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Well Login...you were spot on with your above post.??But it wasn't a memory stick that was the apparent culprit. I dropped off my computer with one of our IT staff and got a call a few hours later telling me my pc was up and running.??I was shocked. It was a firewire card!?!??I didn't even know my computer had one and not too sure why.??I've never used it.??But when it was removed, my system booted up.??Maybe I sprayed it and fried it???I don't recall. Step #1 - Wait a couple of weeks to be sure my system is stable. Step #2 - Buy a laptop (never had one) sometime later this winter or early spring with Window 7 and start getting real familiar with it. Step #3 - Replace this desktop in a year or two with a new, high-end unit (maybe).?? Question: When I was trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer a few days ago, I removed the heat sink and processor.??How necessary is it for me to put a fresh dab of thermal compound between those two parts???I have not done that, and some web sites have said do it, and others have said it's not necessary to reapply it.

Thanks, Nodles. I appreciate the offer and the recommendations.

I learn pretty quickly, and I like the idea of building my own, but would want to partner with someone who knows what they're doing so I could be tutored during the process and mitigate the possibility of making some costly mistakes. Unfortunately, I don't have any close relatives/friends who are computer-skilled that can help. Assuming my pc is toast (and I'll have confirmation tomorrow when our IT folks at work take a look at it), my plan is to get a new one and keep the old one for tinkering. Any suggestions regarding what to get on the new pc? That may be too vague of a question. I use my pc for multimedia stuff. Not much of a gamer. But, in general, I'm inclined to buy a system with features that may be more than I currently need.

Tried that tonight, no luck. A guy from our IT department at work offered to take a look at my pc tomorrow. Unless he tells me the fix is cheap and easy, it looks like it's time for a new desktop. If that's the case, I know a local small business that builds and sells computers. Would you recommend that route...or go with one of the major brands? I like to do multimedia stuff with my computer...such as create dvd's for the kids, cd's, etc.

I ended 2011 on a bad note. New Year's Eve I decided to clean the inside of my 6 year old IBM/Lenovo desktop. It has been a great friend (computer lovers will relate to that statement) and a solid workhorse for me. I learned computing on it and have used it a lot for multimedia projects for my kids. I knew a cleaning was necessary for three reasons: 1. I have never cleaned the inside before now, 2. About two weeks ago I began hearing a sound like a bearing in a fan was going bad, and 3. The monitor was blanking out every few days. Regarding (3), when the monitor would blank out, I would still have audio. I don't know much about the inside workings of a pc, but I figured the fan on the video card could be going bad, thereby overheating the video card and blanking out the monitor. When I opened up the casing, there was plenty of dust and sure enough, it was the video card fan that was making the noise. I cleaned everything out with compressed air and took apart the video card fan and carefully gave it some oil. When I reinstalled it and powered up the computer, it booted just fine and the video card fan purred like a kitten. Job well done, I thought. Then I did something stupid. Just before closing up the pc, I decided to give the insides one last quick shot of air...while the pc was still powered up and running. Immediately after doing that, the monitor screen froze. And after a hard shut down and attempted reboot, nothing happened except the cpu fan began to spin insanely fast. There was no video and no typical reboot sounds like I know I should hear after 6 years. I made a rescue CD a couple of years ago and tried using that, but no joy. My best guess is that I fried the motherboard and/or CPU with that last burst of compressed air while the system was powered up. There are some diagnostic lights on the casing of the unit and they are indicating likewise. If there's any good news in this, it's that I faithfully backup, so copies of all my folders and files are stored on my external drives. In spite of the fact this is an old computer and the OS (XP Pro) is old as well, there are some reasons why I'd like to explore my options in getting it fixed if it is not outrageous cost-wise to do so and if I don't have major problems to overcome related to installing a new mobo or processor. I googled the model of my IBM/Lenovo and saw places selling the OEM motherboard for ~$150 and the cpu for ~$75. So here are my questions; I'd welcome your opinions and comments: > Regarding the mobo and the cpu, how does one know which to replace? Is it better to just replace both? > I'm tempted to try to do the job myself. But my confidence has taken quite a hit since I screwed things up pretty well just trying to clean it. How simple/complicated is this job for someone who's never done it before? > What sort of complications are there if I replace the mobo and cpu? For example, would Windows need to be reinstalled? If not, would I still lose some or all of my settings? Does using OEM mobo and cpu parts reduce the complications? Thanks in advance. Chris

I noticed this post recently on Sandboxie's forum. It doesn't mention problems with IE specifically, but the system hang issue is there. Note that the poster is running Sandboxie version 3.6.2, so the problem doesn't appear to be due to having an older version on your system.

