Removed it. Everything golden.

Next reboot? "Windows Update Installing Updates..."

Errr...no, have that disabled.

Before I could rip out the power cord (my preferred method of "this computer isn't doing what I told it to" to stop such process). Too late.

System reboots, then reboots, then reboots, etc.

Put the HD in another computer. Couldn't find the culprit.

So, reformat. Hey, it's been 7 years since, so...it was due anyway.

Now, anyone that does this knows reformatting and installing windows is easy. Hey what, an hour at best? Motherboard drivers, video/audio/cd burner drivers. Hey, no big deal.

What IS a big deal? Another 3 hours of windows updates. Then about 4 more hours of re-installing all your softward and backed up files.

I mean, I lost nothing here, but, what a pain in the assssssss.

Basic thing is I had some file in Windows/Temp I couldn't dump. So I googled them. Find out I had an MBR virus (I think that was it).

Searched how to manually wipe that. Did what was said. Virus was gone. Comp ran fine again. Then I go to shut down and it reboots instead and poof... disaster.

So, no idea. But it was time for a re-format anyway. Too much **** installed on this...progs long gone, devices long gone, etc.

Got service pack 2 installed now. Might just keep it here. Problem is you go to view a YT video or something? Wants Flash 10 installed. Oh, Flash 10 doesnt run on SP2...needs SP3.

etc, etc etc............................... so well...****. Done this for 100s of computers. Doesn't make it easier it makes it more annoying LOL

Even more annoying is changing all the default settings back to what you want.

It's....not a problem from a knowledge standpoint. It's a problem from a TIME CONSUMPTION standpoint.

Getting a healthy buzz in the process. But, I would rather get a buzz and fall asleep watching some crappy TV show or something.

But, eh, whatcha gunna do?

COMLAIN, CURSE, SCREAM, and DRINK. THATS WHAT.

Still, it sucks.

Thanks for the support LOL.

TMS wrote:never hurts to wipe the slate clean & reinstall the OS to get rid of the clutter that accumulates... system management, registry cleaners & anti-spyware utilities can only do so much.

Yep. You're right.

I mean, this has been coming for some time. I'm just so sick of doing it. I've formatted 100s of systems in my lifetime. Just tired of it. So, well, whatever...it had to be done regardless.

Forgot how fast this system was after all these years now that it's clean. LOL

TMS wrote:never hurts to wipe the slate clean & reinstall the OS to get rid of the clutter that accumulates... system management, registry cleaners & anti-spyware utilities can only do so much.

Good advice. I tend to agree. Cosmic mentioned 8 hours to get a system back up and running, which is annoying. I would contend that when a system gets bad enough, it can take much longer than that to get it back into a decent state, so there's definitely cases where cleaning it and starting over saves time. I think it's a good idea to start from scratch at least once every two years.

kam77 wrote:

Barf. I wound up getting a Mac book as a play toy, because I wanted to play with iPhone development. Not to be a hater, but I don't see the big love fest with Macs. I'll agree that the Mac viruses and trojans are basically non-existent, but even with that considered, I find my Windows system more stable. When running programs on the Mac, I occasionally get unrecoverable crashes (this almost never happens on Windows) and have a much tougher time getting it to play nice with my wireless router. The user interface for most programs that run on both looks like **** on the Mac compared to Windows. I mostly wind up using the Mac as a Unix box.

Silverfuel wrote:

NYKBocker wrote:Same thing happened to my boys computer so I gave up on Windows. I installed Fedora and he is happy as a clam. He just uses it for school, internet and e-mail. He has a PS3 so he no longer needs it for PC games.

Good man!

Fedora!

Solace wrote:I wound up getting a Mac book as a play toy, because I wanted to play with iPhone development. Not to be a hater, but I don't see the big love fest with Macs. I'll agree that the Mac viruses and trojans are basically non-existent, but even with that considered, I find my Windows system more stable. When running programs on the Mac, I occasionally get unrecoverable crashes (this almost never happens on Windows) and have a much tougher time getting it to play nice with my wireless router. The user interface for most programs that run on both looks like **** on the Mac compared to Windows. I mostly wind up using the Mac as a Unix box.

Mac books do tend to suck. Don't know why the ycan't make a good laptop. On the other hand, my iMac is solid, never crashes like your macbook. Macbook = toy for people with money to burn.