OT I am in PC h*ll. :-(

CATherine wrote:

I will try to keep up with the reading al;though I have already lost a few
messages through time limits.

Purrs that you get your mousie back soon!

--
Marina, Frank and Nikki
marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

CATherine wrote:
For several weeks my pc has been acting up. For no reason at random
times the screen would go black and it would automatically re-boot
and do scan-disk. It kept getting more and more frequent. At first my
son said it is just a Bill Gates glitch. But he finally had his movie
down-loads interrupted (we are net-worked with my modem doing the
work) one too many times. So he started trouble-shooting. he couldn't
figure it out. Except moving the mouse sets it off. But it will
sometimes do it when the mouse is dis-connected.

(snippage)
CATherine

Frankly, I doubt this is the fault of your opsys, Millenium or otherwise.
Windows doesn't suddenly decide to reboot your machine or not recognize your
mouse. I'm not a hardware tech but it sounds to me like a problem with the
motherboard or some other internal component. Still, I understand your
frustration and it's a wise plan to get your photos and other things off the
machine before it decides to die completely, rather than sporadically.

Computer Purrs,

Jill

CATherine wrote:
For several weeks my pc has been acting up. For no reason at random
times the screen would go black and it would automatically re-boot
and do scan-disk. It kept getting more and more frequent. At first my
son said it is just a Bill Gates glitch. But he finally had his movie
down-loads interrupted (we are net-worked with my modem doing the
work) one too many times. So he started trouble-shooting. he couldn't
figure it out. Except moving the mouse sets it off. But it will
sometimes do it when the mouse is dis-connected.

(snippage)
CATherine

Frankly, I doubt this is the fault of your opsys, Millenium or otherwise.
Windows doesn't suddenly decide to reboot your machine or not recognize your
mouse. I'm not a hardware tech but it sounds to me like a problem with the
motherboard or some other internal component. Still, I understand your
frustration and it's a wise plan to get your photos and other things off the
machine before it decides to die completely, rather than sporadically.

Computer Purrs,

Jill

On 10 Nov 2004 03:53:52 GMT, "CATherine"
wrote:

For several weeks my pc has been acting up. For no reason at random times
the screen would go black and it would automatically re-boot and do
scan-disk. It kept getting more and more frequent. At first my son said it
is just a Bill Gates glitch. But he finally had his movie down-loads
interrupted (we are net-worked with my modem doing the work) one too many
times. So he started trouble-shooting. he couldn't figure it out. Except
moving the mouse sets it off. But it will sometimes do it when the mouse is
dis-connected.
snip

Hardware issues are likely, but it is also highly probable that you
have so much adware and spyware that the machine is highly unstable.

There are a couple of free cleaner utilities that we use: Ad-Aware and
Spybot - neither is perfect but they complement each other and will
almost always clean up the machine, though it may take several passes
with both. http://www.lavasoftusa.com/, click on "Ad-Aware
Personal"; http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html, click on "Spybot
S&D".



T.E.D. )
SPAM filter: Messages to this address *must* contain "T.E.D."
somewhere in the body or they will be automatically rejected.

On 10 Nov 2004 03:53:52 GMT, "CATherine"
wrote:

For several weeks my pc has been acting up. For no reason at random times
the screen would go black and it would automatically re-boot and do
scan-disk. It kept getting more and more frequent. At first my son said it
is just a Bill Gates glitch. But he finally had his movie down-loads
interrupted (we are net-worked with my modem doing the work) one too many
times. So he started trouble-shooting. he couldn't figure it out. Except
moving the mouse sets it off. But it will sometimes do it when the mouse is
dis-connected.
snip

Hardware issues are likely, but it is also highly probable that you
have so much adware and spyware that the machine is highly unstable.

There are a couple of free cleaner utilities that we use: Ad-Aware and
Spybot - neither is perfect but they complement each other and will
almost always clean up the machine, though it may take several passes
with both. http://www.lavasoftusa.com/, click on "Ad-Aware
Personal"; http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html, click on "Spybot
S&D".



T.E.D. )
SPAM filter: Messages to this address *must* contain "T.E.D."
somewhere in the body or they will be automatically rejected.

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
CATherine wrote:
For several weeks my pc has been acting up. For no reason at random
times the screen would go black and it would automatically re-boot
and do scan-disk. It kept getting more and more frequent. At first my
son said it is just a Bill Gates glitch. But he finally had his movie
down-loads interrupted (we are net-worked with my modem doing the
work) one too many times. So he started trouble-shooting. he couldn't
figure it out. Except moving the mouse sets it off. But it will
sometimes do it when the mouse is dis-connected.

