Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

okay so yesterday i accidentally got a virus. i knew i had a virus before it did any damage for undisclosed reasons, but since my current firewall/virusprotector/etc was down (its back up) i decided to go to sleep.

i wake up, everything's laggy and shitty. so i get the viruses off my computer but now there's this one problem.

i try to open up flash, and it opens up the open with program. (i end up opening flash with flash)
i try to open up google chrome, and it does the same.
no matter what i do it always gives me the same thing cuz it cant find it itself.

bit it wasnt TOO big of a deal so i just carried on. eventually flash buggered out on me cuz of my shitty computer (if i leave it alone for too long it lags) so i restarted it. in comes major problem. sound wont play and such. so i go to re-install it and guess what? my computer cant find add/remove programs because my computer can't find anything!

any help please? i need to get this fixed ASAP!

At 7/28/09 06:43 PM, fluffkomix wrote: i wake up, everything's laggy and shitty. so i get the viruses off my computer but now there's this one problem.

First tip on virus protection is make sure the program is always working; doing system scans once a week would suffice. If you get anything make sure it is taken care of right away, don't leave it overnight or over a long period of time. It will almost allways mess up your computer. Next time don't wait some of the damage may be something that is hard to repair.

i try to open up flash, and it opens up the open with program. (i end up opening flash with flash)
i try to open up google chrome, and it does the same.
no matter what i do it always gives me the same thing cuz it cant find it itself.

It looks like it ate through some of your programs and did some damage to files and such. When files are infected or when the computer can't read them it will say something like "no file found" now to fix this you will have to got through system restore. It's not to hard to do, i'll include a step-by-step process below. Using windows is the easist one to use so i will tell you how to do it though XP.

1.Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
2.In the System Properties dialog box, on the System Restore tab, use the slider to increase the allocated disk space, and then click OK.
If you're using more than one drive on your system, follow these steps:

1.Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
2.Click the drive you want to monitor, and then click Settings.
3.In the Settings dialog box, shown in Figure 1, use the slider to increase the disk space, and then click OK twice.
Notice that the disk space allocated to System Restore cannot exceed 12%. If you need more space, you can run the Disk Cleanup utility to reclaim space. To open Disk Cleanup:
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.

After you've decided to use System Restore to revert your system to a previous state, start the System Restore Wizard and follow the prompts. To use the System Restore Wizard, make sure you're logged on as an administrator, and then follow these steps:

1.Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore.
2.On the Welcome screen, click Restore my computer to an earlier time, and then click Next.
3.On the Select a Restore Point page, select the date from the calendar that shows the point you'd like to restore to, as shown in Figure 2, and then click Next.
4.On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, verify that the correct restore point is chosen, and then close any open programs.
5.Click Next if you are ready to proceed or click Back to change the restore point.
6.The computer will shut down automatically and reboot. On reboot, you'll see the Restoration Complete page, and then click OK.

After reviewing the stability of your system, you can choose another restore point or undo this restoration. Just open System Restore and make the appropriate choice. After you use System Restore, you'll have an additional task, Undo my last restoration, on the System Restore Welcome page. Remember that you'll have to reinstall any programs that were installed after the restore point.

If System Restore doesn't work in Normal Mode, it might work in Safe Mode. To use System Restore in Safe Mode, press the F8 key during reboot and choose Safe Mode. When your computer starts in either Safe Mode or Normal Mode, System Restore can be used to capture a working previous state. System Restore can't be opened unless the system is bootable into one of these modes.

If you have trouble doing this, feel free to ask any questions.

At 7/28/09 10:26 PM, idiot-buster wrote:
If you have trouble doing this, feel free to ask any questions.

i was able to make my computer system restore, but on bootup, it couldn't do the confirmation page and whatnot because it still can't find files on its own.

