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Thread: I hate computers

  1. #1

    I hate computers

    All my equipment requres comptuers. My older equipment requires older computers. As of now I have several XP's running, a 98se, one win7 and one win8.

    In the past 8 months or so I've been suffering thru stupid issues...

    XP in the garage started slow-motion crashing. Traced it to the Avast antivirus program. For some reason it was crashing System Restore whenever it was creating a restore point in the background. The fix, installed Panda instead. That computer's been fine ever since.

    Then my 'main' computer, an XP just like in the garage (Dell's if that matters) started running like molasses. Short version, the Panda on it was causing problems. I've since been running it with no AV at all, and ever since it runs like lightning. But I have to keep it off the 'net. Been using Outlook Express since the late '90's, hard to pull away from that, and I won't do IMAP mail (one of my quirks), so no mail on the win8. Also, the win8 absolutely will not load either my GCC or my LS900 laser's drivers. The GCC because it won't work with a 64 bit machine, the LS900 because it's plain too old. Removing signed driver enforcement doesn't help. The only machines it can run are my newers USB connected, of which only my IS400 is close enough. I have figured out how to load generic drivers to run my really old machines from Gravostyle thru my network so that's good. So what I did was install an XP VM in the win8. And for the most part, the VM worked wonderfully. However, as time went by (like all of 3 months), and I started letting MS update the win8, the XPVM became virtually un-useable. 20 second wait times for the font menu to appear in Corel, 20 to 30 seconds to close files..? So I gave up.

    My ace in the hole was a 64bit win7 enterprise machine. Decided to swap that in place of the win8. I'd already used it in the garage, but had to replace it because of the GCC's lack of 64bit capability. AND, the 7 would load all my drivers. As usual the process was much slower than I'd hoped, but after 8 days of fffff with it, AND finding a good replacement for my Outlook Express (called OEClassic), I had it running great, doing everything it used to take 2 computers to do. It's only drawback, it had no sound card. I really didn't need one except for listening to phone messages via email, but I had a PCI Soundblaster card, so I stuck it in a slot and fired it up. Got all the 'new hardware-installing driver' messages, and everything seemed good to go. But the fun lasted about 3 minutes, when I was greeted with a blue screen that said in great big letters:
    HARDWARE MALFUNCTION
    PARITY ERROR
    SYSTEM HALTED

    --- OK, guess it didn't like the sound card!

    Turns out that sound card might was well have been a nuclear bomb. The computer refused to do anything but run the main fan. No BIOS, no nothing. But funny thing, after sitting about 4 days, it booted up! And what do I find? "this version of Windows is not genuine".... ARGGHH!! that, and even though it seems to work, most programs won't load, and it won't shut down. I can use Notepad.

    So anyway, after the 7 fubar's now I have 8 days worth of work and email buried in a dead computer, and had to put the 8 back in service. The OEClassic guy was very quick with an email to help me figure out where stored files were, so it only took a couple hours to get the new email program and everything else transferred over to the 8. The great thing I now get email on the 8. But, I still can't run a laser with it so I'm forced to keep sliding back & forth between 2 computers to get anything done.

    So my next trick is going to be to put the 8 on fiber duty, and take the 32bit Win7 Ultimate laptop that's now running the fiber and make it my new "main" computer. And it can't happen fast enough... I've had Corel X3 and X4 on the 8 for some time now, however, a few months ago the X4 keep giving me this stupid Visual Basic 'run time' error, something to do with my Triumph software's plugin. I have no idea how to debug it. But now that had to use X4 on this computer rather than the VM, I uninstalled X4 and re-installed it, and voila! The error is gone!

    but no, it simply moved to the X3...? And to clear up why I need both Corels-- it's because when I import DXF's into X4, all text that is saved center justified at a particular coordinate is now LEFT justified on that coordinate. So instead of words being centered over holes, the left edge of the text is at the centerline. But X3 doesn't do this, it just puts text where it's supposed to. X4 is a lot better at many other things than X3, so I use both.

