Hi! (whew, long one today)

I have a couple things on my mind this morning.

1. Is it a virus when you get a blue screen, otherwise known as BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)?

2. Can you rescue an "Unmountable Boot" drive?

The answer to the first is: maybe a virus, maybe not. More than likely not, but a drive error. It happens. Especially as your machine ages and you haven't been running your defrag or disk cleanup. Software gets corrupted, it just does over time. At the very worst it means a full recovery to factory settings. Sometimes the boot error can be fixed. Very easy to Google it.

 Get your XP or Vista cd out...What? You don't have one? (give me a call) They really need to tell people at the store when they buy a computer to make their recovery disk first thing. Well ok, then try this...with your fingers on ctrl and F11 (sometimes F12) turn on the computer. Or turn it on and quickly put your fingers on the buttons. You are trying to get into the recovery console built into the partitioned drive (if there is one) ((some older machines do not have them)). If, I say IF, you can get into the recovery drive you will have options there to fix the C: drive or main or sometimes it is just listed as "1." Some manufacturers like Dell and HP have a recovery drive just waiting for you if you need it. A few of these I have seen will only reset it to factory and you will lose your information (docs & photos) so be careful. READ the instructions. It will help you if you go slowly and read what it says. If you are not sure about it then get some help.

The second one: I can say this for sure though. An Unmountable Boot can be fixed, sometimes easily by using the chkdsk /r or fixboot /r with the recovery cd or OS(operating system) cd. Sometimes it will say it is an "Uncorrectable Disk Error" and yet if you run the recovery through ctrl + F11 and you are successful, it WILL say, "error corrected" and boot. I just did it last week for some folks that thought they would be buying a new computer. I pulled their doc folders off of the drive, hooking it up to an external rig to my laptop, writing them to a cd. Reinstalled the drive and went into the partitioned recovery drive. Ran the tests it provided. (Thank you Dell for something at least) And voila`, up and running no docs or photos lost and they even have a backup now of their folders.

I think they might be a little worried about it still. We can't help fearing the silly things, that something will go wrong if we touch 'em...They do get older and dust especially can get into the drive and cause it even more friction than what it already goes through. The average person does not realize how much dust can get sucked into their machines. (I think that is another topic)

The drive is spinning at a rate that causes heat. Usually up to 7200rpms. That's revolutions per mili-seconds. FAST! Several things inside your computer heat up. In fact all computers have a temperature setting that will shut down your computer when it gets too hot. Do not cover the computer up while running though! The holes on the back and sides are there to help suck air into and out of your computer to cool it down. Ok, so how do you keep dust out???? Clean it out every 6 months. A year may be too long especially if you have pets. Use a vacuum first then blow it out with canned air. Don't blow too hard, you can push dust into your components. Put it up off the floor. I know it takes up room, but it will last longer if you do. If it lives in a cubby with a door...open the door while it is running. Remember it needs to have air to keep cool. Closing the door will help when it is not running. Also, remember it is always sucking air while running, it needs to have circulation and a clean area around it.

Ok, like I said up front...whew! Long one....on to the next problem. Got one this morning that's a mystery......Peace Out.

Hi folks!

Ok, this time a little more about EMAIL (say it with an echo in the background...). I have a lot of friends that like to send cutsie email forwards. I don't mind, mostly. The part that troubles me is all the addresses in the TO: spot. Do you get SPAM(again, with an echo in the back)? We can stop the spammers by not giving out our addresses. Well, how do you do that, Barb?(you say)

When you send a forward to a bunch of friends (more than 1), use the Blind Copy space. Well, what if your email does not 'show' that space (you say)? Look around at the top of your email you are getting ready to send. There should be a link you might need to click (blue/underlined), that says Bc: or something like that. It means: Blind Copy. Ok, what does Blind Copy mean? That means the addresses you put in that space will be not seen by all the other people you send it to. Let's say you send something to me and your mom. But you don't want me to see her address or her to see my address. Put both of our addresses in the Bc: space. You can leave the To: space blank, or put your address there.

