A thread for boring computer questions.

(if you're near an apple store, i might surreptitiously bring a blank CD-R and burn one from there, or maybe ask the perky employees if it's OK if you do)

Those types of issues are always such a pain to try to solve over forums/Internet, instead of in person.

Throwing some (semi-random) ideas:

try to download on different browsers (chrome, firefox, ie)
clear your cache
if you can, don't connect through router/hub, but directly
i believe you can request an livecd from ubuntu?

do you download small files okay? or both large and small are affected?

That should read: I believe you can request a mailed copy of Ubuntu's liveCD

What were you doing right before the machine started acting up?

I moved; it worked fine in my old house and is not working now so I'm terrified it's a damaged hardware issue

All sized files are affected (as small as 500k), have tried different browsers and also emptying the cache (in Chrome at least)

My roommate has a computer so when he gets home imma download a bunch of drivers and live cd building stuffs and try to work it out

FUUUCK

I uninstalled and reinstalled the wireless driver and now I can connect to the Internet but files/pages are still corrupted. I am cooking a Ubuntu Live USB key now.

I am posting this from Ubuntu! Everything works flawlessly!! I WANT TO JUST RUN THIS AND NEVER GO BACK EVER UGGGHHHH WHY WON'T WINDOWS WORK WHYYYYY

If you have a copy of it, you might as well format your HDD and re-install Windoze.

oh my god fuck no

also I totally do not

Fair enough.

Unfortunately, I still have to use Windoze for certain things, so I have *nix on a partition.

Okay, so reinstalling the driver did *something* because I can now connect to my home network and I don't get blue screens when the computer goes to sleep, BUT

I am still getting corrupted data/images/pages/downloads sometimes, both over WiFi and Ethernet. Could it be a TCP/IP thing?

this might be a crummy workaround but since networking works on your livecd
You could install Linux, and access your windows stuff from there using wine.
could it be a virus do you think?

it totally sounds like a hardware issue, especially as its happening in different browsers. but you're saying it works on Linux... very strange. it does sound like a possible virus

the best solution if you're set on windows is to wipe and reinstall

I know but like backing up all my files and settings and all sorts of things and reinstalling would be the biggest fucking pain in the ass of all time

I just reset TCP/IP again and booted in Safe Mode w/ Networking but I'm still getting the same issues (that is, the Internet is 95% functional but with the occasional streaky/corrupted image and p much all file downloads winding up corrupted and YouTube videos not really loading). I have, however, fixed the BSoD's by updating the wireless driver. And yes, the Ubuntu LiveCD makes everything work: pages are formatted correctly, images are fresh and clean, YouTube works, file downloads are successful.

ALSO OF NOTE: BitTorrent downloads seem to work fine. What does it all mean???!!!???

BitTorrent has checking mechanisms in place so it might be downloading multiple times to make sure you got things right

I tried running AVG but nothing came up. Should I boot in Ubuntu and download Microsoft Security Essentials and/or Ad-Aware New Spiffy Mega Antivirus+ 2015? And if so should I uninstall AVG bcz iirc multiple virus scanners fight like the dickens.

here's the script for removing malware, if you suspect that

http://www.metafilter.com/user/77879

Have you tried a different browser also?

windows man... it's wipe time

Yeah, data's fucked up in all browsers

Might be that something in your Win registry is corrupt?

Downgrade drivers to an old version?

Try defragging?

If you still have the problem, create a recovery/repair disk, preferably from another Windows machine (make sure you have the right version and stuff). Run the repair kit?

If that doesn't work, do you do backups? Revert to a last working system. Should override stuff.

Also, this might sound nuts, but ensure everything inside your tower is securely plugged. Push everything in and stuff. Give it a clean if it's dusty. Now plug it in to a DIFFERENT outlet. In fact, if you can, don't plug it to a power strip, but directly to the wall. And try plugging it to different ones, if possible.

I'm not much of a hardware guy, but this is what comes to mind.

I'm kind of out of ideas.

(network drivers, that is)

What do you need to preserve on your windows setup?
Most Linux distros are set up to access existing windows partitions and can sometimes run a lot of the software too

guh I think it might have been a conflict with AVG to be honest, will investigate further and report back

got so bad that I'm now referring to using a proxy site to view any youtube vids. It's not bad, apart from losing a lot of YT functionality like playlists and signing in, but meh as long as I can watch a damn video without it stopping.

― Ste, Sunday, May 26, 2013 7:16 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Argh, this is happening to me now too. I can't get through a fucking 3-minute youtube without it stopping. What's the best proxy site to avoid this?

