# Few problems with my machine



## capthavoc123 (Jul 20, 2008)

Hey all, could use some help with my laptop.

I have an IBM ThinkPad T42 with a 1.70GHz Pentium M processor, 1.25GB of RAM, and an ATI MOBILITY Radeon 9600 AGP Graphics Card. For virus protection I run AVG 8.0 and for spyware I have Spybot and Ad-Aware 2008. I run the real-time spyware detectors with both Spybot and Ad-Aware. This post will be a little long, so please bear with me. I could really use some advice. I use Windows XP Service Pack 2.

For a time now, I've been noticing a number of quirks that my computer seems to have picked up. Here's a list of what I see:

1. On startup, I'll get an alert that I may not have an active firewall, but the alert disappears after approximately one minute and when I check the Windows Security Center it says my firewall is active. I'm 99% sure this is just my computer being a bitch and there's nothing to worry about here, but still.

2. Every so often, usually at the end of the day, my internet will begin failing to display certain images and Yahoo! Mail will begin screwing up. Some websites (like deviantart) will not display or work correctly. Is this a problem with my computer or is it possibly a bug with Firefox 3 that hasn't been fixed by Mozilla yet? It will always be fixed the next time I turn my computer on, and it sometimes resolves itself.

3. Sometimes when I change my desktop background, the folder that the picture is in will begin "not responding". The screen will go blank for a time and then come back with the picture I just selected as my background, apparently nothing having gone wrong. AVG, however, will show the icon in the tray signifying that a scan is in progress, but no scan is actually running and the icon will not disappear when I try to cancel scans.

4. My disk drive will often not eject when I press the eject button. Trying to do it from Windows will also not work. Again, this problem resolves when I restart my laptop.

5. This isn't really a question, but are there any good (free) registry scanners available for Windows? I'd like to scan my registry for errors in case this is the root of my problems.

Before I receive any answers, I'll say that I have defragged both my external and internal hard drives in the last week and recent scans by AVG, Spybot, and Ad-Aware show no viruses or spyware on my system.

Thanks for anyone who takes the time to read these problems, and big thanks for any help you guys can give me. I have full warranty coverage from Lenovo still, but I'd like to fix things on my own if I can before taking it to them and possibly having to shell out for new hardware.


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## ArielMT (Jul 20, 2008)

For starters, it sounds like your book takes forever and a day to start.  The Windows Security Alert pop-up could just as easily be an artifact as it could be a real problem: either your firewall hasn't started yet when the pop-up appears, or Windows is just slow to recognize that it has.  Are you using the built-in Windows Firewall or a third-party firewall program?  (If third-party, which one?)

And how much other stuff do you have starting up when Windows starts?

Two active scanners for the same purpose is not a good thing; if they're not tripping over each others' feet to find and handle the same threat, then they're slowing down your system measurably by both running at the same time.  Choose either Spybot or Ad-Aware, and save the other for manual scans of your system.

You mention that you have AVG 8.0, but is that simply the free antivirus edition or the full suite including anti-spyware and firewall?  (That makes three running programs all doing the same job and fighting with each other, if you have AVG Anti-Spyware as well.)

I'm extremely hesitant to recommend any special-purpose registry scanners, especially ones that claim to clean the registry, because of how fragile the registry is and how essential it is to Windows' well-being.  A simple mistake or a poorly-written program touching the registry could do anything from changing an icon's appearance to preventing the system from booting at all, or anything in between.  I'll leave it to others to recommend a good one, if such a program exists.

When you tell Windows to eject your CD drive and it doesn't, does the drive try to eject and fail, or does it ignore you completely?


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## capthavoc123 (Jul 20, 2008)

ArielMT said:


> For starters, it sounds like your book takes forever and a day to start.  The Windows Security Alert pop-up could just as easily be an artifact as it could be a real problem: either your firewall hasn't started yet when the pop-up appears, or Windows is just slow to recognize that it has.  Are you using the built-in Windows Firewall or a third-party firewall program?  (If third-party, which one?)



Using the built-in Windows. My system only takes about five minutes to start up completely.



			
				ArielMT said:
			
		

> And how much other stuff do you have starting up when Windows starts?



Windows Firewall, Steam, HP Digital Imaging Monitor, Ad-Watch 2008, AVG, Maxtor Manager.



