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Resolved Question

Maybe a virus?

Aug 5, 2011 4:58PM PDT

I have just built me a beautiful new computer. It's been working great for 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I now have a problem. The OS is Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. I discovered that AVG, which I normally love, was keeping my email client (EverDesk) from operating because of a false positive. I uninstalled AVG and then tried to install Windows Defender. It installed fine, but didn't start up because it needed to download updates. No problem. I sat and waited, and waited, and waited...

After about an hour and a half, I decided that this wasn't going well at all and I stopped the download, uninstalled Windows Defender and tried to install Panda instead. I hate leaving my computer unprotected for even a minute, and this was just taking things too far. I never did get Panda installed. It was downloading too slowly. I stopped that download and reset my gateway.

When I restarted my computer, my mouse worked for a few seconds and then stopped. I discovered that my keyboard was also dead. I had to hold the power button in to shut down.

Here is what I have done, and what the results have been:

First, I restarted the computer. I got the same results as before.

I tried to boot off of my Acronis recovery CD, but the keyboard and mouse didn't work so it was useless.

I reset my BIOS. No difference.

I hunted down a PS2 keyboard. This one works. I reinstalled Windows 7 (to get everything clear) and then restored a backup from Monday. The mouse and keyboard worked when I was in the newly installed Windows environment, but as soon as I restored a backup that worked great before, the problem returned.

I went into safe mode and ran all of my scans on the full computer. Nothing was found.

When I start Windows up, the mouse and my keyboard, as well as my fingerprint scanner, work just fine at the welcome screen. Once I log in, though, the mouse stops working after a few seconds and the fingerprint scanner shows a warning that it is unplugged. I hear two of those "remove hardware" noises, as it I were taking out flash drives. The PS2 keyboard works, but my USB keyboard will not.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Denise

Discussion is locked

4Denise has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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That's not a virus
Aug 5, 2011 11:24PM PDT

That's not a virus, sounds like you have some kind of issue with your software. So try reinstalling Windows again, and then don't restore anything from a backup. Do it all the hard way. Just to save yourself some time, only install the bare minimum you'd need to make it through a couple of days. Make sure you format the drive too, not just install over top of an already broken install.

Also, Windows Defender is a standard component of Windows 7 and is NOT a virus scanner. It's a rather poor malware scanner, which is a completely different class of threat compared to a virus. Trojans and worms are also two individual threat classifications, even though they often get lumped together. Microsoft Security Essentials is Microsoft's virus scanner.

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I am going to have to
Aug 6, 2011 5:00AM PDT

I am doing a clean install now. Your correction is right. It was Security Essentials. I was really hoping to avoid a clean install, since I'm attending college online and I'm right in the middle of a research paper, but I might as well get to it or my paper won't ever get written. I hate typing on my laptop!

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I still don't know what was!
Aug 7, 2011 12:42PM PDT

I wound up having to remove my battery and reset the BIOS, then immediately boot from a CD and overwrite the entire drive with 0s to wipe it out (formatting did no good). I unplugged my other two hard drives and then reinstalled, using only the absolute necessities. I am currently rebuilding my system. I have a few possibilities: the most likely one, a corrupt driver. Malware from a recent program installation is another. The least likely is that the BIOS itself or the master boot record was corrupted. When I open up my computer and plug my other drives back in, I will immediately delete a couple of files that were newly installed when the problem started, just in case. At least I have eliminated my worst fear-- I was afraid that my beautiful (and expensive) new baby had a hardware problem. Thanks to both of you for your prompt answers.

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Answer
It maybe something else
Aug 5, 2011 11:52PM PDT

It seems you had the same issue as I. I suggest you totally remove AVG and disable the firewall but enable windoze firewall. Make sure you back online and get all the OS updates before anything else. Then get the WD updates.

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Thanks!
Aug 6, 2011 5:01AM PDT

That is very useful information.