I’ve been scanning with Avast Home, seems as though it was going through C drive a second time. I turned off the screen and left the house for awhile. Came back, moved the mouse and turned the screen back on now it was a solid purple screen. I’ve seen items in this forum about the drasted blue screen and I am assuming you all mean fatal error screens. So, can someone tell me what a purple screen means. It was no letters, numbers or pictures on any kind. Just a plain solid purple screen. Actually it’s almost like a light magenta with a little more blue. Don’t know if that might mean something different.
It could be that your screensaver is having some problems. It’s not unusual that some graphic cards can’t deal with those things best they could… especially if screensaver is using OpenGL engine. I’ve seen some third party screensavers giving exactly the same problems on some machines.
Of course it doesn’t have to be the case with your machine, but I just mentioned that. Lack of information from your side (no info at all regarding the type of computer, processor, which security related programs you also have installed on your system, did that pink screen disappear after few seconds or it just hanged there until you were forced to reboot the system etc, etc…)
Was everything ok after pink screen disappeared, I mean your display went back to normal ?
I have not rebooted system yet. Wasn’t sure what to do. The purplish/pink screen has stayed there.
The system is Packard Bell Pentium running Win98, Dial up connection,no securities other than the Avast I downloaded a few days ago.
I am on different computer at this time.
OK, but is that pink screen still there when you move your mouse ? Is it going to go away when you try to wake up your system from the stand-by or it just hangs over there ? You have to try to see what happens. You never know, it could be as simple as your monitor died… it doesn’t have to be, but it could be, everything is possible when it comes to computers.
I’m suspecting to graphic card drivers issue… have you tried to update your video card drivers lately and do you know if you have the latest version provided at manufacturer’s site ? All those things are very important…
The screen color just stayed the same when moving the mouse.
I just had to turn the computer off and it is starting again. Everything seems so be back to normal.
It is my daughter’s computer so I don’t know much about it and neither does she. So, sorry can’t answer any questions about the video card. How would one find out the answers? Would I be able to get it out of System Info under Accessories?
Well you can do it that way… but, it wouldn’t tell much to me since I have no clue which are the latest drivers for her video card, nor what’s the type of that particular card… but you can check it other way. Just start Windows Update, and go through the procedure… see if it offers you any hardware related updates. If one of those is for your video card, it also means, you don’t have the latest drivers. You can also update them using Windows update.
As I already mentioned, it could be a lot of things. Are you 100% sure your system is not infected with any viruses ? Just to make sure, as a second opinion, a lot of us like to have some back up scanner. Most of us use online scanners. One of the best out there is HOUSECALL (TrendMicro).
Here is a link and I suggest you to scan your PC with Housecall as well. It’s easy, just read instructions on the screen. Remember to chose COMPLETE SCAN! At the end, you’ll just have to select which partitions to scan and that’s it… Scan all your hard drivers/partitions to be sure.
Link: http://housecall60.trendmicro.com/en/start_corp.asp?id=scan
Post your results.
Are you 100% sure your system is not infected with any viruses ?
No, not really. There are some that I put in the Avast chest. I will try your suggestion. And will post response when done. Thank you so much for your help. Will Housecall also fix and remove any viruses, Trojans, worms and ad ware? I will have to close out here and get hers on line but will wait for your answer.
Screen at least seems to be much better now. Back to normal.
No problems at all, we all are here to try to help each other. If one doesn’t know something, there are many others to fill the blanks… we work as a team and that’s what makes us better than the rest 
I just want to find out if possible what’s causing that strange behaviour on your computer.
Yes, Housecall will clean those files but only if you tell it so. It will ask you if I remember well if you want to do it manually or if you want Housecall to do it automatically for you. Read carefully those instructions once you go to Housecall page, as I already mentioned.
Regards
Well, it has been trying. I have tried several times now to run HouseCalls and I can’t seem to keep the computer on line long enough to run it. Any suggestions? The strange thing is, the ISP thinks it’s still on line when it really isn’t. I’ve never had that happen before so I don’t know if it common for this particular ISP (PeoplePC) or not. Just plain weird to me.
But as soon as I can get the puter to stay on line to run the whole thing I will post the results.
Are you behind any kind of hardware router/firewall ? Sometimes if something goes wrong, routers can block your internet connection and on the other side, your ISP (tech support) will still “see” you online (they can see sent/received packets).
If you have one, the good thing would be to reset it sometimes… you should turn off your modem, and then turn off your router. Leave it like that at least 15-20 seconds, and then turn back on your Modem first. Do not turn on your router until you see steady Link/Sync light (or whatever light is representing that on your type of modem, I don’t know which one you have so I’m shooting in the dark). Once your sync light is steady (not blinking any more and it should be green, but it’s not a rule), turn back on your router and wait few seconds (5-10 secs, give it some time). Try your internet connection one more time.
I don’t think it has a router/firewall. It’s actually my daughter’s computer and it is kinda old.
The modem in internal and there are no lights. I’m using dial up to get on the internet. We don’t have DSL, if that’s what you are thinking.
I’m not even sure of what a router is or what it is for. :-[ I thought it was used for routing signals for a wireless system. But I’m guessing I’m wrong.
I am continuing to try though. Thanks!!!
If her PC is on dial-up then I’m pretty sure she is not connected through a router (even though there are some routers for dial-up out there).
Considering it’s a old system as you mentioned above, pink screen could’ve been caused by a lot of reasons. It is really hard to shoot in the dark like this. Best possible thing you can do is to take it to some tech person close to you and have it checked. There is a lot of things that needs to be checked, and trying to help this way, actually doesn’t help much.
Cheers !
P.S. Definition of a router: http://www.farpost.net/glossary/router.php
…also here: http://www.keyitsolutions.com/router_routers.htm
So out of curiosity, is it normal for HouseCalls to take over 10 hours to complete? It’s at 9+ hours now and still in the Window, Temp. Internet files. Will it still work offline too or not?
So of course, it can not be done offline. It’s an ON-LINE scanner. Second thing… it depends how large your hard drives are and especially how much of data is over there. I don’t believe her PC has large drives anyway, since you said it’s an old one… but the fact that she is using dial-up connection is “killing” that whole process… it makes it unbelievable slow, especially for large files.
Another thing you should have done before proceeding is completely clean your temporary internet folder. That’s the first thing you have to do just to avoid scanning of those unnecessary files (temporar stuff). Same thing needs to be done prior making some system backup imgae (partition or even whole drive images)… no one wants their image unbelievable large just because of all that trash inside temporary folder.
For the future reference, to clean it, click on START / Right click INTERNET EXPLORER / chose INTERNET PROPERTIES, and then stay inside the GENERAL tab, and click on DELETE FILES button. When new window is open put a checkmark to DELETE ALL OFFLINE CONTENT (it needs to be checked) and click OK. Now all you have to do is to click OK button on the main window (INTERNET PROPERTIES) to close it down.
Cheers !