    So about an hour ago, I got tired of this stupid run time error in X3, and decided to uninstall and re-install it.

    Guess what? Now it won't install. I keep getting this:
    nocorel.jpg
    -- I've tried everything- turned off all programs, tried from a fresh boot, tried in safe mode (no installer in safe mode), I even un-installed X4 to see if that was the problem..

    Nope. Still no go. And it won't surprise me a bit if X4 won't re-install.

    So I'm giving up on this useless win8, I've always hated it. Going to finish working on the laptop and see where that takes me. And FWIW win10 is completely useless to me...

    In the meantime, if anyone has any clue why this X3 won't load, I'd love to hear it, OR some clue as to fixing Visual Basic would be nice! I'm so far behind on my work because of this nonsense it's not even funny...
    Last edited by Kev Williams; 07-09-2017 at 3:53 PM.
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  2. #2
    This isn't the answer you're looking for but I used to use a pop mail server and there were some advantages but I changed hosts and had to go to IMAP. Generally, I like IMAP better. I have a couple of email addresses and they are not on all my pc's or my mac so I can send something to them if need be.
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
    Gravograph IS400
    Woodworking shop CLTT and Laser Sublimation
    Dye Sublimation
    CorelDraw X5, X7

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Iowa USA
    Posts
    4,441
    I never buy new computers. My MacBook Pro is a 2011 model and would serve only to get emails and internet if needed other wise it does fine with Corel in VirtualBox 5.1.22. My other two machines, both Lenovo one laptop with 12 Gb memory owned by a hobbyist who only owned Lenovo and another same thing from a former Graphics arts student who used for his school work with Illustrator and Photoshop. When he got a "real" job they used Mac's so this one was surplus. Both with Windows 7 Pro 64 and I never plan to upgrade to anything else.

    I feel your pain Kev, wish I could help.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  4. #4
    I'm copying my Gravostyle7 disk to a flash drive as I type this, to install on the laptop. The only other program to put on is the email, I already have everything else on it. Then install all the machines as printers (I can about do this in my sleep now). The nice thing is I can do all this without moving it, all via by network. The only thing I actually have to plug in is the IS400 machine, so I'll know if everything works before moving moving it.

    Anyone want to make a bet? That after all this, my win8 machine will refuse to run the fiber...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  5. #5
    Remind me, but didn't you say you have no issues running legacy equipment because getting old computers was easy, about a month ago?

    Only giving you you a hard time. This is why I don't recommend legacy equipment to people. Getting drivers,etc to work can be a real bear.

    Good luck! I hope you get it solved sooner, rather than later.
    Lasers : Trotec Speedy 300 75W, Trotec Speedy 300 80W, Galvo Fiber Laser 20W
    Printers : Mimaki UJF-6042 UV Flatbed Printer , HP Designjet L26500 61" Wide Format Latex Printer, Summa S140-T 48" Vinyl Plotter
    Router : ShopBot 48" x 96" CNC Router Rotary Engravers : (2) Xenetech XOT 16 x 25 Rotary Engravers

    Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    South Elgin, IL
    Posts
    217
    Kev you mentioned a couple anti virus programs I also got fed up with for slowing things down.
    My two favorites now are Piriform CCleaner and Super Anti Spyware - both of them have free editions which are what I use. The CCleaner has a very good registry cleaner that will get rid of all the orphaned crap which may be what is messing up your Corel X3 installation. It allows you to back up the registry before making any changes.
    http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download?upgrade (select the free version at that page)
    http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html (free version is at bottom of that page)

