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How to really screw up a computer

H

hey_moe

Retired SOH Administrator
A couple of years ago I brought one of the kids a complete computer setup along with a security program. Well they been calling me telling me they can't get it to shut off, unless they hold the on off button in and also it takes about 10 t0 15 minutes to get it to start and then another 4 or 5 minutes to get on the internet. They have Cox high speed service.Anyway I asked them what type of security have they been using...they said that expired a couple of years ago. BTW her husband loves going to the nudity sites. I just said bring the tower over and let me see what I can do. She had formatted the pooter a couple of times but still had the same problem. After I got it hooked up it was loaded with worms and virus's. Heck it wouldn't even open a program. In safe mode if I went into the registry and removed all the mess it would just rewrite itself...lol. The OS was wrote on the same HD so all you could really do was format it and then use the HD OS recovery to reinstall the OS. I used a wipe disk program and wiped it one time but it still had crap on it that wouldn't let the OS install. I was trying to reinstall the OS with a hard copy. After spending a half a day with this I did a goverment wipe/ 7 wipes. There was still something left on the drive that kept croupting the install. I said forget this crap. Brought a 500gig HD and installed it along with 1 gig of new memory and all went in fine. Got everything all loaded and install MS Office 2007. The kicker about all this mess is that Cox offers free Mcaffee Security Suite to all it's Cox customers. Moral of this...it's best to do the whole thing yourself...lol. I told Clara I can't believe she works at a bank and left her pooter wide open to catch all this crap. She ask me what was the best way to stop all this...I said never get on the internet.:amen:
 
Hey, I thought of that too Moe, but I figured it was inappropriate for the younger members here. ;) Besides, she might get mad reading that. :costumes:
 
Not to get off OT, but man I have had that "Antivirus 2008" crap twice in a month! I finally got rid of McAfee, or let it expire, because I swear all it does is bring your machine to a slow hault... The thing about that "Antivirus" spyware is that it truly looks like it is a windows thing.... If you didn't know it... You would be pretty fooled...

thank goodness for computer help websites that help you get rid of just about every virus out there...

-witt
 
Man.. I'll tell yah, there is some bad virus garbage out there.


I remember being in a pilots chat room. Some USAF guys would hand out in there, and they had 'software' that protected them.. THis guy was always hit by 'iranians' that were trying to get into his computer while he was in the chat room.. (He could back track like 50 times (I think it was 50) and find the source where the intruder was trying to enter from. He had the ability to email them back directly, but didnt.. usually reported it to intelligence the next day).

Getting a new HD is probably the best thing. The old one probably had a hidden drive set up on it. Who knows what technology these guys have now for reaking havoc on 'civilian' computers these days...



Bill
 
Better unplug it. Next thing you know it'll be after your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle. :icon_lol:

BTW I wouldn't install McAfee on anything.
 
Lionheart said:
Man.. I'll tell yah, there is some bad virus garbage out there.
Click to expand...


You can say that again -I visited a flight sim site (a classic British Aircraft Flight Sim site..sorry dont know the name as I didnt stay there long) ..and a virus took most of one of my hard drives (including FS9) before Mcafee stopped it ...was a blessing in disguise really as I have reinstalled everything and FS9 is now running sweet...I believe I didnt install the FS9 update (9.1) properly in my last reinstall and this caused one or two aircraft to CTD most of the time..one of them was your Bellanca Viking Bill ..you will be pleased to know that it is now running fine ...and once again thanks for the help and prompt service which you gave me a few months back.
 
I wouldn't install MacAfee either. Wouldn't have it on a bet. I use AVG, a bought and paid for copy, and have not had problems. And it doesn't take up 47g of space, either on the hard drive nor in memory.

My $0.00002 worth. :focus:
 
Lordee, Lordee, we live in a world where the mediocre are manning the mighty. :monkies:

I haven't had a computer in 10 years with Norton or McAfee, not even a 90-day offer bloatware version. I have been with AVG ever since they started and I never have a slowdown unless I am doing something and AVG starts an automatic scan. Even that is no problem, you simply pause, finish your task, and then continue and leave. Takes about 1-hour. It is good too, between Firefox and AVG (and plain ol' common sense), I haven't been infected in the span.

Caz
 
i garantee 85% of the junk in that computer came from the porn sites. the rest of it from kids sites. sadly, kids sites are almost as dangerous for your computer as porn sites. they are loaded with junk. here is an example. in 2002, i let my girlfriend's daughter use my computer. she went to a site called "neopets". in 2007, the computer was recieving mail from neopets here in canada, even though windows 98 had been re-installed. the computer was on a different isp, in a different country, with a different email address, but still recieving email from neopets in that little girl's name.
i have cleaned out relatives and kids computers many times. i now stand behind them and make them do it while i watch. you know what the old saying is about teachin a man to fish....
 
funny that people dislike mcafee and nortin so much..yet they are still in business and the big sellers...i use mcafee and had NEVER had a problem..with either pc..my only pc probmels ive ever had were with an external hard drive shutting down my pc and not letting it restart...i got talked into trying AGV and got all kinds of crap installed that took me a day to have mcafee to remove...:argue:
 
Remember,
People complaining on forums is a tiny portion of their entire market....

Daveroo said:
funny that people dislike mcafee and nortin so much..yet they are still in business and the big sellers...i use mcafee and had NEVER had a problem..with either pc..my only pc probmels ive ever had were with an external hard drive shutting down my pc and not letting it restart...i got talked into trying AGV and got all kinds of crap installed that took me a day to have mcafee to remove...:argue:
Click to expand...
 
Drake said:
BTW I wouldn't install McAfee on anything.
Click to expand...

And to think Comcast has the nerve to hand it out free to it's customers. Norton and McAfee always overlooked some of the nasty stuff, but AVG picked it up and quarantined it everytime. I only use AGV now.
 
Well it is better than having nothing at all and this is how the kids were surfing the internet.
 
I've seen McAfee and Norton both hose up perfectly good machines.
 
LOL drake was it the antivirus or the user who hosed up the machines?:whistle:

IMO, its always the user... either he didnt get the right info (or too lazy to do) or otherwise fudged up... :wiggle: no?

and blaming a program... whats easier than that?
.
 
Wittpilot said:
Not to get off OT, but man I have had that "Antivirus 2008" crap twice in a month! I finally got rid of McAfee, or let it expire, because I swear all it does is bring your machine to a slow hault... The thing about that "Antivirus" spyware is that it truly looks like it is a windows thing.... If you didn't know it... You would be pretty fooled...

thank goodness for computer help websites that help you get rid of just about every virus out there...

-witt
Click to expand...
I don't even bother with any mainstream software anymore. I Had McAfee, Which lets Antivirus 2008 in all the time. All it seems to do is annoy the hell out of you. It used to be easy to get rid of, but I got some version that appeared to be updated that no matter what you did, restored its files after you reboot. It Sucked.
 
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