My sister called me for support the other day. Her laptop "wouldn't start" and she couldn't log in, according to her description. I got out the usual tools - a USB thumb drive with a toolbox of various cleaning, fixing, and antimalware utilities on it. She brought the system over for me to look at about 30 minutes later, gave me her password and left.
The machine was gross! Filthy with cigarette ashes, tar, food, and even a burn mark from a butt drop! She smokes heavily - and is supposed to quit someday - not soon enough for this poor laptop. I took the machine downstairs to the basement workshop where we have an air compressor, which we use mostly for power tools and pumping up car tires. I put on the air nozzle attachment and gave the machine more than a once over and removed layer upon layer of dirt. This process was followed by a clean up of the surfaces with some nice industrial-quality, but plastic friendly, cleaners, and once all was done the machine didn't look bad, albeit for the burn.
I noticed too that the keyboard wasn't seated properly so I pushed on that and it snapped back into place. I found out later her cat walked across the laptop and caught the corner of the keyboard with a foot when he jumped off.... Now on to the power up. It powered up fine, but her password wasn't accepted. I tried various things, but those wouldn't nudge it so finally I did a system restore, which brought the machine back to log in. Yay, that problem is fixed!
I then noticed that she had 65 pending Windows updates, but I wanted to remove any malware first because there were a gazillion pop-ups and adverts coming on. I installed Super AntiSpyware Professional free version, and let it run. And run it did for over 4-1/2 hours. In the process it removed nearly 5,000 malware things, including lots of PUPs, and spyware hooks, and some malware. Once that stuff was cleared, I then ran Malwarebytes, which found another 150 actual viruses, and then I ran I/O Bit's Advanced System care which did a registry cleanup, which also found stuff. The totally clean-up time was now goin on 6-1/2 hours and the Windows updates weren't done yet. Wondering why she had no malware protection installed? She did but it had expired because it was one of those trial versions of McAfee which come with most cheap home computers these days.
She came by a bit after that and I told her the progress, but b***'d at me for installing the Windows updates because she wanted to take her laptop then and there. She then said she never does the updates because they take too long, and she just shut her machine down during the last update. Bingo! This explains the corrupted password. So anyway.... I didn't release the laptop for another 2 hours as I let the Windows updates install. She then picked up her machine, and without even a thank you took it home.
I've dealt with other machines with large amounts of malware, but nothing like this, and not with the nasty attitude toward the person repairing the machine. With that I've come to the conclusion that some people don't deserve to own a computer.
John
The machine was gross! Filthy with cigarette ashes, tar, food, and even a burn mark from a butt drop! She smokes heavily - and is supposed to quit someday - not soon enough for this poor laptop. I took the machine downstairs to the basement workshop where we have an air compressor, which we use mostly for power tools and pumping up car tires. I put on the air nozzle attachment and gave the machine more than a once over and removed layer upon layer of dirt. This process was followed by a clean up of the surfaces with some nice industrial-quality, but plastic friendly, cleaners, and once all was done the machine didn't look bad, albeit for the burn.
I noticed too that the keyboard wasn't seated properly so I pushed on that and it snapped back into place. I found out later her cat walked across the laptop and caught the corner of the keyboard with a foot when he jumped off.... Now on to the power up. It powered up fine, but her password wasn't accepted. I tried various things, but those wouldn't nudge it so finally I did a system restore, which brought the machine back to log in. Yay, that problem is fixed!
I then noticed that she had 65 pending Windows updates, but I wanted to remove any malware first because there were a gazillion pop-ups and adverts coming on. I installed Super AntiSpyware Professional free version, and let it run. And run it did for over 4-1/2 hours. In the process it removed nearly 5,000 malware things, including lots of PUPs, and spyware hooks, and some malware. Once that stuff was cleared, I then ran Malwarebytes, which found another 150 actual viruses, and then I ran I/O Bit's Advanced System care which did a registry cleanup, which also found stuff. The totally clean-up time was now goin on 6-1/2 hours and the Windows updates weren't done yet. Wondering why she had no malware protection installed? She did but it had expired because it was one of those trial versions of McAfee which come with most cheap home computers these days.
She came by a bit after that and I told her the progress, but b***'d at me for installing the Windows updates because she wanted to take her laptop then and there. She then said she never does the updates because they take too long, and she just shut her machine down during the last update. Bingo! This explains the corrupted password. So anyway.... I didn't release the laptop for another 2 hours as I let the Windows updates install. She then picked up her machine, and without even a thank you took it home.
I've dealt with other machines with large amounts of malware, but nothing like this, and not with the nasty attitude toward the person repairing the machine. With that I've come to the conclusion that some people don't deserve to own a computer.
John
