KendoTiger
04-01-2006, 12:17 AM
A new thread for people to seek advice on fixing real world problems in a cheap and effective way, from installing new software or handling a virus, to repairing a broken battery latch on your cell phone.
Here's an example ~ something I did in the last twenty minutes:
I had dropped mp3 cd player on the ground after a long trip (I'm not outdated, it can hold 700 mb and instantly play more ~ just switch the cd, no reuploading). Anyways, the slide clip that kept the cover closed broke ~ the plastic rods connecting the outer slide latch to the inside of the cd player were broken off and missing.
First, I took one of those small plastic gaskets you can find anywhere for about 1.50 usd. I then estimated the size of the rods that were broken off, and sanded the plastic ring by hand. After it was a little smaller than the original rods, I cut the ring into three parts (the two rods and the excess) with scissors. I then set the rods into the proper place. Next, I mixed some plastic epoxy (just whatever my father had in the house ~ but make sure that it lists the right kind of bond such as plastic-plastic or metal-metal) with the third piece of the plastic ring on the used sandpaper. I put the epoxy on the ends of the new rods, and set the slide latch into place. It's drying right now. You might need a few q-tips to clean up excess epoxy ~ and be careful you don't get any in your eyes or mouth!
Another problem I recently had was a worm called The Blackworm Virus a Vundo Trojan worm that deletes stuff on the third day of every month. This virus usually comes as a minor infection caused by winfixer malware (its a dubious spyware hunter-killer program which lists benign files as threats, and attempts to scare the user into buying the software ~ it also routes you to the website every fifteen minutes or so when you're using an internet explorer software.
The way to handle this is to first download two programs (in addition to updating any existing antivirus/antispyware tool you have) ~ the first is called VundoFix (ver. 4.2.43 is the latest I believe), which targets the Blackworm Virus (and partially winfixer). The next is called Spybot - Search & Destroy, an all-purpose anti-spyware tool. Both are free and do not include any malicious programming ~ still, use at your own risk; you should also check any type of virus or "antispyware" tools at either symantic or norton homepages, as it gives indepth information as to the validity of the program. Also ~ if you are using a program that allows you to bypass certain government blocks (such as in the PRC), you might want to pay close attention to which programs the antispyware lists (so you don't delete something good by mistake). To my knowledge, these type of programs are safe from symantic, mcafee, and norton ~ but I am not sure of third party programs such as these two.
First, run spybot and delete all the options that come up. Once that is done, open vundofix and run it as a task. It should close and then reopen in less than a minute. Run first the scan, then the fix option. The cpu should then prompt you to press [ok] to restart the cpu ~ select okay. After you have rebooted, run both again (you might want to start in safemode depending) ~ the vundofix shouldn't pick up anything on the scan phase, and neither should spybot.
If spybot picks up anything, it is most likely something other than either the blackworm or winfixer programs (multiple spyware programs on your cpu) ~ so the best thing to do is run your main antivirus/antispyware (I use mcafee, but I have had symantic and norton for years, so I can help with that too). One of the worst is spysheriff, but I have managed to get rid of it about a month ago without a full system purge.
~~~
Anyways, if anyone needs help fixing things, installing things, or whatever ~ just post it here and we'll all try our best to help you out :D
Here's an example ~ something I did in the last twenty minutes:
I had dropped mp3 cd player on the ground after a long trip (I'm not outdated, it can hold 700 mb and instantly play more ~ just switch the cd, no reuploading). Anyways, the slide clip that kept the cover closed broke ~ the plastic rods connecting the outer slide latch to the inside of the cd player were broken off and missing.
First, I took one of those small plastic gaskets you can find anywhere for about 1.50 usd. I then estimated the size of the rods that were broken off, and sanded the plastic ring by hand. After it was a little smaller than the original rods, I cut the ring into three parts (the two rods and the excess) with scissors. I then set the rods into the proper place. Next, I mixed some plastic epoxy (just whatever my father had in the house ~ but make sure that it lists the right kind of bond such as plastic-plastic or metal-metal) with the third piece of the plastic ring on the used sandpaper. I put the epoxy on the ends of the new rods, and set the slide latch into place. It's drying right now. You might need a few q-tips to clean up excess epoxy ~ and be careful you don't get any in your eyes or mouth!
Another problem I recently had was a worm called The Blackworm Virus a Vundo Trojan worm that deletes stuff on the third day of every month. This virus usually comes as a minor infection caused by winfixer malware (its a dubious spyware hunter-killer program which lists benign files as threats, and attempts to scare the user into buying the software ~ it also routes you to the website every fifteen minutes or so when you're using an internet explorer software.
The way to handle this is to first download two programs (in addition to updating any existing antivirus/antispyware tool you have) ~ the first is called VundoFix (ver. 4.2.43 is the latest I believe), which targets the Blackworm Virus (and partially winfixer). The next is called Spybot - Search & Destroy, an all-purpose anti-spyware tool. Both are free and do not include any malicious programming ~ still, use at your own risk; you should also check any type of virus or "antispyware" tools at either symantic or norton homepages, as it gives indepth information as to the validity of the program. Also ~ if you are using a program that allows you to bypass certain government blocks (such as in the PRC), you might want to pay close attention to which programs the antispyware lists (so you don't delete something good by mistake). To my knowledge, these type of programs are safe from symantic, mcafee, and norton ~ but I am not sure of third party programs such as these two.
First, run spybot and delete all the options that come up. Once that is done, open vundofix and run it as a task. It should close and then reopen in less than a minute. Run first the scan, then the fix option. The cpu should then prompt you to press [ok] to restart the cpu ~ select okay. After you have rebooted, run both again (you might want to start in safemode depending) ~ the vundofix shouldn't pick up anything on the scan phase, and neither should spybot.
If spybot picks up anything, it is most likely something other than either the blackworm or winfixer programs (multiple spyware programs on your cpu) ~ so the best thing to do is run your main antivirus/antispyware (I use mcafee, but I have had symantic and norton for years, so I can help with that too). One of the worst is spysheriff, but I have managed to get rid of it about a month ago without a full system purge.
~~~
Anyways, if anyone needs help fixing things, installing things, or whatever ~ just post it here and we'll all try our best to help you out :D