IT Queries: Computer problems answered

Hi,
Im not to bad with computers but latley of got the \”megaclick\” virus were it takes you to the megaclick page whenever you clickany link and claims it doesnt exist(obviously a lie since google does exist)
Ive tried all my virus programs wich are

Greg

Greg, you have a spyware infection. Page hijacking, where the start page is taken over by the bad guys, is a classic trick of these people.

To fix it, follow our Removing a Trojan advice. Before starting, make sure your Spybot Search and Destroy is fully up to date along with the other removal tools.

Hi

After working on a document (University paper) for 8 hours that same document was saved without the final changes although it was saved at various stages along the way. All we have is the document opened at the starting point.

Our question is, is there a way to access the document at a point prior to the last save, the save icon was pressed to save the work to C: drive, and also e: Flash drive, but the search with the filter, ‘date modified ‘failed to locate the finished document in either place.

I have Windows XP.

It sounds like the document hasn’t saved to where you think it did. The first thing we’d suggest to search all your drives to see if it isn’t hiding in a different location.

Another possibility is the name is wrong, try searching for all files modified in that time. It might be under a different name or file type.

If you still can’t find it, Microsoft Word (which is what we’ll assume you’re using) saves the file you’re working on as a tmp file. Often, Word doesn’t clean these up so there’s a working copy of your document still on the system.

Often temp files are hidden, so in the Windows search panel choose the More Advanced Options heading and tick the Search hidden files and folders option and repeat your search on all files modified during that time.

Unfortunately in this case it does sound like you’ve done everything right. So if you can’t find it there might be a problem with your computer and we’d recommend getting a tech out to check it.

Hi,

Can you please tell me to name of the programme that you can buy/download that is used to return digital dictation that you have accidently deleted from your computer.

Julie

Hi Julie,

Losing any file is a serious pain. The best free tool we’ve come across is Restoration.

When you’ve lost a file, the most important thing is to stop using that computer. The more you use the computer, the more likely you are to overwrite the deleted file.

We recommend you download the program to another computer, then copy the program to a USB drive or CD (Restoration will actually fit on a floppy disk which you can use if you have spare disks and both machines have floppy drives).

When you run it, choose the drive (usually c: drive) where the file was lost from, type part of the lost file’s name (leave blank if you don’t remember what it was called) and click Search Deleted Files.

The search might take some time, several hours if you’ve left the file name blank and it’s a big drive. Be patient and let it run.

Once its finished and the list of found files appears, highlight the file you want and click the Restore by copying button. You’ll be asked to save the file somewhere, make sure you choose a place and name you’ll remember.

Losing data is always a big worry and this is why we always recommend having a backup drive and good backup software.

I’m using Windows XP Pro Service Pack 1. The system is often very slow changing from one page to another, especially on Ebay.

I can select a favourite search in MyEbay and the new page sits there blank white with an hourglass and no activity on the data in & out meter. Hit refresh and it comes up immediately for a second and then goes blank again. This has lost us a few good buys on Ebay cause it wouldn’t go to the next page quickly.

Progressively getting worse, used to be perfect. Now on 1500k/sec connection.

Ta Geoff

Hi Geoff, we assume you are using Internet Explorer. It’s possible the phishing filter is interfering with the site. We’ve discussed this previously where it’s caused problems and we’d suggest turning it off.

You may want to check you aren’t infected with spyware. One favourite trick of spyware writers is to redirect web browsers so it looks like they are coming from somewhere else and this is exactly the sort of problem they can create. Try the XCleaner online scan tool.

Other things that could be causing it are toolbars with various phishing and malware filters. The Google and Yahoo! toolbars are quite capable of this. You can either uninstall them or disable them.

I don’t seem to have any temporary internet files. When I go into disc cleanup no files are shown. I used to have many folders with these files in them.

I have windows XP.

Regards Caryl

Hi Caryl,

Given your web browser is working you almost certainly will have some temporary Internet files. It may be that you’re not using Internet Explorer, programs like Firefox, Opera and Safari save their temporary files to another location.

If you are using IE, then it might be that someone has set it to delete temporary files when you close it.

You can check all of this by going into the Internet Explorer and clicking Tools, options and Advanced. The setting to clear temporary files is under the Security heading.

Just wondering what you think about registry cleaning software. Is it a good idea? I visited a comparison website at compareregistrycleaners.org and the test results for Max Registry cleaner shape up the best.

We’re a little wary of any registry cleaners. While the theory of deleting unnecessary registry entries is good, there’s a lot of scope for things to go horribly, horribly wrong.

In our view the risk of messing up the computer doesn’t justify the speed improvement most computers will see after running an effective registry cleaner.

