$&@#%! Please Help
I had planned to write a nice entry today about how I got insulation installed in my house on Monday, thus fulfilling a major goal for 2010, and that now my house is nice and warm.
Instead, I now have to write a whiny entry, begging for computer help. This sucks.
Earlier today, I apparently clicked on the wrong web page, which proceeded to spawn Java and crash Firefox. I hoped that whatever little nasty didn't manage to download completely before the crash, and restarted the system. The restart didn't quite go normally, and I got some HDD Scan window (didn't look familiar, so I was immediately suspicious) claiming all sorts of errors on the disk, registry, etc. A thorough check of the processes running (thank you, google!) turned up two things that shouldn't have been there. I killed those processes and went to do a virus scan.
My McAfee I got free from Comcast last time I had a problem had expired, so I checked to see if Comcast was still doing free virus checkers. They are, but had switched to Norton. Okay, fine, I installed Norton. It found and fixed five things (mainly Trojans). The HDD Scan program was one (no surprise there).
Now here's the problem that I still need help with. Even after Norton did its thing, I still got little popups about disk cluster damage, and several things in hex, which resulted in a reboot when dismissed. Now I have a laptop that appears to make it through the WinXP boot, but only comes up with a blue background and no programs are accessible. I can't even get anything beyond the task manager.
Please help! I will buy dinner for anyone who can get my laptop functioning properly again.
Instead, I now have to write a whiny entry, begging for computer help. This sucks.
Earlier today, I apparently clicked on the wrong web page, which proceeded to spawn Java and crash Firefox. I hoped that whatever little nasty didn't manage to download completely before the crash, and restarted the system. The restart didn't quite go normally, and I got some HDD Scan window (didn't look familiar, so I was immediately suspicious) claiming all sorts of errors on the disk, registry, etc. A thorough check of the processes running (thank you, google!) turned up two things that shouldn't have been there. I killed those processes and went to do a virus scan.
My McAfee I got free from Comcast last time I had a problem had expired, so I checked to see if Comcast was still doing free virus checkers. They are, but had switched to Norton. Okay, fine, I installed Norton. It found and fixed five things (mainly Trojans). The HDD Scan program was one (no surprise there).
Now here's the problem that I still need help with. Even after Norton did its thing, I still got little popups about disk cluster damage, and several things in hex, which resulted in a reboot when dismissed. Now I have a laptop that appears to make it through the WinXP boot, but only comes up with a blue background and no programs are accessible. I can't even get anything beyond the task manager.
Please help! I will buy dinner for anyone who can get my laptop functioning properly again.