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View Full Version : Do any Computer Literates Want a Challenge? (Help Please)

FredRock
10-26-2008, 11:12 AM
My main computer has some kind of virus on it, and my dad an I have reached our limits of computer knowledge- running SpyBot and AVG.

Here's the background: a few days ago I went on Smackjeeves and my computer retarted itself. Totally freaked, I run AVG and let it do a scan. my dad comes in and I let him know what happened, he tells me to run SpyBot too. There is a little red X in a circle on our toolbar, and it keeps telling us we have an infection. I get home from work, delete a bunch of the infected files, and the red X was there even after restart. I give up and go to bed. My dad gets home that morning and plays around with it; he runs the stuff on his own account and it fixes it.

Yesterday I visited the sit again, because I've never had a problem before, and it does it again. This time though, we can't figure out what's going on. The little X hasn't gone away after multiple scans with AVG in both of our accounts, and SpyBot coming clean too.

Now we're getting a message that the SQL server is corrupted, and we have no idea what the heck that is.

Anyone have any idea what we could do? Any help is appreciated.

Edit: I guess any time my dad goes to open the internet or his e-mail it keeps trying to install something.
Pinky
10-26-2008, 12:26 PM
Do you have your XP re-install disc? Wherever you bought the computer from should have given/give you one. I'd say your best and safest bet is just to completely wipe it and start again. Unplug the net first though.

Try Avast!AntiVirus. Those in the Computers For Dummies group know that I swear by it. It's totally free and (IMO) better than 99% of paid antivirus software.

It sounds like the virus has gotten into your boot sequence though - get Avast, run it and see what it comes up with.

Still, the easiest thing is to wipe it and start over. You will lose all of your files but that's better than losing bank details if you try to bank online with any infected files.

Good luck!
Gypsy Rose
10-26-2008, 12:39 PM
Some of those files should be able to be saved on disk without reinfecting the computer, shouldn't they?
Pinky
10-26-2008, 12:44 PM
GR - not really. The virus (if it's the one I think) is one I had and I just gave up and started again. Reason #9998 of why you should back up files to an External Harddrive every week! Unfortunately, I lost over 300GB worth of data in that episode :rolleyes:.
Toodlestoo
10-26-2008, 01:22 PM
We just had a virus (Antivirus2008). Do NOT click on anything that says that or any update for that. It's a virus!!!!!! I bought Spyhunter online for $60 bucks and it got rid of the virus. I had updated my McAfee virus protection last year but it couldn't get rid of it. Spyhunter did. I'm sure there are other programs out there but this is one that worked for me.
Gypsy Rose
10-26-2008, 02:11 PM
GR - not really. The virus (if it's the one I think) is one I had and I just gave up and started again. Reason #9998 of why you should back up files to an External Harddrive every week! Unfortunately, I lost over 300GB worth of data in that episode :rolleyes:.

IF a person has an external hard drive- best I can do with this one is put everything on flash drives, better than nothing, lol!
FredRock
11-01-2008, 06:29 AM
Well this stinks. :( Sorry about not being here for a while; I've been working and going to school.

I wish I had seen this earlier, it might have helped save the computer. Unfortunately my dad went on it and tried to do something, and the computer shut down/failed on him. So he called Dell to try to help him fix it. After a few hours of waiting and instruction, he found out that the memory was gone, and that we would have to buy a new motherboad. My dad isn't sure what he wants to do, because I'm getting a Mac for my school laptop when I go to college, and then it will leave just my mom, him, and my little sister. They have a laptop and another computer, so I think they might just not fix this one.

The good news is that I had done a recovery "mission" to save my typed documents (which were my life pretty much), but I lost $200 worth of music because I bought it off iTunes but didn't back it up. I know I'll definitely do that in the future. I lost all of my Sims 2 downloads too, which makes me want to just give up on the game, but I'm leaving for college this year anyway so I guess it's not so bad.

Thanks for the help though, guys! It's nice to know what virus it was too, at least I'll know for it in the future.