computer experts

[astromech_kuhns]

i consider myself decent with computers and in the end i usually as i did this time can trouble shoot problems, but i when the bad things happen i have no clue what is happening why or how to prevent it.

but any computer experts out here, what do you know about safe mode?

my computer has had some problems where it reverts to this a couple times and then i restart my computer and it will work just fine.

i often have computer problems i don't know why but they are attracted to me like a fly on honey.

i use my computer a TON and im going to be building my own soon. i use my computer for more then just simple facebook and internet browsing, i have my fan fic, pictures, home work, work for my dad and lots of things that i need to have.

i am considering buying a external hard drive so that i can back everything up onto it in case of problems, but i don't with the amount of problems i have want to pay all the time to fix it. so i would like to learn about computer problems, how to fix them, and how to prevent them.

there are many things i want to know about computers that if you guys/ any computer experts out there could help me learn to use and fix my computer i would love to learn! but one step at a time with the way my computer reverts to safe mode i would like to know more about what it is.

ill explain my general problems and what happens a little later on once i learn a bit about the things that are happening.

Thank you and sorry for the long post!

[xl97]

explain 'revert' to safe mode? like in the middle of working..it just 'goes' to Safe Mode? or doest it shut down..and then re-boot into Safe Mode?

Usually when things like happen..in my opinion its usually hardware or driver related.

Have you taken any Windows updates that updated any drivers? video/sound?

How old is you hard drive?

Have you scanned for any mal-ware?

Malware-bytes is AWESOME.. and free.. although pretty much only good after the fact.. if you want 'real-time' protection.. you'll have to pay..

but I would get it and run a quick scan. (just to be sure)

I 10000% recommend getting an external hard drive..or at the very least.. partitioning you internal HD and treatign it as a storage area only.

that way if you evern have any problems.. you can wipe the C: partition and not have to worry about loosing your files.

Thins I always try to back up before formatting:

Bookmarks/Favorites
Fonts (only needed once really)

Any documents you create like word, excel..etc.. shoudl all be saved to the oter partition/external HD.. so you dont lose them.

Same for tings like iTunes or Limewire...etc make the save directory a folder in the other partition/external HD..

is there some pattern as to when the computer 'goes' into Safe Mode? a specific game? application starting? try to pin point the problem to repeatability.. like you can ALWAYS trigger this error by doing...X, Y, Z...

[pipster79]

my guess is spyware/malware/adware or even virus related. do some scans and also defrag your drive. but again it could be hardware related as well but if you havent done any spyware/malware scans ever 10-1 says you got tons of it on your system without knowing it. it can be worse then a virus. it will attach itself to windows core files, and doesnt want to let go. some can be extremely hard to get rid of.

word of wise is not to click just any link you see. or any add you see on a webpage, any of those adds that say free scanner click here or free online scan and junk like that stay far far away...or the dark side will get you!!!!!

[astromech_kuhns]

i dont go onto advertisements at all and i am carefull about the links i hit. i also have virus scanner and i defrag my computer.

well as far as safe mode goes is sometimes when have to force shutdown my computer for whatever reason, when i start it up it goes into safe mode.

not sure how old my hard drive is though.

i scan for viruses but not malaware, unless avast! gets that to.

[pipster79]

sorry to say but avast is free junk!!!! it barely gets any of the stuff and barely blocks anything. ur going to have to pay for a retail spyware scanner. no scanner is the best but ive found that bullet proof and spyware doctor arent too bad. my self i use kapersky anti virus and spyware, and also do a scan with malware bytes once in a while, as it for a free program actualy works well for some of the really tuff to get spyware and malware

[ARKM]

Astromech, if your boot.ini is setup the default way, when you forcefully shutdown your computer and then turn it back on, it does not boot up into Safe Mode by default. Instead it goes to a boot menu with Safe Mode highlighted and a 30 second timer counts down. If you let it count down and touch nothing, it will boot into Safe Mode. If you press the up or down arrow on your keyboard, it will highlight the option above or below Safe mode and will also stop the timer. Once you have highlighted the option you want, press Enter. So... either your boot.ini has been modified or you always leave your computer when rebooting and thus miss seeing the 30 second countdown. Please let me know if you get the countdown or not. If not, I can help you modify your boot.ini file so that it does. We can even set the timer for longer or shorter if you like.

