[Unknown Target]

Hi all, I need some help with my comp. A couple days ago, threeimportant programs stopped working, Notepad, Media Player, and Internet Explorer.

I tried reinstalling the two latter, but that didn't work. Also, any new downloaded video files, such as animations, etc, don't play in Media player (says it doesn't support the format and/or it's corrupt), or in my recently upgraded Winamp 5.

Notepad just plain didn't work, however, I downloaded a replacement EXE, and now can open notepad and open any old files I made, however, when  I double-click .txt files, they don't open, I have to pen notepad FIRST, and the same with any new files I create.

Internet Explorer I just plain couldn't fix, I was getting random 30 second freezes or so, especially when it was running. However, I uninstalled that and switched to Firefox, so that problem is sort of solved. However, how can I get Firefox to load pages faster?


Anyway, any help with these problems would be much appreciated.

[Flipside]

Hmmmmm.... well the first thing I'd recommend is to do a virus scan at Microtrend or the like. If that doesn't work, you might try putting your Windows disc into your CD rom, and Run sfc.exe from the command line. That'll check your system files compared to what is on the Windows CD and replace any damaged ones. It 'might' be a bit risky, I've never had trouble with doing it, but I've heard stories.....

[Fury]

If I were you, I would scan the 'puter for viruses and malware. And then maybe reinstall Windows since you don't know how badly ****ed up it is if you're having all those problems.

[TopAce]

Virus, maybe?

[Unknown Target]

Scanned for viruses and spyware with Norton Antivirus and Ad-Aware (both had the latest updates).

And for some reason I can't enable auto-protect for Norton, and it's been like that from day one.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Unknown Target
Hi all, I need some help with my comp. A couple days ago, threeimportant programs stopped working, Notepad, Media Player, and Internet Explorer.

Notepad just plain didn't work, however, I downloaded a replacement EXE, and now can open notepad and open any old files I made, however, when  I double-click .txt files, they don't open, I have to pen notepad FIRST, and the same with any new files I create.

[color=66ff00]Ok I don't want to sound overly critical here and I especially don't want to tell you that you should run software that you probably aren't comfortable with but it's the best thing to do.

Internet explorer is your first problem, not only is it receptive as all heck to exploits it just plain isn't as good as firefox. Run Firefox.

Media player. Version 9? If so, what are you thinking? Resource hog, unfriendly interface, also quite exploitable, hard to remove. Winamp 2.91 is the way to go. It's free, has a miniscule footprint and takes up little memory. It'll handle just about any media file that you can throw at it.

As for reinstalling notepad; it's probably a filetype issue, as you know windows keeps a record of all of the filetypes and their associated programs, it's why you can right click a bitmap and choose edit and it will open it in a different program than if you chose view. Common sense says that simply replacing notepad should fix it but often it will not.

I recommend you virus scan, backup everything important and format. What OS do you run BTW and do you have a firewall?
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[Flipside]

I'd suggest try the sfc.exe option first, as long as you've backed up, what have you got to lose?

Oh, and go to Microtrend.com, I stopped using Norton because it refused to deal with about four problems that Microtrend dealt with in a matter of seconds.

[Unknown Target]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

Internet explorer is your first problem, not only is it receptive as all heck to exploits it just plain isn't as good as firefox. Run Firefox.

Did you read my post? I'm running Firefox right now. IE isn't even on my machine.

Media player. Version 9? If so, what are you thinking? Resource hog, unfriendly interface, also quite exploitable, hard to remove. Winamp 2.91 is the way to go. It's free, has a miniscule footprint and takes up little memory. It'll handle just about any media file that you can throw at it.

MP9 has more file compatability, and I'm running Winamp 5 because it can handle more skins and file types. Also, Winamp 5 had trouble with the same files.

As for reinstalling notepad; it's probably a filetype issue, as you know windows keeps a record of all of the filetypes and their associated programs, it's why you can right click a bitmap and choose edit and it will open it in a different program than if you chose view. Common sense says that simply replacing notepad should fix it but often it will not.

I replaced notepad and redid it's file associations. No luck.

I recommend you virus scan, backup everything important and format. What OS do you run BTW and do you have a firewall?
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I'm running XP, sans firewall. I trried one, but it actually caused my machine so much trouble it was almost unusable, so I removed it.

And about backing up and reformatting: I have a lot of stuff on the comp that I don't know where to get again, I'd prefer to avoid reformatting if at all possible. (And I do mean A LOT, so  I'd run out of CDs before I'd run out of files.)

[Fury]

Never heard of partitioning your hard drive?

[Flipside]

Have you tried just re-installing Windows over the top of itself?