(snippage)
CATherine

Frankly, I doubt this is the fault of your opsys, Millenium or otherwise.
Windows doesn't suddenly decide to reboot your machine or not recognize
your
mouse. I'm not a hardware tech but it sounds to me like a problem with
the
motherboard or some other internal component. Still, I understand your
frustration and it's a wise plan to get your photos and other things off
the
machine before it decides to die completely, rather than sporadically.

Computer Purrs,

Jill

Actually, this sounds very much like a virus. I recall reading about a type
that produced exactly those symptoms. Since your PC is hooked up to the
Internet and your son likes to download files, there's a pretty good chance
that you've acquired a virus. You should probably do a Google search on
"virus killer" and pick one of the free ones or whichever one appeals to you
and then use it right away before your PC stops entirely. Good luck!

Once you do rescue your PC, it might be a good idea to buy an external hard
disk drive, then store all your valuable or irreplaceable files on it. That
way, even if your PC dies completely, your precious files won't die right
along with it. The external drive can be unplugged from the dead PC and then
plugged into another one, perhaps the one your son uses. That way your files
are still usable while the original PC is being fixed.

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
CATherine wrote:
For several weeks my pc has been acting up. For no reason at random
times the screen would go black and it would automatically re-boot
and do scan-disk. It kept getting more and more frequent. At first my
son said it is just a Bill Gates glitch. But he finally had his movie
down-loads interrupted (we are net-worked with my modem doing the
work) one too many times. So he started trouble-shooting. he couldn't
figure it out. Except moving the mouse sets it off. But it will
sometimes do it when the mouse is dis-connected.

(snippage)
CATherine

Frankly, I doubt this is the fault of your opsys, Millenium or otherwise.
Windows doesn't suddenly decide to reboot your machine or not recognize
your
mouse. I'm not a hardware tech but it sounds to me like a problem with
the
motherboard or some other internal component. Still, I understand your
frustration and it's a wise plan to get your photos and other things off
the
machine before it decides to die completely, rather than sporadically.

Computer Purrs,

Jill

Actually, this sounds very much like a virus. I recall reading about a type
that produced exactly those symptoms. Since your PC is hooked up to the
Internet and your son likes to download files, there's a pretty good chance
that you've acquired a virus. You should probably do a Google search on
"virus killer" and pick one of the free ones or whichever one appeals to you
and then use it right away before your PC stops entirely. Good luck!

Once you do rescue your PC, it might be a good idea to buy an external hard
disk drive, then store all your valuable or irreplaceable files on it. That
way, even if your PC dies completely, your precious files won't die right
along with it. The external drive can be unplugged from the dead PC and then
plugged into another one, perhaps the one your son uses. That way your files
are still usable while the original PC is being fixed.

CATherine wrote:

For several weeks my pc has been acting up. For no reason at random times
the screen would go black and it would automatically re-boot and do
scan-disk. It kept getting more and more frequent. At first my son said it
is just a Bill Gates glitch. But he finally had his movie down-loads
interrupted (we are net-worked with my modem doing the work) one too many
times. So he started trouble-shooting. he couldn't figure it out. Except
moving the mouse sets it off. But it will sometimes do it when the mouse is
dis-connected.

Sounds to me like you might have a faulty spot in your RAM. If so,
upgrading from Millenium to 98 might not get rid of it. Though it's
still an excellent idea - I don't think Microsoft has ever released an
OS less reliable and more bug-prone than ME (and that's saying an awful
lot!).

Your son might want to see if he can find a freeware or shareware memory
diagnostic tool somewhere to check the RAM.

Dan

CATherine wrote:

For several weeks my pc has been acting up. For no reason at random times
the screen would go black and it would automatically re-boot and do
scan-disk. It kept getting more and more frequent. At first my son said it
is just a Bill Gates glitch. But he finally had his movie down-loads
interrupted (we are net-worked with my modem doing the work) one too many
times. So he started trouble-shooting. he couldn't figure it out. Except
moving the mouse sets it off. But it will sometimes do it when the mouse is
dis-connected.

Sounds to me like you might have a faulty spot in your RAM. If so,
upgrading from Millenium to 98 might not get rid of it. Though it's
still an excellent idea - I don't think Microsoft has ever released an
OS less reliable and more bug-prone than ME (and that's saying an awful
lot!).

Your son might want to see if he can find a freeware or shareware memory
diagnostic tool somewhere to check the RAM.

Dan

Make sure your system is virus free. Run Norton Utilities System
Check to find Disk and Windows problems. Then run Speed Disk to
defragment each drive. (Speed Disk takes a while)

DH is a Computer Systems Engineer, and those are the first things he
does when I hose my system.

-bonbon