Next thing you want to do...sometimes the forward will show up as an attachment. There are a couple kinds of attachments. We've all gotten forwards with one you open that leads to another you open, and sometimes another will open, before you finally get to the real email. If you get one of those and you like it, want to send it, please 'clean it up' first. Ok, how do you do that? Easy if you know how to copy and paste. Drag your mouse over the email you want to copy (not over the email addresses, just the cute stuff). When what you want is highlighted (blue usually), right click the area and left select copy. Then open a new email for sending to your friends, left click in the place where you would be typing a letter so a curser is there. Then right click there and left select paste. You should get the forward email there. (yes, sometimes the pics don't copy, sometimes the forward doesn't want to be copied, sometimes these things are just not worth the effort) Ok, that done, you can put your friend's addresses in the Bc: space and send it out.

Next kind of attachment: a video or a powerpoint, something that just opens nice when you click on it with no extra emails etc. Those are best if you save it to your computer and then forward it as an attachment. In fact, that way, you aren't really forwarding you are making a new email with an attachment. You can say something cute in the body of your email and attach the video. (don't write anything personal, it will get forwarded) The subject line can be the title of the video or pps(powerpoint show) or whatever you want to put there. Then it won't have the "Fw:"  and more people will actually open it. Sorry friends, I do delete some of them, especially if I get the same one over again. I still love you...

I know this is getting long, but it's important today...ok, let's do one that you just open the email and there it is.

I open it and even before I read the good stuff there are several blocks of addresses imbedded at the top. I like the email but I don't want to send all those addresses. If I get an email like this, a lot of times I can click forward and that email is already in the body of the space where I would type a letter. So are all those addresses. If this is the case, I can edit the email right there. Do it slowly, 'cause you can lose the good stuff if you go too fast and then you have to start over. Put your curser at the front of the stuff you want to delete and start clicking your delete key. Go slow, take out all the addresses and just leave the cute email. (ok, you can highlight and delete if you're getting good at it) Then if you really want to, you can add your own comments at the top or bottom of the email. Just don't give out any details that are personal. Remember this is a cutsie email and it WILL get forwarded again. And again. And again.

Spammers get our addresses from all kinds of sources. One way is by culling addresses from simple cute forwards. Besides, your aunt Clara doesn't know me and I don't need her address. Remember also, if you just want to reply to the person who sent the email, make sure you don't click Reply All. Your personal comment will go out to the WHOLE group of emails that it was originally sent to. I got a forward awhile back, There were all kinds of comments after each block of addresses from some of the folks that forwarded it. Some were: "So cute", "Awwww", "You got to see this..." and the great one I will never forget...

"Honey, you'll like this email. It reminds me of what we're like in bed...."

Leaves some to the imagination. Not what I want to imagine, but none the less too personal!

Questions? Hope you at least chuckled a bit. We've all forwarded emails we thought had too many addresses stuck in them. (even me) Let's try and clean 'em up  and Blind Copy as much as we can.

PEACE!

Ok, another story about antivirus...this weekend I was working on a powerpoint presentation. I searched for images on Google, found a pic of Jesus and when I clicked on the link for the pic Avast popped up and warned me that it had a trojan attached. I love Avast! Can you see it? I just wanted a picture of Jesus for Easter and it had malware imbedded in it. If I did not have Avast(or some such antivirus) I would have saved the pic to my computer and infected myself and maybe not even know it. I have a client right now that was told she didn't need antivirus software. Just about all her computers are infected with something. I have cleaned 3 hard drives for her. Please use antivirus software. And of course, I think you should use Avast!! Have fun today!! 

Internet Security 2010...is total malware / scareware! It does the usual thing those rip off artists do. It could be from an email, or an infected website. (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE GOOD ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE EVEN IF IT IS FREE. Like Avast Home Edition!) Ok, back to the bad guys...The pop up says, "You need to scan your computer, "now" or something similiar. Ok, let's say you know NOT to click on it anywhere. So you click No or Cancel. Guess what happens next...it installs. If you get any kind of pop up like this, go to the bottom of your monitor, right click on the pop up's place holder and click close. If it does not have that option there, only, and I mean only, click the red x in the upper corner. Or, if you want, do a control/alt/delete, open task manager and end the 'application' for the pop up. Do not be fooled by these things. It really can make you crazy over what your computer can and cannot do afterwards.

I found this great program in the process of looking for a fix for my client. SDfix. Go to this page http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic131299.html Read the whole thing, print it out, and then follow the instructions. If you have trouble with the link, search it out. You'll find it. The advice I took is lower on the page. But let me tell you, it worked and worked very well!! It is now a part of my cleaning kit for malware.

