hello

tigerclaw99

am a newbie here. expecting to find help for my Acer sleekbook touchscreen which is now disabled by a malware. I can only go as far as signing in my userid and password. then the malware freezes the screen with a threatening warning which does not go away but is stuck on the screen. my fault for not installing virus/malware protection after McAfee free trial expired.

 

finlux

Hi tigerclaw99

 

I'm presuming you have Windows 8.x?

 

Try booting up in safe mode, by restarting & continually tapping F8. This is notoriously difficult in Windows 8, so try a few times. If this fails to happen, then start your laptop then as soon as you see the Acer logo immediately switch off. Do this 3-4 times. This will initiate Automatic Repair. Once loaded select "Advanced options", "Troubleshoot", then "Advanced Options".

 

Now select "Start up Settings" then click "Restart". Your PC will boot into another menu. Select option "Safe mode".

 

If the virus isn't clever enough to start in Safe Mode, use task manager, and click on the option, bottom left that reads "More Details". Now Click the "Start-up" tab and disable every entry. You may wish to make a back up of all your documents/files etc while here.

 

Restart your laptop - it should now boot without the virus appearing. If nothing appears, download, update and run a full scan of Malwarebytes. When installing, untick/uncheck the free trial of the premium version. Once Malwarebytes has found your virus(es) you may need to restart. When done, uninstall McAfee and install a free Anti Virus, such as Avast, AVG etc from here. Then run a full AV scan.

 

Alternately, reinstall Windows from your recovery partition or media. This will wipe everything, but if you've backed up all your files/data, you can easily restore it later.

 

AND DON'T FORGET TO INSTALL ANTI-VIRUS AND ANTI MALWARE PROGRAMS!!!!!

 

 

tigerclaw99

Acer Finlux

 

Thanks a lot for your help. I hope your advice works.

If it does, i will give you my kudos!!!!!!!

finlux

Great!

 

Let us know how you get on

tigerclaw99

For a while, the malware was gone with no effort on my part. My sleekbook just run like breeze from swithing on.

Enjoyed it for a  while, but after one day of use, it just didn't work again. It can go only as far as the Acer logo, after that nothing (black background) but the arrow pointer.

 

 I tried to install virus protection (free McAfee) but I think it did not go through and it prompted me to install paid McAfee which I declined. I thought retaining the virus protection would be easier for my sleekbook, I didn't have to uninstall it. Otherwise, I could opt for AVG (free), which I was not able to do due to time constraints, when I switched it off. The next day when I switched it on, the above problem surfaced.

finlux

Have you tried booting into safe mode?

tigerclaw99

Hi finlux,

 

I could not even have a screen show; there's nothing on the screen but blank darkness with the pointer that could move about the screen after the Acer logo goes off. Much less to a safe mode. Is there a way to reset the sleekbook and start anew?

finlux

Accessing Safe Mode is done from the point of switching on - tapping the F8 key continually. You can also try to "force" the repair menu by switching off & on, usually around 4 times.

 

As for reinstalling Windows & starting anew, if the recovery menu is not working (ALT & F10) then try booting from the USB recovery stick (if you made one, that is!)

 

If you're still covered by warranty, then contact Acer support for your region.