Computer Issues

My computer is being retarded. Its been going slow lately, I tried a system restore earlier, but had to leave. I just got back, and signed in and it had like 20 pop ups but it said Restoration Complete. Its barely even functioning, and I have the spyware/virus Internet Optimizer. I tried to System restore again, I was going to do it to like a month back, but now it wont even let me do that. When I open it it says you can choose any bold date to restore to, butn one of them are bold anymore.

I have troubles with my computer a lot, like every two or three months, and its usually Internet Optimizer. Does anyone know where it comes from, or how to get rid of it? If my computer is messed up beyond my control, I usually do a full system restore (wipe out everything) and start clean...but Ive heard its not good for your computer. Anyways, so far Ive tried going into Add/Remove Programs and manually uninstall all of the spyware shit, and then go into C drive and delete the files, but it didnt work. I couldnt even delete Internet Optimizer because it said Access Denied.

what type of computer are we talking about, and what programs are you using?

My keyboard stopped working for a while. How the fuck does that happen?! Its an emachines running on windows xp if that helps.

well....emachine that is your problem right there.

check for spyware/malware/stealware and virus's

i've had something similar happend to me before. I took the harddrive out, plugged it to a perfectly fine computer and scanned and removed a lot of spyware and hijacks using SpySweeper and it worked wonderfully. Then afterwards, used an antivirus program to scan it (kaspersky, norton.... etc)

Reinstalling XP isn't "bad" for your hardware or anything. It is actually the best thing you could do at this point. After that it sounds like most of your problems are behavioral.

Some things to try on your clean install of XP

get all windows updates immediately after getting system back up.

use firefox[=http//www.getfirefox.com]firefox instead of Internet Explorer

use some kind of firewall. A hardware router from the store can be used as a cheap inbound firewall with the advantage of not really having to think about it. Also, make sure you have XP's firewall turned on.

Use adaware[=http//www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/]adaware and spybot[=http//www.spybot.info/en/index.html]spybot every few weeks to get stuff cleaned up before it gets too bad.

But overall just be cautious of what you are doing, and you shouldn't get infected.

this happens to me sometimes, even the keyboard not working and stuff like that

i always run several virus/spyware/spam searches from different programs

I use
SystemSuite - Deep Scan
Microsoft Antispyware
SpyBot - Search and Destroy
AdAware SE Personal
avast! Antivirus

Plus, try using System Suite for defraging, fixing registries, and all that. I don't know about everyone else, but my computer is so slow that even just defraging the HD makes a big difference

Sorry Ive been at work but anyway, thanks a lot guys, I'm going to try some virus scans, although in the many many times this has happened before, virus scans havent really solved the problem and i ended up restoring anyway.

As to you saying that reinstalling windows isnt bad for your computer...I'm not sure if you understood me or not, maybe you did and it really isnt bad for it. But its not just restoring it, its like completely erasing everything and starting from scratch. Its a hassle, but its always worked before, I just have had a friend or two tell me that its bad on the hard drive.

you've got a virus on your computer,


it's called Windows XP wink

[quote0d6bb0ead8="hilaryfanatic09"]

As to you saying that reinstalling windows isnt bad for your computer...I'm not sure if you understood me or not, maybe you did and it really isnt bad for it. But its not just restoring it, its like completely erasing everything and starting from scratch. Its a hassle, but its always worked before, I just have had a friend or two tell me that its bad on the hard drive.[/quote0d6bb0ead8]

Yes, its nothing to worry about I do it on most of my XP drives every 6 months or so. You aren't really changing the physical data on the drive when you format. I don't see any way it could hurt.

[quote66636683dd="xigxag"]Yes, its nothing to worry about I do it on most of my XP drives every 6 months or so. You aren't really changing the physical data on the drive when you [b66636683dd]format.[/b66636683dd] I don't see any way it could hurt.[/quote66636683dd]
Emphasis mine, to point out that formatting definitely changes the physical data on the drive, because it wipes it out. )

XP does allow for over-the-top installs. It's called a "repair" install and is non-destructive to your desktop, registry, apps, & data. The only thing you'll lose is your Windows Updates, so you'll have to patch back up. Boot off the XP install CD, select your current C\WINDOWS partition when prompted, and then you'll be asked to repair or delete the current install. I've done this quite often to fix fubar'ed XP installs.

However I don't think this will necessarily fix your problems, because you are so infected with spyware that most likely the Run keys will remain intact and you'll just launch the same spyware after an install. You need to sanitize your system and THEN do the repair install.

Google for, download, and install AdAware SE and Spybot Search & Destroy. Some spyware will block any attemp to install or run anti-spyware tools, so you may have to do some manual cleaning first. Boot into Safe Mode and then try to run MSCONFIG and disable all autostart programs that you don't need. Once you have AdAware and SpyBot installed, disable System Restore and boot into Safe Mode to run the spyware scans. Clean anything recommended to clean and then boot back into normal XP mode. Hopefully things will be semi-clean enough at this point to perform a repair install if necessary. It might be clean enough, if no system files were lost or corrupted in the process, to just run as-is.

[quote979bbe3555="dmorris68"][quote979bbe3555="xigxag"]Yes, its nothing to worry about I do it on most of my XP drives every 6 months or so. You aren't really changing the physical data on the drive when you [b979bbe3555]format.[/b979bbe3555] I don't see any way it could hurt.[/quote979bbe3555]
Emphasis mine, to point out that formatting definitely changes the physical data on the drive, because it wipes it out. )[/quote979bbe3555]

Yeah, that was confusing. What I'm trying to say is that when you format you are only wiping the record of what is on the disc, not actually overwriting data. In other words, its not like you are writing to every sector of the disk when performing a format. I was trying to address his concerns about formating being bad for hdd. But yes obviously formatting will effectively "erase" all data, even though it is still there and can possibly be restored.

Also, I'm assuming he has an OEM restore disc, not an actual XP cd that he can do a install over with.

try the microsoft antispyware program, it works really well.

[quote355d897491="downthesun"]try the microsoft antispyware program, it works really well.[/quote355d897491]

for some reason i don't like that as much. It never seems to come up w/ any results when you do a scan, where as AdAware will come up w/ a lot more. The realtime protection is nice, but again i don't see much benefit

IMO Microsoft's Defender is a better program than AdAware. It is based on Giant's product that MS bought, and is actually very effective and has been highly rated in reviews. The only ding I give it is on the realtime protection, which is good but not as good as SpyBot's TeaTimer. TeaTimer prompts you to allow ANY changes to startup programs and BHO's, while MS Defender has an internal whitelist that allows many things to install without prompting (although it will notify you).

My personal favorites are actually MS Defender and SpyBot. I just suggested AdAware since it's one of the more popular, does work pretty well, and MS Defender is still in beta (although very functional).

Defender sucks, the version before defender was decent

imo defender will always be in beta to keep it free

I didn't even know there was a new MS antispyware beta, I have been using the AntiSpyware Beta1 program, not the Defender Beta 2 loool.

me neither. actually after about 20 min after someone posted about it, it came up w/ a ballon saying that i could download it. first i'd heard anything about it. what a coincidence.

still dosn't work any better imo

[quotea98601900c="Iloveipods2"]you've got a virus on your computer,


it's called Windows XP wink[/quotea98601900c]
hahaha hell yes +karma )