What if a virus infection is stubbornly resisting removal?

This is a tricky area for some because virus infections can try a number of tricks to prevent removal. Normally scanning will find the infections you have (provided they are in the anti virus database). One of the tricks worth noting is active write protection. In this case, when the virus is active it could be working to make its directory write protected. In this state it is very difficult to remove because when you turn off write protection, it promptly puts it back. The trick makes it very well protected and hard to treat.

The solution is to shut down the PC and slave its hard drive to a CLEAN system with both antivirus and a utility like R-Wipe&Clean. Power up and find the affected directory. Remove its write protection (remember the virus is now asleep because the system isn't running it any more). Now you must make a decision about what to treat and how. What you decide will depend on what you are seeing. The last time I did this, the virus was heavily write protected. The only thing to do was shred the directory it was in along with any files it contained and then repair damage to the system later. Techniques like this are often brutal, but they are better than formatting the drive to get rid of it.

After confirming that the infection is gone, you may then need to repair/reinstall all or part of the operating system to put back any essential files the removal process affected.

If you have any questions after that, please let me know (but try not to write in from an infected system), thanks.

If your PC is running slow...because of an infection

This is completely different from the effects of fragmentation. The cause of slowing down is not physical. It is due to the activity of a possibly malicious program trying to get CPU time to do nasty stuff. It could be either spyware or virus causing this. There are several ways you can work this out.
1) Download Spyware Blaster from http://majorgeeks.com/SpywareBlaster_d2859.html"
2) Install it and update its database regularly. It will maintain a list of 10000 plus nasties and turn off all registry keys in windows that belong to them. Even if you have the bugs, they won't do any harm!
3) Download bitdefender version 10 (free) from www.bitdefender.com and install it. After updating its list of infections, this will clean out many infectious things from your copy of Windows. If you still have problems after that, it may be wise to have it professionally serviced.

If your PC is running slow...

There are several reasons why these systems slow down Let's start with a simple list:
1) Disk fragmentation
2) Degradation of Windows system files over time
3) Virus or spyware infection
4) Additionally, the registry may be in a poor condition.
FRAGMENTATION: This arises after you have used Windows for a while, opening and closing files and saving new ones. To correct it DEFRAGMENTATION is needed. In Windows, go to 'My Computer'. Right click on the drive that seems to be slow. Go down to 'Properties'. You will see a box headed 'Properties'. Click the 'Tools' tab. There should be a button labeled 'Defragment Now'. Click that one and let the machine sort your files out and put them together again. NOTE: If your files are also in poor condition you may need to run 'Check Now' from the same menu to repair physical drive errors before defragmenting it.

Do you recieve emailed surveys?

Two of them arrived in my mailbox this morning. One from Winzip and another on Lifestyle. After starting it I found some of the questions were designed to find out how much I was willing to buy from them now or in future. Do you make your purchasing decisions based on that? Much of the time I don't decide to get anything until there is a clear need for it. In that case I search for the most suitable thing to meet that need, whether it is software or other stuff. How do you react if companies ask questions about how much you plan to buy from them?

Q. How do I identify diode ratings from their markings?

Anyone familiar with electronics knows diodes are good at turning AC into DC power or processing signals from various sources. All sorts of diodes

Can you identify discrete transistors from yesteryear?

You can on this page. How do I identify leads on older transistors from their markings and case types?

Want to know about capacitors?

Look here to find out how to read them, identify what type they are and all their other properties!
How do I identify capacitors from their markings?

Techniques behind modern broadband

How do you get more signal data down the broadband pipe? As providers near the limits of what broadband can do, they need a way to improve the system. There is only so much that multiplexing and other end to end techniques can accomplish. You may be surprised at how simple the solution could be..Pay a visit to .http://modecideas.com/StarTrekTechnology.htm" to read up on the potential for 'multi spectral broadband'!

Your PC needs maintainance (here's why)

Some time ago I was called to a home where a PC was malfunctioning (running slow etc). I was asked to see what I could do. After hour of work I informed the owners that their daughter's PC had not been maintained in a long time. The user had done nothing to care for the Windows operating system or the file records. The procedures were simple enough. Just highlight the drive, go down to 'Properties', click the 'Tools' tab and click 'Check now'. Then set whatever items needed doing from 'Automatically fix file system errors' to 'Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors'.

That, plus checking the windows system files using the Windows CD and the command 'SFC /SCANNOW' were all that was needed to get it going. Seems simple enough, don't you think? The parents duly informed her of the problem and made it a condition of using the system. Exactly the right thing to do, don't you think?

The daughter apparently didn't think so! She steadfastly refused to have anything to do with maintainance of the system until inevitably, it died. This is how it was explained to me by her parents on a recent return visit. The parents finally decided to get rid of it because there was no other way to settle the matter. Do you know of others like this?

Mac PC setup

Just spent yesterday setting up a new Mac PC with MACOS(similar to PC, but essentially just a big screen with all the software and interfaces built in). Took time to understand it, but after a few hours all three of us there (myself and the owners) agreed it was a really good system. The design looks like one with a bright future. It appears both stable and very intuitive.