clubhappy Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 HELP.................When i turn on the .PC. , its starting up but i have no desk top programmes. Im only able to access this through windows task manager . Have i got a virus or is it something simple ?? HELP Loz , when you get a miniute ok dude
loz Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 Can you access system restore via Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools - System Resotre
clubhappy Posted April 4, 2007 Author Posted April 4, 2007 Dont think i can access them Loz, my screen saver/Background is the only item coming up on start. Can only get onto task manager by ctrl/alt/delete.
midlandblue Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 Have you tried switching it off then switching it on again?
clubhappy Posted April 4, 2007 Author Posted April 4, 2007 About 50 time Dude , tried restart too . No joy .
midlandblue Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 Sorry mate, I was trying to be funny. true to form I failed.
clubhappy Posted April 4, 2007 Author Posted April 4, 2007 No worries , im willing to sell the wifes body , sorry , im willing to offer the wife free of charge to anyone who can solve the problem . So looks like im buying a new P.C. then .
yorkleyblue Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 So looks like im buying a new P.C. then . Bit hasty that mate. Can you get anything displayed if you press and hold control and then press ESC? Also, this is described, with a load of possible solutions in http://www.winforums.com/showthread.php?t=9996 One of the likely things to try is to open Task Manager, click New task and type in explorer.exe - Then see what happens Kev
loz Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 No worries , im willing to sell the wifes body , sorry , im willing to offer the wife free of charge to anyone who can solve the problem . So looks like im buying a new P.C. then . Certainly too soon to be talking about a new PC (unless the one you have is ancient and you are considering replacing it anyway) - if you can't get anything sorted yourslef you can always take it to a computer repair store and ask them if they can give you a price to repair it (before you actually commit to anything) - then decide from that whether it is worth forking out to have it fixed or paying the extra to get a new PC. My brothers and I just had to chip in for a new PC for my Mum and we got a decent enough spec off Dell for ?420 - and today I saw a decent enough spec (well decent enough for fairly standard day to day use) in Woolworths (of all places) reduced to ?250. So this gives you an idea of whether the repair bill is worth it. Do you have the original set up disks for your operating system? Worse case scenario is that you can run a restore from them which basically wipes your whole PC and will rebuild the PC as it was when you first got it. of course this way you would lose all your data so if you have anything you really don't want to lose then again consider a computer repair shop as they may well be able to save your data files.
Mod Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 The nightmares of two weeks back come flooding back to me.. Had something exactly like that, which looked to be a virus. Ended up restoring the lot, and still in the process of gaining PC back to how it was. The Virus Program installed and firewall were not enough to stop it. Can you start it in safe mode at all? Think its F5 keyed when you start PC.
clubhappy Posted April 4, 2007 Author Posted April 4, 2007 Id hate to lose all my files , all very important and would be difficult to replce a lot of information. I have a lot of work related items, music , contact info etc etc . Probably will have to bring it to local .P.C. repair shop , there not too expensive . Any help on how i can keep all related files . Appreciate all the replies by the way .
loz Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 My personal advice would be that if the files are that important definitely go to a repair store. Don't screw around with it too much yourself. Once it is sorted and your files (hopefully) have been saved then invest in a decent back up facility so that you are never stuck in this situation again. Back up your data regularly and at least you will have piece of mind over those files.
dkw Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 download these programs:- avg antispyware 7,5, adaware and spybot s&d. restart in safemode (f8 normally) and run these.
BlueBeamer Posted April 5, 2007 Posted April 5, 2007 Try AVG antivirus also. http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5
Joel Posted April 5, 2007 Posted April 5, 2007 Could you at least describe what operating system you have? Windows XP? Windows 2000? Whichever it is, definitely try to get it booted in safe mode if possible. Borrow a friend's PC to get some of the antivirus/antispyware software already mentioned burned onto CD so you can get them installed. I am guessing your PC is riddled with spyware or infected with a virus, if not both.
clubhappy Posted April 5, 2007 Author Posted April 5, 2007 Managed to run a virus scan and it picked up 35. Deleted them from the system so its back to normal . Ran a spyware scan too , same result . It was riddled with them . Everything seems to be operating ok , but im leaving it with a guy tomorrow to run a full check on it . And also time to save my files onto something just to be safe . Anybody tell me how i can save files, data etc etc ?? Cheers
Maksimov Posted April 5, 2007 Posted April 5, 2007 What will you be using to store your backup files in?
clubhappy Posted April 5, 2007 Author Posted April 5, 2007 Open to suggestions mate , never done it before so im looking for advice .
