Help I borrowed a computer and now it caught a virus

[Guest]

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[Tatiana]

I hope it is okay to ask this question. It has nothing to do with kiva, but there seem to be a lot of smart and helpfull people here. Moderators can remove it if they think it is inappropriate.

Tuesday I have my first environmental science exam. I just started studying this at the Open University.

My father was so kind to lend me his brandnew and very expensive laptop to help me study the last week for the exam. I don't own a computer myself yet.

(The open university is home based, for this subject I constantly need the internet)

But now his computer seemed to have caught some virus, It keeps changing the internet page to the page before every few seconds. I can't use it to study anymore but worse, how do I explain this to my father? Until today it worked fine. I've been surfing a bit more than normally, but I don't think I visited strange websites. It does it both with internet explorer and firefox

Any of the smart people here have any idea what to do?




Thanks in advance,

Tatiana (From another computer)

[rinkuhero]

Have you tried downloading and running an anti-virus program? I use AVG Anti-Virus, but there are a variety of good free ones.

[Eli]

Some websites just do that automatically for me, no virus required!

[Tatiana]

Have you tried downloading and running an anti-virus program? I use AVG Anti-Virus, but there are a variety of good free ones.

Usually I use my mum's old computer. There I have installed AVG and that works very well.

This new laptof of my father's has avast! antivirus. It seems to be constantly active, but I couldn't figure out how to let it do an extra run, and it didn't give me any warnings that something was wrong.

[Tatiana]

Some websites just do that automatically for me, no virus required!

But it is every 1 or 2 seconds, on any website. Even the ones from the Open University.

I wouldn't be able to write a single word on this forum from that laptop now.

[Sengbe Pieh]

I have avast installed on my laptop & it works fine.

It was the second highest rated security program by Consumer Reports magazine & it was free.

If you right click on the avast blue ball in your taskbar, you should get a list of options.

Select Start Avast Anti Virus & then run a scan.

[Tatiana]

Thanks bikeme. Doing it this way it does the exactly the same as when I opened it from the programs earlier.

 (I just didn't expect it to be finished so quickly I guess, AVG on an old computer takes much much longer)

But is still gaves no result and the problem is very much still there.

[rinkuhero]

Another possibility is that it's a problem with the keyboard or something, perhaps the keyboard key that takes the computer 'back' has its mechanism jammed.

Have you tried seeing if this problem exists in all browsers (i.e. Firefox and Google Chrome too), or just Internet Explorer?

[wthepoo]

Tatiana,

first of all, don't worry too much - it is highly, if not completely unlikely that the computer has suffered or will suffer any damage. In the (almost) worst case, a new OS-installation should fix it. This can be time consuming and annoying - and you should make sure that you have a back-up of all (important) data (and screen it for viruses)... but still, it's nothing you couldn't explain to your father (even ignoring the fact that this can happen to anyone nowadays).

Now - I don't know avast!, but assuming that the OS is Windows (XP or Vista), you will probabaly find a logo of/for "avast!" in the system tray (lower right hand corner; perhaps you will have to click on the little arrow pointing to the left to expand it). Double-clicking on it could produce a window with options - like a Full System Scan; I know it does just that with all antivirus-softwares I have ever worked with.

I couldn't find any info on such a virus by googling it so I cannot give you any particular assistance. Maybe just this: Shouldn't avast! recognize it, try a different scanner (like Avira Antivir: http://www.free-av.de/). Also, you may want to run Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/nl/index.html) and/or Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoft.de/) - both free.

One of these should usually help... if not, please let us know more about your OS and the symptoms.

Best wishes, good luck,
Wolfgang.

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EDIT: Geoff beat me to it regarding the avast-scan. /
(regarding rinkuhero's post): Do you use an extra keyboard/mouse with the laptop or "just" the integrated keyboard and touchscreen/trackball? Does your keyboard have programmable keys and/or a specific "back" key?

[wthepoo]

Oh, Tatiana, one "idea" for allowing you to surf using the laptop:

Instead of simply clicking on links, right-click and open the link in a new tab or window.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[Sengbe Pieh]

Have you tried doing a restart to see if that solves the problem?

[rinkuhero]

re: wthepoo, come to think of it some special mice also have a 'go back' button too. I remember being annoyed by a mouse that did, since it'd accidentally hit that button over and over. Give me normal mice any day. So it could be something like that here too rather than a virus. Checking if you get the same behavior in Firefox or Chrome might help, because if it is a virus, chances are it'll only happen in IE (since it's more virus-prone), whereas if it's a hardware malfunction, you'd expect the same problem in any browser.

[Peter S]

It does sound very much as if it could a problem with the backspace key sticking, as rinkuhero suggested. Try pressing that key a few times, that might free it up.  Or, if that doesn't work, you can fairly easily disable the action of the backspace key in Firefox.

Open Firefox, then open a new tab -- so there's nothing to go back to in that new tab -- and in the address bar up top enter about:config  (where there's usually stuff like http://www.kiva.org)

You'll see a warning that messing around with the configuration settings can be dangerous.

Then, having clicked OK to acknowledge the warning, enter the word backspace into the filter field.  This should bring up an entry called browser.backspace_action.  Right click on that, select "modify", change the value from 0 to 2, and press OK.  Now close the tab you opened, and see if you can browse as normal in another tab.

If this does work and you can browse OK, it would confirm that there's a mechanical problem with the backspace key.

[rinkuhero]

It doesn't have to be the backspace key either, some keyboards have a dedicated 'go back in your browser' key on the top of the keyboard, as do mice. Or it could really be a virus. So there's many possibilities.

[Tatiana]

 


Thank you all very much for all the suggestions. It could very well be the mouse. I pressed all the buttons I could find on it with no succes, but after unplugging  it and just using the laptop mouse squares (No idea what yhey are called) the computer works fine.

What a relieve!

I am even able to write this message now from the laptop.

You guys are the best!!!!!

[rinkuhero]

Good to hear.

[Sengbe Pieh]

Glad to hear, Tatiana 

[P, B and J]

 

And again, on your exam, sending more good vibes your way Tatiana! 

[wthepoo]

That's good news, indeed, Tatiana!

As for the mouse: Is it an old one or a new one? Which brand? Does it have "extra" buttons (usually on the top of the left side)? Could you try it on another computer and see if the same odd behaviour re-occurs?

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[Tatiana]

Thanks Jackie! 



@ Wolfgang. It is a new wireless Logitech mouse. It tunes out that it has this tiny little button to go back a page, and that button easily gets stuck. Right now it has been functioning for the last two minutes. Have to be quick writing this... I hope my dad kept the receipt!

[wthepoo]

@ Wolfgang. It is a new wireless Logitech mouse. It tunes out that it has this tiny little button to go back a page, and that button easily gets stuck. Right now it has been functioning for the last two minutes. Have to be quick writing this... I hope my dad kept the receipt!

I thought so...  I had a similar problem with a Logitech mouse (just with another button). In case you will experience any trouble when trying to exchange the mouse at the seller's, you should contact Logitech CS. They are exceptionally helpful and courteous. I had lost the receipt, and yet got a replacement within 3 days.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.