Quick PC help needed!!
Discussion
I'm at a bit of a loss here, need some help!
Just had my mum on the phone in a mad panic - she's doing a load of work on her computer, which has broadband with a good external firewall, and has a good antivirus, anti spam etc.
All of a sudden MS word starts typing away all by itself?! it's mostly gobbledeegook sentances made up of real words?!
In her state of panic she pulled the ADSL connection out the wall, (well done her!!) BUT word continues to do it now whatever, just sits there typing away to itself! Of course it would happen when she needs to get something done urgently and my office is too far from her home to pop over
I'm thinking virus, but not heard of one that would do this. I've got her running anti-virus at the moment but wondered if anyone had any idea's?!
Just had my mum on the phone in a mad panic - she's doing a load of work on her computer, which has broadband with a good external firewall, and has a good antivirus, anti spam etc.
All of a sudden MS word starts typing away all by itself?! it's mostly gobbledeegook sentances made up of real words?!
In her state of panic she pulled the ADSL connection out the wall, (well done her!!) BUT word continues to do it now whatever, just sits there typing away to itself! Of course it would happen when she needs to get something done urgently and my office is too far from her home to pop over
I'm thinking virus, but not heard of one that would do this. I've got her running anti-virus at the moment but wondered if anyone had any idea's?!
Keeping it offline is a fantastic response, in all seriousness. Should be everyone's first response to finding things a little odd. I am still serious. Unplugging local (LAN) connection would also be very wise.
Next step is to get recent anti-virus scanners and to run multiple different anti-spyware things. Download the latest stuff on a known clean PC and burn to cd to transfer to the other one. I'd do at a minimum at least 3 or 4 of each type of thing...
HTH
Ciao
Zak
Next step is to get recent anti-virus scanners and to run multiple different anti-spyware things. Download the latest stuff on a known clean PC and burn to cd to transfer to the other one. I'd do at a minimum at least 3 or 4 of each type of thing...
HTH
Ciao
Zak
Sounds like a Word macro virus to me. Best thing to do is use an RTF document (because macros aren't supported for that format) and type away in there. Be aware that continuing to use .docs will spread the macro virus around, so creating a new .rtf document is step 1. Get your work done in that format and then look at fixing the problem.
If the random words keep appearing in the .rtf then it's not a macro virus, and you'll love this, is the "alternative user input" Speech enabled for Word? Easiest thing is to disable it through office shared features> alternative user input> speech - make it Not Available. I had it years ago where the microphone was set to mute but Word still insisted on putting in ghost words. The bag of crap that it is.
HTH
If the random words keep appearing in the .rtf then it's not a macro virus, and you'll love this, is the "alternative user input" Speech enabled for Word? Easiest thing is to disable it through office shared features> alternative user input> speech - make it Not Available. I had it years ago where the microphone was set to mute but Word still insisted on putting in ghost words. The bag of crap that it is.
HTH
nothing malicious just bloody annoying.it's into a wired router, I've never trusted wireless so I refused to install it for them!!
several search and destroy apps later and no virus' turned up, so I asked her to check if anything was unusual about the PC - got her to go through a few screens, she has said there is a, and I quote, "funny toolbar type thingy that I dont recall seeing before" but trying to get her to describe it is next to hopeless I asked if it mentioned mic on it anywhere, and she thinks it might?!
Looks like I'm going to be going for a drive me thinks...
several search and destroy apps later and no virus' turned up, so I asked her to check if anything was unusual about the PC - got her to go through a few screens, she has said there is a, and I quote, "funny toolbar type thingy that I dont recall seeing before" but trying to get her to describe it is next to hopeless
I asked if it mentioned mic on it anywhere, and she thinks it might?! Looks like I'm going to be going for a drive me thinks...
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