Sunday, April 17, 2011

I've got a computer virus - OMG! And this time it's on my work-issued laptop

Well, if you've read much of my blog, you know I don't have the capability of posting photos because I use a work-issued laptop to do my postings, and I'm not allowed to download personal info on the laptop.  Yes, isn't it wonderful that my office allows me to use their computer for my personal use?  Yep, I asked for permission before I started using it for personal use.

Around midnight Friday night, I was out surfing the net looking for a quilt pattern I could use for the H2H Challenge.  I wanted to do something fairly simple, but yet something I've never done before.  I might as well challenge myself, huh?  After all, isn't that why it's called a challenge?

Anyway, it was around midnight, I'm as happy as can be, when all of a sudden, the work-issued laptop starts saying it was detecting a virus.  Yep, 19 of them it detected.  Four of them critical.  I clicked on the option for it to fix the viruses.  And all that did was got me caught in a loop.  It did something and then came back and said, do you want to fix the virus?  I click on "Yes", it does some gyrations and then comes back again and says do you want to fix the virus?  Oh...definitely not good.  So I get on the phone and call the IT office (thankfully they are open 24/7).  Long story short?  I've got to take the laptop to work with me tomorrow so the Security folks can look at it and see what's going on.  Hopefully they can get everything straightened out pretty soon. 

When my granddaughter was with me two weeks ago, I took my personal laptop to yet another computer shop that came highly recommended, to see if they could revive it.  The diagnosis?  My motherboard is the culprit.  It can't be fixed.  Man oh man, if I had just quit while I was ahead.  This is the third computer store I've gone to for help.  The first two computer repair shops had told me they fixed the problem, and no sooner would I get my laptop back, and start using it, when it would freeze up on me again.  I'd power the computer up, talk sweetly to it, stroke it lovingly, tell it how I missed it, and everything would be fine, when all of a sudden, it ignored my finger caresses over the touch pads.  I'd type and no letters would appear on the screen, then ZOOM all of them would display.  Naturally, I had typos considering I'm watching the screen and nothing appears, so I try to backspace or arrow back to make corrections.  Nope, the laptop ignores me.  THAT is what this nasty virus did to me. 

So...if the Security folks get my laptop fixed, I'll be back in business and will be posting updates.  There's a big possibility they'll issue me a loaner laptop, in which case, that gives me even more reason to love the place where I work.  And here I was thinking I was finally going to take the plunge and try to buy myself a new laptop.  This scares me.  I love surfing the internet, and I'm on here for hours at a time, flitting from one place to another just like a butterfly from one flower to another (oh what a nice visual), and I'd hate to know I can't fly around Internet Land playing.  I guess I don't understand the type of places I can't "play" on the internet.  I would never have dreamed I would get a virus from going to a site to look at quilt patterns.  Where is it safe to play?  What type of sites should I avoid?  Have you got some advice you can give me to help me avoid this in the future?  (My personal laptop had two antivirus protections on it, and it still got the "kiss of death" and died on me).


7 comments:

Shay said...

Hi Deborah..sounds awful. It sounds like you went to a site that tries to trick you into believing you have a virus and as soon as you click that you want to repair the virus it downloads programs into your computer. The easy way out is to shut the page down and click cancel when they ask you to run virus protection. Those viruses always mimic Windows security alerts but they arent genuine.

I've fixed this before by just doing a system restore. Easy. We got nasty malaware on our computer a couple of months ago that hijacked the programs and wouldnt let me access our computer . Since I knew what the virus was I started the computer in safe mode (Just continually press F8 while your computer is booting up) and googled for a solution. The hard and fast rule is that anti virus protection while good will never keep everything off your computer since new viruses are being developed and sent out to the internet every day ..

Hope they can get it fixed for you.

Debra Dixon said...

Not much worse than not being able to play on the Internet. Let's hope this gets fixed ASAP!

quiltzyx said...

I'm guessing that the window that popped up saying the laptop had 19 viruses was actually the culprit. Unless you were actually running a scan with your antivirus program, I don't think they just come up that way.
Should that happen again, be suspicious! Do NOT click on ANY pop-up windows. Better to restart the computer, then run your antivirus program & let it do its job.
I've been surfing online for a loooong time, and have been very fortunate. Possibly because I've always had a fear of downloading! lol I never click on links in emails, even from friends. I would rather copy & paste, or retype the link. I always hover over a link too, & check where it's really going by looking down at the bar at the bottom of the browser.
Good luck!

Stray Stitches (Linda G) said...

Sure wish I could give you some suggestions. We had a terrible virus not long ago and have no idea where it came from. I think no matter what kind of safety features we attach, the hackers can still get through with no problem. I hope your laptop is fixed soon.

Miss Hillbilly said...

Oh NO!!!! The pop up saying that you had a virus and do you want me to fix it was the culprit. And if it is then it's a bad one. It killed my computer. Dead. I had to start all over. Take the harddrive down to nothing. I now pay for Norton. It catches everything.

Staci said...

So sorry to hear your computer is sick! That is not a happy situation! Hope it feels better soon!

Sarah Craig said...

Hi, Deborah! I highly recommend buying a Mac if you are going to do much internet surfing and blogging - I used to have a PC and constantly had problems with viruses and other baddies - then I got a Mac and no problems since! They cost a little more, but you'll make up for it by no maintenance calls!!