[possum220]

Heads up non techie person here.

I have an ASUS laptop that I bought in 2010. It has been great. Sadly I can not even use it any more as it is telling me that I have downloaded some hardware or software that is blocking Microsoft from opening it at all. The computer is telling me that I need to remove the hardware/software. I haven,t installed anything that I know of. So my first question is has Microsoft spat the dummy with people who haven’t upgraded to Microsoft 10 and rendered it useless or have I been hacked?

Or is my laptop too old?

I did hang up on a wannabe hacker weeks ago and nothing happened but now I am beginning to wonder if they got in another way. Any advice would be helpful.

[Sometimes psychotic]

You could have a virus or some equivalent....Microsoft hasn’t done anything to old operating systems.....I still have an old netbook on XP for example, but since XP is no longer supported it has lots of unpatched vulnerabilities to viruses and the like. Sometimes visiting a malicious website is enough.

Do you have a recovery disk or usb drive? Can you just overwrite and reinstall Windows ?

[possum220]

I have been visiting a few places lately that I have never been to before. Normally Idont tend to look at a whole lots of pictures etc so it could be a virus. Avira popped up and it did seems to have an issue with a glarysoft program. It spat the dummy with that and erased a few of its files. Might have to check in with my brother to see if he can fixit.

Not seen a patch Tuesday from windows for ages. It has moved on from windows 7. Might need to upgrade to Microsoft 10. I think my brother knows about a recovery disk or a hard drive thingy for my lap top. Thanks for the help sometimes psychotic.

[amandalouise]

my older computer also doesnt work right. short version windows is no longer sending updates to the windows programs not windows 10, because of not receiving the updates to keep windows operating on my older computers I keep getting software problems that wont allow the computer to work right including its firewall and other security programs no longer work right because the version of windows on that computer no longer has what it needs to open, download and protect it right.

I ended up taking it in to a computer place, they found all kinds of stuff that I did not download on it that automatically downloaded when I was surfing the net on outdated operating system that was no longer getting the updates to make it work right and protect it. after I paid much money to get it cleaned out and windows 10 operating system on that computer it now works ok and like it should.

my suggestion take it to a computer repair person who can clean out all those auto downloads and stuff that may have invaded your computer and have windows 10 installed.

[Gus1234U]

there are 3 excellent and free 'virus cleaners' available to download and run. i use McAfee, there is a free version , and now it has "TOOLS" ,, which will check all the blah blah you don't know about. also, an Excellent reamer of malware and ransomware is MalwareBytes. the 2 week trial version runs in real time, but after that you have to remember to clean your machine anytime you go surfing.

here are some links:

https://home.mcafee.com/root/landing...mtp&affid=1316

https://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/...ols/index.aspx

https://www.google.com/search?q=malw...hrome&ie=UTF-8

P.S. if you are running a windows system, you might look for "Extensions" in your menu (3 dots at the top right) and put up AdBlockPlus.

good luck and safe surfing~!

[possum220]

There is a good place to take it to around here to get it cleaned up. Probably do need to upgrade it to windows 10 so that there is more support.

I have noticed lately that there has been heaps of ads popping up. Probably not helped that I have an iPad that seems to attract a whole lot of ads and I have no idea how to protect that. Different Apps on the iPad but somehow the info finds its way onto my laptop.

Not having access to my games on the laptop is making me aware that I spend a lot of time on the computer. Kind of struggling more with life. The games make a good distraction.

[possum220]

Got my laptop fixed. A software program issued a false positive on threats and quarantined them.
Naughty program. It is now gone and hopefully will be more user friendly.