At 7/28/09 11:17 PM, fluffkomix wrote:

At 7/28/09 10:26 PM, idiot-buster wrote:
If you have trouble doing this, feel free to ask any questions.

i was able to make my computer system restore, but on bootup, it couldn't do the confirmation page and whatnot because it still can't find files on its own.

Your best bet is to reinstall Windows and all your stuff. Please backup your files.

At 7/28/09 11:17 PM, fluffkomix wrote:

At 7/28/09 10:26 PM, idiot-buster wrote:
If you have trouble doing this, feel free to ask any questions.

i was able to make my computer system restore, but on bootup, it couldn't do the confirmation page and whatnot because it still can't find files on its own.

Oh.... that really not good if it can't find those files. I would suggest backing up all of the important stuff on your computer to a thumb drive or external hard drive. Then re-install windows, a step-by-step process below:

First, locate the Windows CD that shipped with your PC, along with the CDs for your application software. If you downloaded your antivirus, firewall, or other programs, copy those downloads to a CD or to some other type of removable media. :::If your system didn't ship with a Windows CD, your reinstallation files are situated on your hard drive; I'll describe how to access them in just a minute::: Also, dig up the instructions that your ISP sent you for configuring your network settings, and keep them close at hand.

Copy the contents of your 'C:\Documents and Settings' folder (or whichever folder you store your personal files on) to a CD or other removable medium. Then grab any other critical data and back it up. It helps to collect the installers for the latest drivers for your PC's graphics card and other hardware, too.

Ready to Reinstall
Now insert the Windows CD that came with your PC, and reboot your system. If you didn't receive a Windows disc with your machine, the files you need are sitting in a hidden partition on your hard drive. To access them, press the keys indicated on your screen when you reboot, but before Windows loads. The keys differ from vendor to vendor, so contact your PC's manufacturer if you don't see the prompt.

In many instances, the only available option is 'Return the drive to its factory condition', which destroys all documents, photos, and other data files on your PC. That's why you made a copy of your data folders.

You get more options--including the ability to preserve your files and settings--when you use Microsoft's own Windows XP installation disc. Make your selection, and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the reinstallation.

Starting Over
Regardless of which option you choose, you'll have to reconfigure your network connections, reinstall some of your device drivers, and update XP and your applications manually.

To configure your Internet connection, right-click My Network Places, click Create a new connection, and follow the prompts, entering the appropriate information you received from your ISP.

Once you've re-established your Internet link, you must reinstall and update your firewall, antivirus, and antispyware programs.

Next, check to see which of your device drivers need updates: Rght-click My Computer and select Properties, Hardware, Device Manager. Look for entries with yellow question marks or red exclamation points. A question mark indicates that Windows is using a generic driver for that device instead of one specifically designed for it; an exclamation point means that the device is not working.

The drivers for graphics boards, sound cards, and printers are most likely to need an update. If you haven't already done so, visit the vendors' Web sites to download updated drivers to your PC. Run the installer for each updated driver, allowing XP to reboot when needed, or right-click the entry in Device Manager, choose Update Driver, and step through the wizard, selecting No, not this time to the Windows Update question, and choosing the specified location option when it appears. When you can navigate to the driver file, select it and click OK to install it. When you finish updating your drivers, close all open windows.

Hmm well, I'm normally fine with solving my own computer problems but this one I can't seem to get my head around so it's worth a mention on here to see if someone can shed some light on my current situation.

Built this comp early last summer so evidentally I've had it for near enough exactly a year now, it's been fine since then running pretty much anything I've played at a decent frame rate on top end graphics. However recently, my games have just been constantly closing after about 5 or 10 minutes of playing them with the report of "Game.exe has stopped working", game of course depending on the game I was playing at the time. The game being played does not effect the amount of time I get to spend on the game, it's the same problem with say Crysis as it is with something such as Peggle.

