. Writing zeros to all the sectors will kill anything that is lurking around on the drive.

I'm kind of surprised that the store you brought the notebook to didn't suggest offloading the files, and then wipe the drive. It is what we do whenever we run into troubles like that.
 
Ron - they wanted to offload the files & are doing most of them right n ow - they just can't redo my software programs...& that stupid file is wandering around from place to place - I watched them delete it 4 or 5 times & it appeared somewhere else everytime.
 
If it keeps replicating itself and all they do is delete it, then they don't know what they're doing. You have to halt the process which allows it to replicate before you can remove the infected file. Once the process has been halted, the virus is contained. Then you delete the file and it's gone.
 
If it was me. I would put the drive into another machine, and then run the scan. This way, the notebook drive is not being booted. There are a few viruses out there that are nasty ones, but a reputable place should have the tools to kill it.

Sometimes the registry of the machine gets messed up since some viruses set themselves up in there in many places. I had one on an unprotected machine, and it took a bit to squish it, but I was able to remove it without too much harm to the machines OS and installed programs.

BTW, Tony, were you able to find a gas pedal from an early (62-67) B' laying around?
 
Ron - Yep, got one - just got busy with things & haven't gotten back to you yet.....sorry.
 
Sounds like you done good with buying that laptop when you put aside the virus issue. Makes me wish we'd bought Toshiba instead of the Compaq Presario that we got about three years ago. It was a great computer for about the first two-and-a-half years. The basics still work, but the track pad and buttons no longer function, the screen may or may not be delaminating around its side edges, and the a/c plug in area is flaky, and doesn't always notice that the computer is plugged into a/c power. That' a common problem on this model of laptop and should have been recalled. No more HP/Compaq products for us.
 
Reason I'm trying to save it - its been such a good computer!
 
A good laptop is hard to find! We had a gateway that we bought in 2000, it finally gave up the ghost when its power supply quit working (battery died years ago) I figure any computer these days that works longer than about 2 years is a keeper! Is yours any easier to update with more RAM and how easy are the components to replace if they wear out? I had to buy a new laptop because so much of it was integrated and the cost of repair was almost as much as a new one.
 
Mine is maxed out RAM-wise (we did that when I bought it in 2004)...hard drive is a plug-in.
 
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