Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 1/2/2008

Question
i have a laptop that i had taken in to get cleaned out and reinstalled Windows XP .. they charged me $120.00 .. for some reason it keeps freezing up and losing connection .. then i have to disable my connection as soon as i disable my connection .. a BLUE ERROR screen keeps popin up .. do you know how i can fix this .. someone told me that the people that done my PC might have installed a bad copy or Windows XP .

Answer
It sounds like your laptop got infected with the Blaster worm. If so, you can get a tool to remove it from http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2003-081119-5051-99

If this indeed does fix your computer, this probably means you don't have the XP firewall running, because Blaster only can get in if the firewall is off. What this probably also would mean is that those guys who charged you $120 failed to include the XP Service Pack 2 in the setup. If they had included it, then the XP firewall would have been turned on by default and Blaster could not have infected your computer. Here's how you can tell if this is what happened. Click start --> My computer -->Help --> About. This will show whether Service Pack 2 is installed. If it isn't, I suggest you tell the repair shop to refund your money or you will report them to the Better Business Bureau.

If the Blaster repair program didn't work, then we have a more serious problem. Contact me again and I'll give you instructions on how to do exactly what that repair shop did for that $120 -- it's not that hard!