Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Our 7 year old HP desktop PC with Windows 7 64 bit has had issues for past few years. Then starting a couple weeks ago it would not allow a connection to many websites such as Google, Yahoo, MS Live, and others. Kept getting error messages saying the sites security certificate wasn't valid so it blocked transmission. The Kaspersky anti-virus software failed, CCleaner didn't help, so I spent money on Passport to backup photos and files, purchased a Windows 7 disk (Home, not Pro version). Installed Windows 7 today, wiping everything else off the hard drive (at least that's what it warned) so thought everything would work. No. Same problem as before--unable to access all sites, unable to download Google Chrome to hopefully replace Internet Explorer 11 already in use, disabled the Firewall, spent 2 hours on the phone with Linksys router co., talked to a couple technically-oriented relatives and no one can figure out what the problem is. Advice please? Can this computer be saved? Or do I need to spend even more money and buy a cheap laptop now?
I may be wrong but your HP should have come with recovery partition that contains a factory image of how the computer was shipped. You may not have had to buy the disc and if you had pro you should be able to still use the recovery partition.
Since this is going to be reinstalling a very old image be prepared to perform many updates. If you are using a third party anti virus download and save to flash drive or whatever. If not you can download MS's security for free here.
What I'll usually do after factory restore while still offline is go into the add/remove programs and uninstall all the bloat and whatever anti virus may be installed. It's going to be outdated and is going to require new install anyway. Install your antivirus and then connect to the internet. Run MS update and repeatedly run it until there is nothing left. There might be hundreds of them.... Be sure to update IE too.
Install whatever software you want, run disk cleanup and after the initial check click the clean up system files button. Manually run a defrag as it will probably need it at this point. Last but not least create your own disk image so if you need to restore in the future you'll be at the point you are now.
Your cmos battery is probably dead or dying. Check the time and date I'll bet it's off. If the time and date are way off... You won't be able to connect and that's why you're getting the certificate message. If you reset the date and time you should be able to get on line, but unles you replace that cmos battery .. You'll have to reset the time and date whenever you boot up.( that battery holds things like time and date when your computer is off).
I agree. First stop CMOS battery. You said it's an old computer. Looks like a quarter and is in a base on the motherboard.
After that look in Control Panel/System/Device Manager and look for problems there. Make sure there are no errors in the listing for NIC, or anywhere else for that matter.
While I agree it totally sounds like a "Time" thing, upon doing a fresh install, the time and date SHOULD be correct at least initially. It should have at least worked once.
Did you attempt to connect to the internet before placing any of your old data back on the computer?
Have you tried a direct connection from the ethernet port on the computer directly to the modem (bypass router)?
Thank you so much for your response. My technical knowledge is limited but will try to answer your questions. 1. Don't think this was applicable for my situation; I did a full custom reinstall of Windows. 2. No DVDs. 3. Didn't replace any old files on computer; no modem issues, 4. Tried all possible connections (good suggestions).
I may be wrong but your HP should have come with recovery partition that contains a factory image of how the computer was shipped. You may not have had to buy the disc and if you had pro you should be able to still use the recovery partition.
Since this is going to be reinstalling a very old image be prepared to perform many updates. If you are using a third party anti virus download and save to flash drive or whatever. If not you can download MS's security for free here.
What I'll usually do after factory restore while still offline is go into the add/remove programs and uninstall all the bloat and whatever anti virus may be installed. It's going to be outdated and is going to require new install anyway. Install your antivirus and then connect to the internet. Run MS update and repeatedly run it until there is nothing left. There might be hundreds of them.... Be sure to update IE too.
Install whatever software you want, run disk cleanup and after the initial check click the clean up system files button. Manually run a defrag as it will probably need it at this point. Last but not least create your own disk image so if you need to restore in the future you'll be at the point you are now.
Thank you for these links; will check them out. My HP probably came with the recovery partition (not sure what this is but recall reading something about it during Windows reinstall). If that's related to restoring the PC to an earlier time--tried that and it did not work. Have no boxes or guides that came with the computer 7 years ago--moved too many times.
Your cmos battery is probably dead or dying. Check the time and date I'll bet it's off. If the time and date are way off... You won't be able to connect and that's why you're getting the certificate message. If you reset the date and time you should be able to get on line, but unles you replace that cmos battery .. You'll have to reset the time and date whenever you boot up.( that battery holds things like time and date when your computer is off).
Now this might be it. When the puter started to have serious issues, I recall seeing a pop up window related to resetting the clock but it wouldn't allow me to do it--and it was at the same time as getting the certificate message. Read that the CMOS battery typically lasts 2-10 years. Am I brave enough to open the motherboard and look for this battery ?.....when in a courageous mood I might disconnect the power and open things up--at least I'll might be able to clean out a bunch of dust.
I agree. First stop CMOS battery. You said it's an old computer. Looks like a quarter and is in a base on the motherboard.
After that look in Control Panel/System/Device Manager and look for problems there. Make sure there are no errors in the listing for NIC, or anywhere else for that matter.
Thanks for this additional info! I like knowing what this battery looks like before poking around. Opened up the Device Manager but with my limited knowledge can't tell if anything is wrong there.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
). Installed Windows 7 today, wiping everything else off the hard drive (at least that's what it warned) so thought everything would work. No. Same problem as before--unable to access all sites, unable to download Google Chrome to hopefully replace Internet Explorer 11 already in use, disabled the Firewall, spent 2 hours on the phone with Linksys router co., talked to a couple technically-oriented relatives and no one can figure out what the problem is. Advice please? Can this computer be saved? Or do I need to spend even more money and buy a cheap laptop now?
?.....when in a courageous mood I might disconnect the power and open things up--at least I'll might be able to clean out a bunch of dust.