    I'm currently wrestling with an issue I caused by accidentally deleting unnamed user profiles.
    I thought, why are these on here and why do I need them? DELETE! oops.
    Turns out for some reason my Firefox and my Outlook were using them and so all my emails and respective folders disappeared and all my Internet bookmarks disappeared and all my stored log ins and passwords disappeared. Really not fun at all. This was on my main email and designing computer - a Win XP Pro machine.
    I also have two other Win 7 machines for other tasks - one for sound/voice creating & editing and another one with Corel X5 and my Trotec Job control software. Oh and there's another one retired but still working which has Win 98 on it. And there's the one I took while walking the dog late at night - it was sitting along side an apartment building dumpster. It's an Acer Win XP machine with a whopping 256 megs of ram and a celeron processor but I couldn't pass it up in case I burn out a power supply one of these days...
    Last edited by Mayo Pardo; 07-09-2017 at 11:09 PM.
    Materials Conversion Specialist
    I take perfectly good large pieces of stuff & turn them into smaller pieces having dubious value

    LASER: Trotec Speedy 300 30 Watt, CNC: Shopbot PRT, Vinyl Cutter: Summa Sign Pro T750
    Old School: a tool box full of brand new sign painting brushes from the 60's


  7. #7
    I actually have a pretty good computer system, as long as the computers work. When my XP's give me fits, I can almost always narrow it down to the AV program. I remember when my sister's XP upstairs would take over 20 minutes to boot up- I finally figured out she had McAfee AND Norton running AND using AOHell at the same time. Uninstalling them made things worse. I had to manually remove every instance of Norton McAfee and AOL I could find in the registry. Took me hours. But when I got done, this 20 minute computer booted up in about 40 seconds.

    After that I vowed never to use a McAfee or Norton product ever again. (AOL was a given ) - So I started using AVG. Worked great!! ---for awhile, then pretty soon the computer was almost useless. Then I found Security Essentials, and life was grand! --- Until MS dumped XP. So then came Avast, and it was pretty good. --- for awhile, till it started crashing System Restore... So I've been using Panda for going on 2 years, and now IT's starting to bog down my computers, which is why I came up with the VM idea, which worked GREAT! --- until IT started bogging down...

    I swear the AV companies do it on purpose to the "free" users to get them to buy, or go somewhere else. How else to explain why the 3 XP machines I'm running with NO AV programs work perfectly, and do virtually everything instantly. Clickthere'sthedropdown... Clickthefile'sopen. Rightclickthere'sthecontextmenu. Clicktheprogramstarts. Clickthere'sthefontmenu. Clicktheprintdriveropens. Clickthefile'ssent. Clicktheprogramcloses.

    My VM worked just like that for awhile too. Then it got to Click 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006 1007 100-oh, there's the font menu finally. Click 1001 1002 1003 1004 and the font is chosen... seriously!

    And I HAVE been getting to like Win7 lately, especially when I finally (duh) figured out how to directly-connect to printers on the network, which also applied to getting Gravostyle on Win7 and newer to actually 'find' the machines. But enter win8, and EZcad comes up with "unsupported operating system", and while Gravostyle5 will install and run on a win8, the freakn laser drivers won't load! AGGHH!!!

    And Mayo, thanks for the spyware advice, gonna try that. But I've been using CCleaner since it was originally 'Crap Cleaner' .. (and even a free trial of the pro version didn't help with the CorelX3 loading)

    I dug my spare killer XP out of storage, and it's all up and running and works the fiber nicely. And it's as fast as the laser! (no AV). And the win7 laptop is what I'm using right now, and it's now connected to and runs my two XT's, the 5000, the LS900, the vinyl cutter and two 3400's-- for starters, 3 regular printers, and I can run both Gravostyle's 5 and 7, and Corel's x3 and x4... which is exactly what the other win7 did till l blew it up!

