I have an Acer Aspire laptop that I feel is infected. I am trying to run CCleaner and/or Super AntiSpyware from an flash drive, but the machine does not find any files on the removable drive. I can see the files on my desktop where I downloaded them from, but the laptop shows the drive as empty.
The laptop will not connect to the Internet and I've tried wireless and direct DSL connection. The machine has McAfee loaded on it, but the screen will not display fully or allow the screen to be resized. I can not get to the "Fix Now" button. Any ideas how I can run some clean up programs?
By Donna from Cocoa Beach, FL
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You probably need your computer fixed by an expert.
1) Can you do a 'System Restore'?
2) If you and your office IT person are on good terms, can you ring him/her and ask if they can help you by letting them take control of your computer remotely
This is a personal computer not on a network so Remote desktop won't work. I do have IT background, work it everyday. Ready to throw my hands up and go to Acer support. Already have spendt too much time on this one.
This requires an old school solution. Create a bootable CD or (if you have it) floppy on anther computer. If the other computer has a virus protection program on it the program will usually have directions on how to make a bootable disk with the antivirus software on it for activation. Sometimes it will even automatically run the AV software after the bootup without prompting.
Another solution would be to borrow an external USB harddrive and install windows on it. Remove your hard drive from the laptop and boot up with the external. Install an AV program. Make sure it works. WHILE you laptop is running with the external drive as the master, add your hard drive back to the system. Run the AV software against it. When it is done make sure you remove the external HD before you boot up. Safety precaution in case your AV software didn't do the trick. This keeps the external drive safe.
I would recommend you run several programs against your drive: McCaffee (if you have it), Avast!, Spybot and Ad Aware.
They all catch similar bugs but sometimes they catch ones that the others don't. McCaffee is the only one you have to pay for. If you can't get it get Symantec's AV software.
You might want to get a friend to get these and put them on the external drive for you.
If all else fails, format your drive and reinstall windows. There should be a seperate partition with your windows software on it for installing. If you are not that savvy get a friend to do it or take it to a shop. Good Luck
Thanks for your help! Got back up and running this morning. Did a system restore and connected right online and was able to run some scans and updates and she seems to be just fine.
Cajun, thanks so much for the link!
I'm glad that everyone is up & running, there's no frustration like 'puter frustration' :(
There are a couple of great free software:
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