Troubleshooting a PC for Grins and Giggles

[Pup]

Caught a nasty computer virus nearly a week and a half ago. Eventually, it prevented me from viewing my Yahoo email and downloading executable files. Internet page loads were slow. Furthermore, it would not let me view any troubleshooting articles in Google that contained keywords related to detecting or troubleshooting computer viruses. Though, I later circumvented that. :icon14:

Had to recover my system by restoring it to its original factory condition. All of my documents are backed up to a flash drive, the contents of which will be scanned at a later date (Pretty sick of computers right now, other than for posting and browsing). Next came the downloads of all of the programs I use routinely, e.g. Adobe Flash and Reader, Open Office, DVDFab, etc. Just getting back to normal and then...another challenge.

Thought my machine might have become reinfected. Page loads were, again, slow. Downloading any program became paralyzingly slow and would grind to a halt. Scans of my PC turned up zilch, nada, nothing concerning viruses. Even took it in and had it checked by a Fry's Electronics Computer Technician. Diagnosis? resource contention caused by resident trial versions of programs brought back by my system restore. He uninstalled some of these programs, checked my Windows Defender to see that it was up-to-date and told me I was good to go. Was I ever happy!

Got home, reconnected my machine, and it ran pretty darn well...for a short while.

At a glimpse, I noticed that my ethernet indicator light was off on my DSL modem. So, I decided to 'power cycle' it. This involved disconnecting the modem from its power supply and powering it back up after a bit of a wait. It seemed to work. Downloads of files were executing to completion and all was well for a while. As I downloaded more and more files, download times became increasingly long and ground to a halt. I tried a hardware reset of the modem and that's when all of the lights became stuck..ON. Thought to myself, I believe my modem's dead. :beat-up:

Headed back to Fry's where I purchased a new DSL modem. Just got it connected this morning and, now, it's great to be on a computer again!

I can be stubborn when I tackle a problem. Don't like to spend money for fixes when I believe that I can fix things by myself. Spent a lot of personal man-hours resolving these problems. My wife wasn't happy that the PC was receiving more attention than her. Remember this though, happy wife equals happy life.

Next time, maybe I'll call the Geek Squad and tie jigs instead. I've got at least $250 (Their up-front charge for a house visit) tied into personal time, driving, and new networking equipment.

 

[Fatman]

Yeah they can be a pain!!!!LOL

Couple programs I use for diagnostics are

Advanced System Care 7 -
CC Cleaner
Mal-Ware Bytes (newest version is excellent!!)

You can get them all at CNET downloads http://download.cnet.com/windows/

 

[Fatman]

Yeah they can be a pain!!!!LOL

Couple programs I use for diagnostics are

Advanced System Care 7 -
CC Cleaner
Mal-Ware Bytes (newest version is excellent!!)

You can get them all at CNET downloads http://download.cnet.com/windows/

Also found I have a lot less problems since I dumped IE and went to Chrome

 

[Radtexan]

You have some talent and patience to get all that figured out pup. I'm like you, in 10 years, I've only taken my machines in on e for outside help, but probably coulda done it cheaper and quicker if I'd brought in a pro , but I eventually got er done.

 

[Jig Man]

I like AVG also...

 

[Thump Huntin']

I own all software I have on my pc. If something where to go stupid I will reload the OS. Forget all that spyware, adware and virus program crap that says it cleans your OS. Better to have a fresh install. Once you get infected it's not the same. Anything windows 7 and up is easy to create a system image. Didn't use to be this easy. Just create an image of how you want your OS with all installed software. You get infected just run the integrated backup program and your computer will be restored to like it was day 1.

 

[AtticaFish]

Congrats on the fix! I know your pain. Have beat my brains over a few computers in the past.

At work, we have 6 different computers running 4 different operating systems. :beat-up: The new WIN8 so far has proven to be the least problematic..... although a bunch of my drivers were thrown out of wack with the 8.1 update. With a little work, all running fine now. Have WIN8 on 2 different laptops and not running any virus/spyware software on either one...... just use Windows Firewall and other system blocks and have not had any problems yet.

 

[Pup]

Thanks for your comments everyone.

Am starting to think about my computer like an automobile. That's to say, one or more problems may occur simultaneously that exhibit common symptoms. Makes troubleshooting more of a challenge, particularly when you remove your machine from your network.

Agreed about Malwarebytes and AVG. Used them regularly for years together on my machines. However, something slipped by them this time.

Going to use Windows Defender as my protection along with weekly scans using Malwarebytes. The technician at the electronics store mentioned that he uses Defender alone on his machine. Read an article on the web explaining that Win 8.1, with its built-in anti-virus software, supposedly makes using any third-party program unnecessary. Though, there's no one anti-virus program that will catch everything in my opinion. I definitely realized this during the past two weeks.

 

[papaperch]

Pup - As a former owner/operator of a computer shop. I would avoid the " Geek Squad " and other such outfits that work for chains like Best Buy , Circuit City etc etc. Some of their so called techs aren't much better than the most untrained users.

Can't tell you how many times I had to clean up their mistakes. One of the worst was when one of their techs re-installed windows from Microsoft disc instead of recovery section of hard drive. Customer could not get " fixed " computer to do much of anything. Since it was lacking drivers for several key components. Poor customer could not even get on internet because driver for network interface card was not installed. When I opened hardware manager it was full of the yellow exclamation marks.

Not all of their techs are bad but too many for a good gamble. Usually I would get called after several trips to the store or visits by the " Geek Squad " failed to produce a working computer. Most of my trade came from businesses. Where reliability was way more important than price. In the days of the older operating systems Win 95 , 98 Win 2000 good hardware choices at time of build was really important. Custom built computers had a huge advantage over the mass produced ones by any major manufacturer.

Now days there does not seem to be such a huge reliability gap. Performance gap is still there but the average user doesn't need or see it. You are much further ahead in the game by solving your own pc problems. Each time you work on them you learn and just get better. Although I no longer work on pc's other than my own. I still prefer to build my own when needed. My present one is going on 6 years without so much as a hiccup.

 

[Pup]

Thanks for your comments Papaperch.

And just a little footnote to all of this...

Tonight, I switched my antivirus program back to AVG Free. Read some interesting information about the lack of performance by Windows Defender over at Tom's Guide.

Also, I found another very good site to see how various virus scan software compares to others in independent tests. Here's the link: AV-Test.