Hi, Can anyone help? Think I may have been hit by a virus again! My pc has taken to running in safe mode. Managed to run pc-cillan but it tells there are no viruses. Tried to use system restore but it won't work seems to have not been monitoring the hard drive. Similar thing happened a few months ago and I had to get a new hard drive put it due to a virus! Can't afford that again! Any ideas?? Thanks
purpleprincess - Belfast - Mon Sep 30 18:42 2002
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purpleprincess, have you updated pc-cillin? If not. do so. Also for peace of mind, go to Housecall for a free online scan.
You should never have to install a new hard drive as a result of a virus, a re-install, possibly, but never a new hard drive!

The fact it is running in safe mode suggests a software problem, which is fixable, but it would be very helpful if you could post back which version of Windows you are running.
A couple of other questions
Does it always start in Safe mode or just some of the time?
Have there been any error messages?
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Mon Sep 30 19:00 2002
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Hello Iain, just to say "thanks" for sorting out my problem in removing the AOL logos - I have been away on holiday, hence the delay. I have two other things which are just irritations rather than problems and I wonder if you can help? Quite often when I click on a bookmarked site (I refuse to say "Favorite") I get a message from "auto.search.msn.com" saying "'we' can't find the site" even though I have clicked on it before and it works, and clicking on it again after this message brings the site up. Is there any way of turning off this "interfering busybody"? The other irritation is that now, when I boot up the machine I get the "Dial up Networking" dialogue displayed on the screen and cant do anything else until I close it. Quite often I boot up the machine to do things other than the internet so having this "Microsoft Knows Best" thing is becoming a real irritation. Is there a way of stopping this? I have looked in "Startup" using MSCONFIG but there is nothing there about dialing up as soon as I boot the machine. I am using Windows ME and wish I wasn't! Regards, Chris
Chris - Westgate on Sea - Mon Sep 30 11:02 2002
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First one,
It may be best to recreate the bookmark,
Get to the site (by whatever means), Right click and click Delete
Click Favorites and then Add to Favorites Your ISP might just not be connecting fast enough

