Strange Computer problem

today, whenever i download something, it just 'vanishes' instantly


for example, if i download a file to a folder (C:\rF Downloads) then go to that folder to open it, it is not there. if i click on the completed download in FF3, it says file not found. the same happens with the dialogue box in IE

it also does it if someone sends me a file through MSN.

using Windows Vista Home Premium

Sim

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All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole

In Firefox try a larger file and monitor the folder while it's downloading (turn on hidden files). Firefox saves a cached file in the folder as it's downloading (IE saves it to a temporary directory and then moves it).

Can you copy a standard file there through Explorer? What if you save a file through Word or something?

Does the folder make a difference? Try making a new one elsewhere, ideally another drive or partition.

yeah I've tried monitoring a file until its completed, it stays there but the second it completes it just vanishes. a couple of times I have managed to open a rar I have downloaded, but upon choosing extract/dragging contents to a folder, I get a file not found error; the same happens if i choose open file instead of save file at the download prompt.

Copying files across folders works fine, as does creating new files and saving them.

I have tried downloading to different folders, new and old, but still doesn't work. I don't have a 2nd drive/partition, but have tried downloading directory to a memory stick and still the same problem.

Sim

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All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole

MSN always did this to me but whenever I saved anything to desktop it worked... Probably wont work, but I guess it could be worth a go.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

doesnt work chet

interestingly, i cant save pictures via FF3, but i can through IE

Sim

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All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole

well...it appears to have been fixed :S

i followed this

[support.mozilla.com]

and once i disabled the virus scanning it worked fine

edit/// Firefox is fixed, MSN isnt. can i assume its sommet to do with my AntiVirus?

Sim

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All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2008 04:41PM by sasjag.

Which AV do you use? Try one of the free ones or a trial of NOD32 or Kaspersky.

MSN used to do loads of stupid things regarding transferred files, ranging from deleting them to stopping you opening perfectly valid pictures.

AVG is what i use

Sim

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All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole

Try Avast or something then, just to rule out AVG (which seems to be dropping in reputation from what I read).

Get something decent though. Seriously. :P

gav Wrote:
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> Try Avast or something then, just to rule out AVG
> (which seems to be dropping in reputation from
> what I read).

For any reason in particular?

[Website]

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Try Avast or something then, just to rule out AVG
> (which seems to be dropping in reputation from
> what I read).
>
> Get something decent though. Seriously. :P


Quick Hijack :P

Is Live OneCare as good as it seems?

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Ferrari_Fuhrer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> gav Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Try Avast or something then, just to rule out
> AVG
> > (which seems to be dropping in reputation from
> > what I read).
>
> For any reason in particular?

None in particular that I know. It's recommended a lot less than it used to be. I use NOD32, so have no recent experience of the free AVs.

Just to hijack a pc problem topic

im thinking I have a bad HDD. I have 3HDDs all set up (All sata but no RAID), one with OS, one with Music, Downloads, Data etc and the 3rd just for movies and things. Recently, theres been problems with startup and disk detection, some times requires rebooting. Once it gets onto loading Windows up, it can take upto 10 mins to boot up, and is then still very unstable. This morning, Ive just got the OS HD plugged in and it all seems to be working fine.

Am I right in thinking this is HDD based? Was thinking of getting 2 new ones anyway, as 2 are currently maxtors :\

Bit of extra info, system is ASRock Dual SATA2 s939, AMD Athlon 3700+ s939 and OS is Vista Home Premium

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Could be a SATA controller going a bit nuts (unlikely) or a dodgy SATA/power cable (easy and cheap to check), but it does sound like a dying HDD.

Had this last year after a PSU failure with these exact symptoms (coincidently also a Maxtor, though an old 120gb IDE drive). It's not the drive mechanics which appear to be damaged, but the drive electronics. If you've had a recent power cut or noticed a power spike, this could be what's caused the failing of the drive. A poor, cheap PSU could also be to blame. Time to start backing things up I guess.

If you grab yourself a USB enclosure (I have this Icybox and can recommend it, but this seems to be a newer version of it) they tend to be far more robust than SATA controllers. Use the USB function if you try it rather than the eSATA (which is just a pass-through, so you'd experience the same problems). It ought to allow you to backup or transfer data to another drive without it slowing to a crawl or failing. Trying to back up the drive through SATA could take days, put the dying drive through further stress, and it will probably not work anyway.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2008 02:01PM by gav.

hmmm that is strange

Hmm, well we do have this problem at the minute where all the plugs upstairs are tripping out, and we cant figure out why. Its definatly not the PSU, bugger cost £85.
Like I said though, I going to cut down to two hard drives I think, with a 500 and a 320 rather than 2 250s and a 160, so Ill end up swapping them all with that anyway. Ill have a think about the Icybox also though.

Cheers for the reply Gav!

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MattB Wrote:
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> Its definatly not the PSU, bugger cost £85.

£85?! What is it? :P

MattB Wrote:
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> Like I said though, I going to cut down to two
> hard drives I think, with a 500 and a 320 rather
> than 2 250s and a 160, so Ill end up swapping them
> all with that anyway. Ill have a think about the
> Icybox also though.

