Computer questions

[Peter Stahl]

I just brought back my daughters old PC (which is newer than mine) from our visit to see her in Ottawa. I know this thing has a lot of spyware on it, running MS Antispyware and it finds something evertime it runs. The weird thing with this PC is when I shut it down via the Start button and click the Shut Down button it goes through the motions like it should gives the shutting down screens, CPU turns off and screen turns off too but, a couple seconds latter it restarts it self. This is a Gateway PC , Pentium 4 with XP Home on it. Do you think this is a result of some type of virus or something on it? I haven't had the time to put my ethernet card it from my old PC so I can hook it to the Internet. Going to run as many Antivirus and Antispyware programs that I can think of. She's still unpacking from a recent move so she doesn't know when the software that came with it is. It hasn't been used in a while, she was at Alert in Northern Canada for 4 months then when she got back she moved to another condo then bought a laptop so it's been sitting for a while. Thanks for any help.

Pete

[Ron McNeil]

Peter, I'm not a computer expert but are you sure when you go to start and then shut down that its not set on restart. I once had it set on restart and it would just shut down and restart until I realized what the setting was set on.
I'm not sure if that is what it is just something to check.

[John Miliunas]

Peter, just MHO but, it does NOT sound like a hardware issue regarding the restarting, but rather, some type of malware. Chances are that, if MS continually finds an issue with each run, it's one of the more obnoxious ones. They entrench themselves in very deep, dark nooks of the system files. You can try the Adaware and Spybot but, not to discourage you, don't be surprised if that doesn't take care of it. Also, don't feel too bad if you can't rid the machine of the anomaly, as many folks "in the field", who do this daily, don't always succeed. My rule of thumb is: If I'm spending more than one to one and a half hours trying to clean up a box, it's time to scrub it and reinstall! In your case, it may actually be quicker to wait for your daughter to find the resoration cd's than to try and eliminate the problems yourself!

[Peter Stahl]

Peter, I'm not a computer expert but are you sure when you go to start and then shut down that its not set on restart. I once had it set on restart and it would just shut down and restart until I realized what the setting was set on.
I'm not sure if that is what it is just something to check.

Ron, I double checked, I think it may be more like John said below. Thanks for the reply.

[Peter Stahl]

Peter, just MHO but, it does NOT sound like a hardware issue regarding the restarting, but rather, some type of malware. Chances are that, if MS continually finds an issue with each run, it's one of the more obnoxious ones. They entrench themselves in very deep, dark nooks of the system files. You can try the Adaware and Spybot but, not to discourage you, don't be surprised if that doesn't take care of it. Also, don't feel too bad if you can't rid the machine of the anomaly, as many folks "in the field", who do this daily, don't always succeed. My rule of thumb is: If I'm spending more than one to one and a half hours trying to clean up a box, it's time to scrub it and reinstall! In your case, it may actually be quicker to wait for your daughter to find the resoration cd's than to try and eliminate the problems yourself!

John,

I think you may be right. She still has lots of pictures on there. Believe it or not, she works on PC's at her job in the Navy! Kids. Beings that it may take a while to get the restore disk I may try to rid her PC of these Trojans or Malware. Thanks for the reply.

[John Miliunas]

John,

I think you may be right. She still has lots of pictures on there. Believe it or not, she works on PC's at her job in the Navy! Kids. Beings that it may take a while to get the restore disk I may try to rid her PC of these Trojans or Malware. Thanks for the reply.

If you're going to attempt additional stuff, get your updates for your anti-virus program and anti-spyware apps, load them up and then try running all the checks and clean-ups in "Safe" mode. Also, if you're not aware of it, there's also another neat "discovery" tool called "Hijackthis". Download/install it and you can see a LOT of the nasty stuff, which get embedded in the system registry files. Like I said...Lots of nastiness out there! If it's any consolation, there are quite a few technically savvy people out there who get nailed with these things, as well! Trust me...I see it all the time!

