The General "Computer Issues" Thread

[PowerZord]

BSODs are notoriously difficult to diagnose, unfortunately. The fact that it seems to only happen when you are watching streaming video makes me wonder if it's some kind of video card and/or driver problem. Try upgrading your video card drivers to their latest version (not a bad idea to do in any case) and see if the problem persists. Do you tend to do anything else video-intensive with your machine such as playing graphical games, and if so, does this cause the same problem?

Also, does this tend to happen right away as soon as you start watching a streaming video from a cold boot, or does it generally not happen unless your computer has been running for a while? If it's the latter, you may be dealing with an overheating problem. Try using temperature-monitoring software such as SpeedFan to check if this might be the case.

Mostly on Videos but after a long time. For example if i'm into half of the episode of Angel it turns off suddenly. I try to turn it on and after trying to load it turns off again. Last year it happened once when I was trying to create a slideshow for a client using a program called Meeve or something.

Usually when it turns off and I touch it underneath it's very very hot.

It happens randomly sometimes twice a day only.. since later on I was able to watch the final episode of Monk on Hulu without problems.

 

[MDawg]

Mostly on Videos but after a long time. For example if i'm into half of the episode of Angel it turns off suddenly. I try to turn it on and after trying to load it turns off again. Last year it happened once when I was trying to create a slideshow for a client using a program called Meeve or something.

Usually when it turns off and I touch it underneath it's very very hot.

It happens randomly sometimes twice a day only.. since later on I was able to watch the final episode of Monk on Hulu without problems.

It sounds like your laptop may be having an overheating issue.

What is it placed on when this happens?

Also, you may want to download a free program called SpeedFan to monitor your temperature.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

So you'd need to burn Blu-Ray and edit that, you can't rip & convert video to a higher resolution? Eh, I won't worry about bothering with it for now then. Drives are still expensive.

no dude, blu-ray was just an example. There are pleanty of video cameras that shoot HD quality video now for consumers with consumer prices. And you can not convert a lower res video to a higher res video, you have to capture the HD video with a camera first.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

Mostly on Videos but after a long time. For example if i'm into half of the episode of Angel it turns off suddenly. I try to turn it on and after trying to load it turns off again. Last year it happened once when I was trying to create a slideshow for a client using a program called Meeve or something.

Usually when it turns off and I touch it underneath it's very very hot.

It happens randomly sometimes twice a day only.. since later on I was able to watch the final episode of Monk on Hulu without problems.

Like others said, your GPU is overheating. Speedfan is a very goos free tool to see your PC temps, I have been using it for a few years. Pay attention to the one labled GPU, anything exept for a green check mark is bad, especially the fire symbol.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

Yess it does, but in my tests, on the machines infected with the kind of malware you described, Spybot or adaware didnt to anything worthwhile, but Spyware doctor did it with no other software affected. Maximum PC recomends Spyware doctor but they do state that a lot of their readers say malwarebytes is very good too. Fact is I have used Spyware doctor on many client's machines and I always got a 95~% results. and never a false positive, and never a bricked software. To my Spyware doctor is a skeleton key to removing enoying malware like the one you had without any harm being done you your computer.

The info on the link you posted is crap. Spyware doctor isnt even listed, and hijackthis is not a removal software its only used to identify processes running on the pc.
Here is the info taken from Trend Micro's Hijachthis site

http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/

It doesn't even belong on that list.

Hijack This can be a useful tool for finding and removing computer hijacks, but only if you know what you're doing or have access to someone who does.

http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html

HijackThis lists the contents of key areas of the Registry and hard drive--areas that are used by both legitimate programmers and hijackers. The program is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. It does not target specific programs and URLs, only the methods used by hijackers to force you onto their sites.

As a result, false positives are imminent, and unless you're sure about what you're doing, you always should consult with knowledgeable folks before deleting anything. Version 2.0.2 includes unspecified updates.


