Virus or something

[Nicki]

Fat fingered husband used computer. Hit wrong key (or multiple keys simultaneously) and laptop has been acting weird ever since. Could potentially be a Virus or malware... Not sure where to start.

 

[Paul Haywood]

What operating system are you running?

 

[holdum323]

Hi Could you give us a little more information? What make and Model. What OS? What do you mean been acting weird?
Do you know how to restore to a different time?Sense I don't know your computer skills here's a link.
https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-system-restore-2626022

 

[holdum323]

Hey @Paul Haywood. Welcome to this thread. Team work is good.

 

[Nicki]

Hi Could you give us a little more information? What make and Model. What OS? What do you mean been acting weird?
Do you know how to restore to a different time?Sense I don't know your computer skills here's a link.
https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-system-restore-2626022

Window 10. Old Dell Laptop Inspiron15 3531. Things are loading very slowly or won't load at all. Documents won't print - meaning I sent it to the printer and paper comes out but there is no ink. I send the same document to a different printer and same thing. I send the same document from a different computer to the same two printers and it prints fine. Have not done a backup in a while...my bad

 

[Nicki]

I have run Norton, JRT, TFC, CCleaner ADWCleaner and Malwarebytes. Nothing came up except some cookies.

I have been through the Virus Protocol on this site a couple of times before with Broni. I think this computer is prone to virus/malware sorts of issues as it is a shared computer - up to 4 people use it - and I cannot monitor everyone all the time.

This last incident was my husband reaching for the ESC button but hit the ON/OFF instead and perhaps a few other buttons at the same time. It has not been the same since. I managed to get it turned back on and then ran all the scans I mentioned above. It seemed slower but otherwise okay then the printing stuff started happening.

 

[holdum323]

Hi @Nicki. W10 has many ways to recover. Start with restoring to a earlier time like I suggested in my reply.
Here's some more great links.
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-windows-vista-system-restore/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options

 

[holdum323]

I have run Norton, JRT, TFC, CCleaner ADWCleaner and Malwarebytes. Nothing came up except some cookies.

Hi. Those are all great malware scanners. Good to know they didn't find any malware.
PS I have one more favorite malware scanner you might want to add in your arsenal of malware scanners.
https://www.eset.com/int/home/online-scanner/

 

[holdum323]

Hi @Nicki . Are you aware of the repair in place for W10? Here's link from Shawn Brink.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html
PS I'll do my best to help you with your problem. Please post the things you have tried so I don't repeat them on a reply.

 

[Paul Haywood]

Here's a video on using the media creation tool....even though holdum323's post contains the same thing.

 

[holdum323]

Hi! IMHO A repair in place is like reinstalling W10 over the top. You shouldn't lose any thing except some Windows updates. I have used it a couple of times with good results. If all else fails, there's always a reset or a clean install. I love a clean install every so often, but it's a lot of work LOL.
Let us know how things go.