the BIG 'Help me with my computer!' topic

Thanks for the replies guys.
I guess AMD is better, but someone pointed this out to me on another forum “unless you get heavily into using your system for multiple things at one time - or for demanding applications like AutoCAD and new games - you probably won’t notice much difference between the chips.”

I was going through a Best Buy flyer and saw this- Intel Pentium 4 processor 516 with 17" flat screen CRT monitor. 512mb memory, 200GB hard drive, and dual-layer DVD burner for $599 (canadian).

I would definitely go for the AMD… The P4 is more expensive and the amd is faster per mhz than the P4 and the amd is also 64bit while the P4 is 32bit.

The AMD64 runs quite cool actually… My amd64 3500 runs fine with the stock heatsink which is rather silent. I believe the P4 has not surpassed AMD when it comes to both heat and power consumption. The old amd k7 was indeed very hot, but the new ones are way better when it comes to heat.

Well, if you arent into games and want a budget pc, then go for the amd sempron. The budget processors still give more bang for the buck than a P4. The amd is usually easier to upgrade as well, if you decide to upgrade some time in the future. With P4, you would have to throw the mobo in the trash, since the future cpus will probably have a new socket configuration.

So i honestly see the reason in paying more for a intel which is inferiour.

If you want a cheap and good pc, then you might also want to check computer only stores which build/assemble the pc themself. These will usually outperfom any oem computer that you buy at your standard electronic shop and is cheaper as well.

Being a Mac user myself, I dont know so much about the AMD vs. Intel performance (although I’ve really liked the AMD machines that I’ve used).

I will say that ever since I switched from my 32-bit G4 tower to my 64-bit Powermac G5, the performance gains have been tremendous. 64-bit is the way to go.

My computer is infected with a dialer that can’t connect and is blocked. The thing is, it keeps re-installing itself everytime I delete it. Not that it’s causing me any damage, it’s just annoying. How do I find thesource of that program’s respawning, what can I do about it? I’ve already scanned the system lots of times for viruses and dialers.

hmm try msconfig? and see if it’s in the startup somewhere.

if you have win XP type msconfig in the run prompt.

then you can go to answersthatwork.com to see what else is in your startup that you don’t want there and delete it.

Spy Sweeper, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, CWShredder => good programs for removing such things :smile: Tried them yet?

I’ve tried Ad-Aware, but it doesn’t detect anything, and Spybot, which finds and deletes the problems, but the problem is that the thing is detected again every time I restart Windows. It creates many files in the Temp folder, which run as processes. I blocked them all and erased them with Eraser that overwrites each file something like 35 times, but as I restarted Windows, there were more files in Temp. I need to find the process that creates those files.

use REGcleaner, you can set up your install list, programs, software, backups etc with it

As it turned out to be, it was the famous CoolWWWSearch. I’ve looked for info and downloaded a program (which has already been suggested by Fadem) to delete what other programs couldn’t delete, ie certain parts of said thing. There are still files in Temp that I can’t delete and keep respawning, but I guess they’re normal. Also because Spybot doesn’t detect anything anymore. Thanks guys. It’s been a real challenge, I managed to manually mutilate the spyware here and there removing a lot of files, but it didn’t go away until I used CWShredder. All its base are belong to us.

Glad I could help :content:

That happens with some of the music in my Windows Media Player playlists, they won’t work on the player, but whenever i delete them they come back!

Don’t forget that most viruses often screw with your registry, so search in an AntiVirus database for details about the virus you get, and find the registry keys that cause this. (Most likely it was a respawner key, or a connection that re-downloaded and re-installed itself on command.)

Exacly. They were all edited registry keys.

I knew it! Your registry WAS edited!

Glad I could help out with my wisdom. :content:

It wasn’t only CWWWS, it’s something from “Universa Applications”, it keeps respawning even if I have deleted its registry key. HELP!!!

Crap… Better search on that one…

I’ve also discovered it starts popping up only if I use IE.

Try using Firefox then. :tongue: