Computer Issues

[barrett 0]

Not on the same topic , but just curious if there is anything that can be done to resolve my issue. On my macbook whenever im one face book and recieve a msg on facebook chat it freezes everything up temporarily

Which browser are you using?

I use mozilla firefox

[lotus 2]

It's not as secure as you think. Hackers just don't care about macs when they get 9 times as much bang for their buck by writing stuff for windows.

I love it when people say to buy a Mac to fix your computer woes. In reality, they are only creating problems for themselves by recommending this as a fix to everyone. The more people that own Macs, the more malicious content will be developed for it.

Any ideas how to get a Macbook Pro to see an external hard drive that is attached?

Everything was fine yesterday, although I let the battery completely run out since their literature suggested that was better than a series of partial charges. However, iTunes had been connected to the source of music on the external HD, which caused problems when the laptop ran out of juice. I returned to find a "Next time, disconnect the USB device properly" message, restarted the machine (which usually works) three or four times, but it still isn't seeing that an external HD is connected.

It's possible the HD was fried during the last shut down, although I doubt it, so any ideas how to force the computer into looking got it?

Have you tested it on another computer?

Not on the same topic , but just curious if there is anything that can be done to resolve my issue. On my macbook whenever im one face book and recieve a msg on facebook chat it freezes everything up temporarily

Which browser are you using?

I use mozilla firefox

This only happens with facebook chat messages? Have you tried it out in Safari to see if it happens there too? Basic troubleshooting provides more details for people to help you with :)

only use google chrome, other browsers are disease ridden. chrome does a great virus scan. Ive had it for a year and my computer hasn't gone boom yet.

I also use Chrome but I do not use it for security purposes. Chrome actually fails pretty hard at security. What it excels at is speed, it's simply blazing fast.

I've seen plenty of tests that show IE8 as being far superior to Chrome in terms of security. Better than a lot of other browsers too in that regard, it's just slow.

To PC users, the best 1-2 punch you can have in my opinion is NOD32 to scan real time, running in the background (either the security suite or the antivirus standalone). It has very low performance impact and does a good job of catching most stuff. And then you have Malwarebytes to be used as an 'on demand' scanner. Run it every so often and it will get whatever somehow found a way through NOD32.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Bumping the Computer thread with a new question.

I have a brand new Western Digital 320G HD...but I have no spot for it in my machine...so I bought one of those External Drive enclosures. When I plugged it all in, the computer saw it...and it is in the Hardware profile...WD320(blah blah blah) But it doesn't appear with a Drive letter in My Computer. I tried it on a second machine I have and it (again) found it, but this time said there was a USB error and it could not access it.

I tried a smaller (80G Seagate) drive that I had in the enclosure and it saw it and added a Drive to My Computer, no problem.

So...WTF is wrong with the big drive??? Jumpers are open (Master). I also tried in on the Cable Select jumper. No Luck!

Thoughts?

[goaliemanshark 6]

You may have to format and/or partition the drive before windows can see it? Did any software come with the drive?

[Axxion89 32]

Sounds like it may need formatting, if you are using Windows, plug in the harddrive, right click computer - manage - disk management - then select drive and format, it will allow you to assign a name and letter. Should work.

Also for the OP (although this thread is old) and anyone else with virus/malware issue use AVG free and malwarebytes, never had a virus problem and the one time I had one was my own fault for stupidity. Its great because its free and everyone I work with in my school's tech department swears by it.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Sounds like it may need formatting, if you are using Windows, plug in the harddrive, right click computer - manage - disk management - then select drive and format, it will allow you to assign a name and letter. Should work.

Hmmm....It still sees it. Said it was an Uninitiated Drive....It gives an option to "Initiate" the drive...but there is no format option?

n/m. There was an option to partition...which I did (to the full size of the drive). It's formatting now. Thanks.

[cammerz12 0]

Digging up an older topic here... I've been getting a bunch of BSODs ('mainly driver_irql_not_less_or_equal' and 'memory_management'). I ran both SUPERanti-spyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware full scans in safe mode. Nothing is coming up. It might be a problem with the hardware and not a virus or malware, to qualify myself, I don't know much about computers. I can't afford a new computer. I also use it at my job and for school so it's pretty urgent...Help?!

[Axxion89 32]

Digging up an older topic here... I've been getting a bunch of BSODs ('mainly driver_irql_not_less_or_equal' and 'memory_management'). I ran both SUPERanti-spyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware full scans in safe mode. Nothing is coming up. It might be a problem with the hardware and not a virus or malware, to qualify myself, I don't know much about computers. I can't afford a new computer. I also use it at my job and for school so it's pretty urgent...Help?!

Digging up an older topic here... I've been getting a bunch of BSODs ('mainly driver_irql_not_less_or_equal' and 'memory_management'). I ran both SUPERanti-spyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware full scans in safe mode. Nothing is coming up. It might be a problem with the hardware and not a virus or malware, to qualify myself, I don't know much about computers. I can't afford a new computer. I also use it at my job and for school so it's pretty urgent...Help?!

If you get an error code, google it and see what comes up for it. Might be a bad hard drive which is a cheap fix or a motherboard which is expensive, or software. I would reinstall your operating system and see what happens. If that doesn't work, might need a hardware replacement.

