Apple, It's Not A Standard If It Only Works In Your Browser, And On The Mac

Dude, are you sure it's the Safari browser and not the porn sites you visit. Not that there is anything wrong with that....little sienfield for you. I know plenty of people who use IE for a browser and have had the same problems as you described happening to your notebook. Then having to go through and clean up and fix some of these pc's and laptops myself to no avail, to have to do a full clean install of the OS. I had one family members laptop 4 times in a years times because they kept going to the same porn site. I honestly don't think it's the browser as much as it is the sit.

They are the same sites that I've visited with Firefox for over a year. I read a positive review on Safari, and decided to try it out. It was never my intention for it to be a permanent install.

My notebook has ran fine since I've gotten it, although it's not new, it does run Vista & Windows 7 (32 bit) fine. Or should I say that it did. After all of the nuking to rid my system of all viruses, and reinstalling everything from scratch, it has never ran the same again. It won't even complete a folding job anymore, it overheats so badly. If I run two programs at once, within five minutes, it will crash. My Windows Error Reporting files has reached the 142,278KB on Windows 7 alone, not counting the ones I previously deleted with CCleaner. It's the same on Vista & XP. Every 10-20 minutes, some app crashes, and the error files are piling up. Looking at that number, how many web pages do you think that many errors would cover, if only I could forward them all to a post of it's own?

I realize that this sounds like a rant, but I would not come on here saying things have happened to my notebook on this forum if it were not true. I have many better things to do, rather than make up all of this. If it had happened with my regular browser, I would have no gripe, I put my trust in Firefox to protect me, and if they fail, then a browser change would be in order. But I use No Script, and this will stop this kind of attack.

My point is, this so called "Safe Search" that Safari uses to lure users in. It's not so safe at all, if it were, there would be some warning, some way to break the connection, some way to steer you elsewhere, instead of nothing at all, to even as much as warning you that you're in danger. That's my gripe. The notebook, it's under warranty, it's practically shot at this point, and I'll be refunded for it. It's replaceable. But one thing, Safari will never have a place on another of my computers again. When you advertise something, you're supposed to deliver what you promise, in this case, a browser that has built in safety features, as it's described. They weren't there for me on that night, and that's my point.

The moral of this story ...
When you're on Safari, stay away from the bush

Cat - what you're describing that's going on with your notebook sounds like hardware issues to me. Software cannot affect or damage your hardware.

Your RAM may have gone bad, that does happen sometimes. Download the bootable disc ISO of MemTest'86 and burn it to a CD-RW disc or a regular CD. Boot it up and see what the analysis says. I had a client whose computer ran like a top, then the next day it was rebooting, stalling, freeze ups, etc. One stick of the RAM had gone bad out of the two sticks he had.

Also you state your having heat issues, that is a definite sign of dust and dirt buildup inside and that the heatsink, fan blades, and other areas need to be thorough dusted and cleaned up. Notebooks are notorious for accumulating a lot more dust and debris just due to the nature of how they're used.

Since the notebook is several years old maybe the CPU thermal compound needs to be replaced on the CPU heatsink's interface. OEM or factory thermal compounds are vastly inferior to the aftermarket products. OEM thermal compounds age and dry out a lot faster than one would realize. Since your notebook is over 3 years old and you use it a lot, replacing the thermal compound would be an excellent place to start.

It is quite disingenuous to blame a website, browser, or software for the issues you're describing.

If you're running XP on the notebook, sometimes during a new reinstall of XP it wouldn't run quite right. XP was / is notorious for that. I know from personal experience that some XP installs would go perfect and it would run very well. However, every once in a while, the install would appear to go good and then it would just be sluggish and buggy.

Most of us here that own desktop computers, whether we built them or purchased them, have either an annual or semi-annual cleaning and dusting schedule. Depends on the environment the desktop is in. Many of us also will replace the thermal compound on either a yearly or bi-annual basis.

To paraphrase a famous saying: "A clean computer is a happy computer!"

Well Catilley, it might be a problem with the bios. I've had viruses corrupt the bios before, and I've seen it happen to others. Programs would hang and crash, the computers would randomly reboot, power off and on, and programs would randomly close. This would happen no matter what OS was installed, and all RAM checked out fine. Try flashing your bios with a replacement copy, usually found on the manufacturer's site. As for the overheating, follow Nibiru's words and make sure your notebook is nice and squeaky clean

By the way your computer's manufacturer should provide all of the service docs on their site, should you need help with cleaning/thermal paste replacement. I'd recommend Arctic Silver 5 or 7 for the new compound.

Thanks for all of the advice here. I had a memory problem, according to the built in mem 86 test on the Linux Mint boot screen. I exchanged it with a known good stick, everything worked well, except the overheating issue.

I was checking out what I thought to be a bad RAM stick, I noticed upon changing the stick, my hands got very dirty, like I had been working on an car, so I took a second look at what I thought was a bad RAM stick. It looked as if the person who installed the RAM done brake jobs, too, it had black dust on it, and the connection (the golden part) was dirty, too. So I took plain alcohol (like I clean my glasses with) and cleaned the stick really good, especially the connector. Then I cleaned the RAM slot within the notebook itself, it was dirty too.

An hour later, after making sure everything was dry, I plugged the original back in, there was a message that the amount of RAM had changed, I hit F1, the computer started, I did another MEM 86 test, guess what? It passed!

This notebook was a "Dell Factory Recertified" one, how in the hell can a Dell technician do work like this? Computers are supposed to be assembled & serviced in a near medically clean environment, with clean tools (and hands).

No joke, I bought this notebook from Dell Financial Services, on eBay through a broker who sells recertified and refurbished computers on behalf of Dell. Dell Financial Services also sells newer ones on eBay direct, without a broker. Regardless of who sold it, the computers are repaired and repackaged in the same plant, and are employees of Dell. This whole screwjob was discussed in a recent thread on this forum. As it turns out, it looks like I'm another "victim" of Dell's underhanded work. Tomorrow, they will be getting a call from me, and believe me, I will get results one way or the other.

Oh, and did I tell you what else I found? I keep getting an error from Acronis Drive monitor (ntfs 55). I did a Bing search on this error code, turns out it's a drive problem, which can explain the heat issue. Yes, I've "nuked" the drive several times, but it's not like hanging it from a tree limb, and firing shots at it. All that I'm doing is overwriting the data on it, the same as we do when using the drive, writing data on it. You actually overwrite data on your drive every time you use a computer, the only difference here is the whole drive is simply overwritten, with a random pattern of letters & numbers. You're not "nuking" or destroying anything, except what's written on it.

So here we go again, a dirty RAM stick, a bad drive. Dell's personal signature on their work, as always. What else can you expect from a company who sells counterfeit liquid in their MOBO's, then tries to cover it up by reinstalling another of the same MOBO's on their customers computers, and saying "everything's alright", not to worry. They have lost a longtime customer in me, and believe me, I'll spread the word. I've already talked my mother-in-law out of buying another one, and her story is an interesting one as well. RAM chips are supposed to be installed in even pairs, but she had 768MB of RAM from the factory (512 + 256MB together). Where is the work ethic of this company? Common sense tells you better than this, RAM is supposed to be even, for example, 512MB x2, not the above deal.

Since her computer was bought new, she's suing for damages, and enough cash for another computer (of her choice, not Dell's). Her computer failed the same MEM 86 test that mine did, I looked at her RAM sticks, one came from China, one from Korea. What a matched set!

Cat

Nowadays running memory in pairs is usually only necessary when the MOBO benefits from Dual Channel, but matched pairs make it easier on the memory controller.