It's probably your ISP. There's a bit of a peering war going on. There's a good story about it doing the rounds, which I can't seem to find argh

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/07/the-secret-deals-that-mean-you-have-to-wait-for-youtube-to-buffer/

My Youtube is totally fine now, has been for a while. I used ProxFree.com which worked fine as a replacement though.

thinking of swapping out 250gb hdd for a smaller ssd- not tied down to a particular size, could go for straight swap and use it normally or install a much smaller drive just for running and OS purposes and have all my main data/files external

you will have had thoughts and experience and i will have them from you, now

nb there was no thread for awesome & interesting computer questions and i didnt feel like starting one

Not a desperate world-ender of a computer problem, more of a head-scratcher. I keep several text clippings on my desktop, boilerplate stuff that goes with ad proofs in some cases, general work emails in other cases. I used to be able to drag and drop the text-clipping icons into Thunderbird new-message windows, but suddenly they don't do anything. Blinking cursor before, blinking cursor after. I can still open them and C&P, but dragging and dropping is the first thing I was promised after jetpacks and self-driving cars. Doesn't seem to have started after a Tbird update, and restarting the machine doesn't help. Any ideas?

Just tried it myself and it works.

You are dragging the file in the To area, right?

One thing that comes to mind is permissions/rights and users. So check that.

No, into the body of the email. It worked for months until suddenly it didn't.

Okay. I guess the question is: does it work now that you drag it into the To area?

Hmm, yes it will! It'll show up there and in the subject line area, but not the message body.

Oh this is terrible.

In an attempt to remove some adware from Firefox, I went to Help --> Troubleshooting Information --> Reset Firefox

(I was following steps on a web page purporting to help you remove the adware.)

Now Firefox is wiped clean, all my bookmarks gone, all my add-ons gone.

Can I get my settings/bookmarks/add-ons back with Sync? Is there something else I can do?

To lose all this stuff would be pretty disastrous. Looking around in Sync, it seems to only want to let me sync 2 devices, when all I need to do is retrieve my settings from the cloud/mozilla server (right?).

Help is very much appreciated!

I tried a system restore, but Firefox was still in freshly-installed state.

Do you have backups of your HD? The Firefox profile folder will restore pretty cleanly from one if you have it

Firefox has what I'll call a working folder, which will be something like C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\wo3v7c94.default. The bookmarks are stored in that folder in a file called bookmarks.html. One level down from that should be a folder called "\bookmarkbackups" where you should find several bookmark backup files with a ".json" extension. Copy the latest one to the working folder, renaming it "bookmarks.html", then restart Firefox. The bookmarks should come back.

If that doesn't work, do a search for the file "bookmarks.html", or if it doesn't exist, "bookmarks.bak". If you find it, copy the latest version of it (renaming it to bookmarks.html if necessary) to the Firefox working folder. If you find more than one of the aforementioned files, use the latest one.

I'm not sure how Firefox handles add-ons and plug-ins or where they're stored.

Another key file in Firefox is "sessionstore.js". I always keep a few backups of that one around and update it frequently; it stores all your tabs and such.

I recently did this too. it was very vague in telling you what was about to happen, like it would just clean up things, not delete ALL your add-ones. I was v annoyed.

with me it did keep my bookmarks. I also found a directory on my desktop with all the old data backed up in it (but only the day after) so look for that. it's called something like Firefox Saved Data.

add-ons. stupid phone.

did anything work?

Lee, thank you. For some reason FF couldn't find my bookmark backup files but they were there, just had to transfer the stuff manually per your instructions. Very grateful for your help!

Does anyone know exactly what's saved in Firefox's "prefs.js" file? That's the other one I know of that stores personal settings of some sort, along with sessionstore.js and bookmarks.html. Is there a specific plug-ins or add-ons file that stores all of your customizations?

And, what are the equivalent files in Chrome? (which I'd love to move to once I learn the deep technical aspects)

also good to read you're back up and running, you're more than welcome for any help i could be.....

So ive been getting warnings about my primary battery being low, reading up the web seemed p fuckin unclear as to whether this was cmos or the actual unplug-and-use battery, but now the damned thing cant find an OS or hard drive upon startup

Please, someone, tell me its the (quick, cheap, easy fix) cmos battery thats likely here

Isn't the main warning about the CMOS that the date/time is wrong? :/

Check your BIOS date/time if you can?

I got as far as a chkdsk that returned no errors but still wont startup.

I'll change the cmos tomorrow (yeah it controls the time but also has something to do with routing through BIOS iirc?) so hopefully it'll right it.....