Help, Helper Monkee!

[Nathan]

Yes. Two were occupied and two were open.

[Mike]

Yes. Two were occupied and two were open.

Then that is our final confirmation. Grab a second stick of that New Egg magic!

[Nathan]

Second stick installed. Shows me having 2 gigs of RAM. Could this mean that it is only recognizing the 2 new sticks?

[Nathan]

Also, my computer keeps telling me I have Windows updates to install. Which I have done 3 times. And rebooted. The little symbol is still there. Any idea why?

[BillyG]

Anyone had experience with "drooptroop" trojan? Kaspersky at work popped up with it last week, and I did a full scan and removed it, then 2 days later it popped back up, did it again, and then this morning I got another notification about it hiding in some temp folder. I've run a scan and deleted it every time, but it seems to come back. I'm worried that maybe a site I read is picking it up, but I don't go to anything coming near to risky at work. I'm turning on NoScript, hoping that might help, but I don't want to call in IT to go through my PC.

[Mike]

Also, my computer keeps telling me I have Windows updates to install. Which I have done 3 times. And rebooted. The little symbol is still there. Any idea why?

If you are using Windows 7, the updates are broken down into Important and Non Important. The Non Important ones are usually updates to device drivers, but they won't install by themselves, you have to go into update, look at the list it recommends, pick the ones you want, then install. I think Vista is like that too. If you are using a hacked version of windows, you may never get the updates to apply properly depending on what build you are using and how clever it is about hiding it's hacked nature from MS.

[Mike]

Anyone had experience with "drooptroop" trojan? Kaspersky at work popped up with it last week, and I did a full scan and removed it, then 2 days later it popped back up, did it again, and then this morning I got another notification about it hiding in some temp folder. I've run a scan and deleted it every time, but it seems to come back. I'm worried that maybe a site I read is picking it up, but I don't go to anything coming near to risky at work. I'm turning on NoScript, hoping that might help, but I don't want to call in IT to go through my PC.

I am sorry Billy, I am not a virus expert in terms of keeping up with the latest and lethalist. NoScript is good, scanning in Safe Mode is better (i.e. disable network access just in case it is fetching copies of itself from the interwebs). While in safe mode, kill all temp and cache files, everything in your downloads directory, and take a look through your Program Files directory for suspicious shit. Check your browsers for toolbars/adbars.

[Nathan]

If you are using Windows 7, the updates are broken down into Important and Non Important. The Non Important ones are usually updates to device drivers, but they won't install by themselves, you have to go into update, look at the list it recommends, pick the ones you want, then install. I think Vista is like that too. If you are using a hacked version of windows, you may never get the updates to apply properly depending on what build you are using and how clever it is about hiding it's hacked nature from MS.

Excellent knowledge sir and thanks again! However this is my work CPU I speak of and is running a legit version of XP.

[Mike]

Second stick installed. Shows me having 2 gigs of RAM. Could this mean that it is only recognizing the 2 new sticks?

Hmm, ok, try removing the original ram that cam with your machine and leave the New Egg ram in and we'll see what happens. It could be there is too large of a speed difference between the ram Dell put in your machine (which is made from children - they don't conduct electricity very well) and the New Egg ram. If the total comes up as 2GB still, we know we were right. If the total comes up as 1GB, one of your new egg strips could be faulty or not in all the way. Pull them both out, and put them in where your original ram was. If it comes up as 2GB after you take it out and move it, your MB could have a bad ram slot.

[Mike]

Excellent knowledge sir and thanks again! However this is my work CPU I speak of and is running a legit version of XP.

Hmm, are yor desktops at work managed by some crazy IT department? With XP, it actually will try to install some non-critical updates but they won't be for your devices, they will be for parts of windows you prolly don't use all that often. If the update is asking to be run over and over again, it's possible the IT people at your shop have the compy's frozen or locked against this kind of update so XP thinks it can do it but really can't. The only other thing I can think of is that the update is allowed to run, but isn't running correctly (meaning XP never thinks the update is actually finished even though its finished several times). Do you have IT support where you work?

[Nathan]

Will do. Thanks again!

[Nathan]

"The RCP server is unavailable"

Rebooted the machine again and it went BSOD. Did the box catch a cold?

[BillyG]

OK, last ditch before I go and buy a new mobo/cpu. Dekstop is still going nuts randomly, where the sound will become corrupted, like it's mixed with a dial up modem. This happens when using Vent, WoW, iTunes, pretty much anything it seems. The sound will progressively get more and more distorted, and my sister will suffer huge performance issues when the sound goes insane, until eventually the program open just locks up and I have to reboot the machine.

I can't think of anything it would be at this point other than my mobo/cpu. Going to try and reinstall onboard sound drivers, but this isn't purely a sound issue. Thinking I might be out $450 or so

[Mike]

Onboard sound cards are usually shit, but can sometimes be affected by needing to do a firmware update on the motherboard itself. Software drivers for the sound card portion may not be enough.

If its just the sound that seems to be stupid, why not try and just buy a separate sound card, install it, then disable the onboard sound chip in the BIOS? Newish sound card on tigerdirect.com runs for 20 bucks, maybe 30 if you want something a bit more high-end.

What version of windows are you running, by the by?

[BillyG]

Win 7 64 bit

It's not just a sound issue, it's just that the sound going insane is the most obvious issue. The sound on whatever I am running goes banshee mode, then all my performance goes to shit, programs freeze up, and eventually Windows locks up.