Not exactly sure how that got taken in every direction. I was just asking beings I know so very little about the computer, you could understand where I am coming from as there may have been a time that you knew little about a computer. The majority of my friends in their sixties, know so little about the computer and only what someone has taken the time to explain of show. So If this was mistaken for some other reason, I am sorry.
Do note that we are all volunteers here, providing
free help in
our spare time. We have no true picture our poster's understanding of computers, or skillsets in fixing them. So we have to determine those abilities by asking questions, this while the poster is trying to explain something they don't understand with technical terms that might as well be a foreign language - this when we are blindfolded by 1000s of miles between us.
Telling the finest mechanic in town
over the phone the thingy on the dohickey is not working is no help if he does not understand what is meant by thingy. Our goal here is to provide help. Communication is a two-way street. Most of the time we are able to help by us asking questions. But some times we are not and it is necessary then to take the computer to a trained specialist who can physically take a look at the thingy to see that the whatchamacallit was broken, not the dohickey.
So please, while I understand the frustrations, criticizing for not communicating doesn't help. Yes, we do need your help. It is not easy troubleshooting highly sophisticated digital electronics remotely through inexperienced and untrained surrogate hands when we cannot touch and feel the problem ourselves. That's not a criticism, just a common sense observation. And we need your patience. We also need you to ask for clarification if you don't understand something, and not be critical when we don't understanding. If there is a lack of understanding, more damage may occur - and preventing more damage is a top priority for us.
We would appreciate your understanding on this.
Please also understand that XP is two generations old, designed over 10 years ago to support hardware from over 10 years before that. Hardware, especially mechanical devices like hard drives, do wear out. If your computer hardware is getting along in years too, then regardless the outcome here, you may still be in a pay, fix, break again, pay, fix, break again, cycle - to the point it becomes more cost effective to trade in the old jalopy for a new model.
Frankly, given the security environment the bad guys have put us in today, given the fact XP was designed when Internet security was an afterthought, given the fact the Internet is full of predators seeking out new victims, given the fact you keep having problems with this computer, I would much rather see you buy a new computer with Windows 7 - new hardware running a new operating system designed from the start with security as a top priority. Yes, there will be a learning curve, especially coming from XP (without being familiar with Vista first), but your XP hardware will break again, so a new computer is inevitable anyway. Tackling that learning curve will not get easier. And for the record, I never learned Vista so when I migrated all my systems to Windows 7 two years ago, it was a learning challenge I was hesitant to start. But it ended up not being a big challenge and now I look back at XP systems and see how archaic XP really was.
***
The fact of the matter is, you still have not told us what is wrong with this computer. We don't know the brand or model number, not even sure it is a PC and not a notebook. You told us,
I get one thing fixed something else will mess up and then the thing that was fixed starts to act up again.
I was told that lightening probably hit it. I got it home and it still did not work good.
I get getting this pop up message that says they have to shut down this web site.
Then there was another problem which I thought was taken care of and I know it was not for my machine does this all the time.
It happens often...
What is "this"? What is "it"? The only defined problem is
'this site' has to shut down but we don't know what site, what browser, if that is the only site, or is it with every site you try to visit. If this machine was hit by lightning there may be no permanent fix - and a new computer may be the best option anyway. Knowing lightning may be a factor, if this machine were on my bench the first thing I would do is swap in one of my known good power supplies - something most users don't just have sitting around.
If your machine is running, and since you seem to be using it now I assume it is, and "it" does not happen again, then by all means please follow rshaffer's lead.
But with your reply, please provide us some information on the computer brand and model number if factory built, or system specs (motherboard, CPU, RAM, graphics) if custom built. Do you have the original XP installation disk for this computer? Do you have the original driver/utility disk for this computer (or motherboard)? If not have you downloaded the drivers for this computer from the computer (or motherboard) maker's website? You will need these if you want to, or need to reinstall Windows.
Sign In
Create Account
