I’m looking for a website with forums related to solving computer problems. Does anyone know a good one?
Or if anyone can help me with the problem here, that would be great!
Stuff I get from the internet gets garbled!! It’s been going on for a while, and through several formats… just not this bad. In ICQ sometimes messages have weird characters, and files I receive are garbled, for example a jpeg will be strange colours and only half there.
I’ve been trying desperately to get Flash (yes, legally too!). I’ve downloaded the trial version 3 times and every time I try to unzip it it says the crc file is some number, but should be another number.
When I try to get other programs I get other errors. Windows Service Pack 4 gives me cab errors almost every time I download it (yes, I have to format that much). Even the Windows CD (Yes, it’s a real one too!) sometimes gives me errors with files.
What is wrong with this stinking machine?
It happens even after you format the hard drive and start again?
Sounds like either a physical hard drive fault, or else some software you keep installing is messing things up.
I suggest you back up your data, wipe your disk, and then install nothing but Windows. Then you can download some files and see if the problem happens on that bare install. If all is fine, think about what programs you have been installing every time after previous reinstalls because one of them could be causing problems. If the problem still occurs, it might be time to invest in a new hard drive.
Per Racer1 you need to make a hardware/software determination.
Format and do a clean OS install with just the OS and IE and your net apps installed.
Some typical potential souces of hardware derived data corruption
Bad dialup or cable modem (built in hardware level error correction probably makes this the least likely candidate)
Bad / failing RAM - After clean install try another stick or two of of RAM - Nortons can test RAM.
Failing hard disk - Good drive Diagnostic suite (Nortons etc) should show lots of data errors and busted clusters on a failing drive. If drive passes diagnostics it’s an unlikely candidate.
Damaged or inadequate IDE hard drive data cable - Simply replace
Failing / overheating CPU - make sure CPU is adequately cooled and all fans are working when powered up.
It seems all solved.
The first problem was that I was infested with viruses. I think they knew my IP was active and kept sending themselves, format after format.
My bigger problem was the RAM! I had two sticks, one was bad, now I have one. You know, I can’t even tell the difference in speed. My computer hasn’t crashed in 5 days! That is amazing!!
My friend sent me a RAM diagnostics program which I put onto a floppy disk, then ran it on startup. I don’t know the name of it now but if someone is interested in it, reply to this post and I will make that extra effort.
As for the ICQ garbling, it still happens, but only when receiving from my boyfriend’s computer, it seems.
