Linus' House of IT: 15 cents please

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Bit

I made it google.com. Spybot S&D immediately popped up a "value changed" warning--I didn't see that before. Anyhow, I'll check now....

Nope, it didn't take even though I allowed the change.

Here is the second addy of the wizard--the first one was redirected so fast I couldn't read it.

https://edit.yahoo.com/mobile/landing?intl=us

When I click "exit wizard" it takes me to this page. http://m.www.yahoo.com/ and shows that we are signed in. If I click the "My Yahoo" link on the upper left, it takes me to our usual homepage.

Can you do me a favour and boot into safe mode (See the instructions found here: http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml for your Operating System) and then do a scan with AVAST?

[Bit]

Yikes. Okay. This will take quite a while because it's hard to get there--I have to restart, right? Yes, I read the link. Okay, this will take at least twenty minutes. What do I need to bring back, any kind of reports?

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Bit

Yikes. Okay. This will take quite a while because it's hard to get there--I have to restart, right? Yes, I read the link. Okay, this will take at least twenty minutes. What do I need to bring back, any kind of reports?

It sounds like there is something hijacking the connection. Quite often these "hijacks" are easy to pick up when the computer is in safe mode because they aren't running at that time.

So just do the scan and see what, if anything is caught.

[Bit]

avast did not find anything. 21 files were unable to be scanned, but I was unable to copy the list for you; maybe avast will have archived it?

When I restarted, logged back in to the internet, and opened firefox, yahoo was redirected to the same edit link but this time the wizard did not open; I had a blank page with a "Done" message at the bottom. We'll sign in again tomorrow but for now it's past bedtime.

Thank you so much for your help, Linus; I appreciate your time and effort.

[atomiczombie]

I added a pic to my sig line via link to photobucket, and it isn't showing up on my posts. What am I doing wrong?


Um, nevermind I figured it out. lol

[dixie]

Originally Posted by Linus

It's been a while since I've done modem internet. Since you are getting a dialtone that suggests that the modem is ok. From the time it did work to now was anything installed/added/changed (particular areas to focus on are firewall/AV software)?

Have you also followed the following steps as outlined by AOL itself: http://tinyurl.com/yl3updn

No, I haven't made any recent changes. That's why I'm so confused. It sucks because with the town I live in, highspeed internet is few and far between. Dialup is all that's offered in the majority of the area.

[Linus]

Originally Posted by dixielady

No, I haven't made any recent changes. That's why I'm so confused. It sucks because with the town I live in, highspeed internet is few and far between. Dialup is all that's offered in the majority of the area.

If you've followed the steps that AOL lists, the next option would be to put a call in to them to see if they have other phone numbers you can call. It sounds like either their phone bank is overloaded or not responding.

[bonne-maman]

Linus, I have been trying and trying to figure out how to RESIZE (not just crop) photos using iPhoto on my mac. I used to be able to resize photos very easily on my pc laptop, the editing stuff had a "resize" function. iphoto only has "crop." I have tried cropping photos in all kinds of ways and they they still are too big to post here. (over 1000 kb) I know there has to be a way to do this on iPhoto and it is driving me nuts! aghhhhh!



Thanks for listening....

[Linus]

Originally Posted by bonne-maman

Linus, I have been trying and trying to figure out how to RESIZE (not just crop) photos using iPhoto on my mac. I used to be able to resize photos very easily on my pc laptop, the editing stuff had a "resize" function. iphoto only has "crop." I have tried cropping photos in all kinds of ways and they they still are too big to post here. (over 1000 kb) I know there has to be a way to do this on iPhoto and it is driving me nuts! aghhhhh!



Thanks for listening....

I've been using GIMP for years (on Mac, Windows and Linux) so I had to look this up: http://mac-tech-switching.blogspot.c...ze-photos.html

You would export it to a new size. Very weird.. but that's where they stuck it.

[Diva]

Linus....
I LOVE You for THIS ~ ~ ~ ~ >




<sigh> All is right in my world.

[MsDemeanor]

Two questions, please *dropping thirty cents in tip jar*

Question 1
Mister has an old Dell laptop. It's used for web surfing and pretty much nothing else. It keeps getting slower and sllloooowwwweeerrrrr, even though there's practically nothing on it. Why do computers get slower as they get older? I know that it's the computer and not the DSL because I have two other computers on the same network, one for home and one for work, that run screaming circles around his laptop when it comes to internet response time.

Question 2
I want to get Mister a new laptop. What is the correlation between processor and net surfing speed? I'm wondering if I need to go over my budget for an Intel Core 2, or if a cheaper Intel processor give the same result. I've been looking at the Toshiba Satellites; they all seem to have good reviews and there are plenty of low price models available with the cheaper Intel processors. We might occassionally hook it up to the HDTV to watch stuff, so an HDMI port would be a nice bonus. I know that a netbook would probably meet his needs, but we're both too old for 10 inch screens.

Oh, wait, third question *tosses in another 15 cents*

TigerDirect has this MSI notebook on sale this weekend for $419. It has the Intel Celeron T3100 and an HDMI port, so it seems to fill the bill. Do you know anything about MSI Computers?

[Linus]

My apologies for the delay in answering. I saw this last night (or rather early this morning) and was too tired to answer straight so figured best to answer this morning.

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor

Two questions, please *dropping thirty cents in tip jar*

Question 1
Mister has an old Dell laptop. It's used for web surfing and pretty much nothing else. It keeps getting slower and sllloooowwwweeerrrrr, even though there's practically nothing on it. Why do computers get slower as they get older? I know that it's the computer and not the DSL because I have two other computers on the same network, one for home and one for work, that run screaming circles around his laptop when it comes to internet response time.