[astromech_kuhns]

Astromech, if your boot.ini is setup the default way, when you forcefully shutdown your computer and then turn it back on, it does not boot up into Safe Mode by default. Instead it goes to a boot menu with Safe Mode highlighted and a 30 second timer counts down. If you let it count down and touch nothing, it will boot into Safe Mode. If you press the up or down arrow on your keyboard, it will highlight the option above or below Safe mode and will also stop the timer. Once you have highlighted the option you want, press Enter. So... either your boot.ini has been modified or you always leave your computer when rebooting and thus miss seeing the 30 second countdown. Please let me know if you get the countdown or not. If not, I can help you modify your boot.ini file so that it does. We can even set the timer for longer or shorter if you like.

i apreciate your post!

my computer doesn't always start up like that. only when i do a force quit. but yes i know the screen and options you are talking about. but if i just normally boot up my computer it doesn't do that.

what i need to know is what safe mode is and how to use it, i know that it is for fixing problems. but since my computer does this im guessing something happens that needs to be fixed.

no it doesn't boot in safe mode automatically i select that option because i was told that if it starts up and give me that option safe mode is what you need to start up in.

[Sairon]

I remember there is a way to switch off saftey mode with ctrl-alt-delete, but you have to not have windows task manager. Do ctrl-alt delete and a pop up thingy will occur and will say lock this computer blah blah and saftey mode. You just turn it off. This may however not work, I can run a couple tests over my next week for ya if ya want and try to figure out an answer if that doesn't work. Seeing as how I never if had this I'm not totally positive.


And saftey mode is just another background/browser thingy, it makes things harder to do say for kids so they don't screw up ur computer.

[astromech_kuhns]

well, i don't want to disable it because there is nothing wrong with it starting up like this i just want to know what its for and how to use it.

[Sairon]

It's basically just like another firewall, it makes your computer a little slower and the screen gets weirded out most of the time. Thats about all it does.

[xl97]

you do NOT have to boot into Safe Mode...

as a matter of fact you should only boot in safe mode if you need to trouble shoot something..

when your computer boots into 'safe mode'.. it 'turns on' only the bare essentials to run.. meaning most/all your dirvers are turned off.. and sometimes even network support (sometimes you get an aoption to boot to Safe Mode with Network Support..and this will enable your NIC card)

the reason you do this is un-install bad/corrupt drivers or software that you believe is the culprit for cause errors..

So safe mode is just that.. SAFE MODE.. no extra booted up when the computer starts..

If you cant pinpoint what causes your computer to freeze or whatever..making you "FORCE SHUT DOWN" (as you put it).. your just guessing..

what is making you 'force shut down' the machine?

if you have to force shut down..when you re-boot..just boot to normal windows..or Last KNown Good Configuration..

as I already suggested I would check to see if you have a corrupt driver..

Are you running Windows XP?

[xl97]

It's basically just like another firewall, it makes your computer a little slower and the screen gets weirded out most of the time. Thats about all it does.


Safe Mode is NOTHING of the sort..

in no way, shape, or form is Safe Mode any kind of 'firewall'..

it makes your screen 'weirded' out because it is NOT loading/starting/using your video drivers..

[Sairon]

Well, it is essentially a fire wall, seeing as you can't realy get anything ot do anything.

[xl97]

Well, it is essentially a fire wall, seeing as you can't realy get anything ot do anything.

false..

[Sairon]

Whatever, he got his answer...

[xl97]

Whatever, he got his answer...

true....

[astromech_kuhns]

lol you two.

yup XP

well i have had it completely freeze up and do to the repeating of the same word in the music on high volume i had to force shut down. then another time after playing galaxies it said my driver encountered a problem and it took me back to my desktop. it would then not shut down i had to force shut down. i tried hitting restart and turn off and it did not do it.

the other time was when i went to start my computer. it was starting up normally and then the screen when black. i could tell the monitor was lit but it wasn't showing anything and it stayed that way for a while. i tried plugging in a external monitor but it wasn't it so i had to force it to shut down.

[ARKM]

Ok, I gotcha Astromech.

As previously stated, Safe Mode is for troubleshooting things that may not be able to be troubleshooted well in Normal mode. Safe Mode is especially useful to troubleshoot your computer when it will not boot up in Normal mode. That said, next time this happens, when you get the bootup menu with Safe Mode selected, just select Normal Mode and boot up... normally.

[astromech_kuhns]

ok. how do you troubleshoot things in safe mode? how is it used?

[Jedi-Loreen]

Dude, you know there's a Help and Support button on the right side of your Start Up Menu, don't you? Why don't you click on it and find out what Safe Mode is and what you can do using Diagnostic Tools while in it?

