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Before you format the hard disk, have a look at Sysinternals There are lots of utilities there e.g.
Montoring all file activity
Check what programs load on startup, 'Autoruns'
monitor all processes
They are are excellent and freeware and are usually very small, now you just need to get them onto your son's PC, I would suggest using a floppy disk
If it is not networked you can always us ethe serial port and a null modem cable.
"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." - Neils Bohr
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Before you start, adaware, "spybot search and destroy", and "hijack this" often work wonders. (warning, get the real thing, there are look alikes out there to confuse you. I don't know how to tell the difference) If you can't get to the correct web site from that machine, you can be sure they will help!
That done, either boot from CD, or steal a floppy from a different machine. Not being sure how the system is configured I can't say what will work.
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According to my expirience, try to do the following method:
1. If you are running winxp, winme??? or win2k, scan for corrupt file, Go to Start menu and click on Run... command and type CMD and press enter. MSDOS will appear and type the following command at SFC/Scannow and press enter. This command will scan the file in windows system for the currupt file and might as for windows CDROM to replace the file that its corrupt.
2. Check your system property whether something disable the floopy disk drive or sound card. To do this step right click on My Computer icon on the desktop and click on Property from the context menu. Then go to Hardware tab and press Device Manager button. The list of your hardware will appear, note that your floopy drive or sound card is not mark with a red cross sign. If one or both of its has/have the red cross sign it mean that the hardware is disable. If your hardware is disable then right click on it and choose Enable command.
3. Try to run windows update, office update, anti-virus update or any anti-spyware application to scan for the currupt file. Try to check here[^] for free anti-spyware software.
Try to do it and let me know if you could fix the problem or not.
Good luck
A thousand mile of journey, begin with the first step.
APO-CEDC
Save Children Norway-Cambodia Office
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Thanks for all the posts, did try most of them, but PC still runs very very slow. It takes about 6 min for Word to run-up.
The utilities sorted out many problems, but reported could not sort out some as files in use.
I was going to bit the bullet and format the C: drive, but could not!
As the flopy drive is not working - no system disk and Windows is using some files on C:.
So question, how do I format the hard drive? As I think this is the only way forward.
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If all else fails move it to another PC to format it, providing you can load Windows on your son's PC without using the floppy drive.
You have checked the BIOS to make sure the floppy is not disabled?
"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." - Neils Bohr
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OK thanks for that, but just wondered if a USB memory stick could be used in place of a floppy?
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Maybe. Some machines can boot from USB, some can not. Check the bios, in the boot order settings. If USB is an option, then you can boot from a memory stick. Otherwise you cannot.
Gettting a machine to boot from memory stick is left as an exercise. In no small part because the only people I know of doing it are hard core hackers who enjoy doing hard things with their computer. Search the web, you might get some information.
It is more likely that you can boot from CD. So just get a windows CD, and stick it in the drive. You have to consider what you will do once you get the drive formatted, and you don't seem to have considered that at all. Once you know what your next step after the format is, the answer to your question will be easier.
If you can't find a windows CD, try a knoppix http://www.knoppix.net/ CD. It can format your harddrive. Again though, you have to consider what you will do after the format completes.
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Thanks for the info. I reloaded WIndows, just need to install the rest of my programs.
So far programs are running OK and disk access seems normal; i.e. not a continual access.
The problems with the sound and floppy drive remain, so I assume these are hardware problems.
If anyone knows of any good diagnostic utilities that would be great.
I have Norton SystemWorks 2003 but it cant find the problems. Standard Windows diagnostics cant determine the problem either.
I will check the connections inside the case later, but the BIOS settings look OK.
I think one of the problems with the sound was that my son had a Audigy Sound card installed (the one with the breakout box). He took that out for his new computer; thats why I am trying to use his old PC (this one) for e-mails/Wordprocessing.
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like some one else suggested, use something like knoppix, which is a linux live cd, to boot up your machine, and try to access the floppy and the sound. then you'll know for certain whether it's a hardware or a software problem.
and check your BIOS settings... sometimes that is where the problem lies...
--
Raoul Snyman
Saturn Laboratories
e-mail: raoul.snyman@saturnlaboratories.co.za
web: http://www.saturnlaboratories.co.za/
linux user: #333298
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Thanks for your post.
