Attention Gurus

[jan]

My friend has a brand new dell winXP with 80 gigs, etc.

Last night when she got home, she could not do several stuff (defrag, scandisk, etc.) and learned her memory was gone. Her pie graph shows no more space.

She called Dell, and the accent barriers prevented her from understanding anything (at least that's what she said).

I have no further info to provide, only this little bit.

Anyone know what step/steps she needs to take? The machine isn't even 3 mos. old. She is tee-totally freakin out. First thing I though of was that her husband's done something (said he didn't).

This disaster could lead to divorce if she finds out hubby is lying.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks bushels.

[Flash ho]

Don't screw around, go right to the most likely source - replace husband!!
With out anymore details, shooting in the dark here -
Open task manager and see what is using all the memory?

Use "go back " feature and go back to last wk or week before ( back up to disk all important recent stuff, first)

can you get more details, like her age, height, weight etc. I'll look for new husband.

[jan]

Where do I tell her to go for task manager? I go to Norton. What's the easiest way to tell her?

She'll bust out laughing when I tell her tomorrow about your new husband search.

[Flash ho]

I'm on win2k, but I think xp is the same - bottom tool bar, right click, choose task manager.

2 other thoughts, memory sticks came loose. She could physically open the computer and make sure they are in tight. Or Her memory could be fried, no kidding, but I don't know how to ck that.

[Helen]

Errrr... not sure I understand this myself, but I'll repeat what the tech guy
told me when he checked to see if anything is loose inside the case. :roll:

He said unplug power first. :) Then keep one finger touching the bottom
of case (inside) while you check with other fingers (not room for two
hands in there). This is to keep a ground so you don't get a shock. Dunno
why you would if it is unplugged, but I'm past the "why" stage of life. I
just accept whatever they tell me. :)

Other than that, I know nothing. :oops:

[jan]

My friend called the cable support company. They told her to start at the top of her programs and see how much space each one was taking up. The first program she tried, Eraser, had 67 gigs.

Yep, 67 gigs. After getting rid of it, her pie went back to normal. Now I'm wondering, is it possible for a virus to have smacked that much gigs into a program or did my friend's hubby actually do something?

Anyone know?

Thanks.

[fuhgedaboutit]

Jan, Is hubby part of our community?

http://www.fuhgedaboutit.com/poll1.gif

[jan]

Update.

My friend cannot access her Hotmail email, nor can she get Yahoo chat to open. She's going to call me tonight to let me know the messages that appear whenever she tries.

She also wanted to uninstall Norton antivirus, but it's not working.

If I didn't know better, I swear she has some type of virus.

My friend informed me today that whenever her hubby makes a boo-boo, he restores the system to the previous day. She said he's done this at least 1-2 times a week since they've had the new puter.

She's even going as far as saying she'd let her hubby have their new Dell and she'd buy herself a new one. Then if his fingers start messing with anything.......it'd be on "his" computer.

I'll read these messages to her tonight when she calls.

Thanks everyone............jan

[Flash ho]

I just did a quicvk review of Eraser, it is a heavy duty tool. Wonder why they are using it? Here is a note from their faq

Q: "After running Eraser the free space on my drive was lost or reduced noticeably. How can I fix this?"

A: It could be that either Eraser was terminated abnormally or the system crashed causing the temporary files not to be removed. You can remove the folder "~ERAFSWD.TMP" and all the files in it to reclaim the disk space (open command prompt and type "deltree X:\~ERAFSWD.TMP", where X is the drive letter).

If your drive is compressed (with third-party compression software) and you did not turn off the cluster tip erasing, you must recompress the drive to restore the lost space – next time, do not use cluster tip erasing on compressed drives.


Reading thru the faq, eraser sounds like it could cause allot of damage, if the user isn't fully aware of what they are messing with. No answers here, just thoughts.

LOL at Dusty's offical poll. there lies the answer......

[Helen]

Geeeeeee.... I wonder who the "1" voter was :shock:

Great Poll Dusty :cool:

[Ron]

Possible Husband applying here.....stop....
Still waiting on reply from an earlier post....stop....
regarding age, height, and weight.....stop....
Applicant can only wait so long....stop....
:wink:

[Flash ho]

Hi Ron,
I think your post is too late. I've heard she has run off with a geek from Tech Tv. Or was it Kevin Spacey?

Or - The Eraser program is powerful, she has used it to delete existing husband.

[fuhgedaboutit]

We need an update from Karen, lol.

[Cartman]

She should educate her husband, like I did:

Sure, you can use the computer whenever you want. Just DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!!

Works for me!!! :lol: