My dead computer

K

Kickie

Cathlete
Is anyone a computer expert? I have DSL with SBC Yahoo and that is supposed to have a virus protection program but I was opening my Yahoo homepage yesterday and all of a sudden the screen got really "animated looking" with weird outlines and stuff. Then a window popped up asking me to upgrade my browser.

Well, I turned it off immediately assuming it was a virus but now when I try to turn it on, the initial Dell screen comes up but then my desktop doesn't. All I get it a black screen.

Am I S-O-L?

Thanks,
Christine
 
Sounds like a virus to me. I have virus protection on my computer and I scan weekly. I still caught a virus and had to take the machine to a computer doctor to fix it. And now I run spyware scans twice a day because I'm so paranoid about that.
 
I was doing the same thing! I just don't get it. People here at work say you have to run Norton and McAfee in addition to these other programs. How frustrating.
 
What operating system are you running? Windows 98, XP, ME ? If it is XP, you can reinstall XP over itself (stick original XP cd into drive, restart computer and then follow instructions) and it should fix any files that were screwed up. Anybody jump in if I am wrong please.
 
OY VEY!

Thanks for all the suggestions. Too bad I couldn't see any of them here at home.

I just spent THREE hours on the phone with SBC and then Dell. We just went ahead and reinstalled the operating system.

Okay, here's my new question. I want a better (if this is possible) anti-virus program than the one SBC offers. Any suggestions? Is Norton better than McAfee?

What a headache I have....

Christinex(
 
I run Norton, I still got nailed by CoolWebSearch which technically isn't a virus it's spyware.

I run Norton Anti Virus (they can keep the rest of the "suite") and a program call SpyBot Search and Destroy. I also use ZoneAlarm as a fire wall. Only been nailed once in 11 years.

Of course there are considerations to be made, how much memory do you have, how fast is your processor all of these tools cost you system resources. Also are you always online with Cable/DSL or a dialup.

Dave
 
Un-fortunaly, spyware has gotten to the point that is just as dangerous as virus and you have scan and clean reguarlly for it.

For viruses and a firewall, I run the full Norton's suite at home (just because I'm lazy and after a fully day and lots of on-call of supporting computers, I really don't want to go home and tinker with a mish-mosh of utilities). I usually recommend this to people who want a good package without all of the "computer tech" bells and whistles that make some utilties hard to configure.
But beforwarned, Notorns can be a processer hog. Depending on your system, you might see some slowdown in performance.

For spyware I run both Ad-aware ( http://www.lavasoft.com/ )and Spybot( http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html ). Both of these are free, you can also buy the full Ad-aware package if you choose. There are many others out there, but you really have to be careful because they are actually spyware engines themselves.
 
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