SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

There's something wrong with my laptop. I was on the internet earlier when the internet shut down on me. Not a problem, I thought I hit a wrong button and closed it so I shut down my laptop.

Now here's the big issue. My kids wanted to go onto an educational site. It was for their spelling books in school. So I pulled up the site and they started working. Then DD7 flips out saying it froze. I looked at it and there's four windows open. One window had images of different things and people, at the top it had the name of their spelling book, almost as if she did a search. Another window had something about credit scores and there were two others. We've been to this site before with no issues.

I closed down the intent again and reopened it. I tried logging onto SI. The same thing happened. This time the "image window" had this SI's name across the top, then the credit score window came back and it said "fidelity.com member" etc.... And there were a few other windows. This site loaded as well.

I shut it all down again, disconnected my computer from the internet and I'm running my Bit Defender full system scan. Unfortunately, it never seems to catch anything when I do this. Is this not a good program to use?

Is there a virus in my computer? If so, how do I clean it? Could my first issue with the internet be connected to what is happening now? I've never had an issue with this laptop before. I'm accessing the internet on my phone now.

If someone wants to send me a pm and walk me through whatever needs to be done that's fine, too.

Please help.

[This message edited by simplydevastated at 11:06 AM, February 21st (Friday)]

Sounds like you've got some viruses for sure. Do you have any antivirus programs installed? We us McAfee on one and Norton's on another.... buying/installing and running those might help.

Usually when my computer starts displaying demonic possession signs I have to take it in to a local shop.

The preventative measures are getting an antivirus program, and not opening up picture or video files that people email you. Also, going to websites that have videos, even if they're "educational", might be transmitting unwanted files to your laptop.

Sorry - it's such a bummer!

Sounds more like Malware. If you were running a antivirus it wouldn't surprise me as malware often gets through. I've run MalwareByte software to clean up my kids PC. The malware might prevent you from reaching the site but if you use a 2nd computer to download the program to a USB thumbdrive then you can run it on the laptop that is redirecting everything. Another option is to try a different browser if already loaded.

Thank you both very much.

I'm using Bit Defender for anti-virus and security right now. The full scan takes a long time run.

I'll check out MalwareByte in the morning. I hope it works.

On a side note. I keep everything on an external drive (pictures etc...) Do you think that's safe? I wouldn't want to lose any of that.

Thanks again.

You may want to run your malware scans (whatever program you use) in safe mode. Also, if you're on XP and you use restore points, malware can hide in those and rear its ugly head at a later date. Make sure you get rid of those as well.

Which operating system are you using? If you're on Mac, Linux or Windows 8, disregard below. Otherwise...

1) Reboot into "Safe Mode with Networking". (restart it and keep pressing f8 a bunch of times after it posts the BIOS screen until you get that option in a menu.)

2) Download, install, update and run Malwarebytes. This should take care of any major infections. Do not reboot yet.

3) Download and run superantispyware portable technician edition ( http://www.superantispyware.com/portablescannertech.html ) and run it. Delete whatever it finds and reboot into normal Windows.

4) have a beer/glass of wine/soda/water/juice/other favorite beverage and enjoy your malware free computer.

5) ???

6) profit

[This message edited by h0peless at 10:06 PM, February 21st (Friday)]

This guy is well known in our area as THE computer guru. He wrote this *Security Tango* -takes a while but it sure cleans up everything on your computer.

http://securitytango.com/

Thanks! This information is great! My computer is running Windows 7 (I'm sorry. I should have put that in my original post.)

Well, I know what I'll be doing with my weekend. Sigh...

Yeah, grab the free trial of malwarebytes and run a full scan.

SD

another simple thing to do is just do a Restore Point where your pc settings was working properly.

I use this often to remove unwanted/evil software.

I would do it from Safemode after a reboot.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/system-restore-windows-7.htm

Here's How:

1.Navigate to the Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools program group.

2.Click on the System Restore program icon.

3.Click Next > on the Restore system files and settings window.

4.Choose the restore point that you want to use.

Note: Check the Show more restore points checkbox to see more than the most recent restore points.

Note: Any restore points that you created, scheduled restore points that Windows 7 created, and those created automatically during the installation of certain programs will be listed here. You can not use System Restore to undo Windows 7 changes to a date that a restore point does not exist.

5.Click Next >.

6.Click Finish on the Confirm your restore point window to begin the System Restore.

You can do an online scan through trend Micro called pc housecall. It will scan your entire computer and clean it.

First, I want to thank everyone for all the great tips and help. I really appreciate it all.

I think I'm finally in the clear. My Bit Defender picked up one malware file and I removed that one. Then I installed MalwareBytes. That program picked up 36 files. I deleted those. After that I was still having issues with multiple windows opening. So I went through my control panel to see if there was anything installed there (I did find a weird file there once which is why checked again) and there was nothing. I then checked on my firewall. For some reason that was off. I NEVER turn that off and I don't know how that happened. So I turned it back on. Then I uninstalled mozilla and reinstalled it. I ran another scan on MalwareBytes and it didn't pick anything up. YAY!! I was having issues logging on to this site all morning.

I'm still debating whether or not to restore it to a back date because I think I know what happened.

I've been trying to get the kids a typing program. I downloaded one and then I was getting small pop-up windows. So I uninstalled it. That's when I found that strange file in the control panel. When I did a search for the file name it said it was adware. So I removed it. That was a few weeks ago. Then all this other stuff started to happen last week.

So, now I have MalwareBytes on my computer, my firewall is back on, I'm all set up with mozilla again, and so far I'm not having anymore issues.

Ugh, it's been a long morning.

Not to mention that during all this I called to follow up on a job application. I stammered my way through the voice mail and probably sounded like a damn idiot. I know I won't be getting that job.

I hope everyone else is having a better day.

I was having issues logging on to this site all morning.

This was not your PC's fault.