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long story short. I've been letting one of the local kids use my laptop. I told him no faebook or questionable sites. Needless to say, I found it left on facebook open all night long ( and Lord knows where else he went). Ever since then it's been freezing u and running slow. I restored it and deleted cookies but now it can't see my wireless network or ethernet. I was on the phone with my IP with no luck. I'm on Kelly's laptop now. Any suggestions?
 
Not to be flippant, but the kid that borrowed it may have caused you a complete nightmare.

My recommendation: take the laptop back to the kid, and say "fix it". That's worked for me many times - especially when you can prove he visited sites you told him not to.

Put the pressure on. If he doesn't take responsibility for his own actions, you'll suffer and he'll just do it again.

Tom
 
That won't work in this case. I've already called him on it and will guilt him more in the future but I've got to be real careful with this one. He's at a critical point and he's been known to pull away when confronted. As far as guidance goes, I'm all he has.
 
In that case, maybe just tell him how you feel about the problem, and ask him to help you fix it.

Just an idea ...

Tom
 
Just wait till he asks to borrow it again- and tell him it doesn't work anymore......Let him offer to fix it for you.
 
I'd start by grabbing Malware Bytes on your wife's laptop, sneaker-net it over and install it. Have it do a full scan, see what it can remove. Then you'll probably have to reinstall the wireless drivers or maybe you'll get lucky and be able to reconnect after the scan.
https://www.malwarebytes.org/

Then install some other browser (I like Firefox plus plugins to limit scripts, ads and so on), and disable IE.
 
Store the file on a thumb drive (or CD), then use your sneakers to walk across the room and plug it into your laptop.

I favor New Balance, but Keds will do in a pinch :smile:
 
Would probably be a good idea to shut off the computer, then restart in Safe mode (hold the F8 key while starting). After Windows starts in safe mode, then insert the flash drive and run MalWareBytes.

I doubt this is related to the missing internet connections, but you don't know the websites the young guy visited. As Mother Jefferson used to say about making ox-tail soup: "Scrub that ox tail before you put it in, cuz' you just never know where that ox tail's been".

What anti-malware apps are on your laptop?

Tom
 
so ... what's the latest?
 
Puter guy says nasty virus that won't even let him in to scrub. Says needs to be backed up and erased. $250 if he backs up, $150 if we do.
 
hmmm - sure hope it's a reliable computer shop. If you "back it up", how do you know you're not getting a copy of the virus in the backup?

PM sent.

Tom
 
I had pretty much the same experience on a desk top once, the hard drive was compromised by a virus to the point erasing the drive did not solve the problem. Using various software, the drive would just not boot. I bought a new drive and used what back ups I had to get most of my stuff back. I now run a backup every two weeks on a separate plug in hard drive. I trashed the old drive. PJ
 
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