Please Help!! Technical PC Question

[Jim Kuhn]

I think my daughter may have corrupted my computer. I am able to access the internet for my yahoo home page but then can not transfer anywhere else. I get a zonealarm page that states that I have technical problems or a virus. It states what I should do but this does not work.

My zonealarm is completely gone from the directories. I tried the system restore but it claims I have no restore points. I checked and the restore points are set to maximum. I ran a virus scanner that showed no viruses.

My girlfriend has a computer almost exactly like mine. Same brand, processor, hard drive, memory, etc. Could I utilize the files from her computer to restore some of my system settings? Please any information would be greatly appreciated!

[TobDog]

Jim,

Sounds like something got renamed or deleted. You might want to uninstall your zonealarm and reinstall it from a disk. What I have learned from trusty sources, and many bad experiences, is to keep my original restore disk handy and every 6 months or so, copy all of my personal information to disk(my brother actually has a seperate HD for his files) and reformat the HD, then your computer will work like new, because it will be, well, like new. The reason you have problems as it gets older is that every time you add a program, it alters your settings, when you update a program, like UB or even AOL, it changes your settings, so after a long time, you will have lost or misnamed informationon your computer. I know it is easier to just keep up all your information regularly, but no one does that, I would look into reformatting the HD, remember, when you do that, everything will be removed and the original settigns will be restored, so make sure you save everything you need onto a disk.

TobDog

[beernutz]

From the ZoneAlarm help file:
If you are having Internet connection trouble after installing ZoneAlarm, the first troubleshooting step is to determine whether ZoneAlarm is really the cause. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the Preferences tab in the Overview panel.
2. Under General, clear the check box labeled Load ZoneAlarm at startup. A warning dialog labeled Zone Labs TrueVector Service opens.
3. Click the Yes button in the Zone Labs TrueVector Service dialog.
4. Restart your computer, then try to connect to the Internet.
If you are still not able to connect to the Internet after restarting your computer, the problem does not lie with your ZoneAlarm settings.

If you are able to connect to the Internet, and remain connected, after following the steps above, the problem may lie with your ZoneAlarm browser settings. The next step is to make sure your browser has access permission.

Jim, try the above and let me know what happens.

[Terry]

What, specifically, do you think your daughter did?

The facts that ZoneAlarm is gone and that you have no restore points (you did make restore points, right?) are indications that something serious has gone wrong. Perhaps you do, indeed, have a virus. Did you recently update the virus scanner that you used?

Probably the best thing you could do is to reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows. Once things start going so seriously wrong there is a good chance that using the “repair” installation will leave the source of the problem intact and it will resurface. Doing a clean install, although a bit of a hassle, will solve the problem. Trying to transfer settings from another computer will likely cause even more problems.

[picabo]

Question: Does it sound like your hard drive is working overtime? The sound it makes when its seeking info or you just opened a new program? If that continues to happen more frequently without quieting down it sounds like a virus that I got. It killed all of my restore points which are created automatically in Windows 98 on I believe. I was using XP at the time and noticed things not working correctly more and more including my virus protection software. I even tried to install a new virus program several times and just before it got completely installed it would self-destruct!! This was a monster and completely foiled every attempt I made to kill it. I finally had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall a fresh version of Windows. Be sure to try and back up any critical files you have on CD but even this isnt completely foolproof as you have no real way of knowing what files are already corrupted. Good Luck and let us know how it turns out.