With regard to the second problem, Wendy has a similar problem on All other Topics
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Mon Sep 30 13:27 2002
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Hello Iain, thanks for your help. The ISP is a bit slow so perhaps that is why this "search.uk.msn.com" keeps accusing me of mis-spelling the site name. All the same, I would like to get rid of it completely if possible. I tried editing what I thought it was out of the registry but the next time I ran IE it said it was sending a message to Microsoft, and wouldn't run! With regard to my second problem of the "Connect to" window appearing at boot up, your link was unable to help - I had already checked the startup window in MSCONFIG. I want tostop that happening because I have another dial up program, supplied by the ISP, the the two have a conflict. Regards, Chris
chris - Westgate on Sea - Wed Oct 02 15:23 2002
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Hello Iain, thanks for your help. The ISP is a bit slow so perhaps that is why this "search.uk.msn.com" keeps accusing me of mis-spelling the site name. All the same, I would like to get rid of it completely if possible. I tried editing what I thought it was out of the registry but the next time I ran IE it said it was sending a message to Microsoft, and wouldn't run! With regard to my second problem of the "Connect to" window appearing at boot up, your link was unable to help - I had already checked the startup window in MSCONFIG. I want tostop that happening because I have another dial up program, supplied by the ISP, the the two have a conflict. Regards, Chris
chris - Westgate on Sea - Wed Oct 02 15:21 2002
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Please Help I have been using my computer with windows ME, for about 18 months and I have never used the system restore utility to make a checkpoint when installing software.Today I thought I would,but it does not work.After entering a checkpoint name I get system restore is unable to create a restore point, please restart your computer.I have no firewall and I stop the antivirus from running.I have been into system restore properties troubleshooting and no boxes are ticked.If I go into choose a restore point in system restore I get there are currently no restore points available.System restore is set to 1051MB disk space.I hope someone can help me.
Graham - Bognor Regis - Sun Sep 29 08:55 2002
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Graham,
Have a look at M$KB 303354
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sun Sep 29 09:23 2002
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Iain. Thanks for your help. Have read the article Q303354. Have had a go tonight to fix the problem, but when I get to "vxdmon" file it says, in the right pane click on "DelayFirstRstpt" it does not seem to be there.There are ten items in the list.The first one says Default, (Value not set).The second one says First run "N".Any ideas. Many Thanks
graham - Bognor Regis - Tue Oct 01 22:02 2002
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dinnae fret laddie,;)
There is a note just above that regkey NOTE: Your system registry may not contain the following entry. If it does not, try Method 2., So I'm afraid it's back to that M$KB to try method 2
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Tue Oct 01 22:15 2002
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I am having problems with Disk Cleanup and Defragmenting the "C" drive. When trying to do either of these the system locks up. I have gone to msconfig and turned off all apart from Sys Tray and turned off Norton Antivirus and Firewall as I am on Broadband via NTLworld at 128 but still the system lock up and requires CTRL/ALT/DELETE to clear back to desktop. Any help would be appreciated. David
David Miller - London UK - Sat Sep 28 23:43 2002
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David,
Try doing the operations in Safe Mode. Post back with your operating system and we can take it further
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sun Sep 29 09:28 2002
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Thanks Iain. P3,128,20gig,3.5/Cd/DVD/250Zip,Epsom 760,Agfa Snapscan.By Gateway about 2.5 years old. Never had this problem before, only recent change apart from minor software is 2 months ago NTLworld Broadband via cable. Not 100% into safe mode, will need to be led by the hand. Your help appreciated. David UK
David - London UK - Sun Sep 29 11:36 2002
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I'm assuming if it's 2½ years old you are running Windows 98
Restart your computer.
While your computer restarts, press and hold the CTRL key until the Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed.
Select the Safe Mode menu option from the Startup menu, and then press ENTER
Go to Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools and run Disk cleanup and Defragment as you would normally
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sun Sep 29 11:51 2002
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Can anyone help regarding transfering files made and saved some time ago in WINWORD to be able to use them in WORD 2000.
David Miller - London UK - Sun Sep 29 22:58 2002
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As long as they were saved as *.doc or *.txt, Word 2000 will recognise them.
Word 2000 is backword compatible and can recognise all previous versions.
Just copy the files to floppy disk if they are on another computer, and open them on the new computer
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sun Sep 29 23:31 2002
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Iain, Thanks again for your previous help. My wife has a disk with files but these were not saved as *.doc or *.txt but are *.wpd and I think these must be Word Perfect Documents, any ideas as to how to convert them. If opened in Word 2000 the formating is wrong and contains squares as spaces. Regards David
David - London UK - Tue Oct 01 23:21 2002
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They are indeed word perfect documents, David
Go to File | Open
Where it says Files of type, change to WordPerfect 5.0 or WordPerfect 6.0
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Tue Oct 01 23:35 2002
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Thanks Iain, I have opened the files as you suggest but they still come with the blank spaces as square boxes, is there another program to open with that will format correctly? Regards David
David - London UK - Wed Oct 02 18:40 2002
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Only WordPerfect, I'm afraid. Sorry David!!
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Wed Oct 02 18:54 2002
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Thanks for your help. David
David - London UK - Wed Oct 02 22:35 2002
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Thanks for your help all working ok. Regards.
David Miller - London UK - Sun Sep 29 22:55 2002
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hi mate, i had this problem and was told to do it this way. CTRL/ALT/DELETE , close everthing apart from systray and explorer.Then run the defragmenting and disk cleanup.Works fine for me.Hope this helps.Rob
rob hill - peterborough - Sun Sep 29 09:25 2002
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HELP! Can anyone out there tell me how to get a file I think was inadvertently erased. it is a DLL called PNCRT.DLL. This is annoying because that damn box pops up in the middle of the screen. I am with AOL, not sure if this has anything to do with it.Hopefully I can thank someone who solves the problem.
John Mills - London - Sat Sep 28 22:43 2002
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John,
Have a look at M$KB 190898 , or do yourself and your computer the biggest ever favour and uninstall REAL player completely!!
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sat Sep 28 22:56 2002
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Dear Iain, Many thanks for your tip. It seems to work. Why do you suggest removing Real Player? Is it not an integral part of AOL.I am afraid I am not very knowledgable where computers are concerned.
John Mills - London - Sun Sep 29 11:41 2002
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Hmmm, RealPlayer & AOL, what a frightening combination. Possibly, IMHO, the two less than idyllic pieces of software in the History of Software, and no doubt I'm going to get flamed for that.
I have this thing against any software that forces you to use it in order to do things on the Internet.
For instance you can only use AOL mail, through AOL, you can't view it in any other e-mail client. Similarly you can't view a RAM file unless have REAL player.

