fao the doctor

you're my only hope.

well, unless anyone else has any bright ideas.

i appear to have bust my brother's computer. 'Runtime error 21 at 01B249D2' pops up twice whenever i turn it on. the whole shebang is frozen until i close the top message box. it also makes a funny juddering noise. internet connection appears to be scuppered but i don't know what else it's affecting. my friend spencer says i need to download some free software to heal it. burt says it's a virus but i've run scans and can't find it. (he also said he would talk me through fixing it but apparently he was LYING, like all men do.)

please can you help?

You didn't mention what operating system you are using. 98? XP? Vista?

If it's XP, maybe the Event Viewer can tell you something: Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Event Viewer.

For information about using Event Viewer, on the Action menu, click Help.

Blame the children

I'd go with Al's solution, though I'd have done it using MSconfig to disable the fucker if possible, and maybe deleted it from an external boot disc. Then I'd have done it right LOL

If you get it up and running, re-run the antivirus (dear $DEITY it better not be Norton), but update it first. Also run adaware and spybot-search+destroy over it ASAP. (both free)

That should clean out not only and traces of that one, but also any others you got from the pron site, and will spot any damage caused.

Ha ha it looks like it was the kids after all!

BTW, you may find that the above is not the exact solution, but the right approach, if it doesn't work, you'll need to track down the bugger by hand, then slaughter it.

bloodynora wrote: burt says it's a virus but i've run scans and can't find it. (he also said he would talk me through fixing it but apparently he was LYING, like all men do.)

please can you help?

I actually googled it and found pretty much the same answer put here, in fact Al's quote looks pretty much the same. BUT if you don't have the thing on in the first place when conveying these problems, then its a but like chucking an elephant through a hoopla.

Burt Reynolds wrote: its a but like chucking an elephant through a hoopla.

If you manage to do that, could you take a photo and post it here? Ta! :)

good luck

thank you everyone, you've all been very kind and helpful.

i don't understand any of it, to the extent that all the words after 'possible solution' started to swim in front of my eyes, but i am going to print this page off and take it back and have a damn good try.

much appreciated.

(i did google it originally, but i was hoping for some sort of hand-holding 'press this button, then press this button' translation. i am but a girl, with a girl's brain.)

bloodynora wrote:

(i did google it originally, but i was hoping for some sort of hand-holding 'press this button, then press this button' translation. i am but a girl, with a girl's brain.)

Blame. The. Children.

It. Was. The. Children.

they did it while i was scoffing sausage sandwiches in sydenham. let that be a lesson to us all.

i think i have mended it, but i am not sure how, which could be A Bad Thing. i followed those instructions about typing commands in safe mode. (this made me briefly feel like i was in a film, which was A Good Thing.) the messages have gone and so has the frightening noise, but the internet still has 'limited or no connectivity'. should that be happening?

many thanks again, anyway!

Sounds like wireless operating normally if you ask me.

This will probably go tits up, but short of redoing the whole network setting (hard ish for wired, fscking horrid for wireless), it's your best shot......

If wired....check both ends of wire, take out, put back in. If wireless, ensure aerials at both ends are working, and that the access point (the thingy plugged into the phone line) is actually working....turn off...turn on.

Right click the network connection in the bottom right of the screen in windows, or in the network connections control panel....click "repair".

And don't forget, antivirus, adaware and spybot....something could be trying to make naughty connections from the machine......hands up who ever had the "click for free porn" icon which dialed a premum rate number on your modem.

And this, ladies and gentlemen is why those who are possessed of clue, do not use fscking system restore, but instead make real backups.

Doctor? wrote: If wireless, ensure aerials at both ends are working, and that the access point (the thingy plugged into the phone line) is actually working....turn off...turn on.

Right click the network connection in the bottom right of the screen in windows, or in the network connections control panel....click "repair".

oh. i already done all that. might i not have mended it properly after all?

double drat. ta muchly though.

Apart from the error, is the network working?

"repair" rarely does any good, but it was worth a try.