If you do want to try a registry cleaner we’d suggest the venerable and free CleanReg from Armstong Systems. This will scan the registry and find redundant entries. It’s best to run it after uninstalling any unused programs as poor uninstall routines are the main cause of unnecessary registry keys.

Before running a registry cleaner, make sure you’ve created a restore point. This will save your system should the scanner delete a critical value.

Also note that we haven’t tested any registry cleaners on Windows Vista. We’d suggest not running any until there’s a better body of knowledge on how Vista behaves with these cleaners.

My operating system is Me and recently I have received the following error message. It is headed SNDSRVC.EXE – EMBEDDING and below this says, Sndsrvc has caused an error in Kernel32.DLL. Sndsrvc will now close. Another error message which has appeared on a couple of occasions is, Error Starting Program, followed by The IPHLPAPI.DLL cannot start. Check the file to determine the problem. I would be grateful for any advice.

The SNDSRVC.EXE service is part of the Norton Internet Security suite. If you have Norton we’d suggest uninstalling it first.

If you have uninstalled Norton then it’s possible some of the components are still present. You can remove them by downloading and running the Norton removal tool provided by Symantec. Be careful with this tool as it will disable products like PC Anywhere and Winfax.

It’s also possible you have a spyware infection. We’d suggest testing the machine for an infection. We’ve previously posted how to do this.

Finally, you might have to search the hard drive to find where this file is hiding. That will give clues on how to remove it.

Don’t forget to create restore points before carrying out each of these suggestions.

I have been a McAfee user for a year, but my subscription has run out and when I tried to renew nothing happened, they took the money and I did not get renewed. They have repaid me the money , but I need to have virus protection, can you help me with my problem please.

Unfortunately McAfee and Symantec don’t make it easy for customers to renew their subscriptions and it’s one of the reasons why we recommend other products.

For antivirus, we’d recommend something like Kaspersky, F-Secure and AVG Professional. These are paid-for programs which give you support.

If you want to save money, there are free programs like AVG Free and Anti-Vir. Be aware that free software comes with no support. So if you hit problems you are on your own.

Another criticism we have of the bigger anti-virus programs is they have convoluted and unreliable removal programs. We’d strongly recommend going to the Add/Remove programs section of the Control Panel and removing anything with McAfee in its name.

I’m using Firefox and finding it keeps freezing up on me. I have to restart it everytime.

 Can I fix it?

System freezes are a pretty common complaint in the current version of Firefox. A good free program to fix it is FireTune. We recommend downloading this program and installing it on your computer.

When you run it, make sure Firefox is closed. Click the “Create backup of configuration” button so you can undo things if they go wrong.

In the first window, you’ll be asked what combination of computer and Internet connection you have. There’s an explanation of what is a fast computer and Internet connection at the bottom of the screen.

In the Other Useful Settings tab, click the Optimise Firefox memory usage button.

Click the Tune It! button and close the program.

Restart Firefox.

So far, trials on our machines have seen a good improvement. Give it a go and see how it works for you.

My anti virus program says it’s detected a Trojan on my work computer, and then requested delete, but the computer is still behaving strangely and the warning keeps happening. Is there another program that may help?

Simply deleting the Trojan probably won’t work. The problem with these programs is they are designed to hide in system files and reappear at the first opportunity.

Fixing a Trojan infection can be a very difficult process. The first step is to backup your data. It may be necessary to wipe your computer and reinstall everything.

Once you’ve backed up all your data, download as many spyware removal tools as possible to remove the trojan. We’d suggest starting with Malware Bytes, Spybot and Adaware.

A good anti-virus is also important. We’d recommend installing one of the free virus protection tools which we discuss at Which Free Anti-Virus is Best.

Each of these programs should be installed and their update routines run so they are fully up to date. DO NOT SCAN YOUR COMPUTER OR TRY TO REMOVE THE TROJAN YET.

Shutdown your computer and restart in Safe Mode. This will start the computer with the basic settings and, hopefully, without the Trojan starting, this is essential if you want to remove the trojan from your system.

With the computer running in Safe Mode, run all the anti virus and anti spyware programs you previously installed. Do one at a time and be aware this will take many hours.

This will clear all but the worst Trojan, virus or spyware infections, but what you should be aware of is modern malare is very good at hiding itself and if the problem persists you either have to call a technician or wipe the computer. This may be necessary to remove the Trojan from your computer

After any spyware or Trojan infection, you should be aware that any online services you’ve accessed might be compromised. We highly recommend you change all banking and other sensitive passwords and monitor your financial statements closely after finding an infection.