Don't they teach you kids anything about computers in school? Or do they just pass on that, since kids grow up with them, now and the schools think kids already know everything?

Sairon obviously doesn't know, either.

[astromech_kuhns]

lol nothing like this. were taught to type and use excel and stuff. nothing important.:rolleyes:

[Jedi-Loreen]

And they didn't teach you how to use the Help function either, apparently. :rolleyes:

[Tenric Starkindler]

"yes. To Arkm and XL97 you listen."
It sounds like they can help you figure out why you need to "Force Quit" so often. Such situations are often related to either a bad driver or the corruption of a system file in my experience. The issue with both video and sound playback may point to a codec issue and the black screen may indicate a video card driver issue. make sure those are up to date and correct for your hardware.

Safe Mode is as explained so far.....a minimal interface that essentially loads only default or "safe" drivers and components. This is useful for removing problem programs, drivers, etc. since they aren't running and can therefore be dealt with.

[astromech_kuhns]

never even knew it was there JLO;):p

wow my computer has everything wrong with it then huh? when i build a computer my problems will all go away:rolleyes:

[Darth_DevilGuy]

never even knew it was there JLO;):p

wow my computer has everything wrong with it then huh? when i build a computer my problems will all go away:rolleyes:

no, they won't. not unless you do it right anyway.

OK first off, XL is exactly right on safemode, it basically starts your system without loading any of the extra crap you've installed, programs that run on startup and services that aren't needed to run windows are disabled in safemode. It's mainly used if your box is so borked that you can't do maintenance under normal conditions.

Many manufacturers install BIOS options that note when the system hard boots and prompt you to start in safe mode, this isn't a big deal and you can ignore it, unless your system is forcing you to hard boot all the time, in which case you should do something about it.

When you go on the net you need protection, in my proffessional opinion you want to use one of these four: Kapersky, TrendMicro, Norton, McAfee. USE ONLY ONE, they do not play well together. If you don't have one of these please unplug your computer, I don't want any of what you undoubtedly have. On top of a good antivirus get an antispyware program, contrary to popular (read: stupid) belief, they are not the same thing, I recomend Spybot S&D it's free to private users, but corporations like mine are willing to pay tens of thousands for licences to use it commercially, it's worth your time to get it.

[astromech_kuhns]

I DONT HAVE A VIRUS!:D;)

serously i do scheduled scans and no it doesnt do this to me weekly or anything i simply dont like it when it does, i tend to go into freak out mode when things dont work right.;)

it did this to me once and i had to take it in to get repaired then other then that it was the times i had to force shut down. i was told that if you force shut down things are likely to go wired though.

even now my computer is running great and as i said it has only done this when i force shut it down. i just wanted to know that beings this happens to me and safe mode is something i found out when it happened, how to use it.

if after force shutting down my computer it does this, i also was wanting to know if i needed to go into safe mode or just continuing. i was told it goes to this option because if i force shut down that means the computer bios is reading that for some reason i did not quit XP right and it thinks something may be wrong, but if i know its not wrong then i can just continue normally.

if i have made it sound like this happens daily, im sorry i mislead you, because it doesn't, only three times has it happened. i meant general things that im unaware of how to do happens to me alot, not this particular problem. i just dont like it when i don't know what is going on and i have to fix it with simply guessing. i just don't want to be stuck guessing.

JLO: help center told me what it was and how to access it but not how to use it to fix things.:cry:

[xl97]

Have you tried to 'roll back' any/all your drivers for your audio & video?

Sometimes when you do Windows Updates.. it will give you an update to your driver(s).. even when they arewnt needed.. and some/most of the time they fubar something..

rolling them back can help...

also.. have you ran Malware-Bytes yet? Mal-ware/Ad-ware is different than a 'virus'.. and there is nothign wrong with having Malware-bytes on yoru machine to scan whenever you feel like it.. its GREAT IMHO...

I also use NOD32 as my AV...(real time protection)..

your problem is you need to find out what makes you 'force shut down'..period.. end of story.

(whenever it 'does' happen)

[astromech_kuhns]

freeze up of whole system once, no screen another(it remained lit up but black) and then it didn't turn off when i hit shut down/restart.

[Jedi-Loreen]

He means you need to find out what's making that happen. :rolleyes:

[astromech_kuhns]

i see!;)

[$tarkiller]

what?

[Jedi-Loreen]

i see!;)
Do you? Really? :-?