The first thing I did of course was update my drivers to their latest version in hope that it would solve the problem but obviously it didn't. Another measure I took to see if it was the game's graphical settings that was the problem was to turn the graphics down to a much lower level and attempt running the game at a lower resolution, but once again the games keep closing so that was another thing to cross off the list. So the other idea's I tried were freeing up some space on my hard drive and checking to see if all of the fans, in particular the graphics card fan were still functional, which they were.

Anyway another thing that was bothering me was every now and again I'd get the blue screen of death with the "page_fault_in_non_paged_area" error, which lead me to believe that it could be one of my sticks of RAM that was causing all of this commotion. However, after further investigation into this matter it seemed both we're operational and working well for that matter.

The last contemplation is of course to reinstall my OS, which I'm currently running Vista, only because I'm actually too stubborn to go back to XP after spendin quite a lot of money on buying Vista, however I think I've dropped that stubborness and willing to reinstall XP.

However, the question I pose to you NG is that has anyone got any alternate ideas before I make that step of reinstalling an OS and going through that pain of having to reinstall everything that I currently have.

Computer specs are listed below:

AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor clocked at 3.1 GHz (Which has not been overclocked)
4Gb of DDR2 800 MHz RAM
nVidia GeForce 9600 512MB
Power input of 750W
5 fans, 1 built into the GPU, 1 on the CPU and 3 cathode fans cooling the inner case.

At 7/30/09 05:08 PM, danwolves wrote: Built this comp early last summer so evidentally I've had it for near enough exactly a year now, it's been fine since then running pretty much anything I've played at a decent frame rate on top end graphics. However recently, my games have just been constantly closing after about 5 or 10 minutes of playing them with the report of "Game.exe has stopped working", game of course depending on the game I was playing at the time. The game being played does not effect the amount of time I get to spend on the game, it's the same problem with say Crysis as it is with something such as Peggle.

However, the question I pose to you NG is that has anyone got any alternate ideas before I make that step of reinstalling an OS and going through that pain of having to reinstall everything that I currently have.

Computer specs are listed below:

AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor clocked at 3.1 GHz (Which has not been overclocked)
4Gb of DDR2 800 MHz RAM
nVidia GeForce 9600 512MB
Power input of 750W
5 fans, 1 built into the GPU, 1 on the CPU and 3 cathode fans cooling the inner case.

Try doing these:

* Disable Windows Aero.
* Try underclocking your CPU.
* Kill the GFX card - replace it.
* Cleanly reinstall Vista.
* Try scanning your computer for viruses.
* Try removing your games and reinstalling them.

Let us know if these helped or not.

At 7/30/09 08:03 PM, iMate900 wrote: * Disable Windows Aero.
* Try underclocking your CPU.
* Kill the GFX card - replace it.
* Cleanly reinstall Vista.
* Try scanning your computer for viruses.
* Try removing your games and reinstalling them.

Let us know if these helped or not.

Apologies for this, I had a feeling I'd forgotten something in the end. Forgot to mention I've tried scanning the computer for viruses but to no success and I've also tried reinstalling practically every game, sorry again. However, I'm definitely willing to try the others, I'd already considered binning the GFX card as you say, but I'm a bit short on cash at the moment as it's coming up to my 17th birthday on saturday and I've prematurely payed for driving lessons and such so I'll need to earn a bit before I can purchase a new graphics card, think I'll save for a little bit and go with an upgrade from the one I currently have, contemplating moving back to an ATI graphics card but not sure yet, will put in some more research as to which card catches my eye.

Obviously reinstalling windows as I previously stated is somewhat a last resort to me, because I hate to admit it but I'm quite lazy but I'm sure I will do it if the other methods have no effect. Anyway, I will try the other methods now and report back to you on if it worked or not. Thanks for the advice.

At 7/30/09 05:08 PM, danwolves wrote: Anyway another thing that was bothering me was every now and again I'd get the blue screen of death with the "page_fault_in_non_paged_area" error, which lead me to believe that it could be one of my sticks of RAM that was causing all of this commotion. However, after further investigation into this matter it seemed both we're operational and working well for that matter.

try deleting your pagefiles aka swapfiles,
this could be RAM or CPU
try testing your RAM with something like memtest86
and for cpu 7zip has a benchmark tool that works well.

hardware errors can happen at anytime and anyplace at random. running a hardware test can take even days.