[Unknown Target]

Originally posted by Flipside
Have you tried just re-installing Windows over the top of itself?

Would still have to reinstall all the programs to get Windows to register them again

EDIT: On a side note, it looks like those lock-up problems are gone now that I'm using Firefox.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Unknown Target


Did you read my post? I'm running Firefox right now. IE isn't even on my machine.

[color=66ff00]Then why do you think that IE is important? I'm running 2K with no IE installed at all (remove the install entry) contrary to M$'s claims windows runs rather well without it.
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MP9 has more file compatability, and I'm running Winamp 5 because it can handle more skins and file types. Also, Winamp 5 had trouble with the same files.

[color=66ff00]I can't vouch for winamp 5 but have heard it's a system hog too. Winamp 2.91 has handled every single file I've ever thrown at it when the right codecs were installed and if you need to see skins then it's got a rather large library of them.
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I'm running XP, sans firewall. I trried one, but it actually caused my machine so much trouble it was almost unusable, so I removed it.

And about backing up and reformatting: I have a lot of stuff on the comp that I don't know where to get again, I'd prefer to avoid reformatting if at all possible. (And I do mean A LOT, so  I'd run out of CDs before I'd run out of files.)

[color=66ff00]A firewall is a necessary evil of the times, an unpatched copy of winxp will pretty much be attacked straight away as soon as you connect to the net, there are a few good firewalls, zone alarm is quite good and easy to use as it sets up firewall rules on a per program basis unlike others that just blanket block ports.

Also I'd have to say that formatting is also a necessary evil of running windows, I do it every six months, some people do it more often. Windows seems to accumulate problems and formatting gives you a blank slate to work from. BTW your windows root partition should never be the same partiton (and ideally never the same drive) as all the stuff that's important to you. That way you can format your entire windows partiton without harming any of the stuff you've saved.
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[TopAce]

It is all Windows' fault!

[Kamikaze]

If you're willing to make the change, there're some good alternative multimedia programs.

Mplayer
VLC Media Player

I'm not sure how good the Windows ports are for either software, but I use Mplayer on Linux. So far I've not had any problem viewing wmv files, real player stuff, quicktime, whatever the heck I throw at it.

Here's a list of supported formats:
    *  (S)VCD (Super Video CD)
    * CDRwin's .bin image file
    * DVD, including encrypted DVD
    * MPEG1/2 (ES/PS/PES/VOB)
    * RIFF AVI file format
    * ASF/WMV/WMA format
    * QT/MOV/MP4 format
    * RealAudio/RealVideo format
    * OGG/OGM files
    * VIVO format
    * FLI format
    * NuppelVideo format
    * yuv4mpeg format
    * FILM (.cpk) format
    * RoQ format
    * PVA format
    * Matroska
    * NSV - Nullsoft Streaming Video
    * streaming via http, RTP, RTSP, mms, mmst, mpst, sdp
    * TV

You can also probably find a good notepad alternative somewhere.

[Unknown Target]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

[color=66ff00]Then why do you think that IE is important? I'm running 2K with no IE installed at all (remove the install entry) contrary to M$'s claims windows runs rather well without it.
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I'm saying IE was causing the problems. And anyway, Winamp 3 was the worst, but Winamp 5 isn't that bad. I used to use Winamp 2.91 as well for playing music files, but Winamp 2 can't play video like Winamp 5 (Winamp 3 can, but it sucks).

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]I'm not following you UT, what way can Winamp 2 not play video's that winamp 5 can? Haven't used 5 as I said before.

As for IE causing the problems, take a look at this: http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6268-1042651.html
Should apply to XP too.
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[Unknown Target]

When I used Winamp 2.91, it was unable to play any video files. You mean yours can? Do you have any plugins installed?

And thanks for the link, too.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Oh yeah man, every type of video barring some quicktime and realplayer vids and that's due to me not configuring the codecs as I don't really use either of those formats.

Winamp 2 is my divx player. Hell you can even make it play DVD's if you install the VOB codec.

Get the Kazaa lite codec pack (uninstall all other codecs first though otherwise you get a right mess).
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[Kosh]

Originally posted by Unknown Target



Would still have to reinstall all the programs to get Windows to register them again

EDIT: On a side note, it looks like those lock-up problems are gone now that I'm using Firefox.

Just backup your registry and once you reinstall, just import your backup registry. It should work. If anyone doesn't think it will work, now would be a good time to tell us.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]It's generally ill advised, registry tends to build up detritus over time. Have you ever had a scan through and seen all the stuff that you thought you'd uninstalled?

Like Hicks would say: 'I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit; it's the only way to be sure'. i.e. format.
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