Ok, some of you have said to me, "Barb? How do I know they are lying about my computer having viruses, when it looks so real?" "Listen", I say, "If you have a good scanning protection software already running it should stop those things from loading. (My free Avast does) Don't trust ANY pop up and you should be safe." They tell me it scares them into clicking on it and then they realize once its loaded, it was bad, very bad. I have clients with a dozen or more spyware, adware, or "virus chekers", they run them and find nothing. Most of those programs are not scanning, do not update, and will not stop a trojan. You give permission to a trojan. You open and execute a program to run on your computer. I have found a lot of web pages infected lately. Be safe. Be aware. And buy something like Norton or download Avast Home. Whatever you do, do not pay the bad guys once they infect you. They will try to get you to pay them to remove the malware (they put in there) and then NOT remove it.

Ok, enough, enough...Have fun whatever you do! Peace!

FACEBOOK...Hey all! Anytime you  have something you want to add or suggest, please do let me know. I have talked to a few more customers with those nasty trojans. Be careful out there. Today I want to share just a bit about Facebook. Seems they don't really want to help their users. You have to hunt and peck for a way to write them for help. Many users get banned for days on end. A friend of mine just got hacked and viruses, (yes, plural) got sent out to ALL her friends. So glad I have Avast Home Edition! Warned me right away! Anyway...Facebook has a place in the help pages, to leave a "Suggestion". If all the users started going there and sending in suggestions when there is a problem, maybe they will provide a better support page. Have fun good fortune, stay dry!!

Hey all, I found a great defrag program!

We were having trouble cleaning out the XP machine and defragging, just terrible! Well, one of my newsletters had a wonderful little program that helps a lot! Its called SmartDefrag. Search it out and download it. You should be able to defrag any stubborn drive. It also has a cleaning program that works very well.

Give it a shot! I like it a lot! LOL While you're at it, download Advanced System Care too! You'll like it!

Hi Folks!

Just recently had another computer with a nasty trojan. Called "System Security". If you search for it you will find that it is one that takes over your wallpaper with the good ole' WARNING: Your computer is infected and you are at risk........etc.

It goes on and on how you need to scan and fix it. If you do it will only get worse. It takes over everything. You can't get into things in the control panel, you can't do a restore or enter your system properties. It's just awful! It looks very official, but is NOT!

So, how did I get rid of it? After trying without success to get into safe mode, I decided to try and run the installed virus program before the bad guy could load. I couldn't believe that it worked!!! I was ready to totally wipe and reinstall everything. The program it has was Avira. Seems like it worked well. But it did take running it about 5 times to catch all the viruses it had. And I had to really watch it and respond to it when it asked me to do something, like delete or move to virus chest. After restarting it several times, doing a real deep defrag, and resetting a new restore point. It seems to be running very well.

This client did not know how she got it on her computer. It was just hiding waiting for the right click to set it off.

So, how do you avoid this kind of trojan??

Never ever say yes or ok to a pop up window that says you need to scan or it did scan and you need to fix it. Your already installed virus program may not react to it because you are giving it permission to load on your computer. Once it installs it is VERY hard to get rid of. If you get a pop up you want to close, go down to the task bar and right click on it, then left click "close". That way you are not clicking on the pop up itself. You should be safer that way. Then if you are worried about viruses, run your own virus program. Have it do a deep scan of your hard drive. If you need a virus program go download AVAST Home Edition. It is a great free program!

Take care, have fun! Enjoy living!!! Babz

May 23, 2009

Hello, just thought I would say a word about SPAM.

Yes, SPAM, and I ain't talking lunch meat.

Lately everyone has been talking about the emails they get from foreign countries saying they have money waiting for them and all you have to do is give them your personal info. Oh, brother. You know they really are getting people to respond or else they would not be sending these emails.

Just delete them. Don't even open them. If you do anything with them, block the email address. It won't keep them all from coming. But it will help some. Then, if your email program has a filter for it. Set it so that you will only get emails from people in your address book. You will have to remember to add the websites you want emails from and the people you want to get emails from. But then you won't get these silly SPAM emails either.

Good fortune! Enjoy the day!

February 25, 2009

Well, guess what?! That machine I thought I fixed. Well, those wonderful malware bugs in it are still giving us problems.

DO NOT SAY 'OK' TO ANY POP UP WINDOWS WHILE ONLINE!!!!