I did try and download knoppix but did not know where it went; not given the option to save it.
But would like to try it, but every site I have been on seems to do the same (download it - somewhere).
I thought I just needed to download it and burn it onto a CD.
Am I missing something?
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you should be able to download a .iso of knoppix from www.knoppix.net (there's a list of mirrors at http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html). then just burn the image to a CD. once you've done that, reboot your machine with the CD in the drive, and if your computer is configured properly it should boot off the CD.
--
Raoul Snyman
Saturn Laboratories
e-mail: raoul.snyman@saturnlaboratories.co.za
web: http://www.saturnlaboratories.co.za/
linux user: #333298
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Any sys-admins care to share their strategies for preventing users using the google image search to display pornographic images - without blocking the entire google image search.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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As far as I know, I found a software that will analyse the pixel of an image that will load on the webpage. If it found the picture is pornography it will block the pictures, I need to return to my house and check this software in the magazine and will let you know.
A thousand mile of journey, begin with the first step.
APO-CEDC
Save Children Norway-Cambodia Office
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is that ever possible ?
I'd be happy if you would share some answers if you get some ?
Maximilien Lincourt
Your Head A Splode - Strong Bad
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I dont have answers, but...
If this is for home, your question totally makes sense, but if this is for a business environment...  
Who the hell looks at porn during work hours???
I get paid to do something I enjoy (most of the time), and I'm not going to risk that to look at some silicone starlet!
The kindest thing you can do for a stupid person, and for the gene pool, is to let him expire of his own dumb choices.
[Roger Wright on stupid people]
We're like private member functions
[John Theal on R&D]
We're figuring out the parent thing as we go though. Kinda like setting up Linux for the first time ya' know...
[Nitron]
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Atlantys wrote:
If this is for home, your question totally makes sense, but if this is for a business environment...
Who the hell looks at porn during work hours???
This is for one of my clients. They operate a 24 hr call centre and an operative on the night-shift has been using the google image search to look at porn. It only got picked up because I looked at the ISA logs. They need an easy way for spotting this or stopping it, without having to wade through lots of ISA logs.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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in that context, I'd close the google image search . ..
it's not like they need to do a lot of image research for their job.
but that's a "hard" solution.
Maximilien Lincourt
Your Head A Splode - Strong Bad
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Finally, I could found the information about what you need. Try to check Porn Cleanser software[^] and let me know whether it is match what you need or not.
A thousand mile of journey, begin with the first step.
APO-CEDC
Save Children Norway-Cambodia Office
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Any recommendations for good ISA proxy log analysis software? Something that can tell the difference between a request for a web-page and all the other requests that a site makes for advertising and pop-ups.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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Try to check the information from here[^] and here[^] or check the google for more additional information.
A thousand mile of journey, begin with the first step.
APO-CEDC
Save Children Norway-Cambodia Office
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Thanks.
I've already done a lot of googling and reading on the subject. I'm hoping to get a few replies from people who've used various packages. Nothing I've seen so far in my price range does what I need 
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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Hi, I have a question about windows environment. Why we need to restart the computer after we install some software application? Are there any hidden trick behind it???
A thousand mile of journey, begin with the first step.
APO-CEDC
Save Children Norway-Cambodia Office
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Files that are currently in use by the system or other processes that are running cannot be changed until either those processes are stopped during the current session or before the operating system is completly loaded the next time it reboots.
There are Win32 APIs that let you restart the machine, although sometimes you need to get a particular token to allow this to happen.
/**********************************
Paul Evans, Dorset, UK.
**********************************/
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but why restart the *whole* computer? why not just shutdown the service that is the problem, do the installation, and then restart the service?
--
Raoul Snyman
Saturn Laboratories
e-mail: raoul.snyman@saturnlaboratories.co.za
web: http://www.saturnlaboratories.co.za/
linux user: #333298
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raouls wrote:
why not just shutdown the service that is the problem, do the installation, and then restart the service?
In my opinion, it might be the relationship between each services. As far as I know, the service in windows are integrate and depend on each other (very complicate). So it is better to restart the whole computer in order to made everything is fresh.
A thousand mile of journey, begin with the first step.
APO-CEDC
Save Children Norway-Cambodia Office
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