Big problem with my computer. Please help

[Carl Brennan]

A two days ago or so I was at "My Yahoo" when this irritating pop-up from www.benews.net told me I needed to download this material to view the web page. I had seen this before. It has a microsoft logo reply if you refuse it that forces you to go offline. You cannot proceed without accepting the software. Well I was pissed and must have hit the accept rather than the reject button and my computer has been locking up, going offline, real slow, etc. I tried "Scandisk" and that now will not work. It keeps cycling through after going through a couple of "allocation tables".

Does anybody have any ideas on what to do?

Thanks for your help.

[wryter2000]

1. Go back

I bought Go Back to restore my computer to a time in the past. If you don't have that, there's still a way to recreate your computer to the past. (You'll lose anything you did since then, of course.)

Maybe someone here knows better how. Anyhow, here's a kick. :kick:

[dweller]

2. have you tried running scan

from safe mode?

do you have adaware, spybot, etc?

dp

[hyphenate]

3. Download AdAware 6

it should get rid of any spy- or malware on your system.

Then go to http://www.pandasoftware.com and run their free online scan on your system. It will isolate and delete or disinfect your files. It will then have you reboot.

After that, I suggest you reinstall your system files. You didn't say whether you have '98, 2000 or XP (or other) but if you do a clean install it will help.

If you're running XP, you should be also able to do a system recovery if you need to.

Good luck--believe me, I've been through it all at one time or another. I just recently had to back up 30GB of files because my new hard drive was giving me problems.

[Tace]

4. I'm No Expert -- So I'm Sure Someone More Knowledgable Than Myself...

will answer.

However, this is what I do when my computer bogs down as you describe:

I run Ad-Aware SE Personal to remove spyware. Its a free download from Ad-Aware.

I run Cleanup from my Windows program.

I open Ad-Remove programs in my Settings, Control Panel, and remove any extranious programs. (In my case, these are usually kiddie programs from my children.) If I'm not sure, I leave 'em be.

Then I reboot.

I run Scandisk

I run Defrag

I have found that it is the spyware that probably bogs me down, usually.

Good luck.

[billbuckhead]

6. Have you downloaded the latest Windows updates? There was one.....

a couple days ago. I've found that if you don't download the latest updates, internet performance sucks.

[DeepGreen]

5. What kind of operating system do you have?

Is it Windows XP, 98 ,??

[bvar22]

7. There is a cool forum here at DU to help with these problems.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=242




I plugged my phone in where the blender used to be. I called someone. They
went "Aaaaahhhh..." -- Steven Wright

[Lady Effingbroke]

8. Here are links to download the programs mentioned above:

Ad-Aware SE

Spybot Search and Destroy

Download these two programs, then check for updates before scanning.

Also download SpywareBlaster and check for updates. SpywareBlaster is a great "set and forget" program which runs in the background and prevents drive-by downloading of adware/crapware.

If you are using Internet Explorer, switch to Mozilla Firefox. More secure than IE, plus it has a built-in ad blocker/pop-up blocker.

[idiosyncratic]

9. Also download Spybot -- Search and Destroy.

I use Opera as my browser and it has a built-in Popup blocker.

Since I started using Opera as my browser more than two years ago, I haven't had any problems like those you describe.

[Carl Brennan]

10. Adaware freezes up when I try to use it. I have to punch ctrl-alt-del

Scan disk, as I mentioned just cycles through the first couple of allocation tables.

I did get a message at start when the disk was being scanned that said I had a very large filename. This is at about 23% completion. I hit the space bar and it continues the scan. Is this the same as the "scan disk"

Thanks for the help I'll try some of the other ideas you guys offered.

[kaitykaity]

11. Check your task manager and see what you have running.

Yahoo zapped me with a Trojan Horse last weekend and my
computer went pop-up crazy. They way it did it was to have
like six programs running in my OS without my having put them
there.

Open your task manager using CTRL-ALT-DEL and close down
anything that's not fundamental to your basic system.
See here.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Troubleshoot-Windows-with-Task-Manager&id=1036

Then run Spybot and Adware.

[leftyandproud]

12. HERE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=2130129#