Re: Could this be due to a virus?
- From: "Twayne" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:10:49 -0500
NOrmally I would agree with Malke about the multi-posting but I think I
can see your point in coming here as you did. So IMO it's excusable but
once you become familiar with cross-positng, it would be better in the
future for something like this, to simply add the crosspost to this
group with a short explanation at the top explaining what you did. That
way, everyone in the other group would also see this post in that group
and you would only have one group to check because with crossposting,
your posts show up in both places and are even likewise marked as read
in both groups when someone reads them.
Not a huge problem though you could still do that cross-posting if you
wanted to at this point. .
Based on what I see here in this post, it may be time to do a backup of
all your important data (pics, letters, email addresses, etc) and start
by doing a Repair Install of XP. In theory you won't lose any data that
way but you will have to let windows update redo updates.
And if that's no help, then you might have to do a "clean install"
and rebuild the computer. Without backups and not counting your
important data you created yourself, it's probably a 2 day effort to
install XP and all of your apps all over again and get them all set back
upas you want them.
If you decide you want to do a Repair Install or a Clean Install ask for
links on your other group; there are several good ones available that
are easy to follow. It actually sounds like malware of some sort to me
so if you decide to continue troubleshooting, you may want to ask for
opinions of good spyware/malware detectors.
I've always looked at it this way: Is it quicker to
reinstall/rebuild, or to continue the troubleshooting path? Since I use
disk imaging now, it's a lot easier question, but if you don't have
backups, it's not so simple. It's time to get into backing up.
One thing you could do, to see if those fies are even worth backing up,
is to send one them to someone who has the same or newer software,as an
attachment and see if they can open them and see the images? Office
files however, CAN contain macro viruses, so be sure to warn the person
first! They may not want to take the chance.
It's my guess that you still have malware of some sort on your
machine. While you're using Office, do NOT allow any macros to run as
that's one place the malware could be hiding.
Throw a bunch of spyware/malware detectors at it and see what comes up.
No single such program will find them all so usually you need at least
three such programs; I have 5 to choose from though fortunately I seldom
have to use them.
HTH
Twayne
I have posted this in different places because the different
groupings are quite vague and also because I'm not sure of what is
causing this so I'm trying to look at it from different perspectives.
I have done the virus scan before and it didn't pick anything up on
one computer but found some bad files on the other - however both
computers continue to have the same problem. Also, because this
problem occurred after a few years of using the product/computer with
no problems, it makes me wonder if it is a "bug/malware" that has got
in an done damage somehow. Thus also posting in this grouping as
well as the "general" grouping.
"Malke" wrote:
Bewildered wrote:
I have posted this question on the Office discussion group and
after some discussion, I was advised that it's probably a Windows
problem...
(snip multipost)
You have quite an active thread about this issue going in the other
newsgroup to which you posted. Please don't multipost; it makes more
work for everyone and will get you *less* help, not more. See this
for why:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm - multiposting
As for whether this could be caused by a virus, that is easily
determined by doing thorough scanning. Don't skip the prep work.
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware
Further questions about this issue should be posted in your other
active thread, not this one.
Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ
.
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- From: Bewildered
- Re: Could this be due to a virus?
- From: Malke
- Re: Could this be due to a virus?
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