Boxes With red "X"s & no graphics

Hi RonM,

Please don't keep saying you are old. You are as old as you feel, and if you knew how old some of we volunteers are, then you may think you are young. We are all young at heart and enjoy helping where we can.

Now down to business.

I have looked in detail at your PCPitstop log.

Zruker's advice to you would be the way to go and he I am sure will fill you in with Ubuntu Linux if that is your choice to go with it. Just post back into this thread your request for him to do that and I am sure he will ASAP.

Regarding your TechExpress details, if you are going to go with Ubuntu, it is pointless for me to analise your log fully. It is enough to assist you as follows so you can read the details yourself. That said, your CPU is slow, and you need more RAM if you are going to continue with your present computer. I can also advise you of software you have installed that I would not have on my systems, but that is for another time ……when you decide:

• Are you going to stay with your current computer and OS
• Go with Ubuntu
• Do you want me to analise your log fully? maybe tune it up so to speak?

If you click on the TechExpress Link then Customized Tune-up Tips you can then click all the recommendations underlined except Update outdated Device Drivers to get details of what you would need to do with your current system to maybe improve it.

You can do no harm in clicking on anything underlined on the Tech Results Summary link to read what the results are.

To see other links, just click on the TechExpress Results link at the top right hand side of the page. Guide your mouse over the different links within the TechExpress results to move onto other information given in the scan.

Please don't misunderstand me, I am happy to take more time with your requirements, but if you decide to seek Ztruker's advice, then it is pointless me analyzing your log fully at this stage.

All the above depends on:

• how much you use your computer?
• is it suitable for your needs?
• and do you want to upgrade to a more current system configuration, namely a new more recent model.

Please post back and tell us what you would like to do.

In the meantime, run your CCleaner installation or download and run ATF-Cleaner.exe and run it once a week to clear out the junk on your computer, namely temporary internet files and such.

kind regards,

Ron, Tallin, my Ubuntu suggestion was supposed to be a joke, but apparently not a very good one. My apologies. I've been messing with various distros of Linux over the last few weeks (again) and I guess it's on my mind a lot … sigh

Ron,

Here is a link to tell you about Ubuntu

King regards,

Ztruker , tallin:…1st;…Thanks for the link to Ubuntu…For now , I'll pass & stay with what I have….Now to answer some of tallin's questions…

Are you going to stay with your current computer and OS

Yes…

Go with Ubuntu

No…

Do you want me to analise your log fully? maybe tune it up so to speak?

Yes…

how much you use your computer?…Several hours daily….

is it suitable for your needs?….Yes…

and do you want to upgrade to a more current system configuration,…. If you mean Vista,..NO……

namely a new more recent model…..I am retired & can not afford to buy a newer computer…

I have & use ATF Cleaner regularly…

Quick question…In this post between the 1st & 2nd quotes , you'll see that I have double spaced my answer…In the 3rd quote I have the answer where I want it… How do I relocate or move them back up ? ?

Please don't keep saying you are old.

OK…

I did a "little" poking around the PCPitstop report…Under Test Details , I discovered a possible virus I may have…It is under "Running Programs" called "Speech"…There are 3 matches for ctfmon.exe…None of them good…

I have Windows Defender , Avast! , & SpyBot……If I have a virus with all 3 of these programs installed & they missed it , I'm going to be pissed….Especially since I have Avast! turned on when I'm online…..

I will be getting a 256mb memory card soon…My comp can not handle much more than that…
That's it for now…Best regards…later….

Hi RonM, Will get back to you later with a detailed post re your PCPitstop scan. ctfmon.exe is not a virus, so put your mind at rest until I find the time to analise your scan. Regarding getting your spaces/para to your liking, put your cursor at the beginning of your text and press the backspace key to return your text to the position you want it. more later, kind regards,

Hi Ron. Unless you need Speech recognition services, you can disable ctfmon.exe. I do this with my computers and every system I work on.

