HELP! I think I lost my computer!

[maycocksean]

I'm on my wife's laptop and I don't know what happened to our PC. I don't know if we got some kind of virus or what. It was working fine all day today--the power went off this evening and when I went to start the computer back up this evening after the power came back on, I got some strange Explorer EXE error boxes pop up and my aVast anti-virus had a red box that said my updating of my AVAST program was interrupted. And I couldn't get anything to happen. (Power goes out virtually everyday here so I don't think that was it. the comp has a battery back up and surge protector).

So I force-turned it off and turned it back on, only this time during the boot up I got a login box with a password option which I've never gotten before. I just pressed okay without typing a password and it continued booting up. Then when my wallpaper came up, I got another Explorer EXE error message. I pressed okay and after that nothing else would happen. I just had the wallpaper with no desktop icons or anything. I also noticed that there would be a split second where the entire screen would be red before the wallpaper came up, which I found very ominous as well. I restarted the computer three times and the same thing happened every time.

WHAT HAPPENED!!!? I'm really worried that my computer has been really damaged or something. It's especially annoying because I wrote a draft of a whole blog this afternoon and if I lose all my data I'll lose that (and my recent work on my novel--which I'm now grateful wasn't much). I am really freaking out!

can anyone who knows computer help me?

 

[Liesje]

Is it Windows XP? If so, go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. Choose a restore point like a day or two ago and roll it back. There could be a security vulnerability, but at least if you roll it back you can hopefully patch it before it happens again, or maybe it won't do it again.

 

[maycocksean]

Is it Windows XP? If so, go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. Choose a restore point like a day or two ago and roll it back. There could be a security vulnerability, but at least if you roll it back you can hopefully patch it before it happens again, or maybe it won't do it again.

But I can't even go to start because all I get is the wallpaper. I have no desktop, no start menu--Just a giant picture of my dog's face (the wallpaper) and the mouse arrow (which moves around but there is nothing to click on).

(Thanks for replying by the way. I immediately thought of you when I posted here!)

 

[Liesje]

Hit Control Alt Delete once, then click New Task and type explorer.exe to restart Explorer.

You can also try booting into Safe Mode and running a restore from there.

 

[maycocksean]

Hit Control Alt Delete once, then click New Task and type explorer.exe to restart Explorer.

You can also try booting into Safe Mode and running a restore from there.

Gonna try it but in case it doesn't work how do I boot into Safe Mode?

 

[yolland]

^ http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/ht/safemode.htm

 

[maycocksean]

The White Coconut people came and took it away today (White Coconut is one of the computer stores here on Saipan).

We'll see what they say.

Thanks to both of you for your help though.

 

[maycocksean]

My computer's back but not the same

My computer is back but it’s not quite the same. I guess they had to reinstall the operating system. All my files are there but I’ve had reinstall some of my software. I couldn’t find the product code for my Office 2003 so I had to install a 2000 version I had and I feel like some of the problems I’ve been having are related to that. For example I no longer seem to have the “Photo Wizard” that used to pop up every time I plugged in my camera to transfer pictures. Now I have to open the files and send the pictures one by one which is a real pain.

Also, I still have all my itunes files but the itunes program can’t “see” them for some reason. There’s no “Music” folder in itunes now. I’m not sure why that is. Do I need to reinstall Itunes also?

And my computer in general just isn’t as quick and smooth as it was before. It tends to run a little slower. It just doesn’t seem totally healthy—which is annoying because I never had a single problem with this computer in the almost three years I’ve had it until this happened.

What can I do to get my computer back to the way it was and what can I do to ensure that this doesn’t happen again? (Or at least minimize the risk). Should I scan the computer more often (I used AVAST before but I confess I was lazy about scanning the computer regularly; now they White Coconut people have installed a AVG free antivirus program).

 

[VintagePunk]

Sean, if AVG is running in the background, that could be slowing your computer down. It's more of a resource hog than Avast.

Also, with transferring your pictures from your camera, I don't use a program to do it. Since I always tend to transfer pictures that are on my memory card consecutively, I just click to highlight the first picture, then hit shift and then click on the last picture. This highlights the entire group I want to transfer. Then I right click -> copy them, and then paste them into my picture folder. That way, they're transferred as a group.

Sounds like they had to reinstall the operating system. Unfortunately, you'll have to reinstall some of the software, I don't know any other way of getting around that.

Hopefully someone else can help with the other issues you're having.

 

[maycocksean]

Sean, if AVG is running in the background, that could be slowing your computer down. It's more of a resource hog than Avast.

Also, with transferring your pictures from your camera, I don't use a program to do it. Since I always tend to transfer pictures that are on my memory card consecutively, I just click to highlight the first picture, then hit shift and then click on the last picture. This highlights the entire group I want to transfer. Then I right click -> copy them, and then paste them into my picture folder. That way, they're transferred as a group.

Sounds like they had to reinstall the operating system. Unfortunately, you'll have to reinstall some of the software, I don't know any other way of getting around that.

Hopefully someone else can help with the other issues you're having.

Well, now I can't get into my camera at all. I get a message from AVG that the device has a trojan horse. I'm not sure what to do next.

Grrrrr. . . .

Any advice?

 

[VintagePunk]

Wow, I wasn't aware that that could happen!

I googled and found this:

http://ask-leo.com/can_a_cameras_memory_card_transmit_a_virus_to_my_pc_or_to_another_camera.html

Read the article, but also read the comments, there are some suggestions there that others later commented worked for them. Good luck! Hope it works.


Eta - I see that when you get to the bottom of that page, you can click to see more comments.

 

[maycocksean]

Wow, I wasn't aware that that could happen!

I googled and found this:

http://ask-leo.com/can_a_cameras_memory_card_transmit_a_virus_to_my_pc_or_to_another_camera.html

Read the article, but also read the comments, there are some suggestions there that others later commented worked for them. Good luck! Hope it works.


Eta - I see that when you get to the bottom of that page, you can click to see more comments.

thanks for the link VP. I'll check it out!

frustrating though. I don't have time for this shit!