[MelodyL]

Okay, this is NOT for me. It's for the two nice little old italian people who live downstairs from me. He's 80, loves his computer, loves to text message his grandkids and loves email.

They just came back from italy and they always call me when they can't get online for some reason or another, or to install their DSL line. (which I did).

So tonight, I get a phone call and I rush downstairs. They speak no english whatsoever, so this whole conversation is in Italian.

It seems that they received some emails from italy and they contain photos (in zip file format). For some reason, when they try and open it, their computer just plays the hour glass for ten minutes, and won't do anything.

I rebooted their emachine (It would not let them do the GO TO START, RE-START THE COMPUTER THING). so I just pressed the button and in 5 seconds the whole thing shut off. We waited a few minutes, and restarted it.
This time, I opened the e-mail and clicked on save to disc, and saved the photo attachement to their "my Picture" folder. It did not allow me to save it in jpeg format. It is a zip file so I just did "all files".

Well, it downloaded just fine, but then the hour glass thing appeared and nothing worked.

So they asked me "why is this thing so slow"??? My response "I have no idea", then they asked me "why can't we view these pictures and save them??" my response "I tried but it is not responding"

Then when we tried to shut down the computer the little pop up window said: "this program is not responding".

So tomorrow, when I see these two lovely older people (who are in their 80's by the way), can I give them a glimmer of hope as to why their one year old Emachine is not letting them do anything.

They have a dsl but they use AOL to sign on.

Thanks, Melody

[Jomar]

Hi Mel,
Are they using windows XP?
Do they have anti virus software installed and using it?
If not I suggest an Internet Suite type of anti virus - most of them protect against viruses, spam, trojans, etc.

here's a thread where we talked about them-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=26151

Is their machine set for automatic updates from Microsoft?
They may have accidentally opened a spam or virus email.
Do they get many spam type messages?

for now I would suggest running the clean up and the defrag programs to clear out some of the excess junk.
to see if that helps at all.
then install a trial of one of the anti virus programs listed in the other link.

and once the machine is working better they can ask for the pictures to be sent as a jpeg instead of a zip??
usually though a double click on a zip file should open it or open the unzip feature.

[MelodyL]

Do they have Windows XP - yes

and once the machine is working better they can ask for the pictures to be sent as a jpeg instead of a zip??.... I told them this last night. I explained that photos should be send in jpeg format (remember there's a language thing going on here, my italian is not equal to their italian, lol).

They use Mcafee virus. It was being updated yesterday, but they couldn't do it because the machine kept freezing up.

Forget about telling them to do virus scans. He's 80 and all we wants to do is sign on and do email.

They might have a virus or a trojan - this could be it.

I will do a scan disc and a defrag. - do you think this is a good idea???

Before I go downstairs, I'll wait until I hear from you.

Thanks so much.

Melody

[Jomar]

the Mcafee can be set to do the scans automatically and it has a defrag/clean up in it too {if it is the full internet suite version}.

but a good start is to clean it out and defrag.
and see if that helps.

[MelodyL]

Hi Jo:

Well, I just went downstairs to check up on these people.
I first did a scan disc (no problems).

Now I'm doing a defrag. This will take a long time.

The thing that I think is happening is that they may have two security things going on.

They have Macafee (an icon on the desktop) and last night I saw it up on the screen indicating "updating" or something to that effect.

Then, when they go on AOL, the screen says "AOL security , blah blah.

Now I know you can't have two security systems working on a computer (this is what my computer genius son once told me, ...too bad we are not communicating any more, because I'd be on the phone with him.

But do you think this might be the problem.
That they have a Macafee thing and the AOL security thingl. Maybe these two things running is what is making the Emachine slow.

But then again, we are talking EMachines here. I have no clue.

Thanks,
Melody

[Jomar]

You might try disabling one or both of them and see if it is faster with out both - but if both were running before the slow down something must have changed.

let the defrag finish
then run a scan with each of those programs - some will miss and another will catch things.
then if clean - disable one or both to see if it is faster.

With most AV pgms you can right click on the task bar icon and a little menu will pop up- there should be a " turn off protection" or "pause protection" and you can choose a time.


Did you do the clean up before the defrag? I think it asks about that before it lets you do the defrag.

if it's still slow it may have gotten some services running that aren't needed and bogging the system down.

you can try ctrl/alt/del {press them all at once}
and a window will open [windows task manager]
the different tabs give different info
but we'll get into that if the other stuff doesn't help.

[MelodyL]

Well, you are going to think I am a genius.

I went down there today and first we did the scan disk, then we did the defrag. Made not whit of difference. And yes, I closed the Macafee thing.

Made no difference. So I said to myself "Melody, when you need to find an answer on the internet, where do you go??" and I answered myself "why, to a message board of course". So the next logical thought in my mind was "The guy downstairs who is 80 and uses the computer, doesn't speak a word of english, only italian and only Sicilian". It's a dialect of italian.

So what did Melody do?? I went to yahoo, typed in Italian computer message boards. You will never guess what happend?

Yup... found the guy a message board out of Italy, that's in Sicilian.

I registered him and we got the email and we validated his registration. I then told him in italian. "Type up your whole problem, and include your e-mail". If anyone knows emachines, they'll contact you. His computer does work but it's slow, but hey, the guy is 80 and he's not going anywhere.

So I left him happily typing in italian, and his 80 year old wife asleep on the couch. I went upstairs and cooked my chicken and broccoli.

Tell me I'm not good........


lol Melody

[Jomar]

LOL- in the long run it may end up being something someone needs to be there to do a hands on fix - but he might enjoy conversing and learning about it.

[MelodyL]

Can you imagine.... being 80 years old, buying a computer, learning how to use it, in another language. Setting up email accounts. Learning instant messaging. And then going on an Italian Computer Message Board??

I find this all fascinating. Especially when the older people around my area (75 or so) just sit on the porch and want their kids and grandkids to just come and sit with them. They won't go off their porch.

And I have an 80 year old gentlemen who lives downstairs who gets dressed up every day, goes out shopping with his wife (they just returned from a month in Italy), and now he is corresponding with Italy.

I just think this is cool.

mel