PC System Recovery

[Reaper316]

Hey guys, I have some questions and I just don't know much about computers so I need your help. First let me start by saying I have windows xp and I had some viruses on my PC recently. I could not fix them with spyware so I decided to do a system recovery.

I've done the system recovery and I am having some small technical issues.

1. I finally got back online, but now that I am it seems as if it's laggy as hell. When I scroll down the side bar jumps down and the whole page refreshes. It's not smooth like it should be. I have contacted my internet provider and they assure me my connection is good. I'm wondering if this is a problem with the monitor or what??

2. I have speakers on my PC but now after the system recovery I cannot use them. My PC says there is nothing there. When I go to my control panel to try and add hardware I am not able to choose anything from sounds and audio devices. It tells me I have none. I've searched and searched and don't know how to get my speakers activated.

3. I no longer have the option available to use the "Sleep" function. When I go to START then SHUTDOWN, it is no longer there. It is greyed out and I also cannot use the sleep button on my keyboard.

I know these all seem like small problems and yall are probably laughing, but I have no idea how to fix any of this and I am beyond frustrated. If any of you could please help me out I'd really appreciate it.

[norm]

Since you've done the system recovery have you updated everything? For XP are you using SP3? What version of IE are you using or Firefox for that matter? Have you updated all your plugins like Flash and Silverfox?

That should help with the internet stuff. When you do a system recovery you have to go back and make sure you update all your programs afterwards. (I'm guessing you did this through your installation disc?)



The speakers (or sound card), are they after market speakers or did they come with the PC? When you update your stuff you may want to update your sound card driver. Sounds like it might need it too.


The Sleep feature, that also sounds like a conflict with your drivers not being updated. Usually it is your video card that is the culprit.

Hope this gives you a couple of ideas and paces to start

[EagleOne]

Usually when you do a recovery, it deletes some of the drivers or installs the original. If you go to the control panel, then device manager, it will tell you what you have and don't have driverwise. You can download the drivers and install, that should clear that up. You can also go to the windows update located in the start menu under all programs, this will also tell you what you need.

As far as the speakers, this happened to me because it erased the sound card driver. Download, install and restart.

[Reaper316]

Okay guys, I have updated my windows through the control panel and windows update. I got my sound back so I'm getting closer.

To answer your questions: I am using SP3, and IE 8, I also used the disc that came with the system to reinstall/recover. My screen is still lagging behind though and is not running smoothly.

I don't know where to go to update my Flash/Silverfox plugins. I'm sorry, you kinda have to dumb it down for me. I'm just not into all the technical stuff with computers. Anymore help you can give me would be great. Please just tell me where to go to get what I need. Thanks for the help guys!

[Reaper316]

Also when I go to the control panel I don't see a device manager. I am given like 10 things to choose from: appearance and themes, network and internet connections, add or remove programs, sound speech and audio devices,performance and maintenance, printers and other hardware, user accounts,date time and language, accessibility options, and security center.

I don't see where it tells me what drivers I do and do not have.

[norm]

Flash is through the Adobe website

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

And it's Silverlight, not Silverfox. Had Firefox on the brain..lol

http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx

See if that helps with IE8

[Reaper316]

Okay I went and downloaded both adobe flash and sliverlight. My webpages are still lagging when I am scrolling up and down. This is so damn frustrating, but I do appreciate the help.

[norm]

if that didn't work it's got to be the video card

For the device manager,

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
2. On the Hardware tab, click Device Manager. Double-click the type of device you want to change.

What you need to do is look Display Adapter and clip on the little plus sign beside it or expand to the drop down list. Under that you should see what sort of card/integrated video adapter you have.

Double click on it and another box should open up. Go to the driver tab and see what version of the driver you are using and date it was created.

Once you have the name of the video card and the driver you are using go to the website for the maker of the card and look for your card. Best place to go is the support tab when looking for this. Type in the model number/name of the card and from there you should be able to get to the support center for the card.

Once there look for the download/update section and find your new driver.


Also there may be some software to download with it. ATI uses Catalyst, not sure what Nvidia uses. You can install that too. Might be easier for you to update the driver through that.

Restart your PC.


After all that if it doesn't work look to see what version of DirectX you are running.

Click on Start --> Run and type in dxdiag and hit Enter/OK. The version you are running should appear at the bottom under DirectX Version. You should have v9 installed.


Hope this helps

[Hogezz]

Try this application...

