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The owner of the computer needed it back so I ran KillDisk to clean the Hard Drive and did a fresh install of XP. I’m still stumped by the .encrypt file extension. In addition to here I’ve posted on several different malware prevention forums and have not received any replies. I’ve talked to three professional IT guys I know and they had not encountered this before. Although when I told one about not being able to access files he said: “It sounds like you’re using Vista.” So I’ll keep hunting until I find what program encrypted these files in case this shows up again.

I’ve encountered an unusual problem on a friend’s computer. All of the.doc, pdf, and .jpeg files on this machine now have an additional extension of .encrypt. The extensions .tif and .gif are ok. I’ve Googled this file extension and found nothing. The owner of the computer doesn’t know what happened so I’m assuming it is a malware problem. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Anyone here have any information on Conficker C and April 1st 2009? All I’ve been able to find is a lot of speculation. Any tips on how to be ready “just in case” will be greatly appreciated.

Have you tried running network setup wizard on both computers? Also try cold booting both computers and let them stand for about 5 minutes.

I’m a fool for downloading free utilities. I have DriveGLEAM running on XP and it seems to be OK so far. None of the utilities in the link Groft.uigi provided are listed as being for Windows 9X. I can’t test any because my Windows Me computer needs a fresh install right now (I trashed it again by downloading too many free utilities). If anyone gets them working in 9X please let me know. And thanks Triger49 for suggesting this. The pci HD cards I’ve used either do not have a way to display HD activity or if they do it’s just a flicker and not indicative of real HD activity.

Old VIA, SIS and Intel BX chipsets take more than 512mb. For eccentric reasons I’ve put together a tricked out PIII 1.4 system. 1gb ram, twin SATA 80gb hard drives, Radeon X800, Sound Blaster Audigy, and a USB 2.0 card running XP with a Vista Theme. So it can be done if you’re willing to spend months tweaking and optimizing.

Check out Craigslist Free Stuff and don’t be shy about mentioning you're looking for old computer parts. I’ve seen listings where companies give away all their old computers when they upgrade. Be careful though, the mobs get unruly at these give aways.

I tried several Vista look-alike XP themes but couldn’t find one with a full orb and matching taskbar and titlebar. So I put this together. I also eliminated any Zune orange colors in favor of shades of blue. http://www.kwikpiks.com/files/99/VXPScreen.png

Yes it still applies. As I understand it only with Vista can you uninstall and then reinstall without problems. Here’s what I do. It might be overkill but it works. Google, download and install the following programs: Driver Sweeper (free), RegCleaner (free), CCleaner (free) NET Framework 2.0 or higher (free), Driver Cleaner (trial version or paid version) and 6-11-pre-r300_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_38185.exe (the drivers for your R9000) Uninstall all ATI programs under Control Panel / Add Remove Programs not add new hardware Reboot when prompted. Open RegCleaner and check every box with ATI in the title. Click “Remove Selected" on the bottom of the screen. Do Not use the “registry cleanup” under the tools menu. Close RegCleaner Run CCleaner and CCleaner registry cleanup. Reboot into Safe Mode. Open Driver Cleaner and follow the instructions to delete everything ATI After Cleaning is finished go to Tool menu / Log and delete all the backup files. Close Driver Cleaner. Open Driver Sweeper. If all went well it should report there are no ATI files on your computer. If it finds more ATI files, check the ATI files and click “clean” on the bottom of the page. Close Driver Sweeper Reboot normally. Click on 6-11-pre-r300_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_38185.exe and follow the instructions to install. I don’t use CC or CCC just the drivers but that’s your choice Reboot and wait for the drivers to fully install. Do a cold boot. Let us know if it works.

I have USI Wireless Minneapolis City Wifi. The only good thing I can say about it is that it's better than dial up. I'll be switching to a different service when my contract expires.

I use Windows 4.9 on an old game machine. I’ve seen ads for new computers that say “featuring Windows 6.0” in order to avoid the “V” word, which has become marketing poison. So I’m doing the same for my Win ME machine to see if it helps.

