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Zoom Virus?

pdplot

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I participated in a zoom conference last evening. Since then, both my computers are malfunctioning on Google Chrome. I can open emails but I can't print them or delete them and the bold print stays on even after I have read them. I hooked the laptop up directly to the cable modem bypassing my Orbi router and there was no difference. Either Google itself has been corrupted or I have some sort of virus even though Avast tells me there are no problems. I am effectively out of business since I rely on my computer in my law practice. Any suggestions? Anyone else having trouble with Google? I don't dare send an email to anyone.
 
When you were on the Zoom call did you click on any links that were provided, for example in the chat? Or did you download any files to your computer that may have been provided? When you say the problem occurs on both computers and not just the one you did the Zoom on, then it sounds like a problem with Google Chrome. Had you by any chance updated Chrome Browser on both computers recently? Also, have you tried accessing your email from another browser (Fire Fox, or Microsoft)?
Just spit balling
 
the Zoom bit is likely a coincidence - but, not sure if you have done the usual, clear history and cache and cookies - restart the computer. I had something recently that turned out to be exactly that - cache or cookies.
 
Guess what? Everything is back to normal. My wife unplugged something at the surge protector end and all is well. It did have a slight glitch for about 25 seconds when the connection was apparently broken but so far, so good. I will never understand these things that we are so dependent on and the crazy glitches that pop up from time to time. Luckily, I have a good repairman, a Chinese guy who is a whiz with these things and he has bailed me out more than once. I have a pretty good guy in Florida too. The first guy I went to down there was a crook.
 
Guess what? Everything is back to normal. My wife unplugged ...
Glad to hear things are back to normal with little effort. Every now and then even my brand new iMac has a glitch and I have to restart.
 
As I've told my 90 year old mum-in-law: pull the plugs on EVERYTHING, wait ten minutes and restart. From the modem/router first , to the computer last. It's brutal but works 99% of the time.
 
As I've told my 90 year old mum-in-law: pull the plugs on EVERYTHING, wait ten minutes and restart. From the modem/router first , to the computer last. It's brutal but works 99% of the time.
If you have netflix or ???? Catch the IT Crowd - hilarious British Comedy about exactly that.
 
Better is an old ( by 'net standards) character known as the B.O.F.H. Brilliant stuff (if you're a network admin or an I.T. guy).
 
Update. Same problem last night. tried unplugging the router. It looked ok - turned blue not magenta - but signal kept cutting out. In desperation, I unplugged desktop and replugged after 25 seconds or so. Nothing. Black screen of death. Dell would not boot up. Laptop was working but same problem as desktop. I left laptop on and went to bed at 6 am. Woke up 8:30 and laptop had shut itself off. When it booted up (slowly) wifi was fine and I was back on the Net. I need these computers in my law office or I'm out of business. Now I'm suspecting Optimum. Do you think they cut my signal back after midnight so that the router has nothing to work with? I have no idea what signal strength I'm getting or how to check it. The desktop is going down to the repair shop. It's about 8-9 years old so....maybe time for a new one? Can they transfer my programs to a new box? I've saved most of my important files on a flash drive. I'm running Win 10 and 2007 Excel and Word. I hope you mavens out there have some good word for this old coot.
 
Copy your programs over, yes they should be able to. The better question is what will any new laptop have and will your versions run correctly on them. Probably, but not absolutely. You local computer repair guys to take it to should be able to tell you if you software will work with probably a Win11 laptop replacement or if they should be upgraded too.
 
Just returned from PC Warehouse - my repair guy. Unit worked fine there. Hooked up to his test monitor, it worked perfectly. No problem. Brought it home - no work. I have 2 monitors - neither one of them shows anything. O can either plug the monitor into the blue port or use an adaptor on the cable male blue port end (don't know what else to call it) to Midi male cable which slides into what looks like a USB port but isn't. I'm taking the monitor back to the shop to see if it works with another computer - if that proves anything.
 
It was (as usual) my ignorance. I was plugging the monitor into the wrong port. I forgot I had upgraded a card when I foolishly downloaded X-Plane. Both monitors are fine. While it was in the shop, for $150 he's going to install a solid state hard drive instead of the mechanical which has gotten slow. Should be ready in a couple of hours. What would we do without these guys?
 
I have no direct experience with solid state drives but from what I've read before how long they last can be dependent on how much data is written and written over as time goes on. It seems that after some amount of time it can fail due to lots of use, so you may want to talk with the guy to get some idea how long it can be expected to last under your usage conditions.
 
My usual advice RE: SSD's is to use one for the "scratch" drive, IOW load the O/S on it, along with applications. Keep a metal drive in the machine to write/save the data to.
 
Our contracted "data support team" decided, in its infinite wisdom, that we should convert all the museum's workstations from HD to SSDs. Being a natural "are you so sure about that" kind of guy, I converted only one. Did before/after measurements, and found the SSD booted a system 3 or 4 times faster than a HD. But ... that's the only advantage I found; all apps and data performed the same with SSD as with HD.

So much for the experts ...
 
1, It's much faster all around. No comparison.
2. Display is different - larger type, filling the screen and then some.
3. Although it still is, its telling me that Google Chrome is not my browser and to make it my browser. I tried to do that but it's still giving me the message flag. More Microsft crap I suppose.
4. This box is about 9 years old. I think it will die long before the SSD goes belly up. For $145, I think I saved about $500 for a new desktop.
5. All my programs are intact. He said he also left the old hard drive in there. As a backup?
6. I also bought myself a present - a Logitech C920 Webcam. No more running to the laptop and its stone-age garbled sound system for every Zoom conference.
 
You are a lucky man!
 
Our contracted "data support team" decided, in its infinite wisdom, that we should convert all the museum's workstations from HD to SSDs. Being a natural "are you so sure about that" kind of guy, I converted only one. Did before/after measurements, and found the SSD booted a system 3 or 4 times faster than a HD. But ... that's the only advantage I found; all apps and data performed the same with SSD as with HD.
I would guess that the apps and data tasks you are using are not intensive enough to notice a difference. SSDs under normal circumstances should be more reliable for a longer period of time due to having no moving parts, but that is not to suggest that SSDs can't fail. When I use programs to process video files, I see a significant improvement is speed when I have the video files on an SSD compared to a mechanical hard drive.

My new M1 iMac has a 2TB SSD drive as it's primary drive, but I'm sure it is possible that it could fail - someday. That's why I invest in an online backup service ($6 a month). I use a company called Back Blaze. I am always connected to their cloud and the backup files are continuously updated as files are added/ changed. The backup files on the cloud are encrypted and even if someone could get into my BB account (which would be difficult since I use two-factor authentication), they could not access the files without my 50+ character decryption key. It runs in the background and backs up everything except the operating system and temporary files. It even backs up any connected external hard drives. So, for example, I have a 2TB portable drive and a 3 TB RAID connected and it backs up both (as long as I connect them at least once every 30 days). If you're looking for a good backup solution, I highly recommend Back Blaze. (If anyone decides to try BB let me know. Between now and Jan 31st 2022, if anyone signs up with a special code I can provide, they will get one month free and I will get 3 months free. Just sayin'
 
Probably right about the difference in our library database system, and many other "cpu heavy" apps. I pulled the server HD and replaced it with the recommended SSD, and found no difference - most likely because the database in use, puts the entire data pack into RAM, so there's little need for Storage access, once the data is in memory.

I'll be PM'g you later today with some system backup questions.
Thanks.
Tom M.
 
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