OT My computer upstairs has a virus

Paul56 wrote:Do an online virus scan here: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

I've had good luck with Housecall before. Tho I haven't been there in a looong time.

Time to get ex-hubby involved. Or one of your students?

Get a Mac!

GumbyCT wrote:

Paul56 wrote:Do an online virus scan here: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

I've had good luck with Housecall before. Tho I haven't been there in a looong time.

Time to get ex-hubby involved. Or one of your students?

My ex husband is abusive, I have a restraining order against him. Also part of the condition of my living in my parent's house is that I not speak to him. Although yes, I actually did dial his number tonight for help but I realized he would just curse at me and call me names anyhow

My students are 4 but one of their parents is trying to help online. My ex was the go to person for computer issues in my circle of friends. I don't know any other people who are as knowledgeable as him. I need a computer nerd, stat!

My Dad messes his computer up a lot though, so maybe I can get his computer guy to cut me a deal. After all I am cute Broke, but cute

I don't let Norton anywhere near my computers.

AVG is usually good but if something got past it you got problems.
You could download some anti-malware program on the good computer and use a thumb drive to transfer it to the sick one.
I would disconnect the sick computer from the internet while trying to clean it up.

You might also try a system restore to a date before you saw the virus.

Also, start your computer in safe mode then try to run your virus program.
Same for any malware program you put on.

Sounds like you got a nasty bug. It will probably be difficult to remove, especially if you aren't half-geek.

You could also restore your computer from your backup -- you do have a backup right? Suureee you do.

I would recommend using the paid version of AVG after you get it cleaned up. They don't do any tech support for the freebie.

I run AVG Internet Security program and it works very well. Has firewall, spyware, rootkit, antivirus etc. everything all in one package all written by the same programmers so everything works together with no problem.

You have my deepest sympathy ... been there and done that ... more than once before I learned.

If you have anything on your computer you value ... financial info, pictures, etc. you REALLY REALLY NEED TO HAVE A BACKUP.
You can get an external USB hard drive for under $80 and many come with a backup program.
It's just a matter of time until your hard drive fails.
Or a virus strikes as has happened and a backup can save you many hours of grief.

At the first hint of a virus the first thing to do is disconnect from the internet. Run your scans and fix it up before hooking up again.

Good luck.

Hi JayLee

A lot of good advice above, and Arizona Willies advice is also good for backups. He is also right about Norton. Maybe it will help. maybe not, but when you try to uninstall it because it is acting up. you are likely to lose everything. I am writing this on my backup computer because Norton System Works didn't work, and the Norton uninstall from the Symantec website uninstalled everything I have. My fault, Norton went bad years ago.

Back to the problem.

You need a full antivirus program on a bootable CD, or a bootable DVD or bootable USB.

You probably need to go into your computers bios so that it will read the CD or USB before the hard drive. Usually done by pressing on the DEL button numerous times as the machine fires up. Do not change anything other than the order in which the machine looks for an operating system - ie - hard drive, CD. DVD, USB etc. Save the change, exit Bios, and turn the machine off, after inserting the CD or DVD.

Insert the USB if that is what you are using. Then start the machine, and it should boot from your USB, CD or whatever, on which is your antivirus program. Run the antivirus, and it may restore your hard drive, if it has not been too badly damaged.

Alternatevely -

Take your hard drive out. Take it to someone who has a working machine with an antivirus and can install your hard drive as a data (slave) hard drive. I do this through a USB connection, but it is quicker through the slave option (dont forget to change the pin on the HD from Master to Slave if it is an IDE hard drive.. If your drive is IDE and their machine is SATA only, then you may need a conversion connection, but not if you use the USB. The connection cable from HD to USB port costs about $25 in Australia. A very useful item to have. They can then run their antivirus, and it may restore your hard drive, depending on the damage done.

This is the best option.

When all this is over you need to establish a backup system that will work for you. There are plenty of ways to do that, if you want mine we can talk about that later.

PM me if you need to.

Good luck.

Mars

Ps After all this is over, have a look at download.com, and download what you need to protect your machine. Download.com will tell you the most popular programs for this, and just about all of them have a free version.

I do not know where you live, but some cities or states would have a computer user group, where volunteers can help with all kinds of problems. If you can, I suggest you join a user group, and use their support. Having someone on the phone is much easier than trying to sort out a problem on the forum. Whatever, try to get yourself a local support person.

Finally, you have determined not to be a geek about obstructive sleep apnea, neither do you need to stay a geek about computers

Personally, I've always found that AVG is great out of the gate, but after a while it starts to get a bit leaky, letting crap into your system.

I personally use AVAST. It's free, solid, and it's never let anything get through on this end (knock on wood!)

Agree with some of the earlier posters: Download malwarebytes (the free version) to a flash drive on a working computer, install it on the infected one, update it, and then do a full scan.

