Possible Computer Trouble

If anyone decides to read this, as a warning, it's a long story, mainly because I'm adding every detail.



So the other day, during my schoolwork (homeschooled) I decided to open youtube to get some music, and instead, whenever I tried searching or clicking on a video on the homepage, I got a bunch of symbols. I'm assuming it was an error, because it usually happens to me if it's an internal server error on youtube. Just to be safe, I decided to do a quick virus scan, and I noticed Avast! had an available program update, so I decided to do it, and had to reboot to finish it. That's when the problems started. Once I had finished rebooting, Avast! couldn't find its firewall, which it never had before the update. I tried to update it, and it said it couldn't, at one point trying a different button on the firewall section itself, it said it couldn't find the way to bring up the firewall, rather than simply saying it was unable to do it. It had also asked if I wanted to try the trial for the full version, and I clicked yes to that, thinking it would be a good idea. I decided I'd try to fix it later, since my computer already had its own firewall. Trying to get back to my school pages, Internet Explorer wouldn't load, so I tried Chrome. Neither worked, and I rebooted again. Avast! still couldn't find the firewall, but I was able to get online, but on IE my school pages got an internal server error, but worked on my dad's and mom's computers. I then decided to try Chrome, but that brought around a new problem - This computer came with a trial version of Norton, and when it expired I never bothered to uninstall it, since it was inactive. On Chrome, each page would freeze, then a minute later say that a "Norton Confidential" plug-in had crashed, so I'd hit the yes button where it asked if I wanted to run the page without it, and it'd load, but it did this for each and every new page. School was a pain to finish that day, and during that weirdness happening, I couldn't click anything on my desktop, and had to use the shortcuts on my taskbar. In addition to all this, my computer could not shut down on its own, and I had to actually use the power button. We were able to do a systems restore, back to about the 19th I think.

I posted that wall of text to say this - Avast! did the update again, this time on its own, cuz it does that. I have yet to reboot, and simply been putting it into sleep mode at night. I'm actually going to turn it off when I go to bed tonight, and I don't know if the problems will happen again. If it does, I'm reformatting the computer in the morning. This is just a heads up because if we run into any trouble, I don't know when I'll be on next. Hopefully I won't have to reformat; I have nothing on my computer I can't replace, but it's annoying the reinstall all my games and such.

Anyway, yeah. If I'm not on for the next few days, or, god forbid, weeks, this is why.

Avast! Norton and McAfee are all rubbish no offence.

Basically the only decent one is the free Microsoft Security Essentials.

I used Norton and had problems, then McAfee and had worse problems until I used Microsoft Security Essentials and everything works great now, easy to install and config etc. If I were you I would install this and run virus scan with it as it shows up things others don't.

Oh and remember to un-install the other security things such as Norton otherwise they conflict.

revilo410 wrote:Avast! Norton and McAfee are all rubbish no offence.

Basically the only decent one is the free Microsoft Security Essentials.

I used Norton and had problems, then McAfee and had worse problems until I used Microsoft Security Essentials and everything works great now, easy to install and config etc. If I were you I would install this and run virus scan with it as it shows up things others don't.

Whenever I have Norton, be it a trial or one of the rare times we had a computer and actually bought it, I never had any problems.

My parents use Avast! too, and they never had problems.

My school computer, one I got for free from k12 online schools, had McAfee. That is the entire reason I don't use the computer. I will agree that McAfee is **horrible.**

I've told a few people this story a few times, asking for advice, and generally they've been saying to reformat if I keep having trouble... and then go on to say to just stop using IE, saying that its security is horrible, and that might be the problem I'm having. If it needs to be reformatted I'll end up using Chrome. Until then, I'm still going to use IE out of habit. If I have to reformat I'll also end up buying Norton, rather than simply use the trial version.

I love Avast!, and before today, never had any problems with it specifically. I'll also say that, honestly, I'm horrible with computers. Grew up with em, and I suck with em.

If I continue to have any problems if I reformat and buy Norton, I'll probably end up using the Security Essentials thing. I've heard good things about it, but haven't bothered to really research it.

revilo410 wrote:Oh and remember to un-install the other security things such as Norton otherwise they conflict.

Double post because as I was typing the other one, I didn't see this specific post.

I've reformatted this computer once before, and during the time before that, I still hadn't bothered to uninstall norton once the trial ended. It didn't really conflict in any way I could tell, because once the trial ended, it couldn't really do anything to conflict. The protection was gone, updates to it were gone, etc, all that was there was something popping up occasionally asking if I wanted to buy the full version.

Only reason I had to reformat in the first place was because I was playing MapleStory, and one area froze my computer. Best I could tell it was a specific area in a specific map, and when I passed by the same area later without realizing, it froze worse, and I had to hard reboot, after which it couldn't even get to the welcome screen.

I work as a helpdesk technician and I fix things like this all the time.

What you want to do is the following. Boot the computer up into safe mode with networking. Then download two programs; Malwarebytes anti-malware and Spybot Search and Destroy. Both programs are free. Install each program and run updates.

For spybot, I recommend "immunizing" first before you check for problems. If it asks you to remove temp files, click "yes". The scan will proceed as normal.

For malwarebytes, after you install and update the definitions, run a "full scan". The scan can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how fast your computer is.

Once both programs are finished scanning, they will allow you "fix the problem" and "remove items". Click yes for both programs. Then reboot your computer. Everything should be all set when you reboot. If not, come back here and I'll try to help.

madscientist032 wrote:I work as a helpdesk technician and I fix things like this all the time.

What you want to do is the following. Boot the computer up into safe mode with networking. Then download two programs; Malwarebytes anti-malware and Spybot Search and Destroy. Both programs are free. Install each program and run updates.

For spybot, I recommend "immunizing" first before you check for problems. If it asks you to remove temp files, click "yes". The scan will proceed as normal.

For malwarebytes, after you install and update the definitions, run a "full scan". The scan can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how fast your computer is.

Once both programs are finished scanning, they will allow you "fix the problem" and "remove items". Click yes for both programs. Then reboot your computer. Everything should be all set when you reboot. If not, come back here and I'll try to help.

And that Problocker guy thought Admin's had no jobs. You tell them Mad.

Troo. I have no idea what's going on here, but it seems Mike has it covered... again...

What else is new? xD

madscientist032 wrote:I work as a helpdesk technician and I fix things like this all the time.

What you want to do is the following. Boot the computer up into safe mode with networking. Then download two programs; Malwarebytes anti-malware and Spybot Search and Destroy. Both programs are free. Install each program and run updates.

For spybot, I recommend "immunizing" first before you check for problems. If it asks you to remove temp files, click "yes". The scan will proceed as normal.

For malwarebytes, after you install and update the definitions, run a "full scan". The scan can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how fast your computer is.

Once both programs are finished scanning, they will allow you "fix the problem" and "remove items". Click yes for both programs. Then reboot your computer. Everything should be all set when you reboot. If not, come back here and I'll try to help.

As it turns out my Avast! did not update its program on its own last night, and everything is working fine for now. Sometime soon I'll download Spybot, and I already have Malwarebytes.

I've said I'm bad with computers, anyone who knows me can tell I'm very open about that. With this computer I tended to do about a full systems scan with both Avast! and Malwarebytes about every 2 days. I don't know why but I've been scanning a lot less lately. Today I'll definitely scan though.

I'll be sure to let you know if I need any more help.