Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 1/29/2008

Question
Ok, here is my issue: First off I have my CPU running like crazy and not sure of all the items in the list, but get alot of red in the charting. Next, I have purchased Norton 2008 and since I keep getting pop ups and a malware thing trying to scan my computer constantly. And thirdly, *sigh* I am unable to backup my laptop and the Backup utilities both Acer and NTI give me a corrupt file notice and unable to run, telling me to reinstall the disk, my laptop came with it preinstalled. I have an Acer Aspire 5040/ XP pro OS, and am also about to send off to get another repair on the LCD as it is going again after less than a year owning it! Any assistance or point in the right direction is most appreciated. Thanks a million in advance!
Donna Larsen a Frustrated online student!

Answer
You are in luck because I own an Acer Aspire and I just got it back from repair -- it needed a new motherboard.

I had the same problem you had, couldn't use the DVD burner to back up my data before sending it in for repair. I solved the problem by buying one of those USB hard drives and copying everything to it. You can get one with over 100 gigabytes of storage for only a little over $100. These are much faster than DVD burning so I use mine for frequent backups, then the DVD burner for off site backups.

Anyhow, I know exactly what Acer repair probably will do, they reformat the hard drive and reinstall the operating system if you complain about anything they hope might be spyware/virus etc. They did this to my computer even though I complained of hardware problems. So you can save yourself having to reinstall the system on your drive yourself. Just be sure to complain of the corrupt file notices. It wil come back entirely clean of security threats.

Now to get your computer going again without getting reinfected.

1) Don't connect it to the Internet until you get your security programs installed. If your Norton 2008 didn't include antispyware and a firewall, I strongly recommend that you buy the newest complete security version from a computer store so you install it from a CD. Then when you get online, first thing make sure it downloads all the updates while keeping its firewall.

2) Don't wait for all the Microsoft security updates, as Norton should protect you. Besides, Microsoft Automatic Update could take days to give you all you need. Instead, download the FIrefox browser free from mozilla.org. Use it instead of IE because IE is horrible about installing spyware. If you have been using Outlook, get Thunderbird instad, free from Mozilla.org or Eudora, free from Eudora.com.

3) You can load back in your data and reinstall your programs as Norton will protect you now.

Have fun!