Those of you who are computer/internet geeks, please help!

[LextacySC]

Personally, I would take all the important info off of the computer. i.e. burn it on a disk or use a portable hard drive. Reformat the whole hard drive. It sounds like there may be many things wrong with the computer including spam ware. I would then highly recomend them to get a decent virus protection program. Reformatting the computer is the best and easiest way to rid your computer of those things IMO.

Modems and routers go out also. You can unplug them for 5 mins to soft reset them, but it sounds like more of a computer issue. Viruses can change the browser settings to work in their favor.

 

[Taz2478]

your buddy prob already had the bug on there. dl avast home, it should get rid of whatever bugs it has. It most likely has a loader bug which is causing sign in sites to be buggy.

 

[evilxyardxgnome]

Personally, I would take all the important info off of the computer. i.e. burn it on a disk or use a portable hard drive. Reformat the whole hard drive. It sounds like there may be many things wrong with the computer including spam ware. I would then highly recomend them to get a decent virus protection program. Reformatting the computer is the best and easiest way to rid your computer of those things IMO.

Modems and routers go out also. You can unplug them for 5 mins to soft reset them, but it sounds like more of a computer issue. Viruses can change the browser settings to work in their favor.

All because he can't access secure sites? That seems a little excessive. There are a lot of decent spyware removal programs if this is the case, which it may be. I really like Ad-aware. Free to use and pretty good.

 

[LextacySC]

All because he can't access secure sites? That seems a little excessive. There are a lot of decent spyware removal programs if this is the case, which it may be. I really like Ad-aware. Free to use and pretty good.

I reformatt my comp every 6 months, it's kinda a habit. Takes about 20 mins on my new computer and one and a half hours on my old one.

Most people have more unwanted things on their computers than they realize. More and more people are using online banking, purchasing things online using credit cards, and putting their social security numbers in for various things. I just recomend it because it does have adware, so there is a chance it may have other things on it. Adware is nice because you know you have it. Spyware and key loggers you don't. Just my opinion though.

Have you tried to used a Firefox web browser?

 

[oscarluvr]

windows defender is free and excellent download from msn, run it it will clear up as well as identify all spyware and ad ware, which is what is wrong, that pop up that is telling you you need to buy something is spyware and is more than likely the problem, formatting is the absolute last resource.

 

[skiptomyzoo]

yeah his dell doesnt have a defragmenting software bc when i go to launch disk defragmenter it lauches diskeeper lite with it, so it might have it, it just wants you to pay. I tried going through the internet options multiple times over, making sure SSL 2.0 and 3.0 were checked as well as TSL 1.0, and they were but I still am getting that problem. I am going to try and see which firewalls and spyware programs hes actually using, and what settings they are on, as theres multiple on here, but obviously all arent running, it just started doing this last week, never before that.

 

[laura65536]

if you are using ie then download firefox. If you are using firefox, download ie. See if that helps.
You can also go to download.com and get (completely free) ccleaner, it will clean all the junk out and fix registry errors.
I would also run an anti-virus of some sort, besides the one windows has. If there isn't one installed, I would suggest trend-micro, they have a 30 free trial with their software, and it is the only anti-virus that hasn't failed me (been using it for 2 years after everything else seemed to let bugs in).

 

[Fishes33]

Can I remotly control your computer, so I can help you?

 

[Fishyfan]

Have you tried going to Internet options, going to the Advanced tab and clicking restore defaults?

 

[skiptomyzoo]

Thank you laura, allready tried the firefox thing, only thing is it wouldnt work and would say its unable to connect to whatever page I was trying to use. I'm going to have to go through this stuff again. As far as registry errors, what is the program called for that ccleaner or was that just a typo? bc I'll try that too.
Also, thanks all who replied so far