Computer problem I cannnot figure out

Discussion in 'The Living Room' started by Tekkiji, Oct 5, 2008.

  1. #1
    Tekkiji

    Tekkiji Well-Known Member

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    So I've been messing with my friend's computer for the past two days. All she really wants to do is install a program for one of her college classes. The program requires Adobe Flash. Well her computer is also not working that great. It gets a lot of error messages for certain things and I've been trying to get all these solved. She is running Windows Vista, which I have never used so I am trying to learn it.

    One, her Internet Explorer just will not work at all. I installed an older version of Firefox but it will not boot up. I keep getting this message:

    Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system.

    I look in the processes that are running but it is not visible. I tried just rebooting and seeing if that would do anything but nothing. What's the deal here?

    Also this message:

    Can not create temp folder archive

    This had to deal with the newest version of Firefox. Still lost on this one.

    Her mouse is also having issues. It does work, but it will not right click at all (the trackpad). I'm sure if we plugged in another mouse it may work fine, but we don't have one yet. Any clue on this?

    My dad took a look at it and found that a lot of things are running in the background. I did delete a lot of stuff from msconfig that were not needed. I took Norton off the computer and put in AVG. I have ran some anti-spyware and nothing has been found.

    Is there a place where I can get a free version of Macromedia Flash Player? If I can get it on my computer I will put it on a jump drive and transfer it to hers. Also, on the back of this program that her school gave her, the requirements go all the way up to XP and have nothing about Vista on there. It should still work on Vista, correct?

    Thanks for any help. I would really appreciate it.
     
  2. #2
    Gloomy Mushroom

    Gloomy Mushroom Absolute Zero LPA Super VIP

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    Reinstall windows completely if you're getting serious error messages like that.
     
  3. #3
    Neil

    Neil Super Duper Member LPA Super Member

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    You could try running the software in XP compatibility mode, but there's no reason she should be having errors like that. If it's having issues creating temp folders I'd recommend one of two things. Reinstall XP or reinstall Vista.
     
  4. #4
    Sid

    Sid Well-Known Member

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    One simple solution to a stupid problem. Switch over to XP and see all your problems fade away.
    That's what I did.
     
  5. #5
    Neil

    Neil Super Duper Member LPA Super Member

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    Not always an option.


    My video card on my laptop only has drivers for Vista. The only way to get the drivers to agree with XP is to remove 1 out of the 4gigs of RAM. Some memory addressing issue.
     
  6. #6
    Sid

    Sid Well-Known Member

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    Ah. I see. That means I can't downgrade my laptop?

    I downgraded my desktop to XP, and now i'm more comfortable.
     
  7. #7
    Neil

    Neil Super Duper Member LPA Super Member

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    You probably can, I was just using an example to say going to XP isn't always an option. Besides, since service pack 1, vista isn't all that bad. I still prefer XP, but vista is usable.
     
  8. #8
    Sid

    Sid Well-Known Member

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    Alright. I'll get Service Pack 1, then I'll see. Otherwise XP is always an option for me. By the way, I have a Sony VAIO.
     

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