At 7/30/09 03:42 PM, idiot-buster wrote:
quite a bit

is it still worth it to do all this if i'm planning on getting a new comp in a month or so?

At 7/30/09 09:45 PM, fluffkomix wrote:

At 7/30/09 03:42 PM, idiot-buster wrote:
quite a bit

is it still worth it to do all this if i'm planning on getting a new comp in a month or so?

If you are getting a new computer in a month and you don't care about the current one....then i would leave it as is. As long as you can get to the internet and the basics then i would not go through all the trouble of re-installing the operating system and all that goes with it, it could take your whole day up since windows may take up as much as a gig or even more. It's not worth the hastel if your going to kick it to the curb in a month

You could have said this before i typed thoes 2 massive walls of text for you.

At 7/30/09 10:58 PM, idiot-buster wrote:
You could have said this before i typed thoes 2 massive walls of text for you.

well at least i know what to do next time.

also its not exactly confirmed anyways. i need to save up first.

At 7/30/09 11:20 PM, fluffkomix wrote: also its not exactly confirmed anyways. i need to save up first.

It's up to you if you want to do it or not....if it's really bothering you then you can do it. It csn get complex so if you need any help while doing so, just ask.

At 7/30/09 11:20 PM, fluffkomix wrote: well at least i know what to do next time.

have you tried booting to safe mode?
Press F8 before you see the windows logo loading screen.
if you're unsure when to press F8, just press it repeatedly till you see a black screen with white text asking which safe mode option you want to boot to. if you see the login screen or desktop it means you missed it or pressed the wrong button, if it's not F8 check your motherboard or computers brand.

system restore is useless for smart versus or adware, plus they may block safe mode and do anything it can to stop you from removing it.

the simple solution is to backup your data, reformat and reinstall windows.

the pro way (old school) is to take your hard drive out and put it into a service computer.
this computer will remove all adware and viruses infections with a 99% success rate, check and fix your windows registry.

reinstalling the OS is always a last resort. it takes about 90minutes, and a few hours to backup all your data. you'll have to reinstall your applications, but after you do all you application data was also backed up so your fine.

Suddenly for no reason my Flash 8 wants to make my Vista switch to the basic color scheme. The only recent things I did were installing TeamViewer and Vista SP1. Help me please!

At 8/1/09 08:14 PM, iMate900 wrote: Suddenly for no reason my Flash 8 wants to make my Vista switch to the basic color scheme. The only recent things I did were installing TeamViewer and Vista SP1. Help me please!

(BTW, my computer can run Windows Aero so there)

Not sure if this is the right thread for the question.

While playing certain games, my controls have been getting stuck, mainly left/right arrow keys(or a/d on games with wasd controls). it seems to happen more often the more i die or refresh screens. The main example now is When Pigs Fly and that is making it extremely frustrating to play. Any idea what could be causing this?

To elaborate a little more
I start a new game
hit space to lift off the ground
move left or right
die
restart
hit space to lift off the ground
without hitting an arrow the pig moves what ever direction i was holding down when i last died

sometimes it happens without deaths, even if i am just changing direction. moving left then i let off left and hit right but dont move in either direction as if i was holding both down.

At 8/2/09 01:57 PM, EggSaladSandwich wrote: Not sure if this is the right thread for the question.

Yes, this is the right place for your quesiton my lost friend.

In my opinion it's a problem with the game itself and not you. I was playing the game to when i noticed the controls were inresponsive to what i did even to the point were i would press right and it would go left. It sticks in some parts aof the game. It even gets to the point were the entire game just seems frozen. After a few attemps it will :::usualy fix itself::: I know what you went through and yes it is difficult to play, if you want you can pm the author of the submision to tell him about the errors we are getting since i am very busy.

