Please bear with me on this as I am not computer literate at all and I would appreciate any replies not to be in complicated tech speak!
My computer has been running slow on start up for about a week now - it’s like it’s dozing for a while and then it suddenly wakes up after about fifteen minutes of trudging through treacle. Also, I am suddenly having problems with downloading essential Windows updates too.
I ran a Windows system diagnostic today and it identified a problem with Avast antivirus, though I cannot remember the precise wording. I’ve been using Avast for the past five years, update automatically and have never had any issue with it so I am utterly mystified as to why this problem has suddenly appeared.
Nothing out of the ordinary has flagged up in my weekly scans and sweeps and I haven’t changed my search practices at all - it’s always on trusted sites with a good reputation.
If anyone can help based on my garbled and non-detailed description then I would be very grateful indeed. Just a list of steps saying ‘do this, click that’ will suffice, a technical explanation won’t be required as I don’t think I’d understand it anyway! (sorry)
Thanks very much
Derek
p.s. The only recent change has been an update to Adobe Flash - I did have problems with this earlier this year and their Forums suggested incompatibility issues with Firefox which caused freezing and crashing, which seemed slightly bizarre. They suggested using previous versions but it is always automatically updated, so that’s a non-starter.
I don’t know if this is relevant or not…
My wife picked up a bug over the weekend on her PC.
Same symptoms as yours, taking ages to boot up;
the added complications were that all the anti-virus tools locked up while scanning ( including Avast bootscan),
obviously being blocked by a bug of some sort.
So, after trying a system restore which did not solve problem, I had to do a complete re-format to its
factory state, which solved the problem.
I have since found out the bug came from trend-micro online scanner.
The bug was a backdoor hijacker which starts itself as soon as the machine is switched on, and communicates
to its host via the internet.
Very nasty, hope you haven`t got it too.
Pondus - I have been in contact with Richard from the Avast Support Centre and have provided him with the log of the Hijackthis scan. Still waiting to hear back.
Brigadier - I’ve just run an Avast Bootscan and 2 files have been flagged up as infected, and it wouldn’t allow me to repair or delete them. I still don’t know how this happened and just hope my bank account doesn’t end up being raided (unlikely as I use Barclays PINsentry).
Funnily enough, I have just invested in an external hard drive so as to be able to back up my data. I presume that I shouldn’t connect it up to my PC as any infections will also end up on that hard drive too?
I’ll have to see what Richard suggests, but I really hope I don’t have to reformat the PC because that was done for me by the supplier and I don’t want to lose all my data.
Ten years of being online and this is my first ever problem. I suppose I ought to be grateful it’s taken this long…
Pondus - I have been in contact with Richard from the Avast Support Centre and have provided him with the log of the Hijackthis scan. Still waiting to hear back.
I still don’t know how this happened and just hope my bank account doesn’t end up being raided (unlikely as I use Barclays PINsentry).