Computer Problems!!!! NEED HELP!!!

[FasTech]

Ok, here's the deal. I've been running McAfee anti-virus on my computer for a good 3 or 4 months now and not had a single problem. Well, about a week ago, this box kept popping up about "My Personal Anti-virus protection" and I couldn't get it to stop. Kept saying I needed to pay the $50 and buy it to remove all these virus's I had on my computer. I go the McAfee home thing and run a scan, nothing. McAfee said I was protected and their wasn't ANY problems. But my computer has become wayyyy more slower than ever. It used to be REALLy fast then all this started happening and now video's won't load fast, music won't load fast, page's take longer to pop up, sometimes pages won't pop up, lose internet connection every once in awhile, etc.... PLEASE help me out here. I reallt can't afford to buy another Anti-virus program especially since I still have a 1/2 yr till this one expires.


Oh and before you start the joking, I never watch porn on this computer.. So, be serious please.

[Skorcher]

This stuff happens all the time. To be technical, it's not a virus, but mal-ware. Your pc is fine, but it tries to create a panic so you'll buy the software and then it *magically* cleans whatever you were supposedly infected with.

I have never liked McAfee, and for years I have run Avast! on mine and all my family's computers. Best part is, it's legally free. Coming from an IT Admin, here's my advice (but you don't have to take it of course).

Uninstall Mcafee first. Running 2 antivirus programs at once is a no-no. It slows your computer to a crawl and they can conflict with each other.
Next, download Avast! Free Home Edition. a quick Google search will get you to the proper site. Install Avast!, and when it is finished installing, it will ask if you want to schedule a boot time scan. Say yes. This will scan the machine before anything loads up into its memory when Windows loads.
Once you finish installing it and choose boot time scan, it will want to restart. Go ahead and it will run the scan. Any files it comes back with saying are infected, it will prompt you to delete them.

You may need to run it twice to get everything Avast! can pick up. After that, let me know if anything else is still iffy. May need to manually delete some registry files if it's one of the nastier ones.

Sorry for the novel, just trying to be detailed, since I don't know your pc knowledge.

[byrnerdriven]

I actually have had to remove this from peoples computers at work. I recommend downloading malwarebytes to use every now and then. Symantec has a good write up on how to remove this. Do a search for Personal Antivirus or Personal Antivirus 2009 removal. You are gonna need to go into msconfig and stop the startup service pav.exe, and you will need to go into the registry and delete some stuff as well. But look up Symantecs write up, it will help. I just gave a summarized versioin. good luck

[Paree4g63]

A few of my buddies had this problem about the Personal Anti-Virus popup thing. Best solution I came up with in her situation was to do a PC-Restore. I restored all her settings to the way it was when she first bought it. She didn't have much on her laptop anyway because she only had it for a month. But if nothing else works and you don't wanna take any risks; restart your computer to its factory settings if you don't care to backup your files. Other then that, Mcafee isn't a good anti-virus to use; I've been using the Comcast given one and eventually it couldn't hold its ground. Currently using Norton 360($70bucks) but it does the whole nine yards for me and protects me from anything. It fixed my computer and made it run faster before Mcafee really failed. Other people will use freeware for antiviruses but I just feel alittle better getting what I pay for. That's just my preference; usually the expensive stuff work up to its name. You get what you pay for. Good Luck

[cobalt9123]

Malwarebyte's and AVG anti-virus are your friend
McAfee sucks hairy balls.
Don't use it ever.
I'd download Malwarebytes and scan it, it will get rid of this virus. I had a few computers last week get the same one, it's been around a while. Make sure, if you have a recovery drive, (usually D: instead of C: with <10GB), that you scan it as well.
It's roots run deep into the Windows file system.
After you get rid of them with MBAM uninstall it then install AVG Free

[FasTech]

Reps to all when I can. Thanks!!!

[FasTech]

Went ahead a downloaded AVG. Seems to be doing great so far, and best of all, my computer is fast again. LOL.

[DaSmittyman]

Download malwarebytes, super anti spyware, or Ad-ware which are all free for download

[Black Mamba]

Just use this shit.

http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Vi...html?tag=mncol

[cobalt9123]

Went ahead a downloaded AVG. Seems to be doing great so far, and best of all, my computer is fast again. LOL.

Awesome!
You can also try some free products from Eusing if you want to make your computer faster.
(Registry cleaners/defragmenters) that are, actually, free.
Take caution in using them though.
Good luck,