computer virus

when I turned on my laptop today it was telling me that I had a very serious virus and that my files were in danger. I did have a macfree virus programme instaled I tried to down load another free anti virus software but could not do it. It is a dell computer . What is the best thing to do should I try the dell help line or is it not a problem for them .Should I take it in to a repair place or is this message just trying to get me to buy a new anti virus package.

coleen said:

should I try the dell help line or is it not a problem for them

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It's not really their problem. If your virus checker has some facility for booting off a recovery disk then you should try that. If you have not previously created a recovery disk then don't do it once the PC is infected. If may be necessary to try something else like intalling the drive in another PC and scanning it there but that's not an option for most novice users.

Was it your McAfee that was telling you it was infected with a virus or was is something in the taskbar ? There are some viruses/malware as that popup in the system tray saying your pc is infected and at risk etc and gets you to download more crap

If you post the exact message you received here or else try googling it with quotes around it you should find more or even a solution to the problem. As stated its unlikely that it is a dell problem. Also if you posted the reason the new free anti-virus didn't install someone might be able to help you.

Thanks for the replys. I took it to a friend and he did what clubman suggested and scanned it on another pc and he was able to fix it so panic over.

As a matter of interest has anyone (Window XP users only) ever tried using System Restore (Accessories - System Tools - System Restore) to roll their PC back in order to remove a particularly hard to remove virus / malware?

Hi,i had a few problems with my laptop a few months ago and had to use system restore,it worked a treat and no problems since.