-=PCTechTalk=- Computer Woes
- From: "Sylvia" <sylviam@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "PC Tech Talk" <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 13:48:00 -0600
Hello all, here's my book, :)
Running W98, Dell Pentium II, US Robotics 56k modem,13G hd dr with another
80G hd dr for storage, 320 MB RAM, all Critical Updates updated from Windows
site.
Over a week ago, all of a sudden, I could not get my email at all. Nor could
I use the Internet. I did some troubleshooting and was unable to fix the
problem. Now since it has been that long ago some of the things I did and
checked are probably a little fuzzy; that plus I did & checked a baZillion
things! LOL
I am on my computer daily doing many different things and around this time I
also installed a little "Memory Meter" but I didn't like it and uninstalled
it. Ad-Aware told me today that it is mal-ware and there are still enough
bits & pieces of it left for Ad-Aware to find them. Put them in
quarantine...didn't help though.
Here is what else I tried to do first.
Checked in Device Manager for anything that might be in conflict or
whatever, but everything looks good there.
Ran my anti-virus program (I use PC-Cillin 2003). It includes a firewall so
I tried disabling it, tried to connect but still could not get on the
Internet or use my email program
Ran Scandisk & Defragged. Didn't fix it.
Ran Spybot (it found things that I had already blocked) & Ad-aware6, found a
few things that I put in Quarantine, but that didn't help either. I have
rebooted after every "fix" I have tried, but still no-go.
I am using my 10 year old grandson's "junker" computer that I fixed up for
him, his works fine! LOL We share the same phone line with a splitter that
allows us both to connect, but of course only one at a time, it is a dial-up
connection. The monitor is so much smaller that me 'n my bifocals are having
trouble reading it.
We have another grandson whose "junker" computer is upstairs on a different
phone line, I had purchased a US Robotic modem for him. Thinking that they
might be swappable I pulled his and went downstairs to mine, but they were
totally different models. I had hoped that I could test the modem this way.
I also reinstalled W98 thinking that maybe it was something minor that was
glitched. No, I haven't reformatted, it was reinstalled over the old W98. I
really choke up on the thought of the recovery time on doing a
reformat...especially since I am not convinced yet that that is the problem.
After a whole day of checking settings and trying different things, I broke
down & called my ISP tech support. I was fortunate to get someone who was
willing to go thru the different checks. When I told him all that I had done
he said that they were all things he would have had me try. Then with his
help we rebuilt the networks in the control panel. We tried creating a new
connection, but none of the things we tried fixed the problem.
He also had me type in a string of numbers and while I was connected send a
ping. I think this was done in DOS...but I did receive a reply that he
recognized as being successful. I took this to mean that I am connected, but
cannot access my email or the Internet. This has me thinking that since it
did get a response that perhaps my modem is OK and that something else has
changed on my computer.
We live in a very small town, no computer shops within a couple of hundred
miles. I would hate to purchase a new modem only to find out that there was
nothing wrong with the one I have. It is an OEM US Robotics, I went to their
site to see if there was a newer driver, but it appears that the newest one
is from 1999, so I can't see that it would help. But then I am not the
expert on these things either, <VBG>
And speaking of experts...our Greatly Esteemed Keyboard Cowboy & Troth have
been trying to help me behind the scenes until I could get resubscribed to
the list. Thank so much to both of them!!
If any of you have any different things for me to check or try I would
certainly appreciate it.
TIA,
USA-Sylvia
ps: hi to Sylvia from Holland! :)
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