There are a variety of reasons for this:

- newer computers have faster CPUs, better motherboard designs, bus speeds (the path used between CPU and memory, and CPU and other parts), amount of memory, speed of hard drive, etc.. Depending on the years apart from old to new will show significant speed differences.

- as you fill up the hard drive, less space is available for the swap file and it means more wait time while the system swaps out pages if it doesn't have enough memory.

- too much network traffic can overload the CPU, causing it to queue up traffic and slow the response down in general

- malware/spyware/viruses. The more that exist, the slower the system can get. Many of these are poorly written and thus, cause the system to slow down.

Question 2
I want to get Mister a new laptop. What is the correlation between processor and net surfing speed? I'm wondering if I need to go over my budget for an Intel Core 2, or if a cheaper Intel processor give the same result. I've been looking at the Toshiba Satellites; they all seem to have good reviews and there are plenty of low price models available with the cheaper Intel processors. We might occassionally hook it up to the HDTV to watch stuff, so an HDMI port would be a nice bonus. I know that a netbook would probably meet his needs, but we're both too old for 10 inch screens.

Faster processor means more network packets translated faster. And pages interpreted/render faster. And pictures rendered faster. And new OS to do all that faster. And... (I think you get the picture).

While you don't need the ultimate (I believe most of the newer systems are coming with quad cores) a dual core Intel cheap (NOT celeron please) would be sufficient for both short term and long term (I always look at long term being 3-5 years, at least, as a lifetime for a good system).

Toshiba Satellites have gotten a better and better rap over the years.

Netbooks are interesting but smaller keyboard and screen can be a challenge. For a couple of hundred more you can get a decent laptop. One of the things you should consider is support plan. If you buy from a manufacturer, what kind of phone support do you get? Do you get any? (and that's a question about the laptop listed below).

Oh, wait, third question *tosses in another 15 cents*

TigerDirect has this MSI notebook on sale this weekend for $419. It has the Intel Celeron T3100 and an HDMI port, so it seems to fill the bill. Do you know anything about MSI Computers?

As I said, I personally prefer to stay away from celerons. I know they designed them for laptops but I find that a laptop with a celeron doesn't last as long as one with a full Intel Pentium or Intel Core CPU. I've never used MSI so I can't say it's good or bad but reviews on Epinion.com and apparently on TigerDirect suggest that it's good. To me, it's an unknown and I tend to stick with brand names (yes, I know I pay more but it's a known quantity to me so saves on a step).

[MsDemeanor]

Originally Posted by Linus

My apologies for the delay in answering. I saw this last night (or rather early this morning) and was too tired to answer straight so figured best to answer this morning.
.

Thank you for the wonderful answers. I wrote the questions before bed, and woke up to find answers, so there didn't seem to be any kind of delay at all

You rock!

[Abigail Crabby]

Good morning Linus

I have a tech question?


Lately my computer freezes up -

I don't even have to be on it - I'll come home from work and it's frozen and I have to hard reboot.

I tried doing a roll back on Vista but I get an error message on that as well......

Help?

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Abigail Crabby

Good morning Linus

I have a tech question?


Lately my computer freezes up -

I don't even have to be on it - I'll come home from work and it's frozen and I have to hard reboot.

I tried doing a roll back on Vista but I get an error message on that as well......

Help?

How much disk space is left on the C:?

Have you installed anything lately on to the system?

[Abigail Crabby]

Originally Posted by Linus

How much disk space is left on the C:?

Have you installed anything lately on to the system?

211 free gigs

and the only thing I updated was my flash player for farmville?

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Abigail Crabby

211 free gigs

and the only thing I updated was my flash player for farmville?

No Windows updates?

[Bit]

Hello, Linus! *pours lotsa coins into tip jar*

I have a weird problem that I cannot figure out how to solve; my computer screen keeps changing colors on me. Right now it's yellow; all the colors are grayed out, and everything which should be bright white is a strange grayed out greenish yellow. After a few minutes, it will switch to another color. I cannot find the setting to turn this weirdness off. Right now, I notice it's slowly leaving yellow and going more green. The smilies are all pink instead of bright yellow...

I'm running Windows 7, IE--it does affect the whole computer, not just the browser. It even affects the games.

Sure hope you know where to look to change this setting; calibrating the colors and changing themes does nothing to affect it.

Thanks!

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Bit

Hello, Linus! *pours lotsa coins into tip jar*

I have a weird problem that I cannot figure out how to solve; my computer screen keeps changing colors on me. Right now it's yellow; all the colors are grayed out, and everything which should be bright white is a strange grayed out greenish yellow. After a few minutes, it will switch to another color. I cannot find the setting to turn this weirdness off. Right now, I notice it's slowly leaving yellow and going more green. The smilies are all pink instead of bright yellow...

I'm running Windows 7, IE--it does affect the whole computer, not just the browser. It even affects the games.

Sure hope you know where to look to change this setting; calibrating the colors and changing themes does nothing to affect it.

Thanks!

Is this a laptop or a desktop?

If it's a desktop, check the connections at the back of the computer and see if the monitor cable is loose.

If that doesn't work, ensure the video card is set in place. This will mean turning off the computer, opening the case and carefully ensuring the card is fully seated. Check the back where the connection is and ensure that none of the pins are bent.

If you have a 2nd monitor, attach that and see if it results in the same behaviour.

If these suggestions don't work or it's a laptop, please take it to a Geek Squad location. It's possible that something happened to the card.

[Bit]

Thank you, Linus! Tis a desktop; I'll check the cord and card.