[wrangler 157]

Digging up an older topic here... I've been getting a bunch of BSODs ('mainly driver_irql_not_less_or_equal' and 'memory_management'). I ran both SUPERanti-spyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware full scans in safe mode. Nothing is coming up. It might be a problem with the hardware and not a virus or malware, to qualify myself, I don't know much about computers. I can't afford a new computer. I also use it at my job and for school so it's pretty urgent...Help?!

What type of computer? What operating system? What are you doing when a problem occurs?

[tamtamg 12]

we solved his issue in chat. he has one of the defective video cards from nvidia.

[RadioGaGa 162]

I have a 500G Ext. HD I am trying to get formatted to Fat32 so it can be used with a PS3. I know Windows (XP) won't format to Fat32...but you are supposed to be able to do it through cmd prompt.

format <drive>: /fs:fat32

<drive> should be replaced with whatever drive letter that HD holds.

I've done that...and every time it says old system is NTFS...new system will be Fat32....but after the format...Windows is still showing it as an NTFS drive.

I tried a utility called Swissknife....and that allowed to delete and create a new partition that is fat32....but when I did...it only created a 25G Fat32 partition and left the rest unallocated.

I went into the Windows Disk Management and deleted that small partition and made a new primary partition using the full capacity of the HD, but did not format it. I re-ran the command prompt and the message was;

"File system is RAW

File system will be FAT32"

Only 54%...hoping this works...or I'm stumped.

Thoughts?

[Chadd 916]

Don't you need to use a different program to format a drive beyond 32GB? I may have a copy of something in one of my old drives that will work.

[RadioGaGa 162]

That must be it. it finished the 'format' and said "Too big for Fat32"

The Swissknife program is supposed to do that...argh!

I hate computers!

[Chadd 916]

I sent you a link. I used that program on a couple projects and it seemed to work well enough for our needs at the time.

[RadioGaGa 162]

My GF's daughter has a laptop...and her brother installed a bunch of stuff on it. Extra tool bars and search programs and add on crap to skype.

I've cleared a lot of it...and ran cc cleaner to check unused registry entries...but everytime you start up, it tries to run chkdsk and stops at 32%

Thoughts?

[Chadd 916]

Bad sector in the hard drive would be my guess. Have you tried to defrag it?

[RadioGaGa 162]

It finally got through chkdsk after a long pause at 32%. Seems to be running ok now.

[RadioGaGa 162]

OK, this is just weird. My monitor (19" Samsung Syncmaster 920W 1920x1440). has been going black. Not turning off...just going black. If I turn it off and back on, I get a picture for a second...then it goes black again. I put an old Dell monitor on my computer and that works fine (17" 1024x768). No issues. So...I figured it's the monitor.

I went and bought a new (well, used...LG widescreen...running at the same res. settings as the Samsung) monitor. Brought it home...worked great...for about 5 minutes. then IT started doing the same thing. Black screen. If I turn it off and on, I get a picture...but it goes black in a couple seconds. The old Dell monitor is still working fine.

WTF???

Windows has the proper drivers for my video card....and other than an auto update from windows...I've made no changes to my system in months (if not years)

Any thoughts?

[Larry54 243]

Just a shot in the dark here (I couldn't resist the pun) but when you connect the old monitor that works fine, is it connected to the same port and with the same cable as the monitors that go black?

[Neal 41]

Just a shot in the dark here (I couldn't resist the pun) but when you connect the old monitor that works fine, is it connected to the same port and with the same cable as the monitors that go black?

Yep, check your cables. Look for kinks in the monitor feed cable and bent or loose pins in the ends. Not likely but worth a shot. Got a second cable? Give it a try.

But my guess is your graphics card, if you have one is failing. We had some Dells at work that would run fine at a lower resolution but when cranked up a bit would fail intermittently.

[Chadd 916]

OK, this is just weird. My monitor (19" Samsung Syncmaster 920W 1920x1440). has been going black. Not turning off...just going black. If I turn it off and back on, I get a picture for a second...then it goes black again. I put an old Dell monitor on my computer and that works fine (17" 1024x768). No issues. So...I figured it's the monitor.

I went and bought a new (well, used...LG widescreen...running at the same res. settings as the Samsung) monitor. Brought it home...worked great...for about 5 minutes. then IT started doing the same thing. Black screen. If I turn it off and on, I get a picture...but it goes black in a couple seconds. The old Dell monitor is still working fine.

WTF???

Windows has the proper drivers for my video card....and other than an auto update from windows...I've made no changes to my system in months (if not years)

Any thoughts?

Can you run one of the bigger monitors at a lower resolution without problems? If so, I would suspect the graphics card.

[RadioGaGa 162]

I'm pretty sure it's the monitor. I went as far as uninstalling the video drivers and booting to default Windows drivers 800x600 or whatever. It still did the same thing. Same power/VGA cables as the monitor that works. Then...I tried both monitors (same cables) on a laptop. One works...the other doesn't.

[EDIT]: Bought a new monitor 22". Works perfect. Fluke that I got a second dud I guess.

[RadioGaGa 162]

back with more 'puter questions:

 

I bought a TB seagate drive a couple years ago, but I inadvertently bought a Mac drive. I downloaded the hfs4win drivers for free from the seagate site, and the 
drive worked on Win XP, and when I upgraded to Win7...but now that I've run Win10 the drive doesn't work and I can only find the hfs free driver for Win9.1. Does anyone know if the driver exists for Win10??