Ask A Geek

Q: I have recently done a reformat. I have installed Windows XP. In doing so I am no longer able to connect to the net. My wireless is installed and I am sending packets but not receiving any.

I have both Internet Explorer and Firefox. When I choose to connect it goes to the server not found screen. When I did an ipconfig I have no DNS suffix or Default Gateway. I hope the info I have given helps. How do I get back on the Internet?

Q: I had to do a PC recovery recently. When I got my PC up and running I noticed that pictures and other images are narrow and tall. I tried to reset my monitor settings but that did not help. How can I get the pictures to look correct?

Q: My friends computer is going haywire. None of the programs or files are opening. We cannot access the internet and we cannot do a system restore.

All the files say that they are infected and/or corrupt. It is a trojan virus…possible ldpinch v. as this is what has come up. Do you have any idea what I should do to fix it?

We are also getting bankerfox.a and it is coming from a website called antivirus live, which is also known as windows-anti virus .net.

Q: Can using system recovery every time you have a virus that hurts your system mess up your computer?

Q: I made recovery discs when I first bought my computer and I would like to set it back to the day I bought it but when I put the discs in nothing happens. How do I do this Windows Vista?

Q: I have a Compaq SR5210NX desktop. I tried booting it after some time being stored in a friends home. It would boot up, give the Compaq screen with the F key command options, another screen would come up with a status bar that said “loading windows files”, then a blank screen and my mouse pointer would appear but nothing else.

I tried doing a system restore at the boot up and that seemed to be working but now it is endlessly running a check disc system repair thing. What could the problem be and what can I do to fix it?

Q: How can I revert my computer back to how it was 2 weeks ago? I have a virus and I want to get back to where I was before I had the virus.

Q: I Installed McAfee after professional clean of hard drive and my computer is very slow now. How can I get my computer back to its normal speed?

Q: Is there any way to completely reset a Toshiba Satellite with Windows ME back to factory default settings? How do I do this without the OS disk. I don’t understand how to use a startup disk.

Q: I restored an image of my Windows XP operating system. The image was created in August, however, before restoring it, I had neglected to backup the My Documents folder. So I’m stuck with a version of My Documents that doesn’t include any modifications I had made to it during September. Is there anyway of recovering the overwritten data from September?

Not sure if “Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery Software” or any other recovery software can accomplish this.