[john demin]

Hi Everyone.

This is my very first post,
I must apologise if this has been discussed 10,000 times.

My wife has an acer aspire 4315 laptop, it if quite new, she only uses it for ebay (to spend my money!) and email.
There has been no other software installed, until today.

I have installed some software for a digital camera, it said, " you must restart for changes to take effect"
I did, but now I get the blue stop error message everytime. I don't have a boot/recovery disk and can't go to system restore because no restore points were made.

Trying to start in any mode, safe, command prompt etc does not work either, is there any other way?
Even if I can get into it to remove the camera software that would be great.

Ps, the start up repair does not work either.

John Denim.

[Kindovic]

wats the error msg?
able to start in safe mode?

[Volatus]

john demin, on Jul 3 2008, 10:55 AM, said:

My wife has an acer aspire 4315 laptop, it if quite new, she only uses it for ebay (to spend my money!) and email.

Let's start with the wife problem first.

(Had to do it, sorry I couldn't offer any other help without the actual text of the error...)

[oskingen]

it looks like you tried everything. Can't tell you what to do. But there is one universal solution about Microsoft OS, know it ? FORMAT

[john demin]

Yea, sometimes I think a divorce would be cheaper than Ebay!
Well, I bit the bullet, as she did not have anything important on :c drive anyway I formatted the disk.
I used the <ctrl> + <F10> to format during start up, she had to start again, but at least there was no loss of data.

The good thing is that Norton trial was installed again!
Apart from AVG, is there any other free anti virus software out there?

Cheers guys,

John Denim.

This post has been edited by john demin: 06 July 2008 - 06:53 AM

[Andromeda43]

Probably the worse thing you can have on a laptop, is Norton.
Remove it at once. It's a huge system resource hog and can bring
many PC's right down to their knees. And, it's not even a good Anti-Virus program.

Whew.....that felt good. Nothing like a good rant on a Sunday morning.

FWIW: You never need to install the software that comes with a camera.
In fact, some of it is so poorly written that it's crashed many a PC.
Kodak Easyshare is my prime example.
I've had to recover many a PC that it's screwed up.

Windows has all the software you need to input pictures and view them.
For more detailed work on pictures, I use "PhotoFiltre".

But, NEVER, do I EVER install the software that comes with a camera.

Yes, remove Norton and replace it with AVG 8.0 FREE.
Did I mention, it's FREE ?

ANTI-VIRUS PROTECTION:

World famous AVG 8.0 FREE (Completely NEW Version)
will keep your computer free of viruses, trojans, dialers, etc.
By default, it updates and scans for viruses on a daily basis.
AVG 8.0 FREE, can be downloaded from:
http://free.grisoft....ownload?prd=afe

Scroll down the page to "Download AVG FREE 8.0" and then click on
the Download button:
Save the file to your desktop and run the install from there.
If you have an older version of AVG free already installed,
the new version will un-install it for you.
(This is NOT an update...it's a completely NEW Version)
Immediately get updates. More than one may be required.

Good Luck,
Andromeda

[Mr Snrub]

I used to use AVG a few years ago, before I came to the conclusion that free AV software was worth every penny you pay for it

One thing to be aware of with AVG 8.0, which would put me off installing it ever again:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/av...raffic_numbers/

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Avira is a decent free antivirus. And yeah, AVG 8 sucks, and not only because of the reason posted above.

[Chappy333]

I never was an AVG fan but that story from The Register has really turned the tables.

I did Independent Virus/Malware testing on new variants for over 8 years so I know allot about AV companies & their respective products. Many of the big AV companies used Independents for years to take some of the load off until they grew big enough to hire the xtra staff.
AVG up until about 3 years ago was absolute Garbage, even tho many users Raved about it, but the thing with AV is...if your App doesn't catch it..how do you know you're infected, right?
So many AVG users went blissfully along thinking they were super OK when in fact they were high risk as AVG failed test after test at the top unsponsored AV Testing Labs. They recently made a HUGE effort to turn that around and seemingly had done so as they now pass these tests regularly and their scanning engine throughputs have increased dramatically , but this new problem will surely throw a wrinkle into things.

Personally, I wouldn't use anything but Eset NOD32 (not Esest Smart Security, the Firewall is low grade at the moment), and the Comodo Firewall Pro is free and one of the Highest ranked firewalls for a Windows based product to date, the top 2 are not free. Matousec Firewall Tests for those interested in seeing where theirs stands. Matousec runs the most comprehensive (and toughest) testing suite around.

This post has been edited by Chappy333: 06 July 2008 - 08:01 PM

[Volatus]

john demin, on Jul 6 2008, 05:51 AM, said:

The good thing is that Norton trial was installed again!

You know why there's a free Norton trial on your computer?

Because Symantec can't even give away Norton anymore, they have to pay OEMs to preload it on peoples' computers.

[john demin]

Ok, thanks for the very useful info guys.

I shall have a look at all suggestions. Saying that about norton, my wifes laptop is so slow at the moment its crazy, so its the Norton program?!
I don't think it has that much ram anyway, its no where near as fast as mine, (dell latitude d630) and my spec is not much better.

Are all internet virus protection programs so power hungry?
This is a co laptop so should be very restricted, but I have found the admins log in! hahahahaha.

[john demin]

Bump please?

[cluberti]

I don't really see a question in the previous (non-bump) post. What question exactly are you bumping?