Diagnostics from here on, I'm afraid, are likely to be very annoying and very much dependent on the ISP, type of modem, etc etc.

You could always try using the setup CD for the broadband (or for the wireless thingy if it's not all one and the same). It should put back rresh copies of any damaged files and fix the network.

"Should" is, however, a word generally ignored by computers.

Pressing the repair button does save a couple of minutes when you finally buckle and phone the ISP helpline.

There but for the grace of God go i.

Doctor? wrote: Apart from the error, is the network working?

"repair" rarely does any good, but it was worth a try.

Diagnostics from here on, I'm afraid, are likely to be very annoying and very much dependent on the ISP, type of modem, etc etc.

You could always try using the setup CD for the broadband (or for the wireless thingy if it's not all one and the same). It should put back rresh copies of any damaged files and fix the network.

"Should" is, however, a word generally ignored by computers.

all the green bars are lit up, if that's what you mean, and it says the signal strength is marvellous. (it didn't say marvellous. it said something else along those lines.)

i'm giving up. it's the day for it.

Has anyone suggested turning the whole lot off and back on again? Unplug the router and everything.

Or just turnthewholelotoffandgoanddosomethinglessboringinstead

DJ Diamond wrote: Or just turnthewholelotoffandgoanddosomethinglessboringinstead

Why don't you? :p

(Quality programme that - I've still got a badge somewhere)!

Nick King wrote:

DJ Diamond wrote: Or just turnthewholelotoffandgoanddosomethinglessboringinstead

Why don't you? :p

(Quality programme that - I've still got a badge somewhere)!

How shit was that programme? Ironic that it says go do something less boring instead. Thank god for the expansion in digital telly,would say today's yoof,shirley?. Remember when 'Y don't you' was the best of a piss poor offering on the four channels during school breaks?Wank.#

Sunday evengs were the worst,songs of praise and Harry Secombe...In winter months with no light to play footie sunday night telly was memorably shit I do recall.. Don't know they are effin born kids these days.

Boatraceface wrote:

Nick King wrote:

DJ Diamond wrote: Or just turnthewholelotoffandgoanddosomethinglessboringinstead

Why don't you? :p

(Quality programme that - I've still got a badge somewhere)!

How shit was that programme? Ironic that it says go do something less boring instead. Thank god for the expansion in digital telly,would say today's yoof,shirley?. Remember when 'Y don't you' was the best of a piss poor offering on the four channels during school breaks?Wank.#

Sunday evengs were the worst,songs of praise and Harry Secombe...In winter months with no light to play footie sunday night telly was memorably shit I do recall.. Don't know they are effin born kids these days.

Indeed - the only thing I can remember from it is the theme tune, so the actual programme was probably bollocks... :)

Nick King wrote:

Boatraceface wrote:

Nick King wrote:

DJ Diamond wrote: Or just turnthewholelotoffandgoanddosomethinglessboringinstead

Why don't you? :p

(Quality programme that - I've still got a badge somewhere)!

How shit was that programme? Ironic that it says go do something less boring instead. Thank god for the expansion in digital telly,would say today's yoof,shirley?. Remember when 'Y don't you' was the best of a piss poor offering on the four channels during school breaks?Wank.#

Sunday evengs were the worst,songs of praise and Harry Secombe...In winter months with no light to play footie sunday night telly was memorably shit I do recall.. Don't know they are effin born kids these days.

Indeed - the only thing I can remember from it is the theme tune, so the actual programme was probably bollocks... :)

Presnted by a different 'gang of kids' each week if i mind rightly,English one week,Welsh the next,and so on, I do remember the Scottish presenters always being incredibly wank

Gazman wrote:

Nick King wrote:

Boatraceface wrote:

Nick King wrote:

DJ Diamond wrote: Or just turnthewholelotoffandgoanddosomethinglessboringinstead

Why don't you? :p

(Quality programme that - I've still got a badge somewhere)!