For the record, your current set up is EXACTLY like mine. OS drive (programs, games). Data drive (documents, downloads). Media drive (music, recorded TV, DVDs, vids).

You may find out you need to get a USB host controller to get to your data if you need it, though a Linux live CD might be a workable option (Windows tends to waken or spin up the drive the moment you open an Explorer window).

PSU is an Antec NeoHE 550W, though it is over 3 years old now. I like the setup of separate drives rather than partitions, seems safer and easier.

You've lost me a bit on the USB host thing though :\ As far as id use it, is just stick the drive in the enclosure, plug it in, drop everything over and then done?

Another quick question, is it possible to 'deactivate' a copy of windows?

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MattB Wrote:
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> PSU is an Antec NeoHE 550W, though it is over 3
> years old now. I like the setup of separate drives
> rather than partitions, seems safer and easier.

Ah right. It's a bit more expensive than it ought to have been, and more powerful than needed in the current system, but for 3 year old it's not too bad.

Drives over partitions are better as you can copy data between them at something like 2.5 times the speed than from copying from partition to partition. Obviously that's not something which is critical most of the time, but you notice it a lot to the extent that it's frustrating and annoying if you do use PCs frequently. Of course, if a drive dies, you only lose what's on that drive too, whereas if a single drive is separated into partitions you'll lose everything.

MattB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You've lost me a bit on the USB host thing though
> :\ As far as id use it, is just stick the drive in
> the enclosure, plug it in, drop everything over
> and then done?

Exactly. I meant the Linux live CD (a complete OS loaded from a CD which doesn't write any data to any drive unless you ask it to, such as copying or saving a file) as a potentially free option for copying the data (or what you can, if not all) from the dying drive to the new one. Windows scans files and directories as you hover and navigate through them in Windows Explorer. Imagine that slow down every time you went to double-click on a folder when you are copying the files or when Windows wanted to do something on the drive (which is normal)... Linux may make a better job of it as it might not do the same, or the controller drivers may behave differently with regards to caching. I've not enough experience of Linux to know if it will be any better in such a situation (I've always got a USB enclosure wherever I am, so I just use that), but if you're really strapped for cash perhaps consider it.

The USB method is by far and away a better one and you shouldn't see the slow-down symptoms you do when you connect the drive through SATA or eSATA. Plus they're useful things to have. :P

MattB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another quick question, is it possible to
> 'deactivate' a copy of windows?

It depends on how you mean and to what purpose. You can't just deactivate a current Windows installation (well, I'm sure you can, but I don't know how you'd go about it), but you can change the serial number and activate that. Problem is, if it's an OEM license (came with a PC or cost less than £150), then it's tied to the first machine (defined as a motherboard) that the license was installed on. It's against the terms of that license to then use that license on any other PC unless the motherboard has been replaced in a like-for-like manner through an RMA.

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> MattB Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > PSU is an Antec NeoHE 550W, though it is over 3
> > years old now. I like the setup of separate
> drives
> > rather than partitions, seems safer and easier.

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> gav Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> Ah right. It's a bit more expensive than it ought
> to have been, and more powerful than needed in the
> current system, but for 3 year old it's not too
> bad.

Oh yea, I know it was overkill, but I got it with the idea that it would last for upgrades


> MattB Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You've lost me a bit on the USB host thing
> though
> > :\ As far as id use it, is just stick the drive
> in
> > the enclosure, plug it in, drop everything over
> > and then done?

-------------------------------------------------------
> gav Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> Exactly. I meant the Linux live CD (a complete OS
> loaded from a CD which doesn't write any data to
> any drive unless you ask it to, such as copying or
> saving a file) as a potentially free option for
> copying the data (or what you can, if not all)
> from the dying drive to the new one. Windows scans
> files and directories as you hover and navigate
> through them in Windows Explorer. Imagine that
> slow down every time you went to double-click on a
> folder when you are copying the files or when
> Windows wanted to do something on the drive (which
> is normal)... Linux may make a better job of it as
> it might not do the same, or the controller
> drivers may behave differently with regards to
> caching. I've not enough experience of Linux to
> know if it will be any better in such a situation
> (I've always got a USB enclosure wherever I am, so
> I just use that), but if you're really strapped
> for cash perhaps consider it.
>
> The USB method is by far and away a better one and
> you shouldn't see the slow-down symptoms you do
> when you connect the drive through SATA or eSATA.
> Plus they're useful things to have. :P

Ah, I see what you mean, ill have a think about it too

> MattB Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Another quick question, is it possible to
> > 'deactivate' a copy of windows?
-------------------------------------------------------
> gav Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> It depends on how you mean and to what purpose.
> You can't just deactivate a current Windows
> installation (well, I'm sure you can, but I don't
> know how you'd go about it), but you can change
> the serial number and activate that. Problem is,
> if it's an OEM license (came with a PC or cost
> less than £150), then it's tied to the first
> machine (defined as a motherboard) that the
> license was installed on. It's against the terms
> of that license to then use that license on any
> other PC unless the motherboard has been replaced
> in a like-for-like manner through an RMA.

Hmm, it is an OEM copy I bought...so with a full upgrade (Motherboard, CPU and RAM) I wouldnt be able to use the same disc I have no?

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