See here for info and instructions: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1167888467?s

tallin: Thankx, I will be most patient…..Ztruker; I went to your link , followed info & disabled cftmon.exe…. Thank you …later , guys…

Hello Ron,

Ztruker has already offered you assistance with ctfmon.exe which I was pleased to see you adopted by removing it.

If I have not already asked you to do so, please ignore all advertisement on the PCPitstop link to your scan, they cost $$$$, and are not necessary. We can help you for no cost here on this forum.

Please ignore "Update Outdated Device Drivers" suggestion shown on the Summary page of your scan. Instead I would prefer you to:

• Right Click on My Computer on your Desktop
• Properties
• Hardware
• Device Manager
• Tell me if there are any yellow or red alerts showing?
• Post back with the result, if there are not, unless you are having problems your Drivers are fine.

Okay, so you are staying with your current system, that will be fine and we will do the best we can to get it running more quickly for you. However with a Pentium11 Processor, and minimum RAM it will be somewhat restrictive what we can do for you. Just to run your Windows OS XP/Pro takes almost all of the current 512 MB of RAM you currently have. You have one spare slot which can be filled with 1 x 256MB (DIMM DRAM Synchronous).

When browsing the internet, please do not have several items open at the one time as that will surely slow down your system.

Please keep your system defragged by going to

• Start
• All programs
• Accessories
• System Tools
• Disk Defragmenter/highlight C:\Drive
• Analise by clicking on Action at the top near File to check if you need to defrag once a month.

Reduce your Systems Restore folder by

• Right click on My Computer
• Properties
• System Restore
• Highlight C:\Drive
• Settings
• Reduce the slider to 1% (1095MB)
• Apply, then exit out.

Do you use both Real Player and Windows Media Player 11? Real Player is a real resource hogger, and unless you really want it, I would uninstall it from Add and Remove. If you do decide to do this, should you have a problem with it, post back and ask for help.

Your Adobe Reader ver: 9 is also a resource hogger, so I would suggest you uninstall it, and download and install Foxit Reader which is a smaller program and does for us, mostly the same thing as Adobe.

Update your Avast Antivirus, Windows Defender, and Spybot Search and Destroy as the definitions are out of date so the scan tells me. Please make sure your Antispyware software is not running at bootup, as if these programs are starting up on boot, that will indeed slow your computer down. You can run them manually/weekly.

You do want your Antivirus on automatic.

To stop Antispyware running in the background continually I suggest you do this:

• Start
• Run
• Type 'msconfig' (without the quote) in the box, then wait for it to load
• okay
• Services tab
• Hide All Microsoft Services
• Click on the status tab on the right at the top of the box
• Only allow your Antivirus, Windows Update, or any backup to load on startup.
• Reboot

If you make a mistake, you can always go back to enable any item as these are not the program, they are the shortcuts to installed software or OS.

Please check your Windows Updates, as the last updates were 11th September and yours are only showing to 8th September.

Your scan in PCPitstop tells us you have more than one Antivirus running on your computer which is a no no as they conflict. Can you tell me what your Netzero Internet is, as I get conflicting reports when googling it. Are you on Dial-up? Please post back with this information.

Finally, I would suggest you uninstall

• Golden Autumn 3D Screensaver as they are only resource hoggers and do no good
• PC Drive Detective unless you paid for it.

For now the above should help you. If you have any queries, or don't want to proceed with any issues suggested, just say so as it is always the owners call as to what changes they adopt.

kind regards,

Dear tallin; I've got SOOO much to say…This IS going to be a LONG post & I hope I get ALL the info in….
In reply to your last post:…
1st:…

Tell me if there are any yellow or red alerts showing?

…None , Except a red "X" at: 3Com 3C908 Integrated Fast Ethernet Controler (3C905B-TX Compatable)…I do not need this so it doesn't matter,right?

You have one spare slot which can be filled with 1 x 256MB (DIMM DRAM Synchronous).

