Help I borrowed a computer and now it caught a virus

[Guest]

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[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!