HELP!

[obsessedwithlij.livejournal.com]

This may end up as a cross-post, depending if anyone answers.
I don't know where to post this so maybe this is the place to post it(ignore typos im really really tired). I have the worse computer ever, I've tried anti-virus' like norton but it messed up my computer even more. it foudn the love you bug virus and then it kept searching while booting up and getting it, it took forever to un-install and when i did it messed up alot of things on my computer (such as my internet, for hotmail i cant delete ANYTHING without opening the thing up and hitting delete. i get about 70 spam mail a day and 25 real emails a day, yes 25.) and then anyways, its a really bad computer and i dont wanna take it into the shop because they over charge you and my cousin knows alot about computers but my parents keep on bitching at me about asking him because its not right, and i see him at the end of the year at the family reunion for x-mas, i may see him sooner but not at my house. the reunion is at my house this year, so yeah i get to see him. i also tried to reboot my whole machine but it always freezes at the screen that asks if you want to reinstall the computer, or the programs that came with the compiter (ie: microsoft works or something). oh yeah, i have a HP Pavillion Windows 1998. and i reinstalled my whole computer before. i tried defragmenting but that never ever works, the farthest it made was like 37 percent, and i made sure no one touched the computer or anything, ive had the computer for about 2 years or so, maybe 3. um, yeah norton anti virus 2003 messed it up (waste of 50 bucks, huh?) and well, i need help, should i post more about my computer? maybe, it freezes alot and its slow and everything, i cant uninstall alot of stuff like winamp ( i dont use it) because it says that theres a virus, and i dont dare install norton until i go on a vacation (to leave the computer on as it scans the files to be virus free) and then i can do that, the vacation is in 2 weeks. on the normal internet ( i use realplayers web broswer) it freezes for a bit when i post any forms or something, like if i go to google.com and type something like "South Park" itll take about 2 minutes before it finally does anything, so i use real player which doesn't have that problem in the browser. ive tried so many times to reinstall the computer but nothing works, ive taken apart a computer ONCE but that was at a camp, and i dont know what one is the hard drive itsself or anything so i cant do that, and i as i said the computer store i refuse to go to (hey they may read some very personal documents! ) so, yeah, i cant do anything becuase my computer is so messed up, so someone PLEASE help me, i swear to GOD you will be my god and i will love you soooooooooooooooooooooooo much, ill make a post on my LJ about this and if you can help me, post there, or post here (ill check back every now and then) so please help me, please please PLEASE!. its kinda long so i put it in lj cut for you

Comments

[chickenfart.livejournal.com]

I can't force myself to read that until you seperate it into paragraphs.

[obsessedwithlij.livejournal.com]

Do it yourself. Copy it into word, highlight it and double space it yourself.

[chickenfart.livejournal.com]

Not worth the trouble, and using word to "double space" it is not what I mean by seperating into paragraphs.

[liquidmercurial.livejournal.com]

I agree with the paragraph thing. But I actually took the time to try read it, and I can't help but picturing an eleven year old child writing this.

If you won't take it to the computer shop, then find a good home for it, with someone else. Then ask your parents for a new computer.

[obsessedwithlij.livejournal.com]

I'm not 11. Using age as an insult? Is that suppose to hurt? No, not really. It's kind of pathetic.

[daerlyn.livejournal.com]

This is for this comment and your response to the one above it:

You want help, but you can't be bothered to make your request legible? No one here is under any requirement to to help you, so the least you could do is make it a little easier. These responses both strike me as fairly immature, and I think eleven was probably a good estimate. No one was trying to insult you, merely stating how things look from this end.

[obsessedwithlij.livejournal.com]

I say you hit the tanning booth for about 6 hours. No, I'm not 11. And I didn't know it was going to be all crunched together like that. Right after I posted that I went to bed, so, I wouldn't have the fucking time to do that. And no one asked you to bitch at me about what you think, because frankly, I don't care what you think. And someone helped me, thats all I asked for. Not for someone to bitch at me. If it was so hard to read you both could've done what I told the first person to do. Or maybe you could've just read it and saved a lot of time for both of us. Who cares if I'm immature? I'm still a teen, yes, a teen. I'm suppose to be. And I'm proud

[wildkard.livejournal.com]

for whatever reason, the virus seems to have spread all over and is messing around with various parts of your system.

I suggest looking in the Norton logs to make sure it only ever detected the one virus... as well as to get the official name of what Norton call it and look it up on their website's Virus Dictionary. (I think it is http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/vbs.loveletter.cl@mm.html but I can't be sure)

You can try running FULL scans with an updated Norton Antivirus List (visit http://www.symantec.com/downloads/ or use the program's Liveupdate) or another antivirus program (it's possible that Norton's been more than a little wrecked by this as well... a fresh install of it or another AV program altogether might be best).

The Reinstall Method
If that doesn't clear things up, then you have what techsupport calls a mess. A real pain to clean up. Most people would advise you at this point to:

backup what user-data (files made or added by you or your family) you have onto blanks cds, the internet or even floppies. For many people that's /My Documents/ , savegames, mp3s...

Make a list of programs you have on your computer that you'll need to install again

Get out your HP Restore CD and run it. This will basically erase everything on your computer and reinstall it to the exact point you had it when it was 'new'. That means the same programs it came with running and nothing more.

Install your programs one-by-one from the list. Starting with the Antivirus would be a good idea ;)

Move the "user-data" back from cds/floppies/whatever

Now that's the drastic way. Certainly there are ways to clean things up without going to 'all that trouble' of a fresh install. The thing is that there will be brand new troubles of trying to figure out Are files failing? Under what conditions? Are they corrupt or modified? How can I be sure the registry is intact?
Virus cleaning can be a troublesome task. Especially if the virus was misidentified by the AV program (it happens sometimes) or multiple virri are involved. It's a lot of work for anyone to go over all the files on the computer and make sure nothing is changed so that it crashes or whatnot. Which is why a lot of people will just tell you to RESTORE... it's a lot easier on the brain.

[obsessedwithlij.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. I'll do that all later today.

[oddball42.livejournal.com]

the fact it wont defragment would suggest to me there is issues on the HD that would suggest a start from 0 approach is kind of needed. and with virii out there it could mean that she does need to get that drastic. if the system were left for me to work on its what i would likely do.