Because it identifies everything it's for experienced users only, though, or for posting the logs to forums where more experienced users can help you. You don't want to start deleting stuff if you don't know if it's good or bad. I'm not going to put myself in the position of defending the sloppy journalism of a Gawker Media site and I should have looked a little deeper in the Google to find a description of Spybot and Malwarebytes to post, but Hijack This is a valid tool worth mentioning.

 

[Mynd Hed]

As far as YouTube videos go, depending on your video editor you can upconvert a DVD-quality source and output it as HD. It won't truly be HD quality, of course, but since YouTube only seems to have three different quality settings (standard aka crap, HQ, and 720p HD) and their medium setting (HQ) is slightly less than DVD quality, you'll still get better quality by upconverting DVD footage and uploading it as HD than by uploading it at its native resolution.

 

[MDawg]

DVD doesn't HD content (720p, 1080i, 1080p Full HD) such as Blu-ray does.

Or you can just grab over-the-air or cable content broadcast in HD.

 

[GWOtaku]

As far as YouTube videos go, depending on your video editor you can upconvert a DVD-quality source and output it as HD. It won't truly be HD quality, of course, but since YouTube only seems to have three different quality settings (standard aka crap, HQ, and 720p HD) and their medium setting (HQ) is slightly less than DVD quality, you'll still get better quality by upconverting DVD footage and uploading it as HD than by uploading it at its native resolution.

Interesting. Any suggestions for a good editor?

no dude, blu-ray was just an example. There are plenty of video cameras that shoot HD quality video now for consumers with consumer prices.

There is that, though I'm not sure I'd want to actually buy one right now...not sure I'd use it enough to make it worthwhile yet.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

As far as YouTube videos go, depending on your video editor you can upconvert a DVD-quality source and output it as HD. It won't truly be HD quality, of course, but since YouTube only seems to have three different quality settings (standard aka crap, HQ, and 720p HD) and their medium setting (HQ) is slightly less than DVD quality, you'll still get better quality by upconverting DVD footage and uploading it as HD than by uploading it at its native resolution.

Actually it wont upconvert anything. Making a video file into a larger than what is was will only make it blurry, and not better in any way, upconvertion only works in Blu-ray players that can make dvds look slightly better. not for video files.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

I'm not going to put myself in the position of defending the sloppy journalism of a Gawker Media site and I should have looked a little deeper in the Google to find a description of Spybot and Malwarebytes to post, but Hijack This is a valid tool worth mentioning.

maybe its worth mentioning, but not in that list, especially since they failed to mention Spywere Doctor at all.

 

[Mynd Hed]

Interesting. Any suggestions for a good editor?

I use Sony Vegas, myself.

Actually it wont upconvert anything. Making a video file into a larger than what is was will only make it blurry, and not better in any way, upconvertion only works in Blu-ray players that can make dvds look slightly better. not for video files.

I didn't say it would make it look better than it originally did, just that at the end of the day it'll look closer to its original quality that way than uploading it to YouTube at its native DVD resolution and letting YouTube downgrade it to their "HQ" (sub-DVD) level.

 

[ThePRPD]

Any suggestions for a good editor?

Sony Vegas (version 8 or 9)
Adobe Premiere
Final Cut Pro

To name a few...

 

[Zorak Masaki]

Im having problems watching videos on youtube with AOL. Everytime i try to watch a youtube video on AOL i get the message to update my flash player and turn on javascript, which i do, but i still get the same message. Nothing happens when i watch embedded vids or videos on internet explorer though, so what should i do?

 

[MDawg]

Im having problems watching videos on youtube with AOL. Everytime i try to watch a youtube video on AOL i get the message to update my flash player and turn on javascript, which i do, but i still get the same message. Nothing happens when i watch embedded vids or videos on internet explorer though, so what should i do?

Not use AOL's browser. Seriously. You're better off sticking to IE or another browser vs using it.