    For fun, I have two XP's now, on the net, with zero AV or AS, and my 98se has been online naked for over 5 years. As long as I don't SURF, I'll probably never see a virus. (the only thing I do online with my 'working' XP's is keep the metric-to-inch calculator handy! )

    just like women, can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    NW Arkansas
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    Blog Entries
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    I've used Avast a long while on this computer, (2010 model) and it worked until about 2 yrs ago perfectly. then wouldn't stop the popups that there was an issue. Issue was that they wanted $ for subscription. I deleted and used win defender until about the time I bought 'new' computer for laser. Added Avast onto it with no issues. So I tried again on this computer and had worked with no popups for 6 months. BUT, I kept having resources slow down the computer AND intermittently my internet usage on this computer would soar. System use. Would kill my satellite internet for a month. Blamed it on a couple of programs and deleted them. Still happened. Used Glasswire to trace to system resource Regsvr32.exe Seems like this can be a system program that Windows has had an issue with being renamed and trojan type use. Malwarebytes, Win defender, and Avast all say it's fine, but using Glasswire, I blocked it at firewall and disabled it. Can't delete, but it isn't running any more. And I can't see where it was doing anything anyway.... But internet use is back down to proper level and nothing else is a problem..

    I would say trash the win 8 computers. (at least the OS) as it was a trashy system anyway. Win 10 has been decent, last updates on this one and my laser computer were non issue.
    Yep, computers! Fun stuff!
    Woodworking, Old Tools and Shooting
    Ray Fine RF-1390 Laser Ray Fine 20watt Fiber Laser
    SFX 50 Watt Fiber Laser
    PM2000, Delta BS, Delta sander, Powermatic 50 jointer,
    Powermatic 100-12 planer, Rockwell 15-126 radial drill press
    Rockwell 46-450 lathe, and 2 Walker Turner RA1100 radial saws
    Jet JWS18, bandsaw Carbide Create CNC, RIA 22TCM 1911s and others

  9. #9
    If us cheap --- would actually pay for out anti-virus, wonder if the nonsense would stop?

    I have a few cool programs that help with troubleshooting, one is 'process explorer' (I think), just like the task manager list but much more detailed, plus you can suspend any process without ending it so you can see what happens, or don't... Another one is called 'autoruns', which really digs deep, it lists virtually every single thing your computer is running. It also lets you temporarily or permanently suspend 'things'. Also, you can search for anything by name. Have one called 'shell view' that lists running shell/context menu items (many of these are right-click objects), and as with the others, you can suspend items to help locate something that may be bogging down the computer. And I have a registry scanner, that's the bomb- If you're brave (and back up your registry first), it can find and get rid of anything you want! Just search for AOL, McAfee, and Norton (for example ), and it will find every single one, and with one click, all gone. I've done this a few times and so far only positive results

    Never heard of Glasswire, I'll check into it --

    As for the win8 computer, if I was smart I'd just make the win8 hard drive a slave, get an SS for the master and get a 64 win7 ultimate put in.
    Last edited by Mike Null; 07-10-2017 at 4:12 PM.
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Savusavu, Fiji
    Posts
    1,167
    Win8 was a dog. Kinda like WinME. Win8 does work, and work well, for some people. However, both Win8 and ME worked very badly for a great many people. Personally, I have switched to M.2 drives. About the same price as an SSD, but (if you get the kind that work on PCI Express lanes) MUCH faster. (Almost as good as going from a HDD to an SSD.) Kinda makes up for some of the slow downs you are talking about. If things are slow, it worth looking at Task Manager and checking on the Performance tab to see exactly where the slow-down comes from.
    Longtai 460 with 100 watt EFR, mostly for fun. More power is good!! And a shop with enough wood working tools to make a lot of sawdust. Ex-owner of Shenhui 460-80 and engraving business with 45 watt Epilog Mini18.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Shohola, PA Pocono Mountains
    Posts
    1,336
    Interesting Thread... Lots of good tips... I am using a Win 7.

    Yesterday AOL sent a email that they are going paid in 30 days. Get gold and pay or loose access... For anyone who has it but does not log in very often. It will be $5.29 a month to start. For me I have been using the free version for over 15 years so I can't complain. I have years of business emails on it by year so it would be nice to keep.