Avast is fantastic ; I had nothing but problems with Norton. Also, if you can get online, the people on the avast forums are fantastic as well. http://forum.avast.com/ The forum guys have helped me with several problems, some not even related to anti-virus stuff. Malwarebytes is great for doing period checks and getting rid of stuff, too. I use both of them. Avast runs all the time and I use Malwarebytes to run checks about once a week. And I use a couple of others, too, for periodic checks. No one AV program can catch everything, so it's good to have more than one thing (plus a firewall).

I've also heard, as other have said, that housecall is good, too. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Since she can't get on the Internet, could she boot up in safe mode and maybe be able to get on the Internet then in order to download some of these programs that have been mentioned?

Pam

Norton is evil it is almost like a virus. One of the best is Kaspersky (anti virus) version. It isn't free but very good. Good luck. PC s are a pain to keep virus out of.

WearyOne wrote: No one AV program can catch everything, so it's good to have more than one thing (plus a firewall).

AND computer savvy. Nothing will stop it when the user invites mean & nasty things into their computer by clicking on pop-ups that say you have something wrong with your computer click here to FIX it!!

That allows the nasties to download. Downloading those FREE toolbars is another way you allow nasties IN. I don't have toolbars to do anything I can do without it. Esp. remembering passwords, oouuch!

Sometimes the Yes and NO buttons do the same thing. So click the Red X or use Alt-F4 to close the front window.

If you are still using Internet Exploder (IE) then you are just inviting Trouble. I use FireFox and if the website won't work with FF, I don't go there. Haven't had pop-ups in years. If the pop-ups STOP then the unsuspecting can't click on them.

But all that is prob better off in another thread.

GumbyCT wrote:

WearyOne wrote: No one AV program can catch everything, so it's good to have more than one thing (plus a firewall).

AND computer savvy. Nothing will stop it when the user invites mean & nasty things into their computer by clicking on pop-ups that say you have something wrong with your computer click here to FIX it!!

That allows the nasties to download. Downloading those FREE toolbars is another way you allow nasties IN. I don't have toolbars to do anything I can do without it. Esp. remembering passwords, oouuch!

Sometimes the Yes and NO buttons do the same thing. So click the Red X or use Alt-F4 to close the front window.

If you are still using Internet Exploder (IE) then you are just inviting Trouble. I use FireFox and if the website won't work with FF, I don't go there. Haven't had pop-ups in years. If the pop-ups STOP then the unsuspecting can't click on them.

But all that is prob better off in another thread.

Ditto to what GumbyCT said.
I've never used anti-virus or firewall software on my home computers and have never been infected. I just have things disabled, security levels set higher (cookies and pop-ups), don't let things install or accept stuff I don't want. My ISP also has a pretty decent e-mail filter program that catches most all of the junk mail before it gets to my InBox (which I check twice a day to make sure it didn't stop something that was valid....which it does on occasion).
I only use Internet Explorer about once a month.......to download the Microsoft patches and updates.


Den

Reboot while tapping F8 key and choose safe mode with networking.
You should then be able to get online. While trend micro's house call is very good it is sometimes locked out by malicious code. MalwareBytes is the primary tool I use when cleaning PC's of viruses.

http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/ ... 86760019/1

Then dump AVG and install Microsoft Security Essentials.
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/


Good Luck!

Jaylee wrote:Thanks for the links If I could just get the dang thing to go online

GumbyCT wrote: If you are still using Internet Exploder (IE) then you are just inviting Trouble. I use FireFox and if the website won't work with FF, I don't go there. Haven't had pop-ups in years. If the pop-ups STOP then the unsuspecting can't click on them.

But all that is prob better off in another thread.

Well, even if that would be better in another thread, I like Firefox (although there is a small issue with Win 7 X 64) also. Additionally, I've used the Mozilla Thunderbird mail for a few years now and have not had one piece of spam. Best filter I ever saw. Never had anything important sent to junk folder either. There's no anti-virus program installed. I run a Malwarebytes scan occasionally, but there's never been any infection found.

An IT pro that I know used Malwarebytes to remove 90,000 infections from a friend's machine. I didn't know a comp could have that many infections.

Actually the < BEST > way to close any pop-up is to use Startup Manager and close it there. Even clicking on the red x in the upper right corner of the pop-up often triggers the virus or nasty in the pop-up. Never click ANYTHING in a pop-up. Just go to Startup Manger ( cntrl-del in XP / right click taskbar in Windows 7 ) and close it there.
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GumbyCT wrote:

WearyOne wrote: No one AV program can catch everything, so it's good to have more than one thing (plus a firewall).

AND computer savvy. Nothing will stop it when the user invites mean & nasty things into their computer by clicking on pop-ups that say you have something wrong with your computer click here to FIX it!!

That allows the nasties to download. Downloading those FREE toolbars is another way you allow nasties IN. I don't have toolbars to do anything I can do without it. Esp. remembering passwords, oouuch!

Sometimes the Yes and NO buttons do the same thing. So click the Red X or use Alt-F4 to close the front window.

If you are still using Internet Exploder (IE) then you are just inviting Trouble. I use FireFox and if the website won't work with FF, I don't go there. Haven't had pop-ups in years. If the pop-ups STOP then the unsuspecting can't click on them.

But all that is prob better off in another thread.