6. Scan for Updates
You know to keep your drivers updated, but keeping track of them is like trying to remember to change the water filter on the refrigerator. (Did you last do it in 2008 or 2007?) One way to do a quick and easy scan for outdated drivers is to run Phoenix Technologies’ web-based DriverAgent. Just go to DriverAgent.com and click the Web Scan button on the left. The app will run a quick check of your drivers against Phoenix’s database of updated drivers and tell you what devices need updating. You can either shell out for the service, which finds the updated drivers for you, or freeload like us and simply take note of the devices you want to upadate, and go find the updated drivers yourself.

[Reaper316]

Okay, I'm so sorry but I have another stupid question. Norm, I can get to where you said but I see nothing that says "Display Adapter." I see a whole list of things to choose from and I don't know which one, nothing says video card...lol. I know I'm stupid here and I appreciate you bearing with me.

If I do what Hogezz says and go to that site will that fix all my problems if I buy the damn subscription for a year? If I tell that site to udate everything will I be good to go? At this point I'm so damn mad that I don't know what I'm doing I'm willing to pay to get this thing fixed.

Again, thanks for all of the help and the advice. I wouldn't have gotten this far without it.

[Reaper316]

Out of that list that Hogezz has displayed which one of those do need to check? If you can point it out then I'll do that.

[Hogezz]

If I do what Hogezz says and go to that site will that fix all my problems if I buy the damn subscription for a year? If I tell that site to udate everything will I be good to go? At this point I'm so damn mad that I don't know what I'm doing I'm willing to pay to get this thing fixed.

If you pay for it it should do it automatically. Just get the free version though, as all you have to do is click on the disk symbol beside each of the drivers that need updating.

[Hogezz]

Out of that list that Hogezz has displayed which one of those do need to check? If you can point it out then I'll do that.

Thats just a screen shot of what the application looks like. If you download it you will gwt stuff more specific to your own hardware.

[RaTix]

Is it a custom built PC or brand name like Dell, HP?

I hope you did a full format of the drive when you did the reinstall. If not, whatever viri or spyware was on there before CAN and WILL reinfect the PC as only the WINDOWS system files are reinstalled and viri hide in many places. However, you should NEVER EVER have to format because of a virus or spyware. There are always ways to remove them. Format = Failure.

Moving on since you already have reinstalled. As Eagle stated, if you did a clean install from the CD all the drivers get wiped out and only the generic drivers that are pre-built in the XP CD are installed. You need to go to the manufacturer website and download the correct drivers for your hardware. You might notice many different listings on the MF website. Look for the ones that are listed as DRIVERS. Sometime they list all the Ulitities and Applications that drivers use, like the Catalyst control panel, their shitty thirtd party wireless programs, etc.. All you need are the ones that say DRIVERS.

The laggy screen is definitely a Video Driver issue. The generic XP driver can't properly allocate and utilize the video RAM, so it lags.
Download all drivers for your model and install.

To Check the DEVICE MANAGER,
RIGHT CLICK on MY COMPUTER and choose PROPERTIES. Then click the HARDWARE tab on the top of the window that opens and click the DEVICE MANAGER button.

Anything listed as UNKNOWN DEVICE or Yellow ?, or yellow !, are not installed, or not installed correctly. Usually Sound, video, network items are not reinstalled when you do a fresh install of XP.

If anything, lit your make and model and I can help look for the drivers you need. I recommend staying away form any of the third party driver finding software. They usually have pre-built list of drivers and may not always show the most up to date ones for your system.

[Reaper316]

Thanks Ratix, just a little explanation of what and why I did the reinstall. I went to the tech center here and tried following the directions for cleaning my PC. I downloaded the antispyware stuff you have but it didn't get rid of my problems. I guess that's no excuse but I really don't know anything about computers and figured I was doing the right thing.

I have a Gateway PC with windows XP, and SP3. If you tell me where to find the model # I can find it and tell you.

So, I went to the site Hogezz recommended me driveragent.com. They told me the drivers I needed and so I downloaded all of them.

I am now in another bind...they are all zipped and I'm having a difficult time installing them. When I try to my computers install wizard says there is nothing wrong with the "current driver"

I'm seriously about to pay someone to fix this damn thing. I know you all know about this stuff and are probably shaking your head at me, but I'm so frustrated right now. I feel really stupid but I really appreciate all the help you guys are giving me.