I hope someone can help me. I read the sticky thread about computer questions but I’m afraid the info there mostly goes over my head.
Here’s what I have: Dell Vostro 1000 laptop running Windows XP. I have Internet Explorer 7. I use the AVG free edition virus checker thingy.
I got this computer just a couple of weeks ago and things were fine. Yesterday I loaded the software for our Epson colour printer, but partway through the process had to stop it as I needed to be directly connected to the printer (I use wireless) and didn’t have a way to do that. As far as I can tell there’s no trace of the software on my computer now, even though the name appears in the list of programs on the uninstall screen. So I don’t think that’s the problem, but I thought I’d mention it just in case.
Yesterday I also loaded the software for my Canon scanner. The installation seemed to go just fine and I was able to scan no problem.
Problem 1. Ever since I loaded these two things, my IE has been crashing randomly. There are a couple of websites that I go to that let me get so far before crashing, and others that let me get only as far as the homepage before crashing. And by crashing I mean freezing, so that I have to do Ctrl+Alt+Delete. And then there are some sites I have no problem with at all.
I uninstalled the scanner software to see if that was the problem but it doesn’t seem to have helped.
One more thing - every time I started up I got a screen asking me if I wanted to allow a file called javaw. I googled it and from the info I found thought it would be okay. So a couple of days ago (I think) I clicked okay.
Problem 2. When I try to play video clips using Windows Media Player, the video is all distorted and funny colours - mainly green, yellow, orange. Very bizarre. I can see videos on youtube just fine. This seems to be a Media Player problem but I don’t know how to sort it.
So, I hope I’ve given sufficient information. If anybody has any ideas I’d be forever grateful!