For Sandboxie users, the latest version (3.62) is now available. From what I've read, it looks like this newest version consists of primarily bug fixes and compatibility improvements.

Thanks for suggesting Google Chrome. I tried out the portable version and it's faster than FF on this old laptop. YouTube video's play smoothly in IE8 and GC. Pretty jerky, though, with FF. So it looks like I'm settling on the combination of Panda Cloud for the AV, Sandboxie for additional browser protection, IE8 and GC. Actually, after the reformat and subsequent installation of drivers, service packs, Windows updates, and Office 2007, this old laptop doesn't perform too terribly badly. I plan on returning it to my friend this weekend.

I'm making pretty good progress. Got all of the drivers installed, I think. The last one pertained to the touchpad. It wasn't behaving well. Then I realized I hadn't installed a driver for that. So found it on Dell's web site and it seems much more stable now. Cleanmem was one of the first apps I installed, but thanks for the suggestion. I could have easily overlooked it. I've got it set to run every 10 minutes. I'll let my friend decide whether he wants to put more ram in this thing. Physically, it's been pretty banged up; it looks like it's been through a lot. Panda Cloud continues to run very silently, along with Sandboxie. I put IE8 on this, along with FF 7.0.1. I'm a bit surprised that IE is snappier on this machine than FF. Anyway, it's been kind of fun rebuilding this old laptop.

My friend said he wanted the least annoying/complicated/difficult-to-use AV possible. So based on his request, I focused on Microsoft Security Essentials and Panda Cloud. I installed MSE last night on the laptop and ran into trouble. For whatever reasons, CPU usage frequently kept spiking to 100% and dragging the system. According to Task Manager, a process called MsMpEng.exe was the culprit. I googled that and saw a few things to try to alleviate the problem, but they didn't work. So I uninstalled MSE and tried Panda Cloud. Aside from doubling the start up time from a cold boot (2 minutes versus about 50 seconds), Panda Cloud is practically non-existent on the machine. The interface is very simple (much like MSE). So, I plan on giving that a thumbs-up for now. Thanks again for everyone's input.

There is a bit of a learning curve, but reading through the tutorial helped me. It has saved my backside a few times, so I'm pretty pleased with it. It packs quite a punch considering how lightweight it is.

Almost got all 100+ Windows Updates downloaded and installed. Man, this is slow work. Andavari, I'm not familiar with Panda Cloud. I plan on doing some reading about it. The laptop has 512 mb ram, and somewhere around 50 gb hard drive (don't remember exactly right now, but I think that's close). The owner of this laptop wants something that runs quietly and is low maintenance.

"...that a personal license means you can use it on all computers you own for life." ^^ That's a great deal imo and a reason why I bought a license a couple of years ago. Thanks for the heads up about the new version.

Thanks for the opinions regarding anti-virus options. Sandboxie is a definite. I'll create a sandboxie desktop link so the browser will automatically open sandboxed. I don't have personal experience with any of the free AV's. I think it will come down to giving some a trial run.

Keeping my fingers crossed...but I may have successfully added all the missing drivers. Device Manager now shows all devices functioning properly; that is to say there are no yellow or red problem indicators next to any of the listings. I've still got some rebuilding of this laptop to do. Need to add service pack 3. Maybe an upgrade of IE...although I'm planning on putting FF portable on it instead. Also need to decide on a free AV. It's an older machine with not a lot of horsepower. I'm thinking of MSE along with Sandboxie. Lots of good information in these posts. I do appreciate everyone's input. I'm learning much via your comments and suggestions. Chris.

Thanks guys. Andavari - Your suggestion about the Service Tag is a good one and it's one that I tried. Unfortunately (and oddly) it didn't filter the drivers very much. For example, Dell's Drivers and Downloads web site still showed 12 video drivers to pick from after I entered the Service Tag. That doesn't make sense to me. I assumed entering that tag number would pinpoint the drivers specific to that particular laptop. Oh well... I figured out the correct driver for the wireless card by opening up the covering and looking at the card. So I'm back in business in that regard. My next driver problem to tackle with this laptop is the video card, I think. The words and icons and images on the monitor display are all very tiny. Hardly legible. Super Fast - I'll see if dxdiag provides any insight. And a question: how do you make a driver backup of your hardware?

