William:
One of the first rules is don't add new stuff to a system that isn't working
properly. You'll just make a bad situation worse. Those of us who try to
function as our own technicians learn this the hard, but inexpensive way --
sooner or later we have to admit defeat and go back to the beginning. I've
been there, done that. In your case, please remember that CompUSA is in the
business to make money, and they aren't going to resolve these problems for
free. Expect to pay their standard bench rate for fixing these problems --
it won't be cheap.
Now for some advice:
    Someone has already quite properly advised you to only run one virus
scanner at a time. It's OK to have several anti-virus programs installed,
but only have one of them actively doing background scanning at any given
time; invoke the others as whenever necessary as required by your personal
level of paranoia.
    Given that your version of McAfee probably predates the newer
generations of worms and virii, a new anti-virus program is in order. (The
data files are updated very frequently, but upgrades to the "engines" -- the
programs that actually look for the ugly critturs -- don't happen very
often. Completely new engines are rare.) My practice is to buy the current
version and use it until the free upgrade expires, and then buy the latest
version at one of the office supply places. It's not much more than
subscribing to the upgrade service, and it makes it simpler whenever I
decide to do a reinstall (something which happens a lot around here, but
that's another story...)
    The Windows shutdown problem has been discussed on these pages in the
past. Poke around the www.freeptech.com or www.nospin.org websites; they'll
tell you how to fix it.
    The startup crash won't be easy to resolve. I'd start with an
(up-to-date) virus scan, scandisk, defrag and regclean. Then I'd go to
either of the above sites and look around. In the back of my mind, though,
I'd be thinking that maybe this would be a good time to do a complete
reinstall -- including fdisk and format. I'd also be thinking about all of
the backups and reinstalls. Then I'd remember that there's still another
brew in the refrigerator...
Regards,
Carroll Grigsby


>>>> substantial clipping follows...
----- Original Message -----
From: William Closure <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2001 8:19 PM
Subject: [PCSOFT] trouble turning on computer
>> snip
FWIW, one of the reasons I am trying to clean things up is that I bought a
bunch of stuff from CompUSA, and they are offering free installation. So I
thought I'd try to get rid of any bugaboos before I take the computer in so
any bugaboos when I get it back can be blamed on CompUSA, and I can expect
them to fix them.
>> snip
- Because the McAfee program was outdated, I downloaded Inoculate T. Have
not downloaded updates recently, and am getting an out-of-date warning when
I
turn computer on.
>> snip
- My computer will often not shut down without, literally, pulling the plug.
Recently, I occasionally get a message that (Indexing) program is not
responding. Ofttimes, it will freeze up at the “Windows is Shutting Down”
screen, although I am occasionally surprised when the computer shuts down
properly.  (Sad state of affairs when you are surprised when things function
properly.)
>> snip
TIA

William Closure

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