loz Posted April 5, 2007 Posted April 5, 2007 Clubhappy First of all great news your PC is back to normal and no lasting damage done. OK to the issue of backing up. As you can imagine there are various options with different capacities and at different costs. Most basic option is simply to burn onto CDROMS and therefore your only cost is buying the discs. Personally I think this is naff as if yiu have a lot of stuff you end up with quite a few discs and they end up falling down the back of a fridge because you never have to use them. By the time something goes pear shaped you either can't find them or you do find them and they are damaged. Next up and still quite basic is using USB pens. i.e. something like this 2GB USB Pen. They come in different memory sizes (i.e. 512Mb, 1Gb, 2Gb, 3Gb) Handy in that they are portable so if you need to move files around it is easy and they are very small. However I don't rate them as back up tools as they are not that durable and again easily lost. However based on what you have told me about how important your data is to you (both personally and professionally) I would recommend investing in am external hard drive. Plenty of models available with different capacity and different costs so this one is just an example External Hard Drive Depending on how much you pay you can get anyting from 40GB up to 750 GB. They basically plug into a USB port on your PC and act as a second hard drive. SO all you have to do is plug it in and you can see it via windows explorer just as you can your main hard drive. Very durable and reliable method of backing up. The links I have provided are to products on the PCWorld website but I am not necessarily recommending you shop from them or buy these particular products - just using them as examples.
Mod Posted April 5, 2007 Posted April 5, 2007 Burning it as data, through nero or alike on a cd/dvd is an option.
clubhappy Posted April 6, 2007 Author Posted April 6, 2007 Cheers Loz and Mod , buying an external hard drive today , mate coming over to sort it for me . I have so much info here , contacts , links etc etc ,all work related that are important , but i have a lot of kids and family photos , that cant be replaced and there more important than anything else .
Mod Posted April 6, 2007 Posted April 6, 2007 Had the same thing happen to my PC about 2 weeks back clubhappy. The confusing part was, I was upto date with Virus protection and had firewall running, so they cannot do everything. I had to restore it back to factory settings, which obviously meant I lost about 34gb of stuff. Running it up again, meant the PC was open to all kinds of trojans, etc, as the current updates were not installed. Had another problem because of this yesterday, which a virus got onto PC, from a download I done. Was it a torrent? A dodgy site? No, it was a LEGIT trial copy of software from a LEGIT site (Alcahol 120% program). Again AVG or Firewall did not pick it up, and spent many sessions with a spy killer to rid it. My first thought about the Hard drive is, if its in your windows, it wouldn't make much difference, you maybe still wont be able to get the stuff over to the new drive? If you can copy the files over, then thats good, but if you cannot access windows, I cannot see it making a difference. Have you tried using your windows disk as a repair? I tried everything to save it, but it just didnt work.. BACK UP your stuff now everyone!! Its a chore to do, but if something gets into that hard drive, you will be glad you done it.
loz Posted April 6, 2007 Posted April 6, 2007 Mod Clubhappy's PC is sorted now so he won't have any problems with the hard drive and getting the files transferred onto it.
Butch Posted April 7, 2007 Posted April 7, 2007 Sorry I'm a bit late but anyway just a few suggestions. If you're running Windows (of any flavor) God help you ; seriously, though, what I would do is to always save a duplicate copy of all non-system files (e.g. word documents, excel files, photos, pictures, music, etc...) on a CD. Actually, keep in mind that CD's do not last forever (but then, what does). I see more and more people now using portable hard drives (e.g. USB) for all their files (but not for the operating system). I use a Mac now, and if you ever decide to change to a new computer, I would highly recommend one to you. But although I've also been able to get my dad and one of my brothers to switch, they still have a PC that is used in the household and I still have to provide tech support for it. Simply put, I've had to update Windows religiously (service pack upon service pack) plus 3 anti-spyware programs and a good antivirus program. Just having them is not enough either; you have to keep them updated and use them every once in a while to scan and repair. Even after all this, the computer will slowly get bogged down, particularly with spyware (or let's say malware). If your computer takes more than 5 minutes to boot up, you know you've got a problem. And soon, you will need to start over again (format hard drive and re-install everything) to get rid of the problem. It's awful, but that is what you have to be ready to do and that is why it is so important for you to keep back up copies of all your "important" files. Since I moved over to the Mac (about 4 years now)? I've had to reboot twice and haven't had to re-install anything (knock, knock). We'll have to see what Windows Vista brings to the table in terms of security, but as far as I can tell, compatibility is not very good at the moment (Microsoft is keeping tighter wraps on what software can do to the system to try and make it stable and secure). So, if you want to go that route, be sure and check that Vista is compatible with whatever hardware you may be using, i.e. MP3 player, phone, PDA, etc... Back up, back up, back up... Cheers, Butch
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