I'm in process of getting one as I write this…

When browsing the internet, please do not have several items open at the one time as that will surely slow down your system

MOST of the time I don't…

I Defrag on a regular basis…

Reduce the slider to 1% (1095MB

…When I set the slider to 1% , I got 200MB…..Not 1095MB…Is that OK ? Will it be a problem in any way ?

As for Real Player & Windows Media Player 11 :…I use both , But I AM willing to get rid of Real Player….However , before I do , will I lose any of what I have already loaded or will WMP 11 still have them ?

As for Adobe 9 versus Foxit:…I've downloaded Foxit…Nearly the same answer as above…Will I lose any of my files or make them unuseable…

Update your Avast Antivirus, Windows Defender, and Spybot Search and Destroy

..Avast sends updates automatically………Avast IS always ON & running….I will get Windows Defender & Spybot updated ASAP…….

Please make sure your Antispyware software is not running at bootup, as if these programs are starting up on boot, that will indeed slow your computer down. You can run them manually/weekly.

….I'm not sure how to do this…( not running at bootup)

Enable/untick all Microsoft Services

I have a problem with this one , big time….There are 77 listed…(Yes 77) …I unticked a bunch of them , not all , & all hell broke loose ! ! I was told to restart , which I did…I got several graphics , notices etc…One of which is right here>>>>
[attachment removed] …I selected Normal Startup…As you can see , I have to Reactivate Windows…etc…All the Services are now enabled , the comp did it by itself…

Windows Updates, as the last updates were 11th September and yours are only showing to 8th September

That's Windows fault as they are supposed to be updated automatically …

Your scan in PCPitstop tells us you have more than one Antivirus running on your computer which is a no no as they conflict. Can you tell me what your Netzero Internet is, as I get conflicting reports when googling it. Are you on Dial-up ?

…How do I choose to end the conflict with the antivirus's ?… How do I turn off one & leave one running ? …. Which would you reccomend I leave on ?… I have:…NetZeroHSSetup_8.7.4 & am on dialup…..

Golden Autumn & Driver Detective ARE both gone….yea ! !


Finally, get ready for some "shouting"……..I think YOU ARE a GENIUS…I can NOT BEGIN to tell you HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE ALL you have/are doing FOR me….Thank you SO VERY , VERY much….Ron.M…Later..

EDIT:..10/07/2008 5:05 pm….SpyBot —Updated…
Windows Defender :.., Could not find location to get only WD updates…I think those come as automatic Windows updates…
There are no windows updates for my comp at this time…From Microsoft's website….
Went to eBay & found 100's of 256MB cards…Need to figure out what is right one…

Hi Ron,

I am going to answer your post in order to stop confusion all around.

None , Except a red "X" at: 3Com 3C908 Integrated Fast Ethernet Controler (3C905B-TX Compatable)…I do not need this so it doesn't matter,right?

Right.

I'm in process of getting one as I write this

Excellent.

MOST of the time I don't…

Good

I Defrag on a regular basis…

Well done.

When I set the slider to 1% , I got 200MB…..Not 1095MB…Is that OK ? Will it be a problem in any way ?

Raise the slider to 2% or until you get around 1000MB showing.

As for Real Player & Windows Media Player 11 :…I use both , But I AM willing to get rid of Real Player….However , before I do , will I lose any of what I have already loaded or will WMP 11 still have them ?

If you uninstall RealPlayer, you will loose all you have saved on it. BUT if the same songs are on WMP 11, and you keep it then you will have all that was on RealPlayer. In other words, if the saved data is the same on both, and you uninstall one, then you have the data on the other.

Ron, from here down I have to resort to putting your quote in blue as I have run out of the number of quotes allowed in one post!

"As for Adobe 9 versus Foxit:…I've downloaded Foxit…Nearly the same answer as above…Will I lose any of my files or make them unuseable"

No, Foxit will work the same for you, but before uninstalling Adobe 9 open one of your PDF files with Foxit to prove it to yourself.

