Computer help please

[maxama10]

Ive run winpatrol and ad-aware on several computers and never had any problems. Ive cleared my temp files and cookies many times too. Recently i told a friend to download and run these and to clear thoses files he has a pavilion 6740c with 63 mb of ram very crappy but it worked. The computer sped up for the first week but now its freezing on start up and going really slow any ideas of whats going on? thanks max

[brianlojeck]

My first thought is that he's got a virus, or opened an email with a malicious attachment.

Make sure he's got good virus protection, run a full system scan in safe mode.

even better, if you feel comfortable with computer hardware, is to put his hard drive in your computer and scan it there.

[maxama10]

this is really sad but he has norton 2000 and he is reallly stubborn and i doubt hell purchase the new edition so.......it probably is a virus

[brianlojeck]

norton 2k is still a decent software, as long as it accepts the updates from sarc.com, and he keeps it updated.

And even with this software installed, if you start an application or run a macro with a malicious intent, it doesn't always get caught by the software. I could write a program that format's your hard drive, and if you run it, it'll format your hard drive. Norton won't stop it, because it's doing what you told it to do...

[maxama10]

norton 2k is still a decent software, as long as it accepts the updates from sarc.com, and he keeps it updated.

And even with this software installed, if you start an application or run a macro with a malicious intent, it doesn't always get caught by the software. I could write a program that format's your hard drive, and if you run it, it'll format your hard drive. Norton won't stop it, because it's doing what you told it to do...

so what are you telling me lol norton 2000 is fine? as lung as renews the subscription and updates it?

[WickeDKlowN]

I say just reformat the HDD.

[brianlojeck]

so what are you telling me lol norton 2000 is fine? as lung as renews the subscription and updates it?

well, yes. but you can do it for free as well.

you can renew the subscription and get automatic updates, or you can visit sarc.com once a week and download a manual update for free.

I was saying that the software itself works fine if updated, which it does.

[maxama10]

well, yes. but you can do it for free as well.

you can renew the subscription and get automatic updates, or you can visit sarc.com once a week and download a manual update for free.

I was saying that the software itself works fine if updated, which it does.

oh okay
thanks

[Bolter]

or get the free version of avg 7.0, its the best anti-virus prog out there. And, as I said, its free.

Or download stinger.exe, copy it to a cd, load onto his machine, and run it. Make sure you "delete" anything it finds rather than "repair" which is the default option.

If he is on the internet, then make sure he has a decent firewall, like Zonealarm.

Did you know that there is a new version of ad-aware? Called ad-aware SE. It is very good.

Good luck

[Miscue]

I say just reformat the HDD.

I like this answer as well. Some of you have too much blind faith in these computer utilities.