Ask A Geek

Q: I have AVG, ad-aware and spyware terminator as my protection for my computer, however, I seem to be getting the same virus over and over. I run checks, it says it deletes it, but next time I run a virus scan, its there again.

They are trojan horse virus’s with the name PSW.Generic7.XLG and SHeur2.AWQC. The last bit on each changes a few times for each one (in my most recent scan there were 54 viruses). What I would like to know, is if my protection is not good enough? or is there some way I need to delete these particular viruses?

Q: How do I remove WinBlueSoft or WiniBlueSoft from my computer? It seems to have taken over my computer and I cannot figure out how to remove it.

A: WinBlueSoft appears to be similar to WiniBlueSoft with a slight name change. Both pieces of software are spyware that people install because they are portrayed to be security software. WinBlueSoft is installed the software will act like it is security software and tell you that you have trojans, privacy issues, and other problems. It will not fix the issues for you though unless you pay for the software. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: For the last few weeks I’ve had problems with the google virus. It is opening new tabs on links and redirecting me to other sites namely fasttools and using search2.google.

It maybe unrelated but I since I used an SVHS cable to connect my computer to a TV my has been stuck on what appears to be something like 800 x 600. The problem is when I go into the display settings I get an error saying something about C:windows\system32\rundll32.exe.

I have norton antivirus running and it has quarantined a couple of trojans and I thought that would sort it out but no luck. I am still having the issues.

So my two issues are that my display is stuck at 800×600 and google seems to have hijacked my browser. I’m using firefox with noscript and adblock on a computer running Windows Vista. What can I do to solve these problems?

Q: Is it possible for a virus to cause my monitor to go out? One day my monitor started making a popping noise and the screen was flickering so i turned it off and when i turn it back on it starts up but you can’t see anything on the screen. I hooked up an old monitor to it and I’m not sure if it was bad or my computer is the problem because it won’t show anything either. It flashes for one second when you turn it on (monitor) and you can see that my desktop picture and icons are up but it blacks right back out.

A: It is not possible for a virus to break your monitors. Either your monitors are dead or your display settings need to be reset. 

If neither monitor works even in Windows safe mode then you probably have a hardware problem. I’d suggest bringing in a known working monitor or computer into the mix to troubleshoot the problem. Also double check your video connection and make sure no pins are bent in the VGA connector.

Q: My PC won’t switch on and says it has an error COM plus wizard. It obviously has picked up a virus somehow. As the only menu I can access is the ctr, alt, delete menu. How can I restore factory settings and delete all the other stuff that may have caused a problems? I can easily reinstall office and anti virus although a lot of use that has been!

Q: Is it possible for a virus to cause my monitor to go out? One day my monitor started making a popping noise and the screen was flickering so I turned it off and when I turn it back on it starts up but you can’t see anything on the screen. I hooked up an old monitor to it and I’m not sure if it was bad or my computer is the problem because it won’t show anything either. It flashes for one second when you turn it on (monitor) and you can see that my desktop picture and icons are up but it blacks right back out.

Q: I have re-installed Windows after a few issues on my windows partition. Now comodo keeps telling me an app called VRT34 keeps trying to access my registry files, I keep saying no, and researched it and found out it’s malware.

I tried to install a malware removal app but it wont me install anything. I booted up in safe mode, installed, and ran several malware removers, spyware and anti-virus. They found a few things but the VRT34 is still in my registry and it wont allow me to delete it, any ideas? and if I need to do a full re-install inc formatting how do I format all my partitions?

Q: I have a computer with Windows Vista and I have downloaded SpyBot S&D. I am the administrator on our home computer and after running SpyBot S&D it says it wont destroy because I am not the admin. What can I do now?

Q: How come when I try to login to Hotmail I get redirected to www7.yoog.com/ search.php?q=mail.live.com?

Q: My Dell E510 computer running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 is very slow. I think I could possibly have a virus in WAOL.exe and I am wondering how I can fix this.