    AL
    1 Laser, 4 CarveWrights, Star 912 Rotary, CLTT, Sublimation, FC7000 Vinyl, 911 Signs, Street Signs, Tourist Products and more.
    Home of the Fire Department "Epoxy Dome Accountability Tag and Accountability Boards".

  12. #12
    On my win8, and I've also found on win7, at certain times of the day, my keyboard will work for like 6 or 8 seconds, then be stone dead for 3 or 4 seconds. Sometimes what keys I've typed will show up after the 'dead zone', sometimes not. Check the task manager, CPU is like 3%, no help. Load up the columns with I/O read/writes, and guess who's tops? Firefox. Followed one or many 'svchost.exe' processes, and try to guess who those belong to... But WAIT! That's why I like Process Explorer, it DOES tell you who they belong to!

    --screenshots... my mouse arrow was pointing about 2 spaces above each dialog box,
    just hovering brings up the box...
    -just happened to find Defender on the first try!
    pe1.jpg

    Up near the top this one process is covering a LOT of ground...
    pe2.jpg

    It's interesting, and nice to know what's going on in there!

    But back to the dead keyboard, I'm pretty sure it's Defender is running a scan in the background. It's annoying, but it usually doesn't last long and the keyboard issue is the only thing I notice during the day with Defender. That I can live with...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Victoria, BC
    Posts
    2,367
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    If us cheap --- would actually pay for out anti-virus, wonder if the nonsense would stop?

    I have a few cool programs that help with troubleshooting, one is 'process explorer' (I think), just like the task manager list but much more detailed, plus you can suspend any process without ending it so you can see what happens, or don't... Another one is called 'autoruns', which really digs deep, it lists virtually every single thing your computer is running. It also lets you temporarily or permanently suspend 'things'. Also, you can search for anything by name. Have one called 'shell view' that lists running shell/context menu items (many of these are right-click objects), and as with the others, you can suspend items to help locate something that may be bogging down the computer. And I have a registry scanner, that's the bomb- If you're brave (and back up your registry first), it can find and get rid of anything you want! Just search for AOL, McAfee, and Norton (for example ), and it will find every single one, and with one click, all gone. I've done this a few times and so far only positive results

    Never heard of Glasswire, I'll check into it --

    As for the win8 computer, if I was smart I'd just make the win8 hard drive a slave, get an SS for the master and get a 64 win7 ultimate put in.
    fWIW, when I was still in the industry, we found "free" versions of any AV (other than ClamAV, but it doesn't (or didn't) dynamically check emails) were pretty much useless. Yes, including everyone's favourite, AVG. since most of our calls to personal (ie not business) clients were for virus issues, it seems that free AV isn't worth much.

    We would have folks swear up and down that their favourite software caught everything, but our diagnostic disks (that ran ClamAV) would usually find viruses their "free" software had missed. And voila! Their computer ran fine now.

    This is a topic where people get riled up into near religious levels of passion about, so I will say that was our experience. But, I've had plenty of students tell me later when we ran into each other that my advice came to bite them on the butt, after they used free versions to save money. When they went to a paid version of a reputable product, they had much fewer problems.

    YMMV, of course.
    Paul

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Iowa USA
    Posts
    4,441
    Paul, that is what I found out last year when I got hit with a Ransom ware. I had 2 anti virus programs on, one I had paid for, once. It saw something going on but by the time it caught the thing, it was too late.
    That is why I pay for and use Norton's on all my PC's and my MacBook. Let it be noted in the 20 some years I have been computing online this was the first and only virus I have had. I have recovered my wife's computer more than once from a virus however. She also now uses Norton's.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Victoria, BC
    Posts
    2,367
    Yep. And my experience tells me that a lot of people who swore "I've never had a problem" actually did. They were emailing virii to everyone they knew, and weren't even aware of it. I saw this both as an instructor, and as a service tech when I owned my own business.
    Paul

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