Because of the poor programming involved with the two and the lack of experienced users to Beta test the programs, (simply because no one wishes to mess up their system), they get progressively worse and not better.

Fortunately, it isn't essential to have both on your system, and as less and less people are using REAL content on their websites, it is almost redundant.
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sun Sep 29 12:03 2002
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Hi there,can any one advice please, This last few days each time I switch on my computer the dial up starts to connect me to my ISP, as I do not always want to connect this is annoying. I prefere to click on my explorer or my dialup icon, have tried to see if I can stop this but no luck at the moment... A second problem I downloaded the revised update as requested for the free Zonealarm which I have had for a year now, since then my Restore Point in ME has stopped working, will work if I make one manually please can any one help... Cheers Jacqueline
Jacqueline - Kirkcaldy - Sat Sep 28 16:24 2002
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Jacqueline,
Wendy has a similar problem on the All Other topics forum board
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sat Sep 28 18:34 2002
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Whoops! somehow my finger must have got hiccups.
keith - oldham - Sat Sep 28 13:08 2002
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Help please. I'll try to be brief. I recently reformatted my hard drive because of a number of corrupt file messages however,I still get them they are mainly files found in the internet connection folder these are Icwx25a,25b,25c and icwip. despite these being marked corrupt,I don't "seem"to be having any problems?. My other problem is that I decided to download IE6 after the format. now,when I click on my harddrive folder and go to disc cleanup I get folders with with titles like 05e24pun etc. the blue band at the top says connect IE5. To see a list of connections I now have to go to windows-local settings-Temp internet file. Can I get the settings back so that I can access the temp internet files from disc cleanup. PS the current folder also stores an index.dat and (hidden) desktop file. Why do I still have this IE5 folder if IE6 has been downloaded correctly?. I am running win98se. Thanks for any help.
keith taylor - oldham - Sat Sep 28 09:51 2002
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Keith,
Icwx is your Internet connection Wizard.
Because you have Win 98, it will automatically install Internet Explorer 5 as default. By installing, IE6 over the top, you are overwriting IE 5, but a number of files are retained, simply because M$ didn't change them, as there was no need to. There is a couple of things try,
Go to Start | Run
copy in the following:

rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Setup\SETUP.EXE" /g "C:\WINDOWS\IE Uninstall Log.Txt"

Which should bring up the Internet Explorer Repair tool. If that doesn't work, try IE5 repair tool :

rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Setup\SETUP.EXE" /g "C:\WINDOWS\IE Uninstall Log.Txt"Come back if neither of those workand, we'll try some desperate measures
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sat Sep 28 10:26 2002
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Well I tried both repair tools although there did,nt seem to be any difference not that they made any difference the only thing that happened after trying the repair command sans luck,I Re-installed the previous explorer IE5. the only thing is,I can't get it to show favicons now can you help. P.S I think I'll stay with IE5 I have'nt been all that impressed with IE6 ANYWAY.Thanks again.
keith - oldham - Sat Sep 28 13:02 2002
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Well I tried both repair tools although there did,nt seem to be any difference not that they made any difference the only thing that happened after trying the repair command sans luck,I Re-installed the previous explorer IE5. the only thing is,I can't get it to show favicons now can you help. P.S I think I'll stay with IE5 I have'nt been all that impressed with IE6 ANYWAY.Thanks again.
keith - oldham - Sat Sep 28 13:02 2002
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Well I tried both repair tools although there did,nt seem to be any difference not that they made any difference the only thing that happened after trying the repair command sans luck,I Re-installed the previous explorer IE5. the only thing is,I can't get it to show favicons now can you help. P.S I think I'll stay with IE5 I have'nt been all that impressed with IE6 ANYWAY.Thanks again.
keith - oldham - Sat Sep 28 12:54 2002
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In your Favorite's Folder, right-click over the bookmark you want to assign a favicon to.
Click Properties
Click Change Icon/b>
Click Browse
Find and select the favicon, possibly in your Temporary Internet File.
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sat Sep 28 23:04 2002
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Thanks again Iain many a drink is owed :-))
Keith - Oldham - Sun Sep 29 18:41 2002
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Welcome back. Thanks for your speedy reply will try your advice.
keith - oldham - Sat Sep 28 11:10 2002
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could anybody tell me how to completly wipe my hard drive im nearly full up and keep removing certain programmes but im only saving a few btyes at a time and will i be able to save some programmes before i clear the hard drive im on windows me thanks
mifa 85 - wigan - Thu Sep 26 20:49 2002
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That is one seriously drastic way of cleaning out your disk, if I may say so!
Maybe it is time to have a look at what you are installing. If it is games etc, never choose to install the full option, it may say that your gameplay is quicker, which may be true if you are running an older machine, but totally unnecessary with a newer machine, just make sure your cd is in the drive

Add/Remove in ME in the Control Panel displays the programs installed on the computer, when they were last accessed and how often they are used. Check which ones are rarely used and uninstall them. Be careful, somethings appear to unused like AV softaware.