 

[SRB2Unleashed]

Microsoft .NET Framework Error

Okay for the past month I have been trying to install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 onto my Windows XP Computer, but whenever it installs it always says "an unexpected error has occured" or some crap like that. I have tried to use the Cleanup tool and downloading other NET Framework versions (which didn't install either) but it still failed. I really need to install it, since it installed perfectly the first time on my computer. This is getting really frustrating! I googled it and researched it for hours almost each day this week and still no luck!

*sigh* PLEASE HELP ME!!!

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

Okay for the past month I have been trying to install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 onto my Windows XP Computer, but whenever it installs it always says "an unexpected error has occured" or some crap like that. I have tried to use the Cleanup tool and downloading other NET Framework versions (which didn't install either) but it still failed. I really need to install it, since it installed perfectly the first time on my computer. This is getting really frustrating! I googled it and researched it for hours almost each day this week and still no luck!

*sigh* PLEASE HELP ME!!!

This probably should be moved to the general PC issues thread, but do you have a Dell Computer? I've read that a part of Dell Support Center, sprtcmd.exe, sometimes doesn't play well with .Net Framework. Close the sprtcmd.exe process in task manager and then try to update. It's a longshot but worth trying.

 

[SRB2Unleashed]

This probably should be moved to the general PC issues thread, but do you have a Dell Computer? I've read that a part of Dell Support Center, sprtcmd.exe, sometimes doesn't play well with .Net Framework. Close the sprtcmd.exe process in task manager and then try to update. It's a longshot but worth trying.

Itsa Windows. It has HP so does that mean dell?

 

[Wonderwall]

I've been having a problem with my laptop for the last couple of months. The battery won't charge even though it's plugged in and I haven't touched anything. I remember about 2 months ago it started charging itself again but then it went back to not charging so it's constantly plugged in. Also it's been very slowly losing power, usually plugging it in will halt that but I've noticed it's gone down a percent the last 2 days.

Also does anyone know why my laptop says on the side that it can play Blu Ray discs yet when I actually put one in it won't play it? It always asks me to download an update for it, which I do, but then it never works?

 

[En Sabah Nur]

I've been having a problem with my laptop for the last couple of months. The battery won't charge even though it's plugged in and I haven't touched anything. I remember about 2 months ago it started charging itself again but then it went back to not charging so it's constantly plugged in. Also it's been very slowly losing power, usually plugging it in will halt that but I've noticed it's gone down a percent the last 2 days.

Also does anyone know why my laptop says on the side that it can play Blu Ray discs yet when I actually put one in it won't play it? It always asks me to download an update for it, which I do, but then it never works?

Your battery most likely needs to be replaced. If your drive says its a blu-ray drive then yes you can play blu-ray discs. What update does it give you? You need a blu-ray player to watch blu-ray movies, like cyberlink's powerdvd.

 

[wonderfly]

In case anyone remembers my post in this thread from a few days ago, my computer caught a computer virus, and it basically shut down my computer for a few days. I couldn't even go into "Safe Mode" after a while. I ended up having to reformat my computer to get it to work (by clicking F10 when you start the computer up). So that got my computer working long enough that I was able to get all of my family photos and documents of importance onto a thumb drive. From there, a friend of mine gave me a copy of Microsoft Security Essentials and Microsoft Malicious Software Removal, and it detected two viruses, one of which it removed, and the other of which it "quarantined"...I'm hoping that solves the virus problem.

So now that my computer's been reformated, it's like it's starting over (this is a 5 year old computer, it came with Windows XP). My question is: what should I download to get it back up to snuff with where it was at? What version of Firefox and Internet Explorer should I get? I needed to download a version of Microsoft Word...or Open Office. Which do you recommend and what version of Word/Office? I started to download the new Microsoft Office 2010, only to discover I needed to download Windows SP3...which my computer can't handle. Should I download Windows SP2 instead? Do I need that?

What are essentials that I should download, and is there a specific order I need to download all this stuff in?