I can't say it enough. If you have a good antivirus software already in your computer do not tell another company pop up that it is ok to scan your computer. All they want to do is rip you off for $$. They will not help you, only lie to you.

I'll let you know how it finally gets fixed......

April 16, 2009

Ok, well that one was a lot of work. We had to erase everything and do a factory reload. He hadn't backed up any of his docs and so he only had what he saved on a flash drive. Always save your docs and pics to cds. Run a back up every month or even more often. If you use a cdrw, you can rewrite over it many times.

So, this is a very important lesson, he had 168 malware viruses on his computer. Several of them would not let me go online to fix it and when I did run Malwarebytes, it attached itself to vital files and deleted them when I removed the malware. Thus the total reload. Of course now his machine is running just like new, but he lost time and docs and pics too. Along with having to pay for my services.

Never, ever, trust pop ups that say you need to scan. Lies, nothing but lies. If you have a good scanner already installed you definitely do not need another scan. Put Avast Home version in your computer for free and you will be safe for the most part. Remember to not give your permission for downloading anything, unless you really want the download. Good luck! Stay safe!

Hi folks!

I hope everyone had a decent holy day season!

I have been very busy lately. I guess that's a good thing. Since it has been some time now, I wanted to add to the blog for those of you who check back, THANKS!

Ok, today's tip is a general one that I have written about  already but I wanted to let you know you are not the only one who gets weird things in their computer.

WinWeb Security : malware.

The other day we got another trojan in the desktop my family uses. (I don't get to use it very much so I got my own laptop now) It was called WinWeb Security. I do not know how my family managed to get it in the computer and they say they don't remember when it happened. It again is a program that tells you your computer has a bunch of things wrong with it. It even has a screen of a huge list of bad things from a supposed scan. All lies! It is NOT from the real WinWeb Security site. If you Google it you will see that. They however refer you to a site you have to pay for. So, go to www.malwarebytes.org for a free download of a powerful tool that WILL remove it. For the average user it would take some time. Malwarebytes worked great, fast and with no problems.

Let me know if you need any help.

ok, have fun, enjoy the adventure.

Hi all!

ok, I know its been awhile. Lately there has been another virus warning circulating.

Postcard or Postcard from Hallmark or Hallmark Postcard.

This email has been passed around for about 4 years now. If you do read about it on Snopes.com you will see that it has been going around since 2004. There is another article on About.com that explains it really is or has become an internet hoax or at the very least an email hoax.

This is not to say you shouldn't be careful. Don't open mail from people you don't know. Just delete it. It is not worth getting any kind of virus. Nowadays there are a lot that will attack your computer and leave a link for you to go to their site to PAY to fix it. Don't fall for this. Most of the time I have had success with doing a "Restore". This is a simple way to fix things with your computer. Go to your System Tools folder and you should find it there. On Vista there are a few ways to get there. Go back far enough to before the "bad thing happened and after it restarts it should be fixed. if not try going back farther. This will not effect your documents, but you may have to reinstall any updates that happened. No big deal. But you will get rid of the nasty adware/spyware/trojan.

I'm here to help. Email me or leave a message or comment. I will get back you as soon as I can. if it is something you need help with right away, email me.

Have fun! Be good! Relax!!

Hi folks, I'm experimenting with font. I have some older folks who have a hard time reading the small print. What do you think?

I have an email tip for you today. Some of you are always worried about viruses and trojans. Well, if you are careful you don't need to worry about it that much. I don't get them because I see them from a mile away. And you can too!

First of all, DO NOT OPEN EMAIL FROM PEOPLE YOU DO NOT KNOW! I have a client who feels like she will miss something if she doesn't open everything she gets. Well, she won't miss the trojan either, 'cause she opens them and then hires me to fix her computer. I don't mind too much, she does pay me. But if she would just stop opening email from strangers. Didn't your mother tell you to beware of strangers? Well, that is true for email. Spammers send you junk email, so do the ding dongs that think it is funny to mess up your computer. They think it gives them power. I guess it does in a way. But it is not funny!

So anyway...first do not open email from strangers.

Secondly, you may get an email that says it came from you. Again a spammer trick. You know if you sent something to yourself don't you? I do all the time. But if it is something I did not send, I don't open it!

