Computer Questions (formally Your Desktop)

Need help from any computer-literate detectives.

The PC occasionally throws a wobbler. Daughter can just be surfing the web and suddenly the monitor goes blank. The monitor seems to go into a state as if the PC has been switched off. But the PC power light is still on. Since the monitor is not "seeing" the computer I can't determine the status of the PC when this happens.

It seems like the monitor suddenly can't detect the computer but I do not know what the cause could be.

Any suggestions?

And is there any way of doing some diagnostics after I fix it? (All I need to do to remedy the situation is to keep the power button to switch off the computer, wait a few seconds and then switch on as normal).

Cheers.

Thanks D.

My graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce GT 320 - not a card that could handle gaming (luckily I don't game) but it seems to be a reasonable multimedia card.

I don't really want to go through the process of updating the driver if I can help it - sometimes it causes more trouble than it is worth.

I'll try to reseat the card.

One additional question I have though relates to static electricity. I read constantly that you need to earth yourself when doing such things. But, from a practical perspective, when I open the casing if I just touch the metal case before removing the card, is that enough to ensure I've earthed myself?

What is ".NET Framework 4"?

There are a couple of hefty Windows Updates related to this (KB2468871 & KB2533523) and I am curious to know what it is. They are updates by are not important enough to me automatic updates but important enough for Windows Updates to keep reminding me they are there when I want them.

No need to post "It's Windows, it's crap", etc.

First thing that comes to mind is that you may have the folder in the users/default folder?

Have a look in Windows Explorer. From the folder options tab make sure you are showing hidden folders, files, etc. You will now see a "Default" folder in C:/users. Check to see if the re-appearing folder is in the desktop folder and delete/move it. Maybe what you did placed the folder there also?

I don't know if this a solution to your problem but I do know that there's this default folder as a user.

Thanks, Alan.

Right now, there is nothing in that desktop folder either (but that's because I just deleted it regularly an hour ago. I'll check it out again once it reappears.

Yes, only one account, i.e. me. I assume that means I have all the administrator rights too.

I also thought it was another program creating this faulty folder all the time, but I haven't found it. It's not among my most-used programs, anyway (iTunes, Opera, for example).

PS. I didn't mean to deflect the attention away from YOUR computer issues, Alan. Hopefully, we can address all simultaneously.

The folder appeared again just now out of the blue....and when I went to the hidden Default folder you spoke of, there was nothing inside the Desktop sub-folder.

So that can't be it.

But thanks for trying.

Perhaps if someone has any recommendations on good Windows 7 forums where I can pose my question?

Not really a question, more a comment.

I've been trying to get my music track back-ups sorted out. I have the usual backing up of my laptop hard drive that I do regularly and that's still taking place. But having discovered those WD Passport external drives I have additionally copied all my music to that - and I have this connected to my laptop so I can access any music I want.

I have also backed this external drive to the desktop (this PC is partitioned to have a 500GB data section that now houses the music). And I plan to move the files off the PC and on to another WD Passport drive! So, theoretically, I have 3 copies of my music floating about.

A lot of my more recent purchases and rips were in a folder on my laptop - they were put there directly during ripping or downloading process. These files were in addition to the 3 other copies! But I still felt nervous deleting these even though I have 3 other copies!!! What an arse!

Hmm....I'm still having trouble with the folder that appears on my desktop all the time.

But I now found out it is created every time I open my (Opera) browser! I'm guessing it's a remnant from that time I accidentally put the folder in the desktop folder (and which Opera apparently registered automatically), but I just can't figure out where to disable it in the Opera settings!!

Anyone? Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

Save browser sessions?!? I'm not sure about that.

There's an option in 'settings' that has to do with where the 'downloads' folder is located, but that one is set correctly. So I have no idea how to edit or remove the desktop one.

At some point in time (probably when I accidentally dragged the 'downloads' folder into the 'desktop' folder while file-working), Opera created a duplicate that will appear every time I open the browser. Even though I deleted/moved the folder from the desktop immediately afterwards.

Very strange.

Are you sure that this was the culprit for the strange subsequent behaviour? I can't see why Opera would want to do that. But then I am no expert!

I can't see how it will affect things either, but it's another thing to score off the long list of things that it could be.

How big are the files? Have you tried opening them through Notepad? That's what google gives me.