At 8/2/09 10:22 PM, idiot-buster wrote:

At 8/2/09 01:57 PM, EggSaladSandwich wrote: Not sure if this is the right thread for the question.

Yes, this is the right place for your quesiton my lost friend.

In my opinion it's a problem with the game itself and not you.

When I originally found this error I thought it was bad programming, but it has happened to me in multiple games.
Mideval Rampagewas where i first noticed it.
I have also noticed it in Lastman and The Classroom 3

At 8/3/09 01:43 AM, EggSaladSandwich wrote: When I originally found this error I thought it was bad programming, but it has happened to me in multiple games.
Mideval Rampagewas where i first noticed it.
I have also noticed it in Lastman and The Classroom 3

are you on a wireless keyboard? if so that can be complex given the nature of the wireless 2.4ghz spectrum.

anyways something you can try is adjusting your key repeat rate aka"repeat delay"
and see if that makes a difference.

At 8/3/09 02:52 AM, Patcoola wrote: are you on a wireless keyboard? if so that can be complex given the nature of the wireless 2.4ghz spectrum.

anyways something you can try is adjusting your key repeat rate aka"repeat delay"
and see if that makes a difference.

It could be the problem, if he is using a wireless keyboard; then If he is not using one Ex. laptop or wired keyboard then this really should not be a problem at all.... well just try and see if it helps at all. A step-by-step guide below:

To adjust the key repeat rate
1.Open Keyboard in Control Panel.
2.On the Speed tab, make changes as follows:
%u2022 To adjust the amount of time that elapses before characters repeat when you hold down a key, drag the Repeat delay slider.
%u2022 To adjust how quickly characters repeat when you hold down a key, drag the Repeat rate slider.

My keyboard isn't wireless, i don't abuse it, it's not old. I have played with my Repeat rate and delay settings, nothing has fixed it. It happens with all my directionals and now apparently space as well. it fixes itself when i tap the key again. i.e. In "When pigs fly" the space key is to lift off and fly straight upwards. If I am not pressing anything at the time but am flying straight upward I will tap space and it will stop.

I do a lot of typing in word/notepad etc and I have never had my cursor get stuck moving in the direction i was moving it with the arrow keys. It seems like a flash issue only

Ok then, if you say it's only a flash issue then; do you have the latest flash player then? This could be your problem, if you version of flash is not the newest or even the one before the curent one. So try updating adobe to see if that will fix things for you. If not i have a few other ideas of what it could be, but they would take a while for you to do.

Such as system restore, you can shut down your computer and then wait a moment. Turn it back on, then what you want to do is click start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore. System Restore starts.
On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Restore my computer to an earlier time (if it is not already selected), and then click Next.
On the Select a Restore Point page, click the most recent system restore point in the On this list, click a restore point list, and then click Next.
Click OK.
On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, click Next. System Restore restores the previous Windows XP configuration, and then restarts the computer.
Log on to the computer as Administrator. The System Restore Restoration Complete page is displayed.
Click OK

Just a small question, is there any way to allow a program to bypass UAC to allow write-to-disk access?

At 8/11/09 10:26 AM, Alfie wrote: Just a small question, is there any way to allow a program to bypass UAC to allow write-to-disk access?

It's possible to completely turn off and disable UAC (User Account Control, commonly misspelled as User Access Control) in Windows Vista, or make it elevate to highest privileges automatically and silently without user noticing whenever such administrator's level privileges are required and requested. But it's impossible to disable UAC or force Windows Vista to exclude or ignore UAC security protection for selected applications or programs only.

User Account Control provides security protection for system kernel, memory and registry from unauthorized access by programs or processes. But at times, there are programs that are frequently used, and always trusted to run safely in admin privilege granted highest priority mode. For example, command prompt (Cmd) session, Windows Management Console (MMC), Registry Editor (RegEdit), System Configuration Utility (MsConfig) and etc.

