Korean Job Discussion Forums

[shifty]

I'm on vacation in my home country and decided to
check my laptop in for a tuneup.

Items to check:

1) why do I have to double send on yahoo and
hotmail before the mail is finally sent?.

2) why can't I log in on a chat forum (dave's) or at
least only intermittently so? I dutifully write out a long
post and then I have to resubmit ad infinitum. It keeps
saying invalid session.

3) when a cd is burned it sometimes won't play on the
player or it fails halfway on the burner for reasons
undisclosed.

4) Please to do backup on dvd all my pics and music.
Music quoted under various names such as edonkey etc.

Anyway, they were attempting a repair on windows and
the pc wouldn't restart. They grandiosly said it was the
"harddrive packing in". Later the claim that the
motherboard was under suspicion.

I thereupon bought a new pc b/c I couldn't wait longer.
I instructed them to transfer all the backup dvds onto it.
Now... I find all my emule stuff is amissing.

The new laptop also evinces the same props on yahoo,
hotmail and Daves. I haven't tried to burn anything yet,
but I'm going to be optimistic on that one.

Can anyone advise me?? And how to retrieve the emule
stuff please.

[JustJohn]

Post isn't completely coherent, but I will say this. Clear your cache and cookies in your internet settings. Make sure you don't have any programs blocking cookies from daves/yahoo etc. That might solve your login/similar issues.

[shifty]

Thanks for that!

The old pc is still at the shop, for the senior guy to take an in-depth look as to how to restart it again, when he gets the time.

Right now, I'm grieving the loss of all my emule stuff. I'm also miffed that it was working fine, aside from the minor probs mentioned.

To hand in a working pc to a repair shop, only for them to render unusable, is beyond my comprehension.

Being a know-nothing myself, I have to accept whatever they say.

[cbclark4]

Sounds like virus city.

Probably trashed the BIOS.

Did they reset the BIOS.

DId you clean your hard drive nad the backups.

Use AVG it's free.

http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10761481.html?tag=pop.software

[shifty]

Well, two months ago they sold me an ant-virus program called bit defender. I noticed that it slowed the pc down a lot, showed regular and impressive scans, but ne'er caught even a germ.

Fast forward to current scenario and the technician phoned me and said that the pc is full of viruses. I reminded him of the bit program that he himself installed. So he stopped further discussion on this angle.

But thanks for that tip. I'm going to ask them to reset the BIOS.

He's going to realise that I've been talking to somebody.

[cbclark4]

Actually if your going to reset the BIOS.

You should remove the Hard Drive and put an empty unformatted drive in there. Then load an operating system, down load AVG then scan.

Add your old HD as a slave scan that.

Now remove the spare drive and boot to the original drive and scan again.

Good luck.

[shifty]

Thanks very much cb.

I'll copy your post down and take it there.

[shifty]

Me again, with an interim report.

In my country it's summer now and what with the festive season, things are a little hectic. So I told the head honcho at the repair shop that the New Year would be fine, as in any case I have the new pc.

I handed over a paper detailing the post of cbclark4 and he said he would
most certainly keep it close to hand at all times. Actually, he's a really nice guy, softly-spoken and ultra courteous. I couldn't nearly get myself to even scold him. And they might be innocent b/c as cb says it's a virus induced prob.

I now recollect what he'd said at the time of repair; he said that he'd removed the hard drive and put in another and it still wouldn't restart, which led him to suspect the motherboard.

To my finite senses, that seems to square with what cb is saying in his post.

It's difficult for me to download all the missing stuff, b/c I'm limited to one gig a month, hard to get used to after Korea.

So until sometime in Jan.
I have a not bad feeling about the outcome.

[jazblanc77]

Don't rely on computer shops for "tune-ups". Your computer will operate fine if you learn a bit about security and do what you can to keep it clean and well maintained.

[Demophobe]

[shifty]

I definitely should apply myself to what makes computers more problem free, given how much contentment I get from them.

The problem is lack of interest and thus spending the necessary time. I think willingness to tinker with pcs has to be an inborn trait, not acquired by simple goodwill toward them. Some have an antipathy toward the innards of a pc bordering on horror.

In view of the above I'm really appreciative of the replies on this thread, people willing to share their knowledge with those who just won't make the effort.

PS I also enjoy simply climbing into a car and driving.

[superdave]

some good advice here ...

i'm of the mind this is viral. when you transfer stuff from an old computer to a new computer, and get the same problems, it's 99% guaranteed to be a virus that you carried over.

you need to look at the software you're running ... because deleting the virus is gonna mean squat when you reinstall or run the program that gave you the virus in the first place.

it could be a hacked game, or any kind of executable file (usually .exe) that is causing your problems.

nod32 and avg free are amongst the best antivirus around ... but they can't help you much if you keep using the software that is infecting you.

you need to revisit your habits and make sure you eliminate anything that could be suspect. only use trusted software and betware of hacked software or downloads ... the software could be legit, but it could be stuff that has a virus implanted.

good luck with it!!

[Demophobe]

[shifty]

Well. big thanks to Superdave and Demophobe.

I do drive slowly on the straight and narrow in that the firewalls seem to work well, sometimes a little too well. My only abiding vice is emule and I must have that.

The stuff transferred to the new pc via backup included music and vids from edonkey and other now defunct p to p sites. In their time they never seemed to precipitate probs, though I know there were viruses lurking. We seemed to coexist uneasily.

However, when the hiccups started I was quite heavily into emule so that had to be prime suspect. The thing is, the technician omitted to backup my emule either because he forgot, or that it doesn't lend itself to being
taken up in this manner.

So the new pc never took receipt of the emule files. Maybe the viruses are able to mestastisize from one roundabout to the other and are not disposed to stay put and managed to cross-pollinate.

Thanks for the offer Demophobe, I'll see in Jan what comes about at the repair shop. I intend to ditch the bit defender and install what cbclark4 and Superdave said I should. Two steps already in a growing resolve to do the right thing.

The beguiling thing with pcs is that they work for quite long, giving a false sense of optimism.