			
				ArielMT said:
			
		

> Two active scanners for the same purpose is not a good thing; if they're not tripping over each others' feet to find and handle the same threat, then they're slowing down your system measurably by both running at the same time.  Choose either Spybot or Ad-Aware, and save the other for manual scans of your system.



Yeah, I figured that one out on my own after coming here, so now I only have Ad-Watch running.



			
				ArielMT said:
			
		

> You mention that you have AVG 8.0, but is that simply the free antivirus edition or the full suite including anti-spyware and firewall?  (That makes three running programs all doing the same job and fighting with each other, if you have AVG Anti-Spyware as well.)



I have AVG Free, so there's no conflict there.



			
				ArielMT said:
			
		

> When you tell Windows to eject your CD drive and it doesn't, does the drive try to eject and fail, or does it ignore you completely?



It does absolutely nothing. No message or anything.

Thanks for the response, by the way. Hopefully these clarifications make a difference.


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## Hollud (Jul 21, 2008)

capthavoc123 said:


> I have AVG Free, so there's no conflict there.



Actually, there is.

The new AVG 8.0 (even the free one) comes with a built-in basic anti-spyware scanner as well. To have such a service bundled in is the trend with anti-virus programs these days. I use Avast and, even though it's not explicitly listed, it's there after digging about the program.

With regards to your Firewall and Windows Security Alerts, it could simply be a case of too many things loading at the same time. The Windows Security Centre could have loaded *before* the firewall did, and thus resulted in this error. But once the firewall loaded itself, the alert would have disappeared. That is my best guess on that issue.

To solve your Internet problem, there are a few points that requires clarification:

- Wired or wireless?
- DSL or Cable?
- When it resolves, do you just leave it alone? Or do you do the whole 'repair Internet connection' thing?

As for the screen blanking out and non-responsiveness of the system, it sounds like there's a bottleneck somewhere in your system. It's like... running too many things at the same time, resulting a gradual performance degradation. The computer may become unresponsive and halt at times. I'm not entirely sure whether it's a problem with AVG (given it's false scan reports and all) but monitor your hard disk activity when this problem occurs again.

I have a Lenovo Y400 at home (slot-load DVD drive) and recently, there's a problem with it. If I move it about and wake it from Standby, the DVD drive disappears from existence. A reboot fixes this, but I suspect that the DVD drive isn't connected properly (or has become loose), resulting in this problem. Perhaps you are encountering the same problem as myself, which would mean a trip to Lenovo would be quite possible in the near future.


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## capthavoc123 (Jul 21, 2008)

Hollud said:


> To solve your Internet problem, there are a few points that requires clarification:
> 
> - Wired or wireless?
> - DSL or Cable?
> - When it resolves, do you just leave it alone? Or do you do the whole 'repair Internet connection' thing?



I'm not sure what the type of internet connection has to do with it, but I'm on a wired T3 connection.

It's not like my internet connection is disconnected. It's just that certain webpages become screwed up.


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## Hollud (Jul 21, 2008)

capthavoc123 said:


> I'm not sure what the type of internet connection has to do with it, but I'm on a wired T3 connection.
> 
> It's not like my internet connection is disconnected. It's just that certain webpages become screwed up.


Try running IE and FireFox side-by-side when the web pages go wonky. This would eliminate your Internet connection as the primary suspect and leave only the browser as the key.

If the browser is the problem, submit a bug report to Mozilla. Check whether your version is the latest. And check whether it's your plug-ins causing trouble to your web sites.

Oh, if you want a free registry cleaner, try CCleaner (Crap Cleaner). It's available from here.


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## capthavoc123 (Jul 22, 2008)

Okay, after spending a few hours on the phone with Lenovo and running a hardware diagnostic on my machine, both me and the tech support guys agree that these issues are probably all software-related, so they suggested a reformat and reinstall of XP. So that's what I'll be doing and I hope it solves my issues. If it doesn't, I'll probably be making a trip to my local Lenovo service provider.


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## Hollud (Jul 23, 2008)

Sounds like a good plan.


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## capthavoc123 (Jul 26, 2008)

Re-install solved all the problems.


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## Hollud (Jul 26, 2008)

Hurrah!

That's what all computers need every now and then; a complete purge to clear the system. Kinda like what those detox things does for us...


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