latitude es400, PLEASE HELP FAST

I got a friend who couldn't get there RealPlayer to open where it had before. I downloaded VLC player from this website and now her browser refuses to looad up google, or do searches through yahoo. I have been playing with her computer for a few minutes now, and VLC seems to have nothing to do with it.

Is it possible VLC from this website has anything to do with her browser? I seriously doubt it, but all she sees is cause and effect. But I am think the original sign of the problem started with the RealPlayer.

It is a school computer and she has around 250,000k+ MemUsage(my usage is less than 180K). She ios my aunt by the way. I am worried the family will think I crash my aunts school computer, when it was crashing before then.

Can anyone offer any advice?

 

VLC downloaded from MG wouldn't effect browsers at all.

Not being able to load google or search in yahoo seems like a malware problem.

Simplest thing is if there is a System Restore point before VLC go ahead and use it.

What is the OS and which browser does she use? If IE you could download FF and see if it also refuses Google and Yahoo. Then you know there is something wrong towards the malware idea.

 

She is not the Admin, she is locked out from it. It really is a School laptop that prevents her from full access. I have no access to even uninstall VLC player.

I would love to tear apart her programs and clear some stuff out. I kid you not she has around 50 processes running.

I am wondering if the Admin has locked her out? Is that possible that the Admin didn't like the VLC download and put in a lockout until the Admin could look at it. Like parental controls.

Her specs....
Windows XP
Micro Trend(some type of antivirus she paid for)
Windows Defender
Internet Explorer

To note, she can open her IE and bring up the Yahoo(access email) and even the Mozilla page, but she cannot do searches. It just brings up an error when we try to do a search from them. And we ran both her anti virus programs and they both came up with zero problems.

 

I'm not sure where to go from here if you have no uninstall privileges. It seems you have done nothing wrong so she may be able to have the school's IT department look at it.
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I guess Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Restore does not work?

Does a search engine like duckduckgo.com work for searches?

 

Wow this does work, www.duckduckgo.com So at least she can do her research.

There was some confusion. She does think she has access to the Admin, but she says it was in her paperwork at home(across country). And she was able to do a system restore, but it did not help with her yahoo or mozilla, both will load up the page, but not let her search.

I am trying to think creatively on this.

 

If theres an it department in charge of this machine, dont work on it yourself, get in contact and see how they want to handle it, so you dont break any software they have loaded or do anything against there machine. Its much less trouble for all partys involved.

 

She did, they told her that unless it is there web page, then she is responsible for fixing any programs. I understand that she is not computer savvy.

I am trying to figure out what she can do to this computer and what she can't. Tough situation, but at least she has one browser that is working. I am currently trying to figure out what all these programs she has got running do. When I did the same thing on my laptop I looked every one up on google, and to make sure it was safe, then stopped it from working. But on that note I understand that I am slightly more computer savvy than her and if something went wrong I have the time and motivation to fix it.

Here is another question. As the first thing to go wrong was RealPlayer not working, then could it be that the computer is using so much Memory that an internet search freezes whatever browser she is on?

 

Greetings, brahman.

Can you boot the machine into Safe Mode w/Networking? If so, can you then access the pages that you cannot while in Normal Mode?

 

I don't know yet Caliban. I will check here in a moment. In the mean time, is there a way to hack her Admin? She claims she has access, but the password is at home. Is there a way to find that password? She is staying in town for the next week, so I have time to play around. First I need to back up her PC, then I will start some detailed work.

 

I would advise trying to 'hack her Admin' only as a last resort, especially if she may have eventual access to the proper password. If this turns out to be a permissions issue, then hacking may make things worse.

Also, as has been pointed out, this is a school computer - does it have any IAM software loaded? Most education IT departments now run some sort of Internet access management on student machines, and some of those programs can be practically silent - you don't know they're there unless you really look for them.

What confuses me about the permissions angle is the fact that you can install a program, but not uninstall. Why? I would think that password-blocking a program's requests to install is just as important, if not more, than the same program's uninstall requests.

 

There are some programs we could uninstall like RealPlayer, but VLC player was not even listed, so I assume(bad assumption?) it is on the ADMIN's add/remove software.

 

Copy - probably a bad assumption on my part.

If some process is indeed hogging enough resources to cause browser stalls, then sach2's malware suggestion makes sense - especially so if you can't readily discover what processes are involved by using Task Manager.

While the symptoms are present, open Task Manager > Processes, see what 3 processes are using the most memory. Try it different ways (Safe Mode w/single user, Safe Mode w/all users, Normal w/single, etc.), see if anything stands out.

 

Sounds like a cushy job--Where do I apply? :-D

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Definitely check Safe Mode to see if Google works there.

Also see if Start>Run>type in msconfig and hit OK. Check under the startup tab. What commands do you see listed? Then exit msconfig without making any changes (use the cancel button).

 

Thanks for the help anyways guys. I tried to help her and she told me that she didn't want me touching it anymore. I just feel bad that she thinks that I caused all her computer problems.

 

Don't. The machine and/or its operator obviously had problems before you even appeared on the scene.

You were willing to help, and you did your best. That's all we can do, in this or in any business.

The only thing you should regret is that she won't let you (and us) finish the job, and trust me - we would have figured it out.

:major

 

You can't control how she feels. You can be assured that VLC did not in anyway alter her internet connections to Google or any other sites. It simply does not have that capacity.

Working on PC problems is rarely just a matter of going step by step through a fixed set of instructions, it almost always involves multiple attempts to find the correct answer. Most people don't understand that behind a simple "I try to open my program and it doesn't start"--there may be a thousand tiny calculations the machine makes any of which can go wrong an be the problem. You tried to help, that is all you can do as Caliban says.