Expert: Brian Benosky - 9/15/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi Brian I hope you can help i,m not very computer literate so bear with me on my windows xp IBM think pad a pop up saying symatic keeps coming up when i click on it as it tells me to do windows shuts down and I can,t connect to the Internet>Please could you help me get rid of this virus bearing in mind I cannot connect to the Internet hope you can help me Regards Rosemary

ANSWER: Hello Rosemary

I'm not sure that this is a virus.  Please tell me the exact message of the pop-up.  It's possible your problem may be hardware related, but we'll do some troubleshooting to get the internet going again after we figure out how to stop the pop-up.

Brian

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Brian the message said symantic system alert someone has tried to change your settings click on ok and this should fix the problem when i click on ok the computer shuts down Regards Rosemary

Answer
Hi Rosemary

Try starting the computer in Safe Mode.  After you power on, but before Windows loads, keep tapping the F8 key until a black screen with a menu appears.  Choose to Start Windows in Safe Mode With Networking.  Log on to your usual account and let me know if the message appears and if you are able to access the internet.  If you are, download HijackThis to your desktop from here:
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HJTInstall.exe
Double-click on the file you just downloaded.
Click on the "Install" button.
Upon install, HijackThis should open for you.
Choose 'Do a system scan and save a log file'.
Copy the text file which opens in Notepad and paste it into a follow-up here.

Brian