What size hard drive have you installed? Anything under 6GB for ME is unfortunately too small! I know, how did we all manage before? Well, for a start, programs were simpler and smaller. Not anymore.
Microsoft Office, for example, has grown from 125Mb for Office 95, 250Mb for Office 97, 370mb for 2000, and to 484Mb for Office Xp.

If you do decide to go down Joe's route, Make sure that you have All the necessary CDs to hand, Windows, Drivers, etc and product keys, and ESPECIALLY a boot disk with cd rom support. Any program setups that you have downloaded from the net, can be saved to CD-rw.

There are ways of being able to transfer programs to disk, but at £50, to be quite honest, I am not sure are worth it.

What WOULD be a better investment would be to purchase either PowerQue st Drive Image or Norton Ghost. Once you have reinstalled everything to a MINIMUM that you want, drivers, games,software, etc, copy an image of the Hard drive to CD, so that if this happens in the future, it will only take 25 minutes to do rather than 4 hours to re-install everything

However to format a hard drive, this is the procedure to follow:

***Please be warned this is irreversible***

Restart your computer with the Startup disk in the floppy disk drive.
NOTE:
a.) If you are using a Windows 95 Startup disk, a command prompt is displayed and you can skip the second step
b.) If you are using a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or Windows Me Startup disk, select the Start computer without CD-ROM support menu option when the Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed.

When a command prompt is displayed, type format c: , and then press ENTER. This command transfers the system files and should only be used when you format drive C (or your "active" drive). For all other partitions, type format drive: (where drive is the letter of the partition that you want to format).

When you successfully run the Format.com tool, you receive the following message:
WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format?
Press Y, and then press ENTER to format drive C.

After the format procedure is finished, you receive the following message:
Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?
*NOTE:**
This is an optional feature that you can use to type a name for the drive. You can either type an 11-character name for the drive, or you can leave it blank by pressing ENTER.

Reboot.
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Fri Sep 27 09:11 2002
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I understand there is a restore facility in Windows ME.

I have Windows 95 myself and normally use FDisk when the clutter becomes overwhelming.

Either way you will loose eveything you have installed after the date you revert to or in my own case everything. Backup anything you wish to retain on a removable disk first.
Joe - London. - Fri Sep 27 01:13 2002
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I agree with you Iain, Fdisk is a last resort option when you have a lot of time but what about the restore facility in ME. Is there one and is that also too drastic?
Joe - London. - Fri Sep 27 12:04 2002
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There is, Joe, but it is really only a little bit more than a registry back up. So, for instance, if you install a program, it will take a "snapshot" of the registry. It is designed more for if an installation goes horribly wrong rather than un-installation of multiple programs.
The main concern for me personaly would the length of time between primary installation of the Operating system and the present time, and the volume of programs installed. I would be more tempted to follow your route than rely on system restore!
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Fri Sep 27 13:02 2002
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Thanks for that confirmation Iain. I have the free version of Winclean which is quite a good snapshot alternative

As you know I'm hoping to replace my aged system shortly and whilst we are discussing this subject I would be grateful if you would clarify a couple more questions for me:-

I understand with the XP Home Edition the restore facility is the only fall back you have, (No disk provided ostensibly to prevent piracy and tough if the Hard Disk should need replacing) whereas with the XP Pro edition you are still provided with a disk but are required to seek Microsoft's permission before each re-install.