How shit was that programme? Ironic that it says go do something less boring instead. Thank god for the expansion in digital telly,would say today's yoof,shirley?. Remember when 'Y don't you' was the best of a piss poor offering on the four channels during school breaks?Wank.#

Sunday evengs were the worst,songs of praise and Harry Secombe...In winter months with no light to play footie sunday night telly was memorably shit I do recall.. Don't know they are effin born kids these days.

Indeed - the only thing I can remember from it is the theme tune, so the actual programme was probably bollocks... :)

Presnted by a different 'gang of kids' each week if i mind rightly,English one week,Welsh the next,and so on, I do remember the Scottish presenters always being incredibly wank

NI ones too......never figured it out, but people from here seem to lose all control of inflection and pitch modulation in their voices when on TV, it's very embarrassing. And besides, never once did they say....."and seamus will be showing us how to defeat the briddish opressors with nothing more than 2 bags of fertilizer, a drum of diesel, a watch and a pp3 battery." So hardly regionally representative.

Miss Nolan........ Your green bars mean the hardware is functioning as it should, the software, as ever, is fucking you over. What is most likely to have happened is that you're lost your IP address (unless it's assigned by the modem/router dynamicly using DHCP), or your gateway's (the router) IP address.# Can you access the modem/router still? It's usually on either http://10.0.0.1 or 10.0.0.2 or 192.168.0.1 (it may also be https rather than http). If it's on 10.0.0.whatever, the login is probably user:admin pass:conexant.....no matter what though, it will be a retarded password. If you can get into the modem, poke about it's config pages to see if you see DHCP mentioned (may be DHCPD that's Dynamic Host Control Protocol (and the extra D that may be at the end is for Daemon....a program that sits and waits to be asked to do something). See that is on! Then in the network connection properties click on TCP/IP and select it's properties. You then want "obtain ip address automatically", and in the "gateway" section, if it aint greyed out, put the modem's ip address (10.0 etc). If the modem/router doesn't have DHCP, then you need something LIKE......

untick obtain automaticly

IP address 192.168.0.anynumberbetween2and254 Subnet mask 255.255.255.0 Gateway Modem's IP

The above if the modem's ip is in the 192 range. If it's in the 10. range, adjust accordinly to keep th modem and computer on the same "subnet" (the subnet mask will be the same though, as 255.255.255.0 just means that on this network the first 3 parts of the address will always be the same, and the fourth can vary).

Or bung in the setup CD, which should do all of the above for you. And remember as SOON as you get online...update the antivirus (no use if it's out of date) and download adware and spybot. If you cannot find the setup CD, try using "find files or folders" (if you're not doing anything until January), and look for a file called "setup.ins" there MIGHT just be one left lying around from the original install. OPEN IT IN NOTEPAD FIRST to make sure it's for the right ISP and stuff (it'll probably have such info in there in comment lines). If it's the right one, double click and everything should be fixed.

Who's the ISP/What is the modem, and we/you may be able to get the right network settings for you.

It could also be a problem with the WPA or (more likely) WEP encrypyion on the wireless, this is harder and more annoying to fix by hand, especially in windos.

If the modem/router also had a connection for a wire....use that as it will instantly let you know....if it works it's the WEP/WPA that's fucked, if it doesn't then it's one of the other network settings.

$DEITY I hate windows where a casual user can trash the system!!(*&*&$^^^!!!

Correction.....in the interests of honesty I should say that while WEP is painful in windos and a doddle in linux.....WPA can induce suicide in either and is possibly harder in linux....partly because of the lack of a point and drool interface for setting it up, but mainly because (in our house anyway), when a WPA connection from a linux box goes wrong, it can obliterate an entire network of 6 machines running windows and linux, and containing both wired and non wired machines. This is why my wireless enabled laptop has a cable in the side of it when at home..

Well....that and the fact that wireless sucks the shite out of a dead badger's arse through a drain grating if you want to do owt but surf the web (not great for heaving 50GB of files around, that's for sure).

doc, you are a star. thank you so much for all those instructions, even though i did not understand one word of it. i am going to let you off whatever it is you owe me for knowing about multivac.

however, i abandoned the computer and got on a train that took me hundreds of miles away. always best whan faced with a tricky problem, i find.