OS 2 (any version) was the worst. Second would be Vista. It does the same things I do with XP only slower and at a higher cost. Who wouldn't want that?

I used a 9200 with 98SE for years without problems with any images or dx8 casual games. The video card web sites will say this isn’t a good card but that’s only because it won’t play the most demanding 3D games. Like the above posters said it’s probably something else. But you asked for a recommendation. There are several companies on Ebay (I don’t know if forum rules allow me to mention their names) that sell new old stock video cards at very reasonable prices. Buy new not used so you don’t get someone else’s failed over clocking experiment. I recently purchased a Radeon X800 SE 4x/8x agp. It’s a real sleeper, under $25.00, a step up from a 9800XT and it works with Windows 9x. It also draws only two more watts than a 9200 so you won’t have to upgrade your power supply. It does have a fan though. If your board has a 2x agp slot then I’d recommend a 9700 pro. There are new ultimate/passive cooling versions of 9700 and 9800 pros available from these sellers from time to time. These cards will require more power so check the ATI site for requirements. I’ll leave the nVidia recommendations to someone else.

Thanks for the reply. I finally got a day off so I took the computer apart, cleaned it and put it back together. I turned it on and once again no video signal and no beep. I let it run like this. When I came back hours later the bios had loaded and it reported the cpu fan was not working. The fan was spinning but the bios could not detect it. I replaced the fan and so far it boots normally.

My first thought would be interference from a fan, maybe the one in the new power supply. It could also be dirty power. Try plugging the computer into a different outlet, on a different circuit. In my basement studio I have a separate power line that powers only the audio equipment. It doesn’t get rid of all the poltergeists but it helps. But before you fix it, do a high quality sample. It's got a new age mountain stream/cricket kinda sound that might work in a remix.

If Cluberti’s suggestion doesn’t work try downloading and reinstalling IE 7.

Have you tried going to user accounts and clicking “Change the way user log on or off” and clicking both boxes?

Yes that’s it, thank you. And I agree that Malwarebytes and CCleaner are the first things to try for any problem.

If you’ve recently installed NET Framework 1.1 or it was installed with Windows Update there will be and extra account under User Accounts in Control Panel. Delete the extra account (I can’t remember what it’s called) and the logon screen will be gone next time you restart. This will also bring back the XP logoff screen instead of the Windows Classic one.

About once a week this computer won’t boot to bios. After I disconnect and re-connect the power cable it works normally. Because it’s a random problem it’s difficult to trouble shoot. I’m guessing it’s the power supply, memory or a static/grounding problem (it’s been very cold and dry here for the last two months). Before I start swapping parts and waiting for the next startup failure I thought I’d ask for any suggestions from the members here.

It’s not the date of the driver that matters, it’s using the ones optimized for your motherboard. Check to see if Windows Update or the SP3 service pack installed the generic XP driver. This is from the Realtek website: “Audio drivers available for download from the Realtek website are general drivers for our audio ICs, and may not offer the customizations made by your system/motherboard manufacturer. To be sure you obtain the full features/customizations provided in your original audio product, please download the latest drivers from your system/motherboard manufacturer's website.” The same can be said of the drivers available on Windows Update for the AC 97 chip.

The Windows XP driver for the Realtek AC97 only provides volume controls. Look on the website of your system or motherboard manufacturer and see if they have a download with additional software to enable recording, tone control, etc.

I've done this upgrade on several desktop P IIIs and there is a very noticeable improvement from 256 to 640.

Thanks for the link. On this machine with XP reporting UDMA 4 the average read is 44.8 mb/s and the burst is 56 mb/s. I also ran it on another machine with a promise controller and the average is 30 mb/s and the burst is 88.6 mb/s. With the programs I have I can’t see a difference. I’ve had a lot of computer malfunctions caused by my fixing something that really didn’t need to be fixed so I’ll leave it alone.

Interesting, I’ve never tested it. This computer is an adequate web surfer so I haven’t bothered to pursue the UDMA 5 glitch. Does anyone know of a reliable utility (preferably freeware) to find out if it is the motherboard bios or XP that is in error? The utilities I have don’t test anything they just repeat what the bios and OS report.