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| Thread ID: 98547 | 2009-03-28 21:03:00 | major problem with laptop after downloading winrar | deno240 (13664) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 760281 | 2009-03-29 10:57:00 | Little update - the command prompt didn't work, it just restarted on it's own again. She said she had chose "Safe mode with command prompt" and a black screen came up, she typed in what #6 (blam) said, then all these letters and numbers appeared and disappeared within 3 seconds, computer restarted, then it was back to square one. She couldn't do system restore! She is in going to take it into a pc place on Tuesday since I don't think she's able to fix the problem herself. | deno240 (13664) | ||
| 760282 | 2009-03-29 11:37:00 | Sounds like its overheating, pull apart clean dust. | Rob99 (151) | ||
| 760283 | 2009-03-31 09:27:00 | Just a little update, the computer is stable again as she had a computer person come "fix it" , he got it up and running again but for some odd reason, her virus and malware scanners etc were all deleted, she's downloaded them all again.. her computer still freezes all the time though and crashes! So the guy didn't really fix it like he said he did, he just got it going again. he said it could have been something to do with the memory (???) | deno240 (13664) | ||
| 760284 | 2009-03-31 09:54:00 | Sounds like a dodgy download... All the downloads of pc doctor-related software were zip's or exe's. A .rar is generally a pirated download. I'd be curious to know exactly how it was found, to be honest I dont think it was from a trustworthy source :( WinRAR itself doesnt cause the issues, but the files it opens can. The only places I could (With quick Googl'ing) see that offer anything pc-doctor related in a rar file were not legit download sites, and most probably included malware / trojans & more... Either that, or Im with Rob99 and it might be overheating CPU or faulty memory. Two things you can try: www.memtest.org MemTest86+ will test the RAM and make sure its not faulty www.lavalys.com EVEREST Ultimate Edition will display temperatures of the CPU down in the system tray by the clock, if they get over 65 then make a note, otherwise we can rule that out also. Good luck ;) |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 760285 | 2009-03-31 10:19:00 | It was downloaded from bt -- little did she know it wasn't legit. But she downloaded winrar from the official site. She uninstalled utorrent, so it probably was a virus or something similar coming from that site! The problem didn't occur until she tried to install winrar. Don't think it's the CPU as she would feel it getting hot, but she said it's just warm, like it always has been.. | deno240 (13664) | ||
| 760286 | 2009-03-31 19:46:00 | Bingo! Ladies and gentlemen we have a winner! ;) Basically because of where the downloads came from, thats the most likely cause: Malicious software of some description included in the torrent. Unless WinRAR was downloaded from rarlabs.com (I'd guess she downloaded it also via bittorrent) then it was also quite likely a fake. One of those two was to say the least. Unfortunately the moral of the story here is: Dont download pirated stuff through torrents Sites like the one you mentioned (Which Ive removed from the post because when I went there to see it had pr0n Ads) are generally bad news and full of similar poisoned torrents. Also, she wouldnt feel the CPU getting hot, its just a single component inside the case of her PC which you never actually touch, however the general temperature of the case could increase by a couple of degrees just as room temperature would change between day / night ;) That said, if we can help her get her PC back up and running, by all means we'll try :) |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
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