Ok, what the **** is wrong with my computer

[Slacker]

You may remember a recent thread where I talked about my encounters with Dell's Tech Support. Well, I got a new HDD, got everything set up, yadda yadda. I've had this new HDD for maybe a week, haven't downloaded anything sketchy or been on any sites that could give out viruses, I pretty much only have Steam and a few games up. So, the other day, my computer starts randomly freezing. I put the computer in safe mode and do a virus scan, says I have a "low risk tracking cookie," it's fixed, I restart the computer. For some mysterious reason, neither iTunes nor Winamp work, so I use Windows Media Player. When I click on it, a program called AlphaVirus comes up and tells me I have FORTY TWO viruses, but I have to register for the program to fix it. Run another Norton scan, says I have, yes, one low risk tracking cookie.

Not sure what the **** is up, should I just do a clean-install when I get Windows 7 and say **** it, or is there some easy solution I'm missing?

 

[FishBulb]

Some bad luck you've got there, mate. Tried any of these solutions?

Also, you don't only use Norton, right? Right? D:

 

[Maestro]

I want to punch the CEO of Norton in the balls repeatedly. My HP came bundled with it 5 years ago and it never caught ANYTHING.

Go get Ad-Aware and SUPER Antispyware. Yeah, I know. Super is all caps but it's still a pretty good program.

Or if you want to shell the money Bitdefender is really good, realtime protection, firewall, catches most stuff even if it gets through. I've got Bitdefender with the occasional scan from Ad-Aware and SUPER Antispyware.

 

[huntingbear]

well i hope he's not using more than one AV program at the same time. Does nothing but slow your computer down.

Do you have a second HDD the virus may have been lurking on? Did you check email online like Gmail or Yahoo? virus could be lurking in one of your messages. Did you pop a jumpdirve in that may be infected? Wut sites exactly did you go to? I've been seeing a lot of people that visit Facebook regularly get a virus like "Alpha Antivirus" or "Antivirus Pro 2009" or "Personal Antivirus 2009" or "WinAntivirus 2009" all the same virus. RogueAntivirus.....it's evil

 

[delusional]

I think I had a similar virus not that long ago. Was a bitch to get off my computer. Try this first though.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

 

[huntingbear]

I want to punch the CEO of Norton in the balls repeatedly. My HP came bundled with it 5 years ago and it never caught ANYTHING.

Go get Ad-Aware and SUPER Antispyware. Yeah, I know. Super is all caps but it's still a pretty good program.

Or if you want to shell the money Bitdefender is really good, realtime protection, firewall, catches most stuff even if it gets through. I've got Bitdefender with the occasional scan from Ad-Aware and SUPER Antispyware.

I want to know how your computer does with Bitdefender; every review I've read said that the two newest releases from Norton (both of which I've used and were awesome) outperformed Bitdefender. Norton ended up using less resources and shorter scan times. I've used both Norton Internet Security 2009 and 2010 both of which were barely noticable upon installation, were VERY easy to install HOWEVER 2010 has been causing some strange issues on Win 7. Anytime we have a problem installing a program because it's failing part way or won't start we disable 2010 and that fixes it. Other than that it's awesome. CNet rated Bitdefender really high, over Norton in fact iirc so how do you feel about it?

Personally I used paid AVG for 2 years but switched to a new group of guys I found called Vipre. They're cheaper AND on the first scan it found 5 trojans that AVG had apparently been ignoring. PSsh!

 

[Headcrab Pie]

I think I had a similar virus not that long ago. Was a bitch to get off my computer. Try this first though.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

I had something like that. Malwarebytes took it right off though. Horray.

 

[AtomicSpark]

I want to punch the CEO of Norton in the balls repeatedly. My HP came bundled with it 5 years ago and it never caught ANYTHING.

Go get Ad-Aware and SUPER Antispyware. Yeah, I know. Super is all caps but it's still a pretty good program.

Or if you want to shell the money Bitdefender is really good, realtime protection, firewall, catches most stuff even if it gets through. I've got Bitdefender with the occasional scan from Ad-Aware and SUPER Antispyware.

Neither one of those are Antivirus programs. I suggest avast! I've actually been trying out Avira, but it has an annoying pop-up each time you update (which you can *ahem* disable). I haven't gotten malware (that I know of) in years. Well there was that time when I tried using a trainer. Tis what I get for being a dirty cheater. I know avast! is pretty good at catching things. It's prevented many worms and trojans at my place of work. Email clients are a terrible idea. Never use them.

Also, AlphaVirus sounds like malware. Remember, many things will trick you into installing a trojan AV program. I had a "fake" Windows Control Panel website popup that warned about many viruses being present. This pop-up happened when my mom was surfing on a machine running Ubuntu. It was hilarious. She of course flipped out and told me she had trojans and what nots. I laughed. Lol Windows, etc.

 

[Krynn72]

Neither one of those are Antivirus programs. I suggest avast! I've actually been trying out Avira, but it has an annoying pop-up each time you update (which you can *ahem* disable).

This. I've had avira for awhile now, and pretty annoying. Has a lot of false negatives compared to Avast!

 

[Acepilotf14]

Anytime someone mentions 'antivirus' there's going to be a big argument over which is best.
Just warning you guys.

 

[Maestro]

I want to know how your computer does with Bitdefender; every review I've read said that the two newest releases from Norton (both of which I've used and were awesome) outperformed Bitdefender. Norton ended up using less resources and shorter scan times. I've used both Norton Internet Security 2009 and 2010 both of which were barely noticable upon installation, were VERY easy to install HOWEVER 2010 has been causing some strange issues on Win 7. Anytime we have a problem installing a program because it's failing part way or won't start we disable 2010 and that fixes it. Other than that it's awesome. CNet rated Bitdefender really high, over Norton in fact iirc so how do you feel about it?

Personally I used paid AVG for 2 years but switched to a new group of guys I found called Vipre. They're cheaper AND on the first scan it found 5 trojans that AVG had apparently been ignoring. PSsh!

The '08 Consumer Reports rated BitDefender overall as best, when taking usability, scanning thoroughness, and other aspects into account. Norton may be faster, but I will never use it again because Norton that came with my HP blew so badly that I refuse to trust them with my HDD (and more importantly, my porn).

I haven't used AVG, I just went with what CR said was best. I've not been disappointed, but my browsing habits are such that I haven't really gotten a virus in over a year so I'm not the best person to ask when it comes to pushing BD's limits.

 

[Slacker]

Yeah, my computer is completely hosed. Any AV program I try to run just freezes. I guess it's time for a clean install?

 

[Dodo]

I use McAfee, and most importantly... common sence. Only had 2 virusses that got on my pc by memorystick.

 

[delusional]

Yeah, my computer is completely hosed. Any AV program I try to run just freezes. I guess it's time for a clean install?

Do mean that the program just freezes while doing its thing or does it shut down? Since some viruses will disable antivirus programs. And it becomes much harder to remove the virus since you have to do some of it yourself. It's probably best if you just did a clean install if that's the case.

 

[Slacker]

Ok, ran a scan with Malware that got rid of 2 Trojans and a tracking cookie. Did this in Safe Mode. I restarted my computer, and Alpha still starts up and it still freezes. I'm running SuperAntiSpyware and if that doesn't do the trick I'm just going to say **** it. Thanks for all the help, though.

 

[Slacker]

So I run SuperAntiSpyware and it gets rid of 22 threats, and yet the computer is still freezing. Malware and SAS tell me my computer is free of shit now.

Trying to do this and quit smoking at the same time is NOT A GOOD MIXTURE