Still not sure what's up with the PC, but I'm at least making this entry from my own machine. I uninstalled both Norton SystemWorks and my corrupted internet software, then reinstalled the internet software. Ran for a day or two (being very careful what sites I visited and what emails I opened) with no problems. Then I reinstalled Norton and at first thought things were OK, but soon found out that wasn't the case.
If I try to run the Norton one-button system check the machine usually just freezes and I have to do a hard reboot. Also, I run manual live updates of Norton (I turn off auto-updates because I don't want too much load on my dialup connection if I can help it), but for some reason I can't grab an available update of the Trusted Applications List. Norton just seems to "hang" on the installation of it once I've grabbed it. I can cancel out of the tasks at that point, but then it still says the update is there and available for download and installation the next time I try. So now I just uncheck that particular update and thus ignore it.
There's been a time or two when booting the PC that I've heard a metal grating sound and then it fails to boot giving a DISK BOOT ERROR instead. Hitting the hard reboot button and just letting it try again has so far worked when this happens, but it's obviously not a good sign that it happens at all. I began to suspect that the hard drive is dying, but last night I ran Norton Disk Doctor with a "Thorough" surface test of the C: drive and it came up clean. So I still have no idea as to what's really going on.
I'm strongly considering chucking the obsolete machine for a whole new model, but don't want to jump the gun. For now I'm still chugging along while I consider options such as: A) try a new hard drive, B) buy a ready-made new machine, C) buy components to build a new machine, or D) anything else that I just haven't thought of yet. It's a quandary.
As for my car, the Stop Leak stuff helped lessen the radiator leak, but didn't eliminate it. So now I'm strongly considering draining the radiator myself and yanking it out to see if it can be fixed (welded) or if it's too far gone and should just be replaced. Still in "Ponder" mode though.
2 days ago
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7 comments:
Hey Dim Skip,
Norton is driving my computer crazy, too. Did you just upgrade to 2007?
Thanks for the heads up on the Norton issue Angel. I have indeed wondered in the back of my mind about the efficacy of Norton these days. However, I didn't just upgrade to it and it worked fine back when I originally first installed it.
I still run Windows ME and ran Norton SystemWorks 2003 for the longest time. Then (probably early last year) I finally upgraded to SystemWorks 2006, but found that the true 2006 is only for Windows XP users (and presumably Vista users also now). Norton defaults to installing SystemWorks 2005 on a system running Windows ME.
I am wondering if it's worth uninstalling Norton again, doing a thorough search of the hard drive to remove ALL Norton file traces, editing the registry to remove all Norton/Symantec keys, and then finally doing a re-install.
However, there are still some funny sounds I hear (odd "pops") at bootup that lead me to believe the hard drive is problematic and will just die at some point.
I also found out last night during a minor power outage for a few minutes that my UPS (battery backup) no longer works and thus my PC just blipped off in the middle of my session. Luckily it seems to have recovered fine with no ill effects. I certainly wasn't expecting the power to fail (twice, both not for long) as the only storms around last night were in the distance. It's always something.
What happened with us is they sent us a free upgrade to 2007 about 3 weeks before the subscription was due. Unfortunately for me, my son spent 2 days installing it and the computer has been running very very VERY slow. As in it takes 20 minutes, at least, to boot up in the morning. So I renew the subscription and figure I now HAVE to buy 2007 (stupid angel) and so I do. Well, Norton didn't KNOW that I bought 2007 so it expired my subscription! So after fiddling around for a week, I finally emailed their support and they said to uninstall and reinstall. Another day dealing with all that and here it is, still slow. So kidlet dumped lots of files and got us much more space and then we defragged. I guess it's the best we can do. What a pain!
Just a word to the wise, don't install 2007 on your computer. I bet it would totally overload yours. On a new one, I am sure it works much better.
Thanks again, Angel. 'Preciate it and will keep that in mind. If for any reason I should end up considering a Norton upgrade anyway, I will do some serious Googling on the subject before doing so. But I'm 99% sure I won't be upgrading it. Might consider Norton alternatives, though, if things get particularly cumbersome along the way.
ah, get an Apple :-)
just to let you know the address of the Rumpus Room changed... you can replace 'scar' by 'rumpusroom' in the dreambook link, DimSkipper :-)
and Angel, don't your wings be tired by now? all i see you do is fly from blog to blog to blog lol!
Thanks Gina. As you know I found out about the Rumpus Room address change via the Porticus Rumpus and then later discovered the Rumpus TV Room via Mizar5. I was actually just popping in here to my bloggy universe to update the sidebar Rumpus links and then saw your comment suggesting I do just that. Synchronicity happens.
So 'tis done. Happy Rumpusing in the new digs.
:^)
ha, yeah, we luvs it when the universe is in sinc.
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