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General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: Eochaid on March 28, 2009, 08:41:44 AM

Title: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Eochaid on March 28, 2009, 08:41:44 AM
 Hi guys,

I've been having some problems with my computer... I seen unable to download anything!

Over the past few days I've been trying to update my Java & Flash player and after a few seconds I'm told that the file is corrupt.

It's does that to EVERYTHING I try to download.

All the downloads are legal, I've disabled my firewall, nothing. All the videos I try to watch have these huge pixels and all the flash stuff is blacked...

Any thoughts?

Kevin

PS: a lot of internet pages aren't displayed properly, with either fucked-up text replacing icons or all elements thrown together in one corner  :cry:
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: ehrie on March 28, 2009, 08:52:09 AM
Your hard drive is full. Take it out and grind down the data inside with a hammer. This will compress your files and thus give you more hard drive space.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Ed Anger on March 28, 2009, 08:53:22 AM
Virus scan that baby and run a malware scanner.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Eochaid on March 28, 2009, 09:00:25 AM
Quote from: ehrie on March 28, 2009, 08:52:09 AM
Your hard drive is full. Take it out and grind down the data inside with a hammer. This will compress your files and thus give you more hard drive space.

I have 2TBs of free space :)

Quote from: Ed Anger on March 28, 2009, 08:53:22 AM
Virus scan that baby and run a malware scanner.

Already did that. Neither Spyware Doctor nor AVG found anything.

Kevin
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Scipio on March 28, 2009, 09:09:55 AM
Sounds like your HD is totally boned.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Lucidor on March 28, 2009, 09:26:03 AM
Have you tried changing the download directory, so it's not some sort of restricted rights directory?
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Lucidor on March 28, 2009, 09:29:17 AM
It may not be it, but at first my computer acted all funny on me, and it turned out to be a malfunctioning RAM. I've had some RAM fail two years after that and just got replacements.

If you feel adventurous, try taking out a stick of RAM at a time and see if it solves anything. (After disconnecting the power, that is)
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Eochaid on March 28, 2009, 09:40:10 AM

The PC is brand new (less than a month old)

I'll try the directory thing

Kevin
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Scipio on March 28, 2009, 10:10:57 AM
Quote from: Lucidor on March 28, 2009, 09:29:17 AM
It may not be it, but at first my computer acted all funny on me, and it turned out to be a malfunctioning RAM. I've had some RAM fail two years after that and just got replacements.

If you feel adventurous, try taking out a stick of RAM at a time and see if it solves anything. (After disconnecting the power, that is)
Good idea.

Bad RAM can multi-ficky-fick your puter hardcore.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Grey Fox on March 28, 2009, 10:11:40 AM
Ram.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: PDH on March 28, 2009, 10:20:14 AM
Ice cream.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Eochaid on March 28, 2009, 03:17:02 PM
 Let's pretend for a second that I know jack about this kind of shit...  :blush:

How would RAM affect the fact that I can't download shit?

I have 4GB of RAM (I can only use 3GB because I'm using XP).

Kevin

EDIT: instead of actually removing my RAM sticks, can I use Windows Memory Diagnostic?

Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Josquius on March 28, 2009, 03:18:34 PM
Defragging couldn't do any harm. May not solve it but worth a try, could be fragmented to hell?
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Eochaid on March 28, 2009, 03:23:06 PM
Quote from: Tyr on March 28, 2009, 03:18:34 PM
Defragging couldn't do any harm. May not solve it but worth a try, could be fragmented to hell?

My 2*1TB HDs are divided in 8*250 GB partitions (1 system, 1 docs, 2 games, 4 vids & assorted)

I don't see why a defrag would do anything...  :huh:

KEvin
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Grey Fox on March 28, 2009, 03:30:33 PM
Power down, open the case, remove 1 stick of ram, power up, Download something, see if it works. Try the other stick if it is still not solve.

Data goes trhu your RAM before the HDD, if it gets corrupted in ram, won't work.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Josquius on March 28, 2009, 03:31:57 PM
Quote from: Eochaid on March 28, 2009, 03:23:06 PM
Quote from: Tyr on March 28, 2009, 03:18:34 PM
Defragging couldn't do any harm. May not solve it but worth a try, could be fragmented to hell?

My 2*1TB HDs are divided in 8*250 GB partitions (1 system, 1 docs, 2 games, 4 vids & assorted)

I don't see why a defrag would do anything...  :huh:

KEvin
I'm guessing if its totally fragmented then the download could get corrupted due to being placed very oddly in the file structure. Just a random theory in lieu of a definate answer though.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: Iormlund on March 28, 2009, 03:41:20 PM
Another vote for bad RAM. Try memtest86.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: DontSayBanana on March 30, 2009, 01:02:05 PM
RAM's one answer. How full are your partitions? I realize 2TB is pretty hard to fill, but I also know people who do their damnedest to keep that amount stuffed- NTFS isn't as bad as FAT32 about disk thrashing, but it still has a comfort zone of somewhere around 128MB, in my experience.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: dps on March 30, 2009, 01:06:54 PM
I'm far from an expert, but I'd say it's possible that your flash player or other media player either aren't the latest versions or have corrupted installs.
Title: Re: Computer geeks, this is your time to shine.
Post by: DontSayBanana on March 30, 2009, 01:25:39 PM
The old versions shouldn't have anything to do with the installers for the new versions. Also, are you using a download manager, like GetItNow or FlashGet? I think both updaters you're talking about come in the form of self-extracting archives, and download managers make a lot of archives' CRC checks fail.