Computer won't start

Figment

NinkyNonk wrote: »

Thank Figment. I will have another go. Nothing happened when I tried it. I was like I never pressed any buttons or keys.
I don't understand - nothing worked yesterday but today programs are opening, even if they are opening slower than snail pace.

Sorry, I don't get what you mean by 'nothing happened'.

Turn the computer on. Immediately press the F8 key to bring up the Safe Mode menu. Move the highlighted bar down to 'Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure' (or words to that effect) using the arrow keys on keyboard, then press the Enter key.

NinkyNonk_2

WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I'm typing this from my desktop. I went into safe mode (as the computer worked better in this mode) and did a system restore. I have no idea what went wrong. I suspect it was a software problem.
I will restart my virus scanning. The virus doesn't get restored does it? I restored to a point before my email account was hacked and spybot discovered malware.
I am going to keep the advice from this thread safe incase this problem ever happens again.

Figment

Have you disabled automatic restart? If not do it now!

Obviously I have no idea when you contracted the virus/malware. If you've restored to a point between getting and cleaning then there's a good chance you've got it back.

Scan with your installed Anti-virus software (Avast, I believe?), and with MalwareBytes, then scan with Sophos Virus Removal Tool - both of which will run quite happily alongside your installed AV.

Do not install any other anti-virus software without uninstalling Avast first

NinkyNonk_2

Figment wrote: »

Obviously I have no idea when you contracted the virus/malware. If you've restored to a point between getting and cleaning then there's a good chance you've got it back.

Eeeeekkkkk!!!!! The malware is still in spybot's recovery folder but I am running EVERY SINGLE piece of protection again. I will start a new thread with my findings.

Thank you so so so much for all your help :beer:

Figment

NinkyNonk wrote: »

Eeeeekkkkk!!!!! The malware is still in spybot's recovery folder but I am running EVERY SINGLE piece of protection again. I will start a new thread with my findings.

Thank you so so so much for all your help :beer:

Please keep everything in this thread, or others won't have the full picture of what's gone on before.

Please also confirm that you've disabled automatic restart, otherwise if the problem recurs you're ack to square one.

NinkyNonk_2

The blue screen is back and I managed to do the 2nd way of stopping it automatically restarting, to work.

Here's what is says:

Technical information:

***STOP: 0x00000018 (0x85B86F58, 0X86F6EF08, 0X00000001, 0X00000002)

Collecting date for crash dump...
Initializing disk for crash dump...
Beginning dump of physical memory.
Dumping physical memory to disk: 100
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system admin or technical support group for further assistance.


I don't know if you needed all that. Please, please, please help. I can't afford to buy a new computer

p.s. the only thing that I can think of if that I had installed Ad Aware before both times my desktop computer kept going to blue screen. The restore point I had previously done and got my computer working again was before I had installed Ad Aware for the 1st time.

Figment

a) You don't need to buy a new computer

b) Check in System Restore. A restore point should have been created when you installed Ad Aware. Restore to that point. If not, restore to the most recent point before it started crashing.

c) Once restored DO NOT reinstall Ad Aware. Run the laptop without installing anything else for 2-3 days or until you get another BSOD.

waddler_8

Uninstall ad-aware. It's now an antivirus also, so may be conflicting with Avast.

http://www.lavasoft.com/mylavasoft/support/supportcenter/faqs/adaware-free-now-includes-antivirus-protection

NinkyNonk_2

Figment wrote: »

a) You don't need to buy a new computer

b) Check in System Restore. A restore point should have been created when you installed Ad Aware. Restore to that point. If not, restore to the most recent point before it started crashing.

c) Once restored DO NOT reinstall Ad Aware. Run the laptop without installing anything else for 2-3 days or until you get another BSOD.

Sorry for panicking. I've had a lot of large expensives to pay lately, I thought my computer is next.

I couldn't uninstall AdAware as I couldn't get the computer going. I had to do a system restore to before Ad Aware was installed. Again, I will start scanning all my virus protections. I am concerned that Ad Aware found a threat. But it didn't say what the threat was.

Thank you so much for fixing this for me. I would never have known what to do. :beer:

Figment

I suggest you scan with:

Avast;
MalwareBytes; and
Sophos Virus Removal Tool

Between them they should eliminate anything on your system.

Forget about Spybot and Ad Aware.