Basic computer help

[Zaranthos]

If you need some basic computer advice try here.

[Midnight Dragon]

How about this for a new topic in Z's new zone...
A topic thread to ask for help fixing your screwed up computer

Can any one give me some clues....

I have a 7 year old ish Sony Vaio laptop, who has had Windows XP re installed twice in that entire time. I'm trying to reinstall the laptop in an effort to fix a ton of stuff on it and make it run faster. However when i put the product recovery CD's in they refuse to even try to be read. Its as if the computer thinks the drive is empty.  Theres nothing wrong with the CD's they are recognised in my desktop drive and the CD drive reads all my other discs.

Any thoughts?

[Zaranthos]

Sounds like a failing drive. Will it boot other bootable CD's?

Edit: Oh, the drive reads other disks fine but not the recovery disk? Just because another computer reads a disk does not make the disk a "good" disk. Scratches, even small ones, and dirt can cause some drives to fail reading them.

Make sure the disk is clean. If it has scratches try cleaning it with furniture polish that has wax in it. The oil and wax in furniture polish help mask the scratches so the laser can read them better.

[Midnight Dragon]

well the disks looked pristine (not that that means there arn't scratches in them)
However after insterting my fathers Windows XP disc that also wasn't recognised in exactly the same manner as my recovery discs.

Yet my data discs still seem to work fine.

[Zaranthos]

You can blow the drive tray and laser off with some canned air. Be careful not to tip the can and spray liquid as it leaves a residue that would make the laser lens dirty. There are also CD/DVD laser lens cleaning disks that sometimes help. They're just a CD with little brushes on it that brush off the lens at high speed. The bad news is the drive may just be going bad.

[Tobythenewb]

or what's possible is that your drive "quick" enough and isn't catching those boot sectors. Try an external media drive.

[ToneDeafBawb]

are you putting them in, restarting the computer and forcing the system to attempt to boot from the CD first?

[Shiverwarp]

I cannot even load certain pages, in either IE or Firefox. I can download specific files from them it seems, if I get direct links. (I think anyways, I'm not entirely sure where I downloaded firefox in IE lol)

Some websites I can't access are:

http://www.mozilla.com/
http://www.gamefaqs.com/

and websites that appear with no formatting or anything, just text and links and images all scrolled down the page

http://www.facebook.com/
http://www.paypal.com/
http://www.youtube.com/

I have no idea what's going on

EDIT: Now I can't access Gmail

[Zaranthos]

That can happen if those sites or related sites where they store their images are blocked in your hosts file or Explorer zones or policies.

This site has some good hosts file info and a hosts file that blocks junk most people don't want.
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Check out your hosts file. Scan and immunize your computer with Spybot Search & Destroy. First check your Explorer trusted/untrusted zones for stuff that shouldn't be there.

My first guess is that your computer got infected with something.

[Xenthes]

In addition to what Z said, I would also try emptying your cache files.
With me gmail doesn't load if my cache files get too big.

[Shiverwarp]

Emptied all my cache and everything, spybot found nothing.

EDIT: Also checked using webroot spysweeper - nothing.

Installed the hosts file. Let me re check

[Shiverwarp]

I can now access Gmail again, but the other sites are all still the same.

I'm considering reformatting lol

[Zaranthos]

This is a possibility also. http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA08-190B.html

Do you have the same problems on another computer on the same internet connection?

[Shiverwarp]

I think it must be that... same issues on same sites on my parents Mac book

Alright I think it was something up with the mac router... I plugged it directly in and I can access all the sites and they act regularly now.

My internet is still horrible though (Bad ISP)

So I dunno, any ideas?

[Zaranthos]

Well if your ISP is the problem you can use an alternate DNS service like this. http://www.opendns.com/

You may have to change the settings on your router and each computer to be sure you're using the new DNS servers.