Meant to post this last week but forgot.
When you reformat your computer with the recovery disk, or most other apps they'll only delete the sort of index so the computer can't assemble the data and not fill the harddrive with 0s. So the data is still there, just the computer doesn't "see" it - which is also why police can still recover files if someone was to do a basic reformat.

There are apps out to attempt to recover the data, I won't post the link but 'Hiren' provides a number of different applications which might help you.

Be a good idea to use Norton Ghost to take an image of your system when you get it how you like it.

McAfee is a good AV software product. The reason why you have had dramas is because of Norton AV.

Norton inbeds itself right into your registery, and some of the changes made can only be manually reconfigured. An it is not a good idea to mess with registery settings unless you know exactly what you are doing.

I have had my Dell XPS with McAfee now for around 2 years. I have had now problems at all. AV software is something you need to keep on top of along with your Firewall settings. McAfee updates every time i go on the net and has never let me down yet.

Norton AV is possibly the worst AV product about IMO

All good reviews for Norton 2009 though. Quicker scans and more lightweight on your processor. They've changed

Im no AV SME in all fairness to Norton. Just know that a few ppl had dramas with the old versions. So if they have sorted it out for the 09 release then fair play to em. Although in my opinion it would take alot for me to go with Norton over other AV software out there. That may stem from the fact that i am used to using McAfee on the servers at work though. So i may have a slighly biast opinion.

Not sure why ppl have been rebuilding there comps for a virus though. That is last ditch effort once everything else has been tried and failed. It seems a bit severe to jump straight to a rebulild as the resoltuion to a simple problem with a virus??

But as i said im a server and networking geek. so only know what i need to ref AV really.

Throw it down the yard

Uninstalling old versions of Norton are always a pain imo. There are downloads on the internet which will do it for you without using the Norton uninstaller, as it tends to leave too much behind anyhow.

I'd be pushed to suggest you install Avast; it's one of the few AV which will let you scan your computer before Windows loads making it a lot more effective than when the virus processes are running.

You now need to create a boot CD with Malware Bytes and Avast on and boot from it.

Then you can run both pieces of software in DOS without the virus's having loaded and remove them.

Have you tried running Malware bytes in Windows?

Thanks guys. I'll keep at it

Quote: Sir Alan "I've had problems for a few weeks now and have tried all sorts of stuff. I had spybot but it just wont run at all now. I have AVG and more recently A Squared on a 30 day trial. I tried to install Cloud but says Norton needs uninstalling first but it just wont uninstall. It gets near the end but cant finish. In the meantime my PC is still hijacked and all sorts of unexpected stuff keeps happening. A Squared has found high risk trojans but can't deal with them before the PC shuts down. The whole thing is about to get thrown through the window. Any alternative suggestions guys?'" service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ts ... 3108162039

Quote: Sir Alan "I've had problems for a few weeks now and have tried all sorts of stuff. I had spybot but it just wont run at all now. I have AVG and more recently A Squared on a 30 day trial. I tried to install Cloud but says Norton needs uninstalling first but it just wont uninstall. It gets near the end but cant finish. In the meantime my PC is still hijacked and all sorts of unexpected stuff keeps happening. A Squared has found high risk trojans but can't deal with them before the PC shuts down. The whole thing is about to get thrown through the window. Any alternative suggestions guys?'" service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ts ... 3108162039

one other problem now when i try and put the product key in to use one off the window programmes its saying key invalid i have never tired using the key before so how can it be invalid

Well, that's defo done some good. Since removing Norton it seems all the other stuff is starting to work (malware bytes, avg, avasti.....) although Pandaghost wants to get rid of AVG now.
I'll know more over the next few days but thanks alot to all of you.
Now then. My PC hasn't got any restore points bar today. Now I know that's not right. Any ideas ?
Also. It keeps playing random radio stations along side the normal programme, media player for example or my lads Runescape game. Any similar stories or advice?
PS Please don't lock this thread as I'm certain alot of others are trying out some of these tips which in turn can only improve the quality of discussion on this forum. Besides, why shouldn't we help each other out if we can? It only costs a bit of effort and time at the end of the day eh?
Thanks again.

Quote: Sir Alan "although Pandaghost wants to get rid of AVG now. .'" I may be wrong but I would say It isn't recommended that you have more than one anti virus software running on the same machine, if you want a second opinion without fully loading another programme there are a couple of on-line virus checkers, either one called trend micros housecall, or pandascan all they do is load a tine programme that allows it to scan your computer housecall.trendmicro.com/uk/ www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/ ... ctivescan/

Quote: Sir Alan "although Pandaghost wants to get rid of AVG now. .'" I may be wrong but I would say It isn't recommended that you have more than one anti virus software running on the same machine, if you want a second opinion without fully loading another programme there are a couple of on-line virus checkers, either one called trend micros housecall, or pandascan all they do is load a tine programme that allows it to scan your computer housecall.trendmicro.com/uk/ www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/ ... ctivescan/

[size(This is not to scare you honest but it would be amiss of me not to say)[/size

Hopeful all this will help you, but as general information


About a month ago I had the same problems, thought I had a virus, I had Kaspersky antivirus on my computer that I had downloaded from Barclays bank. This had been turned of and wouldn't run, for a few night I tried to load it again and other antivirus software but my computer wouldn't let me, in the end I first deleted everything of my computer that I didn't need programmes Exetera, then as a last ditch effort went to Microsoft's web sight and downloaded windows defender

IMPORTANT[/size

a few days later I tried to to buy something from play.com, never had a problem before but it kept knocking back my card. Tried it the next day but got the same problem, so I went to my online bank to make sure there was adequate funds, I had well enough for the purchase, BUT I noticed a withdrawal from O2 prepaid, I'm with Orange so new I hadn't spent that money, so phoned Barclays who put me straight through to there fraud department who cancelled my card straight away, (I believe that they had already cancelled it the day before but wouldn't admit to it)
The upshot being the fraudsters take a small amount to make sure the account is still active then empty it, fortunately I had checked, if I hadn't who knows, I now have a new card but according to the bank they are still trying to buy things with the cancelled card obviously they can't, they tell me the card was used either on-line or over the phone so it wasn't a case of them getting my pin number, the details were obviously gained when I have used it to buy thing on-line, but its funny that this happened around the same time as I had this virus,I'm not saying they are connected just be warned.

I have now reformatted my hard drive not a big job only took 45 minutes,

As I say these events may have nothing to do with each other, but to anybody who is suffering such computer problems, may I suggest checking your bank accounts on someone else's computer if you have been making any online purchases

Jack

I have Mozilla Firefox on Vista
Trying to upgrade my Real Player when i get to the bit to ACCEPT TERMS
nothing happens i click and no response same with the CANCEL button nothing.

I have to click the X in the corner and i can't update

What settings do i have to change anyone ?