Computer Problems

potatoflinger · Sat Sep 01, 2007 8:59 pm

I've been having some computer problems lately, my computer has been changing things by itself, like the appearance. The computer changes the appearance from media center to windows classic. Another thing it does is it says that the sound device is broken, but the computer still makes some sounds. Does anyone have any clue what the problem might be? Any help would be very much appreciated.

Marco321 · Sat Sep 01, 2007 9:25 pm

Maybe a virus?
Try reformatting

Get a Mac.... Joke

EDIT: Try uninstalling any odd looking programs you didn't install, which might by bad for your computer such as spyware malware. Also try uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them

paaiyan · Sat Sep 01, 2007 9:57 pm

Download Spy-Bot and Ad-Aware. Reboot in safe mode and run them both. Then go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs and delete anything that you don't need or looks suspicious. Go to Microsoft Update and see if ther are any critical updates you need to download. If those things don't work, try using system restore to go back to a time when your computer still worked properly. If that was a long time ago you might just want to take it to some professionals and see if they can clean it off. If you live in the states, don't take it to Geek Squad.

EDIT: Also, go to Control Panel > System > find the hardware list and find your sound controller on it. Try updating the driver on it, and if that doesn't work, roll it back if you can.

potatoflinger · Sat Sep 01, 2007 9:59 pm

My dad said that there is another administrator on the computer, me, my sister and my mother have accounts, and my dad is the administrator, but he said that there is another administrator (something .net). Could that be the problem?
Edit: The computer has antivirus software and spybot.

paaiyan · Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:01 pm

Uh, I don't think so, but possibly. Find out what the name is and I'll see if I can find out.

potatoflinger · Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:08 pm

paaiyan wrote:Uh, I don't think so, but possibly. Find out what the name is and I'll see if I can find out.

I'll try to find out but my sister is using the computer right now (addicted to facebook) so it will probably be tomorrow. ( I'm using my psp)

paaiyan · Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:09 pm

I see. Yea you can PM me so I'll know just in case the topic drops out of the recents. You might also PM Pete Zaria, he's a computer genius.

Check out my YouTube SpudGun Channel! · Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:12 pm

Two Words.

Pete Zaria.

paaiyan · Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:15 pm

Haha, MrC agrees. PM Pete, I know some basic things and a few moderately advanced things to clear up problems, but he can get more in-depth for you.

potatoflinger · Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:17 pm

Alright, I'll do it tomorrow, when I can get on the computer.

sergeantspud2 · Sat Sep 01, 2007 11:31 pm

I have the extra administrator as well. I didn't create it either I think while installing one of my microsoft programs it created "ASP.NET Machine A" as an administrator account. I forget why it is there but I know that it is helps to run some programs.

-BIGBEAR- · Sun Sep 02, 2007 8:28 am

i had that exact problem but it doesnt happen anymore i got around the sound problem by just opening up the volume control as soon as i could after logging on, then even if the appearance changed i wouldnt lose sound

potatoflinger · Sun Sep 02, 2007 11:27 am

-BIGBEAR- wrote:i had that exact problem but it doesnt happen anymore i got around the sound problem by just opening up the volume control as soon as i could after logging on, then even if the appearance changed i wouldnt lose sound

Could you explain how you fixed it a little more in depth?

singularity · Sun Sep 02, 2007 3:21 pm

the extra administrator is normal im pretty sure its linked to system restore or safe mode something like that, ive used it a few time to fix my comp after fatal errors. i have built and maintained many computers, i found the easiest (and least time consuming) thing to do when things get really messed up is to reformat. a lot of the time it seems as thought the crapware computer manufactures put on their computer (no names mentioned *cough* dell and hp *cough*) seem to cause these problems. i suggest reformatting because manually sifting through all the possible problems takes a long time and in the end you end up having to reformat anyway (well most of the time unless it involves updating drivers or something). but before you reformat run to best buy and buy one of those like 250gb external hard drives and copy all important documents/videos/pics to it, or just burn them to cds and dvds.

Fnord · Sun Sep 02, 2007 4:28 pm

Alright, I guess I'll help.
First of all, I can think of no reason why your windows install would suddenly decide to change its appearence if you don't have some type of trojan messing around.

Download Hijack this and post the list it gives you here. That might give me an idea of what is giving you problems.

It is also a good idea to run spybot and adaware regularly, and get a better firewall than the windows one.
Comodo and zonealarm are two good firewalls. Comodo seems to be a bit more user friendly if you are just starting out.
Get something like AVG or Avast antivirus and run/update them occasionally (once a week?).