On the last night that I was house sitting, I was hanging out just typing along in my journal with a few internet windows open when BAM! all of a sudden my computer started flashing, notification boxes were coming up asking me if I wanted to download programs and some weird looking virus windwos were popping up telling me files were corrupted and I needed to scan my computer. I freaked out and tried to turn off the computer, but it didn't work. (duh) When I restarted again, the boxes were back and I couldn't access anything. Five minutes later everything calmed down and I saw that all my documents, pictures and files were still there and Skype still worked. Microsoft Explorer just wouldn't work. I finally was able to scan my computer and found stuff to be cleaned. My computer cleaned, I thought I was in the clear, but when I restarted, everything went wild again. At this point I was panicking. What could possibly be the problem and how do I fix it?!?! I went to my programs to see if there was something that got installed. As it was 8/10, I saw something that had been installed that day and immediately uninstalled it. Only when I went back in did I realize that lots of stuff had been installed...on 8/10/09. A year ago, when the computer was set up. Super.
I was in a foul mood for the better part of two days, trying to contemplate what I was going to do with a malfunctioning computer, I downloaded new updates and miraculously the rapidly popping up windows stopped, but I could no longer get on Microsoft Explorer. I thought about trying to go find a place here to fix my computer, but faced with the prospect of trying to explain what was happening in French, I realized that my computer is still under warranty and decided to call HP.
I was kindly informed by HP that while my computer was under warranty, it was only for hardware and not software problems. The guy could either completely reformat my computer for free (and lose everything on my computer, which wouldn't have been horrible because everything is backed up except for my music) or I could pay $59.99 to have a virus specialist check it out. I decided to go the pay route. Mostly because I didn't want to be responsible for reformatting my computer, even if it was technician guided.
I got through to the virus department and told the guy what happened. The first thing he had me do was to reset my settings in Explorer to default. 3 seconds later it all worked fine. I paid $65 for a reset of default settings. Consider me taken. But, to get at least at little work out of the guy, I made him takeover my computer and do a thorough and lenghty scan of everything to make sure no viruses, or weird programs existed. He said that I never had a virus, and that he thought it was just malicious spyware that was trying to get me to buy a product. My computer or data was never in danger, and nothing had been corrupted or compromised. He declared me free and clear and at least my $65 bought my peace of mind. (I can't tell you how many other layers there are to this story, but we'd be here all day if I recounted it all to you, so go with it)
On another tech note...my roommates had set up a wireless network while I was gone and got it to work, but then it stopped working for no reason. This morning I re-installed everything and used my magic little fingers to make the network useable throughout the apartment. It took a while and was quite frustrating, but it now works. Color me purple and call me a happy.
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