Computer help PLEASE!
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion Archive: Archive January 2005:
Computer help PLEASE!
No one can figure out why this is happening. I've called my internet service and a computer shop.
This morning I surfed the web, came here, played poker..nothing out of the ordinary. I did'nt not go anywhere I had'nt been before, did'nt download anything and did'nt open any mail.
I came back to the computer about 15 min. later to find that everything is magnified. Pictures, words, everything is bigger. Also, now I can't surf the web. I can go anywhere that is on my favorites, like here, but it won't let me go anywhere new, when I type anything into the search engine it says page cannot be displayed....it says that for EVERYTHING!
Any ideas? Please help...
By the way I already did virus scans and that came up fine.
Mara
Okay i guess it must be a virus or something becuase my words are magnified too?
Okay i can get to other sites though like dr phil i went there yesterday everything is regular size there.
I am assuming you have checked your view menu and text size.
If all else fails, is there a "go back" or "restore" feature in your operating system? By this, I mean a way you can return to an earlier version of your computer. I know there is such a thing in Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I think you have to shut down and re-open in safe mode. Try going into Windows Help, typing Restore in the search window, and see what information is provided. If it is anything that involves steps, print out the information so that you have it handy.
Sounds like your computer's display driver crashed and reset your screen resolution to 640x480.
Restart your computer.
If it comes up again in 640x480:
Right click on the EMPTY desktop.
Select Properties.
When Display Properties comes up select Settings.
On the Screen Resolution slider, move it to something like 800x600 or 1024x768.
If all this doesn't work, post what you found the Display Properties slider set to.
I don't know what the deal is here with mine either but it's not the resolution on mine? It's only online with me i can go to different websites though?I tried to have a conversation with support online last night but it kept not going through..
JOHN,
Thanks so much for your help. Mine was set at 640x480. The funny thing is yesterday when I went to the exact same place it said that it had an unknown monitor and it would'nt let me change the setting. Today it recongnized my monitor and let me change the settings...go figure.
But the other problem is still happening. I still can not surf. I tried MSN search engine and everything comes up page cannot be displayed. I tried to go to yahoo's search engine but it won't even let me go to yahoo. GRRR
Any other excellent advice for me?? 
thanks again,
Mara
Run your antivirus program. Use live update (if you have Norton) and then run another virus scan. If you have any anti-spyware programs, run them. If you don't have anti-spyware programs, ask a friend to download Spybot and AdAware (not Ad Aware, but Adaware) for you - you can find them at pcworld.com
They are the first two downloads on this link:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1247,00.asp
Both are free. Both are highly rated by most professional PC publications and writers. When you (or your friend) downloads the programs they should be immediately updated. My instinct is that anything that is controlling how/where you browse is possibly spyware.
Oh, and have you added or upgraded any programs recently. I recently added Norton Internet Security 2005 to my computer and it took about four days to get through the training, glitches, etc. - for a while my email couldn't get through the anti-spam filter.
The Zonealarm program on the same page at PCWorld is a free firewall which has the happy faculty of not only preventing outside programs from attacking your computer, but also, if you get spyware on your computer it will stop the spyware from communicating out.
ZoneAlarm works great. We have it on all three of our computers and rarely have a problem. (along with antivirus and running spyware programs occasionally.)
Ginny!
I already had Adaware and AVG virus scan but neither of those found anything. So I downloaded the Spybot that you recomended and VIOLA! It worked! My computer is now acting normal.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
Mara
Mara, I see that AVG virus scan is a free program. Do you have Norton or McAfee anti-virus programs on your computer? If not, I strongly urge you to get one or the other. Personally, I prefer Norton, and just bought and loaded Nortion Internet Security 2005, which has, in addition to virus protection (including worms and trojan horses), a spam detector, popup blocker (which really works) and ad blocker (which really, really works - I didn't realize how some sites I visit a lot would look without ads). If you don't have one of these programs you really need one. I don't think any free program really provides good virus protection, though they probably scan pretty well to detect viruses.
Also adjust your cookies, Mara. I adjusted my cookies several months ago and have had almost no spyware since. Go into Tools, Internet Options, Privacy, Advanced - click Override Automatic Cookie Handling, and click Prompt for both First and Third Party cookies.
The downside of this is that at first every time you go to a site you will get a window saying the site wants to download a cookie to your computer and ask what you want to do - allow or not. There is a box to click to make your decision permanent in either case so, for example, you will be asked if you want Momsview to be allowed to download a cookie to your computer and you can say Allow it, and click the box to make your decision permanent. After a while, when you have dealt with decisions about sites you visit frequently, you won't see this window very often. By keeping sites from downloading cookies (except where you want a cookie to log/sign you in when you visit a site like Momsview), you keep the site or someone else from putting information tracking or a control on your computer. And, if you find that a site has to download a cookie for you to do something you want to do (i.e., Amazon), you can always click the "sites" button in the privacy window and bring up a window that lets you type the name of a site into the instruction window to bring up the cookies for that site, and change the disallow to allow - I've had to do that occasionally.
Keeping cookies off your computer is, along with anti-virus software, the first line of protection for me.
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