Am I being conned?

[Vagabond]

My laptop is running like a box of spanners. It takes ages to load anything, 4mb virgin broadband chuggs like a steam train, you tube video's stop after thirty seconds and other general annoyances happen constantly.

I've got free Zone Alarm and when I was updating it this morning it offered me a free PC health check. After five minutes of analysing it brought up numerous warnings about the state of the laptop. After clicking on the 'next' icon it took me onto their website which informed me that I should buy the advanced Zone Alarm package and Iola System Mechanic, this will cost about forty quid.

My quesion is, is this a ploy to flag up problems to get me to depart with my cash or is it worth it to get the laptop running as it should.

I'm a bit of a PC biff, any advice will be appreciated but please keep it simple.

Thanks.

 

[FOMz]

You're infected upto the nines mate, its malware. Telling you you've got a problem when you haven't. You then buy some software off the to remove the problem (computer up for ransom).

Yoy need some decent anti-virus. AVG is free and good, but I'm sure the other cyber geeks on here can tell you which to choose.

 

[monobrow]

Vagabond, I did the same when it asked me if I'd like to check up my computer....

As one of the resident geeks here, I keep my pooter in fairly good order yet there were "major problems" that the £40 program would sort for me.

If your having problems with speed though, Firstly I'd recommend this -> http://www.ccleaner.com/

Once installed, use the "Cleaner" button on the side, then "Run Cleaner". that will bin anything in the list with the ticks in.

Then click the "Registry" button. Scan for issues and then auto fix the lot. You can backup the regisrty if you want but in the x amount of years I've used it, it has never f*cked it up. auto fix all that $hite and your laptop should be a smidge speedier.

If it's still w@nk though, gimmie a shout and hopefully work out what the problem is.

 

[Past Engineering]

Vagabond I am on the same package as you and I find that Virgin medias PC Guard works well and is free, remove Zonealarm, it might be worth using Spybot and ADaware once and CCleaner is worth using. A word of warning with Ccleaner if you are a computer novice use the registry scan element carefully and initially save the registry before cleaning. But between all of the above it should help. Additionally if you go to PC Pitstop and run their free PC health check it might also give you a few ideas.

 

[Vagabond]

Cheers lads,

I've got Ccleaner, Avira anti-virus and zone-Alarm. Not got Spybot so will give that a go.

Does anyone know why Youtube or other videos will only play for about 30 seconds then stop?

 

[Vagabond]

Vagabond I am on the same package as you and I find that Virgin medias PC Guard works well and is free, remove Zonealarm, it might be worth using Spybot and ADaware once and CCleaner is worth using. A word of warning with Ccleaner if you are a computer novice use the registry scan element carefully and initially save the registry before cleaning. But between all of the above it should help. Additionally if you go to PC Pitstop and run their free PC health check it might also give you a few ideas.

Thanks mate.

 

[pie sandwich]

Mine also took an age to down load stuff and would also stop after about 20 - 30 sec of a you tube vid, they would be fine on my lap top, but moved house and now it works fine. Even with a slower bandwidth but with the same provider.

I do have Zone alarm, AVG, and have used Avast for the past few years, if any probs continue I would just go down pc world to buy the software, just never take your computer to them they are robbing mot**r f***ers.

 

[monobrow]

don't know much about Virgin's PC Guard, but if it acts like a firewall (as PE suggests) then that could be the problem. No computer likes running two firewalls at once!!!

 

[Past Engineering]

Monobrow:

PC Guard is a Firewall, Anti Virus, Anti Spyware, has identity theft protection, Pop up blocker, parental controls and Privacy manager (have no idea what this is yet). I agree with your comments about having more than one firewall that is why I mentioned removing Zonealarm (also applies to any others).

 

[Hammer and stillson]

I use evidence eliminator,its not for anything sinister but is a good program for removing all the unwanter crap that the internet with load up your HD with and its free.

 

[Past Engineering]

Hammer and stillson, I have just googled for Evidence Eliminator and can only find limited free trials, Shareware and Commercial versions with prices ranging from £16 to £100. I assume I am looking at the right ones.

 

[Ex-Bay]

I had this problem a while ago and discovered that Norton AV 2007 is not enough to clear all manner of cr*p that keeps popping up.

So I got Zone Alarm (the free version first). It's good, but can lead you up the garden path untill you get the hang of "trusted" sites. But it wasn't enough. A note on another forum suggested checking for "trackers" and things.

So I got AdAware (the free version).
Adaware is brilliant. But it doesn't sort out the problems left behind in the Registry.
So I got Uniblue "Registry Booster" (at $19 I figured it was worth buying).
It's magic (and had uSoft Seal of Approval [I've had trouble there on another occasion]). And it can also untangle (de-frag) the Registry.

The machine now runs like a bomb. I just wish that there was one bit of software that would do the bally lot!



DT_Xtremez_43:



Good Luck.

 

[CodeMonkey]

Monobrow is right in recommending the AVG + Zonealarm combo, personally(from many years of experience) Norton, well since about 2005 drags down pc's performance.

AVG also do an anti-spyware but if you have a legit XP then windows defender will work fine. You have to watch a lot of these package programs that do all, they often fail to do the job well enough and drag your PC down with it.

Also regular maintenance helps, ie defrag, remove temp files(windows is sh1t at this). As for identity theft etc if it looks to good to be true then it is, never reply to nigerian generals/south african ministries or even an email from your bank(don;t click on the links).

Also take the side off your PC and hover the fans once in a while it will get quieter and will last longer.

 

[Ex-Bay]

Also take the side off your PC and hoover the fans once in a while it will get quieter and will last longer.

How very true. It's worth checking the fans every now and again anyway. Following my own PSU problems, I fitted another fan in the case and it now runs sweet as a nut.

BTW, Mailwasher (the free version) is well worth it. It gives you the headers and you can select the stuff you want before it gets to your PC.

DT_Xtremez_15: