CCleaner 2.06.567 to the rescue!
Why do these things always happen when you've got pages waiting for you to scope? Murphy rears his ugly head once again. I thought I should post this experience on my blog for anybody else who is experiencing the same computer problem.
Last Wednesday evening the Java update notification popped up at the bottom of my computer screen. So I clicked on it to update to the latest version of Java, something I have done two or three times since getting my latest ThinkPad laptop late last fall. After it did its thing, a message box appeared with Error 1316, which means it didn't install properly.
Okay, great. I'm on Windows XP, so I went to Control Panel, Add/Remove Hardware, and I removed the updated version. Then I got busy with work and forgot about the update. The next morning I booted up my computer and it wouldn't stop making that sound that it does when it's looking for files. It was driving me nuts, even though it's pretty quiet, because I knew it meant something was wrong. A reboot, a defrag, an Ad-Aware scan, and a virus scan did not help, but I had pages to churn out so had to leave it at that for a while. However, the computer was running quite slow and there was the odd weirdness happening with files.
Friday morning I devoted a couple of hours to figuring out what was wrong. It was then that I narrowed it down to the Java update problem being the culprit. I ran a Hijack This report and removed anything to do with Java. I also found a couple of previous versions of Java in the Add/Remove Programs list, and I removed those, too. No dice, the noise was still there.
I downloaded Windows Install Cleaner and ran that. Nope. I finally decided to tackle the registry, even though I was a little bit afraid of screwing things up worse. There are scads of registry-cleaner software products available, and I didn't know which one to choose. So I called a local computer store and asked for the tech department. I asked if they could recommend one. He suggested I go to www.hippofile.com and download ccleaner (originally Crap Cleaner). H said it was a freeware program and is very simple to use.
So I took a deep breath and downloaded and installed CCleaner, then ran it. I'm happy to say that it worked. It cleaned up my computer registry and the annoying sound was gone. I'm so happy I could scream.
So if you have problems with the latest Java update, or if your computer is running slow or sounds like it's looking for files all the time, you might want to give CCleaner a whirl. It worked for me!