As UAC doesn't have exclusion list, User Account Control dialog will always pop up each and every time these programs is ran to request for permission to elevate to run on highest privileges level or priority. Encountering such dialog many times is pretty useless and troublesome. "Elevate me" entry to right click context menu for all files and shortcuts, and will skip and bypass UAC elevation prompt to directly launch the program in high priority admin privilege mode, without having require users to shut or turn off UAC feature on their systems.

"Elevate me" right click context menu points to ElevateRunner which creates configuration in ElevateThis task container, and then Elevator will call Scheduled Task function in Windows Vista, which has the option to let user specify that scheduled task to be run using highest privileges, to parse through ElevateThis folder and run anything in it.

Found here.

To install Elevator, unpack "SkipUAC.zip" and then run Install.cmd as Administrator. To uninstall, simply run Uninstall.cmd at the same folder.

If you are loathing still having to right click on a program or shortcut icon to skip or bypass the UAC elevation request for a program, it's possible to change shortcut to always run the pointed program in elevation mode using Elevator. The hack is to modify shortcut's target to run ElevatorRunner.exe with filename and parameters to the executable to automatically open as Administrator mode.

For example, to always run a Command Prompt shortcut in elevation high privilege mode without asking for permission to continue (suppressing to skip or bypass the UAC prompt), simply set the Target field of the shortcut to ElevatorRunner Cmd. Of course, you may need to specify full path to ElevatorRunner.exe. For example, C:\SkipUAC\ElevatorRunner.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe.

Other than define directly in shortcut's properties, the same command can also called from Run textbox or command prompt. ElevatorRunner.exe accepts 2 parameters. First parameter is executable to run and second parameter is any command line arguments to include when running the executable.

Before you do this i suggest you make sure you really understand how to do it, and you really want to do this in the first place since you are going to be doing somethings with system32. This is as best as i can explain it to you, and hope it helps.

Thanks for that idiot buster, but the problem is that the 'Allow' prompt DOESN'T come up in Opera when i'm trying to save stuff to any route within Program Files, I don't mind the prompt, but I DO loathe is having to save to the desktop, then move the files into the folder (which DOES give me an prompt)

So anyway trying to set up a static IP address (for port forwarding), I've done it many times before without any hitches, but whatever. I've been following this guide to little avail.

The thing is, whereas before I was just giving a network adapter a static IP, currently I have a network bridge through my PC to enable my xbox to access the internet.

When I try and apply the normal static ip address settings to my network bridge, it complains about not having a DHCP server or similar, and cannot get online until I turn it back to a dynamic IP.

halp plz

If it helps, I'm running windows 7 RC, and am using a wired connection to a netgear WGR614v9 router.

In my opinion, scrap that whole idea and get a router that supports multiple wired or wireless conenctions as it solves so many of lifes *little* problems and at the cost of only £20 - £40 which is great.

I used to have problems like these all the time and it was a pain in the ass until i just bit the bullet and bought a new router. God how i dont miss messing around with it all the time

Anyway, just my 2 cents

At 8/26/09 12:06 PM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: If it helps, I'm running windows 7 RC, and am using a wired connection to a netgear WGR614v9 router.

the easiest thing to do is assign IP's to MAC addresses in the DHCP sets of your router,
in the routers DHCP enable assign static IP's, but dont disable Dynamite assigning.

on the computer, auto detect or DHCP can be used without manually setting it's IP.

Sorry, but I have a virus, I have tried all (well, most) of your stuff and its not doing the trick, basically, it gets rid of the background, and the startbar, I run windows vista, Just got firefox, after the virus.
I have tried to update the background, it worked, to a point, it basically just gives me the pic, thats it.
When I try to edit the start bar, it won't let me, I am trying this all in control panel, of course.
I tried to make a new User, didn't work.
Screenie, please help.