Tech Vent: share your frustration!

[HunterICX]

Suffered some PC problems and you managed to fix it after some frustration or it didn't...and you need to vent a bit?

share the frustration

My entry:

I was googling when I clicked a linked...the page loaded fine but some ad on it seemed to be a malware trap or something as my Avast springed into action with 30 virus alerts all of the risks where vaulted...good.

Now I goofed up because without looking I just emptied the vault...and I decided to do something else....suddently my explorer.exe stopped working and I forced it to close and restarted it in the task manager.
just for the sake of it I restarted the computer as probally avast's action shaked my system a bit.

I rebooted, windows log in...no windows log on sound played off....task bar blocked....okay???
opened firefox which locked up shortly after and before I knew it whole explorer.exe locked up and task manager didn't work nor exiting windows my Alt-F4 or tapping the power button worked.

reset...rebooted and logged in aaand same problem
but this time the task bar disappeared

rebooted in safe mode + network, and I looked at the log files of avast....those 30 files that where vaulted and deleted by me where some important system files in the system32 folder of windows however they seemed to be infected by the malware I googled the malware and it seemed some severe one called win32.stuxnet

so loaded a recovery point and restored my system to a week before, ofcouse my Avast had to be reinstalled as the recovery points was on the date my Avast did a mayor update.
today I'll have to do some scans to make sure the bugger is complelty wiped of my drive.

It reminded my how much pain I would like to inflict on those bastards who make these malware and viruses.

HunterICX

[Oberon]

Ok Hunter, to stop this happening again.

Firefox plus noscript.

Seriously, it will save you a LOT of hassle, it will kill the adverts (unless you choose to enable them) and stop any advirus or ad-hijacker in its tracks.

Seriously, do it. I've had it since the last time I got got by an ad-virus and decided enough was enough and touch wood, I haven't had a single virus since.

Be on the lookout for rootkits with that virus, and you might want to use CCleaner to check it's not starting itself up at startup.

[Arclight]

Had a virus some 3 years ago. Bugger made all shortcuts point to itself, so everytime you clicked a shortcut you would activate it or something. Took me 5 hours to hunt it down and fix all shortcuts. First and last infection I've ever had.

Other people though, they seem to atract them like flies. The real horror stories are all related to fixing other people's PCs.

[antikristuseke]

A criend of mine bought a ColoursIT 400W PSU, on turning the puter on the PSU fried. On disasembling the bastard we found that the large capacitors were not what they are supposed to be, they were merely cardboard pieces glued rather poorly on smaller capacitors. This was not some bodge job either, that is how the product came out of the factory, needless to say we were a bit miffed. Then again it is an itallian electronics company so I guess it should figgure.

[papa_smurf]

Heres a good one: Turned on my computer and Windows was saying that my copy of Win7 was not a genuine version, even though I HAD bought a genuine copy - ruddy Microsoft.

Another one, is Zone alarm asking me if I allow programs to run every time I upgrade a program/game

[kiwi_2005]

woman at this course i go to 3 nights a week ask me if i would take a look at her laptop a Presario P500 Compaq as it wont login. Oh no problem So i took the laptop home said i would have it up and running by morning.

Start up the laptop get to login screen, login with a message:

"Windows Home Edition is not yet activated do you wish to activate windows online now?:

Ah no & log out. Activation! She never mentioned about an activation no wonder she can't log in silly old bint!

Connect my internet cable to the lan slot in laptop and proceed to login this time answering yes to the activation online. Wait a good 10-12min, then I read this:

"This copy of Windows Home edition is not genuine please click on the link provided to read about piracy and copyrights. Then windows locks up.

Should note this woman is a grandmother. Last person i would of thought of having a pirated copy of windows installed! lol

So there was no log in problem all was needed was an activation but windows is not geniune so activation aint going to happen. I ring her up telling her the problem and the simple way to fix it is to just buy a copy of windows and activate it.

'Oh yes it came with Vista (geniune copy) but the laptop went to slow so a friend put on Windows Home edition, but what do they mean by activation I already brought the computer with Vista on it, like hell I'm not paying for another activation! Look mate all i want is the laptop for the course and to browse the internet isn't there any way you could get pass this activation?

Well really there is one other way i could do this but... Look mate! As long as i can log into the computer without any activation problem I'll use it.

Um Okay she'll be ready in the morning.

Sweet thankyou very much.

So I wiped windows & started the installation of Linux Ubuntu

And if she finds Ubuntu to hard to figure out well she just have to put Vista back on... .

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Ok Hunter, to stop this happening again.

Firefox plus noscript.

Seriously, it will save you a LOT of hassle, it will kill the adverts (unless you choose to enable them) and stop any advirus or ad-hijacker in its tracks.

Seriously, do it. I've had it since the last time I got got by an ad-virus and decided enough was enough and touch wood, I haven't had a single virus since.

Be on the lookout for rootkits with that virus, and you might want to use CCleaner to check it's not starting itself up at startup.

well formulated, I use noscript and firefox and some other add-on to avoid problems, and everything running smooth

[Tchocky]

Mmm, worked a year of tech support for some companies. I shall not open the box.

[Sailor Steve]

I had some problems with my new external hard drive and my new graphics card, but the good folk here got them straightened out for me.

My current frustration is that my PC still isn't up to running SH3 as fully modded as I'd like, or SH5 at all. I want a new computer NOW, but there are other things I need to buy first.

Not exactly a tech problem, but I thought I'd vent anyway.