"Avast sends updates automatically………Avast IS always ON & running….I will get Windows Defender & Spybot updated ASAP"

You should update Windows Defender and spybot regularly, suggest every two or three days, and certainly before you run them.

Please make sure your Antispyware software is not running at bootup, as if these programs are starting up on boot, that will indeed slow your computer down. You can run them manually/weekly "I'm not sure how to do this".

Please go to:

• Start
• Run
• type 'msconfig' without the quote > okay
• Services tab
• Put a tick in Hide All Microsoft Services
• Wait for it to reload
• Click the Status tab on the right
• View what is showing enabled/with a tick in the little box.
• Untick what you do not want to start at boot.
• Okay out and click Exit without Restart

In my last post to you I said. "Enable/untick all Microsoft Services "

I am really sorry I said that, it was wrong, and I apologize, follow the above 'bullet' directions to see what is starting at boot-up. I should have said,

• Hide All Microsoft Services
• Not Enable/Untick All Microsoft Services

Big mistake on my part and I again apologize for misleading you, it was careless of me.

That's Windows fault as they are supposed to be updated automatically.

I would prefer you to set your Windows Updates to "Notify me but don't automatically download and install them". You are then in control of what is installed from Windows Updates. Sometimes they offer Driver downloads which are often wrong for your system, I got caught with this on my Laptop once, and had lots of trouble working out what happened as my Laptop started to freeze. Wrong driver updates from WU was the problem so since then I have my WU turned off and go in every month to run them Here. Your choice however. To change your Windows Update option:

• Start
• Control Panel
• Automatic Updates

Your scan in PCPitstop tells us you have more than one Antivirus running on your computer which is a no no as they conflict. Can you tell me what your Netzero Internet is, as I get conflicting reports when googling it. Are you on Dial-up? How do I choose to end the conflict with the antivirus's ?… How do I turn off one & leave one running ? …. Which would you reccomend I leave on ?… I have:…NetZeroHSSetup_8.7.4 & am on dialup…..

If you are not having a problem with this, leave as is. I think Pitstop is wrong in this case as you are on dial-up and need what you have on your system currently.

Golden Autumn & Driver Detective ARE both gone….yea ! !

Excellent.

Thank you for the compliment, but no, I am far from a genius, was disgusted with my mistake as commented on above, so will be more careful next time and again I apologize to you.

Keep us posted if you need more help and do please say how your computer is running after you have done the above suggestions. Sorry about the blue quotes also, drives me mad when I run into this option. I have attached a file to show you re Hide All Microsoft Services to make it quite clear.

kind regards,

Hey , tallin: This should be short…. Maybe…1st, in answer to your last post:

Raise the slider to 2% or until you get around 1000MB showing.

When I do this , I set it at 1057MB (that's the closest I can get to 1000MB) & it's at 5%…

RealPlayer / Wind.Med.Play 11….I have some stuff on RealPlayer that's not on Win.Med.Player…Is there a way to transfer from RP to WMP 11 ??

As for Adobe 9 versus Foxit ……I tried Foxit….I agree that it's about the same…However , I noticed that Thumbnails were missing..(might be the files ) I"ll play with it some more …I'm leaning toward removal of Adobe…

You should update Windows Defender

I could not find the site to update WD only….I easily found the site (Microsoft.com) for Win XP Pro updates , but not WD….If you have a link , that would be helpfull….( for WD )

Hide All Microsoft Services

I redid this …No apparent change noted…I stopped Win.Med Player…

Big mistake on my part and I again apologize for misleading you, it was careless of me

Apology accepted….I wouldn't worry a bit about that…NO harm done….I STILL stand by what I said about you….After all , look at the mistakes George W. Bush has made ! ! And he's our President ??

