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How are you getting on with all this??

Hi Lara
Thanks for asking. Have found a local geek - uni student recommended to me - who's going to take a look at the laptop later today. Have been checking out the links everyone posted (thanks) and don't feel I have enough tech skills to deal with this alone. Also into day 3 of bad headache so struggling to deal with stuff -throw in second day of frozen water pipes and I'm just about ready to move to Brissie! Will post back later how I get on today.

Great idea to get someone to help.
Don't move here this week. They reckon it is going to snow a little out west this week in Qld. :eek: True story but it's rather funny as I'm still in bare feet and I always say that there'll be something seriously wrong with the planet if it snows here. [p.s. if it snows out in the granite belt, we'll be taking a day trip so my daughter can see snow for the first time in her life. Doubt it will happen though.]
Sorry to make light of your freezing weather. Keep warm and I hope you're feeling better fast and have that computer clean as a whistle very soon.

Spent an hour yesterday with the computer geek – who looked all of 16 yrs old, but is actually in his 2nd year of a computer science degree – and has his own website design/hosting company to fund his way through uni. Fortunately I found him back at home in our small town on a break from studies.

He put my laptop into safe mode, ran several scans, reviewed the source code of the supposed threats, checked the registry system etc. No threats were found by any other scan programs. His conclusion was that the trojan threats reported by AVG were 'false positives' generated when I installed the 2015 version of AVG. On the AVG website forum there are other users discussing the same problem. I can't help but wonder if these IRP Hook Rootkit threats are a 'scare' to get free AVG users to upgrade to the premium or maybe they are just a bug in AVG's anti-virus program?

He checked my security and said that it was up to date and adequate and recommended not to change anything, but to monitor the AVG scans, and to keep running regular Malwarebytes scans and see if anything changes. (Other users have reported that the threats sometimes just disappear after a while). Here's hoping!

For all this help he only wanted to charge me $25.00 – if I'd taken it to the repair shop it would have been $50 minimum - and I wouldn't have learnt anything myself. We've also arranged to do some tutoring sessions at a later date on essential computer 'housekeeping' - I can remember the basics but due to illness have forgotten details learnt years ago and there's so much new stuff.

However he did also tell me that at the tender age of 5 years my laptop is officially 'old' - the new hard drive will extend it's life but to expect other things to start breaking down.
Time to start saving for an Apple me thinks. :rolleyes:

PS: Did it snow Lara?

Well that was really a very good $25 investment. :)
Good news for now.

No snow in Qld as far as I know. Not really cold enough although there's a gale blowing. Not long awake but checked the weather bureau and only warnings for Qld are for the safety of lambs and sheep. :) True story, so they must be expecting sleet or something out there in the west. Time will tell.

Glad to hear that you had it all checked out and that you can use your computer safely again.

Keep warm there.

Yeah thanks Lara
He really was a good kid - I'd heard that when he was in high school he used to help "technically challenged" older ladies with computer problems just for a donation. (although I hate to admit it I think I fall into that category :p )

You have lambs and sheep in Qld? - and here's me thinking it was all kangaroos and alligators. :D

We've another frosty morning but I solved the frozen water pipe problem by leaving a tap dripping overnite - as the pressure gradually falls the water pump kicks in automatically and water's pushed through the pipe. One nice thing about the frosts is an incredibly beautiful fine day after - not a cloud in the sky yesterday - still only got to 10 C though.

Ha Ha! A nation built on wheat and sheep. Gone are those days.
No alligators but lots of crocs. ;) Not the ones people wear on their feet either.

I've heard about that running water through the pipes to stop them freezing from my friends here at NT who live in frozen places each winter.

brrrrr, shivering just thinking about it.
Sun is out and clear day here too ... for now.
People out there surfing as usual I see. Ocean is much warmer than the ground temp.

They were praying for snow, hail, rain… anything in Cardiff, but it didn't come:D

Dave.

LOL Dave. :)

You win some, you lose some.
As long as everyone plays fair, that's all that matters.... isn't it? Not sure. ;)