The very best thing to do before you open any of your email is to delete all the junk. If you have an email filter for junk mail and spam, use it if you know how. If you are not sure how to use it, give me a call. I don't cost anything over the phone. I'd be glad to help if I can. After deleteing what you know is junk, then go to the priority emails. (I have 5000 unread emails from a 5 year period. Don't ask me why I keep all those) I made a "saved" folder for the ones that tell me my password I forgot and other emails I don't want to delete by accident. If you have the option to make a folder called "Saved" you should do it and move the important ones there.

Then be careful about those dumb popup ads. My son was home on the computer and a popup popped up and said he needed to scan the computer for viruses now. So he thought uh oh I better do that or mom will be mad. Guess what? It was a dang trojan!!! We couldn't turn on the computer without that stupid thing opening. It was everywhere. I could close the window the ad was popping up in. But it was like married to the computer. Everytime I opened a word doc or a program it would open too! You know what the ad said? "Come to our website and pay $19.99 to have adware like this removed". Is that bold or what???

DO NOT CLICK "YES" OR "OK" ON ANY POP UP!!

Just click the X in the corner. Sometimes clicking on the Cancel or Close "button" will do the same as "Yes" or "Ok".

Tricky little monsters out there. Have I scared you good now? Just be careful, like crossing the street and no running with scissors. I finally got rid of that ad by doing a restore. I paid myself $19.99, how 'bout that?

Now for the bad one....You might get email from a bank. Let's say...Citi Bank. This one comes up a lot. It will say, Dear Customer or Member, (if it says your name, be EXTRA careful. Banks and PayPal do NOT send this kind of email. Contact the bank or PayPal by phone and tell them about the email) There has been a breach of your account. Please click this link and verify your information on our secure site. Then you click and fill out all your info and like magic someone steals all the money you have in your account. Well of course they did. You gave them all the info they needed to steal it. Do not ever fall for that email! You might get ones from banks and PayPal too. Don't fall for it! Bad people tricking us. Just not nice....

Ok, play safe, stay sane, Love everyone!

I grab time when I can, so tips will get posted as I can do them. The message board will be up soon and I hope you will all share tips as well.

Here's one for Win 98 and XP users...Clean out your Prefetch files. These are files your computer has to "Pre fetch" so programs will supposedly start faster. HA! Clean this folder out and your computer will run faster for quite awhile. Here are the steps:

Open the search function for files or folders. Type prefetch in the search space. Make sure you have selected the C: Drive. When the folder named Prefetch shows up you can stop the search. Then left click the folder open right there in that screen. Go to Edit and do a Select All. Then, this is important, hold down the control key and click to deselect the layout program in there. Once everything else is highlighted except that, you can hit the delete key and say yes to delete them all. This tip only works for Win98 and XP. If anyone else knows how to do it in the other operating systems, let us know.

Have a great day!

Hi!

Every so often I have a good idea...I thought about the things I learned at work and still am learning...why couldn't I share them? Well, I did for awhile. Then I became so overburdened that I never had time for my own computer. So I had a good idea...start my own computer consulting business. Now I am still busy and have several regular clients. I make appts usually within the week I can get to a new client. I even learned to make apts with myself. That helps. Anyway.. I like to help people learn so they can feel empowered and confidant! If I can help you, I will at least try, please write a message or note about the trouble and I will do my best.  Advice is free, just as long as you know, you are on your own when you do it your self. If I try to fix it in person and I can't...You Don't Pay! That's my motto, "If I can't fix it, you don't pay!"

So this time a simple tip for the simple computer folk...DEFRAG! You need to defrag your computer every month or more! Stores should have to tell people this when you buy a computer. What they want is for you to come back and buy another, or pay them outrageous prices to fix it. Here are your steps:

Left click on the Start button. Then scroll up to Programs, Accessories, scroll to System Tools, scroll to Disk Defragmenter. Then left click on Disk Defragmenter. Select the C: Drive. Left click the defrag button and wait. And wait and wait and wait. If you have not done this ever, or not in a long time, it will take all night or longer. I have had several I worked on totally quit defragging as well. If that is the case then Go back to System Tools and look for Scandisk. When you open that ask for a Thorough Scan. Tell it to repair everything. It will also take a long time. But once you run Scandisk, then make sure you run Defrag. Good luck and let me know if I can help.

Have a wonderful happy life! You were born to deserve that much!