Can anyone recommend anyone that can fix laptops??
My Dads one has got loads of viruses and keeps getting loads of pop ups and dont want him to lose his work on it.
Cheers

 

i am sure some1 from here whos local with IT knowledge could help alternatively you could try www.ebuyer.com as they now do that service.

 

Cheers mate.............i hear some companies now come to your house and fix them? anyone know of any good reputable ones??

 

its quite likely the virues and popups are saved in the program/system files, so as long as you dad backs up his personal folders to an external hdd (or creates a partition on the existing hard drive if there is space) then its as simple as sticking the windows disk in and reformatting and reinstalling

 

is it that easy ?????? i may try this later then cheers

 

once youva backed everything up its as simple as sticking the disk in and restarting. Then it will say "press any key to boot from cd" or similar, press any key, then follow the instructions. If you have made a backup partition in disk managment then make sure you dont format the backup parition, as you will lose everything. XP will then format, then automatically install. Also, do not quick format as quite often it doesnt format correctly and the install fails, meaning you have to start again

 

Hi , if u can get in a chat room or msn , I can help u directly , I'll direct you on what to do , even better if u have skype we can talk free of charge , in the mean time if can tell me about the laptop , wath kind of behaviour have, ex: freezed, pop ups, error messages , etc.
See u soon
Gerry
P.S. I'm italian so be pacient with my crap english. Ciao

 

Cheers Steve.......I have done the system restore thingy as his mate said that could work but not done much to be honest........so will have a go

 

And you are mate?

 

as above just back up important data and reinstall windows, it will be like a new laptop again with no spyware/virus's

 

Brilliant Cheers Lads

 

I'm Gerry, or do u mean on skype or msn contact ? if u like to go down this way i canno t do right now more this evening , u can send me an e-mail with your contacts , how tha sound ?

 

Check running processes and try and locate whats causing the popups.

Then search for removal in google. Usually symantec have a removal tool that will clear the registry etc. and will usually have to be run in safe mode.

Cleared loads this way at work.

 

Hi Adrian,How do i do this mate.....sorry not a computer man at all

 

He said LOADS of virus aswell , id be more inclined to reinstall windows and have a nice fresh start rather than try to salvage this.
Thats just me though, ive reinstalled windows loads of times, its like making a cooked dinner to me

 

I would go with that too. And if the hard drive isn;t already partitioned then its definitely worth doing. I keep all my stuff on an external hard drive and re-install windows on a regular basis. Keeps the computer running nice.

 

he has only had the laptop 18months...wats this partition stuff about??

 

It basically splits the hard drive into two parts. One for windows, and one to store files in. Then, you can re install windows without losing all the saved documents.

 

So wat will it ask me and what should i choose???????

 

I'm confused
What are you doing? Are you trying to partition the hard drive now? Before re-installing windows?

 

18months on one installation of windows is a long-ish time if your using it everyday anyway.

Get that xp/vista disc out

Partition is a good idea too if you dont have an external hard drive, or a flash drive(which i recently bought and their fantastic)

 

Are they Virus or Spyware? People confuse the 2 (wouldnt expect you to VW as I think you are in the same game as me )

Download AdAware and see what it cleans up.

If AdAware finds one it cant remove then make a note of the name and search for it in Google for the removal tool. Common one is MyWebSearch. This one covers a multitude of infestations and has loads of Aliases.

What Anti-Virus he running? Update this to the latest defs on the web (usually just a right click and update) then run a full scan.

If its still no better then get the files he needs off the machine and reload the OS.

Reloading the OS is an easy fix, but I like the challenge of removing the infestation and put things in place so it doesnt happen again.

 

i dont know wat im doin thats why im asking you lot


so should i partition yes or no

 

2 years + and still running like day 1

 

God only knows why there is talk about re installation, a virus has to be running in order to propagate all you have to do is simply stop it from using system resources its not hard.

Do you think all these businesses which run Windows server and Microsoft Exchange Server for mail reinstall everytime they get a small issue, virus or explot.. course not, the problem is fixed.

 

sounds like it might be easier to take it to a local computer shop, give them 40 quid to do it for you,save us trying to explain each step over here.

 

Adrian (and the other guy) im sure i come across abit like i dont know what im talking about but i sometimes if people say there pc is shit slow and full of whatever and its doing this and that its easier to tell them to backup and reinstall windows, plus you cant go wrong doing this either.
How ever if you want to talk him through getting his pc in ship shape without reinstalling windows then go ahead
Im just lazy clearly

 

You should partition yes, if you dont have an external drive. But you need to re-install windows first.

Yes you can try and remove the viruses/spyware, but for someone who doesn't know what they are doing, they may well make things worse. After 18months a fresh install of windows would make much more sense.

 

Its not laziness. If it was my own computer, I might try and remove the virus (yeh right), but its easier to reinstall windows, and since windows slows down on a daily basis, it never does any harm to have a fresh install

 

VW_08

Not saying you are lazy or anything else, as you are in the same game as I am I think. I am just an old war dog in the IT game, so you probably know more than I have forgotten lol

Yes, a 10min reinstall of windows is probably the quickest fix, but I enjoy the challenge. I would spend an hour on it tops. If I couldnt get it fixed in that time then I would look at the reinstall route.

 

run hijack this on the pc available for download from http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

this shows you what processes are running on your system

select the option to create a log file and then paste the results into this website
http://www.hijackthis.de/

That website will then tell you what is hijacking your system and identify suspect files causing pop ups along with dispaly the virus running.. you can disable all these issues using Hijack this itself and then run a virus scan of the system and all should be reasonable. The following URL is a free online AV scan

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/uk/

Or you can paste the log file here and I will tell you what to loose, formatting a PC is a last resort imho

ive not formatted for 3 years and do not have any anti-virus, anti-spyware or pop up killers at all