[Chuck Wintle]

I just brought back my daughters old PC (which is newer than mine) from our visit to see her in Ottawa. I know this thing has a lot of spyware on it, running MS Antispyware and it finds something evertime it runs. The weird thing with this PC is when I shut it down via the Start button and click the Shut Down button it goes through the motions like it should gives the shutting down screens, CPU turns off and screen turns off too but, a couple seconds latter it restarts it self. This is a Gateway PC , Pentium 4 with XP Home on it. Do you think this is a result of some type of virus or something on it? I haven't had the time to put my ethernet card it from my old PC so I can hook it to the Internet. Going to run as many Antivirus and Antispyware programs that I can think of. She's still unpacking from a recent move so she doesn't know when the software that came with it is. It hasn't been used in a while, she was at Alert in Northern Canada for 4 months then when she got back she moved to another condo then bought a laptop so it's been sitting for a while. Thanks for any help.

Pete

Download and run Ad aware and AVG as well. I find that no one program does it all. It takes the combined power of several to root out the spyware and viruses.

[Jim Becker]

I vote for a complete rebuild as John suggests. This is a good idea anytime a machine changes hands, but in this case is the best way to put together a fully-stable system ready to use. If you have to buy a new copy of Windows...it's still less expensive than buying a new computer! I have a notebook I'm resurrecting for a lab machine as well as for use "elsewhere" in the house for surfing SMC, etc...no original OS media and I don't prefer to re-use a license from my regular machine for obvious reasons. I'll likely just pick up a copy of Windows XP-home for it since I don't need domain login capablity or encryption. Or maybe use Linux...no decision there at this point. The machine is "free" at least!

[Chuck Wintle]

I vote for a complete rebuild as John suggests. This is a good idea anytime a machine changes hands, but in this case is the best way to put together a fully-stable system ready to use. If you have to buy a new copy of Windows...it's still less expensive than buying a new computer! I have a notebook I'm resurrecting for a lab machine as well as for use "elsewhere" in the house for surfing SMC, etc...no original OS media and I don't prefer to re-use a license from my regular machine for obvious reasons. I'll likely just pick up a copy of Windows XP-home for it since I don't need domain login capablity or encryption. Or maybe use Linux...no decision there at this point. The machine is "free" at least!

For Linux I have found Suse 9.3 to be a very well put together package. The interface can be set up to look almost exactly like windows. And the price is very reasonable.

[Joe Pelonio]

Even with the 5 programs I run every day including 4 resident that are supposed to stop this stuff, AVG found/fixed a trojan this morning called
Skiller.exe - it seems impossible to keep them from getting in.

[Andrew Ault]

For Linux I have found Suse 9.3 to be a very well put together package. The interface can be set up to look almost exactly like windows. And the price is very reasonable.

I just received a DVD-ROM yesterday with a distribution of SUSE 10.0. For my purposes, SUSE works great. It's fun to use and gets updated often. I paid $10 for the perfectly legal DVD-ROM copy, but I could have downloaded and burned an image if I felt like it. It includes everything I use often, OpenOffice, Firefox, editors, FTP clients, etc. My current installation is working just fine but it is fun to get the latest stuff. SUSE is easy to install and really refined in operation and appearance. It is now maintained by the OpenSUSE project, so community feedback gets rolled into every release.

It works pretty much like a Windows user would expect. For a teenager it is great because it is much harder to ruin with spyware and downloaded junk. It has the normal office tools needed for school and good internet software. There are plenty of games and interesting learning tools.

I'd like to plug OpenOffice. Since I installed this on my dad's computer a couple of years ago, he has not had a single problem with it. This is a BIG difference than his experience with MS Word. This has alleviated me from some frustrating phone calls and visits.

[Peter Stahl]

thanks everyone for their replies. If I can get the disks then I'll do a complete reinstall. If not I'll try and rid this computer of it's demons! I'm hoping my daughter finds them and can send them to me.

thanks, Pete

[Chris Fite]

If you cannot come up with the installation disks otherwise, you can usually get replacements from the manufacturer for a nominal fee.

[Peter Stahl]

Thanks Chris, I'll have to check into that.

[Peter Stahl]

I found out why this PC was not shutting down completely. In the BIOS there a setting under the Power settings call "Wake On PCI PME" which was set to Power ON, I reset it to Stay Off. This PC still seem a little flakey and when/if I get the System Restoration CD's I'll reformat it. I did run AVG antivirus and it for 19 Trojan/viruses. Also ran MS Antispyware plus a couple other spyware programs and found about a dozen or so. I also did a live chat with Gateway and also emailed them. They kept coming back with it being a software problem and one suggest I even try pulling the memory chip and sound cards out and reinsert them. I looked at so many thiings and after trying about everything I took a look in the BIOS. Thanks to everyone for their help!