I also understand that XP is written in NTFS and is not Dos based like earlier operating systems. Is this an easier language and is there an Fdisk equivalent?
Hope you don't mind too much my trying to pick your brains but it's really great to have unbiased reliable expert clarification of these questions before spending a lot of money.
Joe - London - Fri Sep 27 15:41 2002
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Evening Joe,as you are well aware I'm no expert but your Q on XP home discs made me jump in whilst Iain is having breather. When I bought my system in March it came with a System/Driver CD,includes drivers for Motherboards,Display Cards etc. However there is also a Reload available to me for £60 to restore the software to it's 'out of box' condition,should things get iffy. Good luck and over to Iain.
George - Choppington - Fri Sep 27 20:07 2002
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Joe and George,
Most INDEPENDENT computer makers worth their salt normally provide the Operating System as an added extra. This allows the user to choose which system they prefer.
Try and find a GOOD local independent shop, because if things go wrong , they are a darn sight more likely to help you out, and you are more likely to get a system YOU need, rather than one that they would like to sell
Basically that means anywhere other than pcworld ;^)

If you can't find anywhere locally, then I recommend Watford Electronics' Aries Systems as value for money and good prompt service ( and before anyone asks, no I do NOT have any connection with them, just a satisfied customer)

Also, you should, alongside the driver disks and (maybe) SOME program disks, be provided with a copy of the OEM Windows Disks, usually accompanied with a sticker, which acts as a certificate of authenticity (I exclude Packard Bell HP and Compaq, simply because they work in bulk provide what are known as "Recovery Disks")

XP can be installed as a FAT32 system, just as Windows 95 OSR2, 98 and ME are, or as NTFS as NT or 2000. It is up to you which file system you choose. But remember to specify that to whoever installs teh operating system

If you want your system to access your files quickly, then FAT32 is the way to go.
If you want security, then NTFS is the file system of choice.
Personally, I find NTFS too slow, and use FAT32 even on our Office network. The security implications, in my view, pale into insignificance in comparison with these same speed issue.

Microsoft have cunningly tried to steer us mugs away from good old DOS. They tell us that DOS is dead and buried. In a way it is true. To access DOS , you will need to use a DOS emulation program. Though, to be honest, I can't understand why anyone would want to use DOS for much anyway.

Because newer systems are a lot more advanced than days gone by, XP is installed directly from the CD
Using the BIOS, one can boot DIRECTLY from the CD Drive and FDisk is done via the CD drive as well

George, your Reload program sounds suspiciously like Drive Image or Ghost which I mentioned (and linked to above), which at £38 is considerably cheaper and very easy to use

I have finished rambling now,but I hope this helps
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Fri Sep 27 21:19 2002
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Iain,have taken all you've said above on board with pleasure.For the record,I quote from the manual,"Reload CD is designed especially for the new and inexperienced user,extremely easy to use and will fix most software porblems in minutes".Does that confirm your suspicions in your last paragraph ?.
George - Choppington - Fri Sep 27 23:45 2002
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Hello Iain and George,

Thanks once again for all the information and Iain you just ramble on as much as you like it suits me fine. Seriously though you are very good to share your knowledge and expertise with us like this and also extremely generous with your time.

I'm quite sure all the subscribers appreciate it, I know I certainly do.

Joe - London. - Sat Sep 28 01:01 2002
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I'll second that Joe.
George - Choppington - Sat Sep 28 16:15 2002
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Thank you, gentlemen, but I am just an enthusiastic amateur in comparison. Even in the world of Geekdom, there are those who stand head and shoulders above the rest. Doug Knox, James Eshelman and Jim Bailey (aka reghakr)would have to be in my list of REAL experts
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Sat Sep 28 23:29 2002
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Hi Iain!done what u said but when I go to HKEY_CURRENT-USER in the right pane I get Default and cant rename.HELP
wendell - Thu Sep 26 17:36 2002
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We seem to have lost the thread! Let's start again
Open Regedit

Left Pane, find:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWA RE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Uninstall\{90280409-6000-11D3-8CFE-005004 8383C9}

In the Right Pane
Change the value of RegCompany and RegOwner to the required registered company and user names by double clicking each in turn and changing the Value Name to the one required

Also in the Left Pane, find:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Softwar e\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common

I n the Right Pane
Rename the sub-key called UserInfo to OldUserInfo, by rightclicking it and clicking b>Rename

You may need to expand the key by clicking the + sign
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Thu Sep 26 18:58 2002
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hi i have doweloaded some updates from windows and now when i boot up i get this error starting program THE IGFXRAY.EXE file is linked to missing HCCUTILS.DLL.ISDISPLAYVALID how do i get rid of this ty phil
phil - leeds - Thu Sep 26 17:10 2002
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Go to the Intel website and download the latest graphics controller
Iain Wolstencroft - Accrington - Thu Sep 26 18:30 2002

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