Many of our medical people have not yet accepted that exposure to many of the poisons sprayed on land that is "conventionally" farmed can cause chronic health problems even though they recognize they can cause acute health problems. Exposure to more then one could cause a symbiotic relationship that is not healthy. That some people are more susceptible to adverse reactions to these poisons is also a known and if that person is exposed to more than one of these potential allergins can cause even larger problems. Unfortunately the only way to find put if a person is suscetible to any substance is to expose them to that substance. While an allergist can, and will, test someone for these types of allergies it will only be done if there is good reason to suspect there is a need. So alaria121 if you are still able to please update us on what, if anything has been found.

Hi everyone, I was unable to post because I couldn't log in. Apparently the cookie that it takes to get here was not there, so I emailed the forum and when I got back home walla I was able to log in and here I am. "Smiles" To answer the question is Auslogics an antivirus or a defrag program. It is a defrag program and is not an antivirus. I didn't know they had an antivirus. "LOL" I listened to the same thing you did about Norton and it definately has something in it which appears to be a firewall because it blocks things out and protects you like a firewall. I think the reason they made sure that the Windows firewall is on is because they aren't sure themselves. When I access a program Norton pops up and tells me it is safe to run. It happened earlier today but I can't remember what it was I was doing. I was in a hurry to do some things on this computer that I know they didn't do. I am a little nervous about CCleaner and I called them and one of the guys told me to take the check marks out of advanced so I did. I have never used CCleaner and it would be nice if I had more information on it. Can you all explain this program to me and what to look for, so that I won't delete something and my computer won't go boom? "LOL" Owbist you said this: I am amazed that someone as knowledgeable as yourself and willing to learn about computers would actually pay to have the computer cleaned or replace the CD player. If cleaning means removing dust a $3 can of compressed air fixes that pronto. If cleaning means removing programs (including those you wanted kept) then the simple Add/Remove feature does that for you. Replacing a CD player is a simple task also, even for those who have not tried before. You simply remove the old and reverse the sequence to install the new. The only reason that I took the computer in was because I have my grandchildren around 3 days a week and sometimes a little more because they love us. Ha! It is difficult for me to have the time to play by trying to install something and little ones that are 3 and 8 years of age want to play on the computer not watch me fix it. "LOL" Now when I got this computer back, it was running slow again and instead of calling them I did a scan disk and used Auslogics Defrag and walla it is running like a charm. I think they got lazy and didn't do it. I really like the Auslogics Defrag it is so fast and puts things back where they belong. They did check the hard drive to see if it was Ok and it is. This computer is going on 6 years old and I guess I haven't done to bad after all my very first computer I crashed several times but, that was ages ago. Remember the first packard bell computers? I had the 3.1 and then they sent me the CD for Windows 95. Well I learned fast that you can't put old on top of new because then it would crash. I still have that old computer and I need to get rid of it, I never get on it at all, it is just sitting there collecting dust. Ha! If there is someone here who has CCleaner I would appreciate a lesson on how to use it correctly. Thank You damccoy, zep516 and owbist, for your help and for your info. thirdfrt!!!

I don't know much/anything about exploits, or how to design a buffer overflow that takes advantage of a venerability in a specific viewer/indexer/thumbnail generater/whatever but I would guess that it would have less chance of making contact with its target if you only viewed it in the browser? Perhaps if downloaded to the Desktop, or a "Downloads" folder, it might get indexed, or a thumbnail generated, and in the process, the payload containing meta data read in producing an overflow that would write the "data" into an executable area of memory where it would possibly be executed. Perhaps that would NOT occur if confined to the cache directory, and memory? But I'm just guessing, sorry. Personally, I download images all the time. But I keep my software up to date, and assume the odds of running into a zero-day are much too low seriously worry about. BTW, if you use Google, there are extensions, such as this one that allow you to right-click an image and select "Search Image on Google". I like to collect scenics from http://nik.bot.nu/browse.html, which I won't link because it scrapes 4chan, so in addition to beautiful high resolution scenics, there's a lot of garbage to wade through, sometimes even porn.

It seems strange that the BSOD only happens at startup and shutdown, it suggests corrupt files to me. Assuming you have the W98SE CD you could run the System File Checker (sfc) to check for corrupt or missing files. Do not put the CD in the drawer unless asked. Click Start, click Run and type sfc and hit OK. Your computer will test Windows and may well ask you for guidance, this will only be in cases where the installed driver is newer than the original so you would not allow the computer to change that back. If it finds corrupt files it may/will ask for your CD. Christopher wrote I have done all the clean up and virus checks What does that mean? Can you list the task for us please? What anti virus, firewall and other safety programs are you running? I see you have a built in Verge S# video card, the latest driver available from ECS is dated 2004/07/03, you probably have those so updating may not be needed. Try clicking Start/Control panel/System/Device manager and look down the list for yellow marks, either exclamtion or question marks. Double click on anything to bring up Properties and have a looksee. Any irregularities?