Live and learn. I volunteered to help a friend reformat his old Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop. He didn’t take care of it particularly well; it had lots of old programs, not fully patched, multiple anti-viruses…all of which were out-of-date, maybe even infected, etc. etc. Even though I have scant experience doing so, I figured the best thing to do was to reformat. That part went well. What didn’t go well was the aftermath, namely, problems with the installed hardware not working (like the wireless card, video card, sound card, usb’s, etc) because, I think, the drivers were lost. When I go to Device Manager, I see a number of devices with big, bright yellow question marks next to them. I’ve been spending time going to Dell’s Drivers and Download website. The biggest challenge is figuring out which drivers to pick from. That process remains ongoing and is a royal pain. If and when I get this laptop fully functional again, I plan on imaging it before giving it back to my pal. But I’m curious: What should I have done to make this “driver” problem easier to deal with? Today I did a bit of searching on the web and saw two small programs that are used to backup drivers and then reinstall them. One of them is Driver Backup and the other is Double Driver. Could it have been as simple as me using one or both of those apps to backup the drivers before reformatting and then using the apps to reinstall the drivers afterwards to avoid this headache? Like I said…live and learn. (PS - I posted this in the Hardware section, but if it belongs in the Software section, please feel free to move it.)

Hi Northerner. You're correct; right clicking the installer icon and selecting delete accomplishes the same purpose as dragging it to the trash bin. If I'm reading through this thread correctly, you downloaded and saved the installer directly to your desktop. So, the icon appearing on your desktop is not just a shortcut to a file (the installer) saved somewhere else on your system. Instead, the installer file itself is saved on your desktop and it is identified by the icon. You can verify this by right clicking on the icon and selecting Properties. If this is just a shortcut icon, then the size will be very small...like a couple of hundred bytes. But if it's the actual installer file, then the size will be larger. Also, at least on Windows XP, shortcut icons have a small arrow in the lower left-hand corner.So assuming this icon in not a shortcut to the installer file, but rather the installer file itself, deleting it will delete the installer file.

Hi Northerner. If Avast has been successfully installed in your system and is running, then you can delete the installer. I usually do this by dragging it to the trash bin. (The installer doesn't appear in add/remove programs.) One other thing to consider regarding security: Imaging or Cloning your system (as mentioned above by kroozer). Actually, I think this is perhaps one of the most important practices to protect the contents of your computer. If your pc ever gets severely infected (or if your hard drive crashes), you can avoid the big hassle of losing your files and/or having to start from scratch. Imaging/cloning makes a mirror copy of the entire contents of your hard drive, including the operating system. There are a number of threads on this forum about this topic. Lots of folks use Macrium Reflect, which is highly regarded; I've been using Clonezilla and have been testing Redo. Neither of those two install anything on your system. Edit - Here's a link to one of several threads about imaging: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=25733&st=0

Using a sandbox with default settings, the above is true. But it's relatively easy to harden the sandbox (I do so for banking) so that the only program with internet access is your browser. And you can also identify in the sandbox which programs have permission to start/run. Any keyloggers that may be in that sandbox are neutered.

Corona, I'm not sure this is what you're referring to...but, if you want a border to appear around the active window, then: Sandboxie Control > right click applicable sandbox > Sandbox Settings > Appearance > click Display a border around the window. More info and details here.

Click here for the download. Click here for the list of changes.

I've missed you, Dennis. Glad you're back. I hope all's well. Chris

^^^ Would you believe I googled "sandboxie for dummies" and got this?

I've been a Sandboxie user for several years now and am very satisfied. There's a bit of a learning curve, but it's not too steep and they have an active forum for those with questions. Plus there are some of us here that use Sandboxie that may offer additional help. I always browse in a sandbox, and use several features in the paid version (such as Forced Folders) as additional, protective steps. For me, Sandboxie is the primary arsenal in staying bug-free. (Since I test new software in sandboxes, it also helps keep my system from getting too cluttered up.) Then I supplement Sandboxie with my AV (Nod32) and SuperAntispyware. I'm not saying this set-up is perfect, but it's been very effective.