I would prefer you to set your Windows Updates to "Notify me but don't automatically download and install them…Etc…

I didn't quote the whole paragraph…However , how does one know if a Driver or any update is faulty ?? & which one caused the problem ??

Now about the "Blue" comments V "Quotes"….In yesterdays post , I had 9 quotes…Today , only 5….You have 6… Might be a site problem…. End of answer….

Now: Since I "Restored" to an earlier date , I have had NO red "X's" ..Anywhere…What I think happened (Keep in mind , I'm a newbie ) is that Windows Defender allowed me to change a Key that was defective in some way….If I had some way to know beforehand , I would not have allowed it…

One last comment:….I STILL think you are a genius….For your age ( I'm told you're 14 ) you are miles ahead of everyone I know (off this site )…Don't be disgusted with yourself…NOBODY is perfect…NOBODY !! Thank you VERY much…I'll be back in a couple of days , unless there's a new post here….

PS: Could you help me find a correct 256MB RAM , possibly on eBay , as I have NO clue which are right for this comp….Thankx….

Ron, to find the right ram for your computer, goto Crucial.com. You can run their System Scanner Tool or enter information about your computer. Either should tell you what you need.

Crucial is not a bad place to buy it either. Not the lowest prices on the internet but quite reasonable.

Dear Ztruker:…I used your link , thanks….But , that did not give me any info about the specs for the card….Also ,their prices are not that competitive…For $33.99 , I can probably get 3 or maybe 4 of them from eBay…I've bought from there before & so far , so good…. The cards I have now ( 256MB X 2 ) cost me about $24.00 or $12.00 each…So thats a big difference for my budget…I need the specs so I can shop for the right card…… ……….Later , sir………

Hi Ron,

To find the exact type of RAM you need, please download, and run. Hardware is showing in the left pane, highlight it, and click on Memory in the left pane of SIW.exe. All the details of your RAM will be in the right pane for you to view. Anything else you need to know about your system, just highlight in the left pane and the information is shown in the right pane.

For your systems restore, 5% is fine, stay with that.

Regarding Real Player and transferring songs etc to Windows Media Player, no, that is not possible, but wherever you got the songs from that are on RealPlayer, just go back and add them to WMP. Perhaps you saved them from CD's you own, or did you buy them online?

Lean a little harder re keeping Foxit and uninstalling Adobe is my advice.

I don't have Windows Defender on any of my systems, but if you click on options you would surely be able to find the update automatically option I would imagine. Just my opinion, but I would uninstall WD and download and install SuperAntispyware if it was my system.

Hide All Microsoft Services

I redid this …No apparent change noted…I stopped Win.Med Player…

Please tell me how many items are showing in Startup tab following my last post step by step and also in Services. Good practice for you so I am sure you know how to do it.

After all , look at the mistakes George W. Bush has made ! ! And he's our President ??

Well, I know what you mean, but I wish the present two (McCain and Obama) would sort themselves out as we are all sick of hearing about who is going to be what.

Just do not download and install any hardware from Windows Update utility, you will soon know if you do as the computer may lock up. I mentioned that is what happened to me. Always go to the Manufacturers Website to install hardware for your computer. Knowing which one is causing the problem is experience, but don't do it, then you will not have the issue.

So you feel your problem is fixed regarding the red X…. Excellent news.

Yes, 14 is a good age, I often think about it, but then one knows little at 14 years old of what life has to offer, I am sure you would agree.

It has been a pleasure helping you Ron, post back if you need anymore assistance. We are happy to help in any way possible.

kind regards,

Hello Ron, I did not read every post so this may have been covered. You use dial up so the graphics are not shown because of the time that it will take to show them. The server you are downloading the page (or E-mail) from will time out because of the amount of time it takes to download the image(s). Your download stops when this happens so the images are not downloaded. The fix? Faster internet would do the trick, but you are on a fixed income. You can buy a flash drive, use the library systems computer to download, and save the image you wish to view, and transfer it to your computer from the flash drive.