I think my computer is infected with viruses and Trojans, what should I do?

Question

I think it has been infected very badly for a while. I keep getting all the pop ups, left right and centre, they come up everywhere. Also sites that I have previously been on are displayed in ads on every web page, how do I stop this? I need a good virus remover to cleanse my computer. I have Norton installed but it never detects anything in its scans, its rubbish. Can someone suggest a good FREE virus remover? Also will Trojans be able to be removed?

Finally, my computer keeps flickering on and off like a computer would if a cable was slightly coming out or something, this may be because I knocked it recently, however could this possibly be because of a virus or something?

Help please! Also weird things keep happening like one day flash isn't working and every site says to install a latest version of flash and I have the latest version... or all my programmes will just close and again so man y pop ups ... I just know its badly infected. Help please.

Answer 1

First, why on earth are you running an infected machine? NEVER do so, it can be sending all your personal details out all over the Internet, including bank and credit card details and you would not know. Up to you if you want to get robbed, but you could also be infecting thousands of other machines. Norton is not very good, but if you infect a machine by carelessly following links people send you, or by careless browsing or installing pirated software, ANY active anti-spyware/virus will not be able to stop it. Also whatever active security you have can only work if you allow it to daily update.

Your first action must be to download the free scanner from http://malwarebytes.org and run the full scan. If it gives problems you may need to do so in safe mode with networking on a wired connection, wireless will not do it. After you use the option to remove all selected items you MUST consider getting a different active protection. Any of the good free versions will do better than your current one. Avast, Avira or AVG are all worth using, I always recommend AVG from http://free.avg.com

Uninstall Norton before installing the new one.

Apart form this ANY knock on a laptop can do a lot of damage, often to the hard drive, which means you should run a disk check and repair. Turn on BOTH tick boxes when you are setting it up. You could have dislodged a cable but they are difficult to get apart and re-assemble without experience. You can easily destroy one by bad assembly, we see lots of cases of that. But you could also have cracked the motherboard, far more serious and expensive.

Answer 2

A computer shop would remove the hard drive and back up the data. Then the operating system would be reinstalled using a factory restore. If the factory restore partition has been deleted or used for data storage, then the shop would then reinstall Windows. In either case, your backed-up data would be scanned for viruses and then put back on your computer.



Computer shops don't bother with Malwarebytes because a good virus will make changes to your operating system that compromise its security features. Malwarebytes does a good job of removing viruses but it won't do anything about the changes made to the OS. That's why a computer shop will reinstall or factory restore the OS instead of spending time with a virus scan. They don't want you coming back a few days later with a re-infected machine.



Once your machine is back to normal, you need to change your browsing habits. Even the best anti-virus won't work if you install a bunch of toolbars and other crap. For example, the Funmoods site gives you a bunch of emoticons to use in chatting, but it also installs a browser hijacker that totally screws up your computer.



I use Panda and I also have Malwarebytes installed, but I'm also careful with what I do on the internet.

Answer 3

Hi ,



Scan system with Trend micro ATTK or housecall .

Also purchase and use good secrity software same :

Trend Micro

Symantec

or

Webroot



Regards ,

Answer 4

I'd recommend you to buy McAfee Anti Virus..its much better

Answer 5

Throw it out the window and buy a new computer.