Any Geeks out there?

[hdrider82]

On 10-6-12 we brought my girlfriends lap top into Best Buy for service. Now done by the Geek Squad. Well,,,, Best Buy bought the Geek Squad name. The lap top was running slow and acting up. With that said I will tell you the lap top is 7 years old. Running slow,,,, lol. She called them today and was told that they are running scans for the virus she has. They don't know what virus it is but are sure she have one. She asked what anti-virus they use and was told that they have special software. They would not give her any answer on that one. She had just got Kaspersky for her lap top. No virus came up on any scans. Used AVG before going to Kaspersky. OK,,, after almost 10 days of running scans does this fall into the area of "How many ways can you spell BS"!!! They are lost and don't want to say so??? Also,,, do you guys have different anti-virus programs then we can buy??? Can't I just wipe the hard drive clean and start over. I would think that would be the easy fix. Thanks for your time.

[speedfoos]

Turbo nerd here.

Yes, just wipe and start over. There probably is no virus at all but they simply don't know how to explain to you that the hard drive is possibly failing or an area of the RAM is "glitchy", for lack of a better term. Computers do slow down over time due to multiple reasons. I've got a 2-year old budget laptop I bought at Wal-Mart and that thing has slowed way down lately and I don't know why. I even wiped it and installed Linux on it (a very light OS) and its still slow. Such is life.

Without throwing a lot of money at your laptop in the hopes of making it perform like a brand new 7-year old computer, you're better wiping the slate clean and starting over. Re-format, throw AVG or Kaspersky back on there and call it a day.

[BOUTYM]

Wiping it is certainly an option, but if it's 7 years old it's probably accumulated a ton of orphaned registry entries, temp files (if they aren't cleaned out regularly) and other unnecessary stuff (stuff is a technical term). There are a number of things that can contribute to a slow machine and they aren't all virus or malware/spyware related. Could be a failing hard drive slowing it down. Also could be recently added software. In other words, there's no easy answer with the information given. Kind of like trying to diagnose an engine noise through email.

As to Geek Squad, well... sometimes you get what you pay for. I've had quite a few Geek Squaders come in for interviews who were trying to move up in the world and most every case they didn't have the knowledge to run with the big dogs. Many had ComSi degrees (which is for sh!t in the real world) and went to work for Geek Squad hoping to get some experience. As is the case with most technical professions, 1 out of 100 are worth a sh!t at what they do.

My personal opinion for a 7 year old laptop is to either wipe it or better yet, put it out to pasture. A new one will be quite a bit faster than the one you have even if it's running right.

[Waffen]

Use Microsoft Security Essentials for your virus program. It's free and works pretty darn good.

W

[<G Man>]

I agree with what everyone has said here also.

Bottom line, anything you do will be lipstick on a pig. If you place a dollar value on your time, you will be much better off buying a new machine.

If no $ for that, wiping clean would be the next best option. If you do that, be sure you have anything important backed up (photos, music, email, etc..). It could turn out that there is a hardware issue as has been mentioned, a clean install will make a little difference, but it won't fix hardware.

For future reference, on any machine, regular defragmenting of the hard drive will make a big difference in combating the normal "slowdown" that happens over time. Windows has a built in utility, but I like to use an add-on like Perfectdisk or Diskkeeper.

BTW, the "Geek Squad" is BSing you for sure!

[Rendell]

Step away from the the geek squad.
Yep, wipe it, reload and MS security essentials.. 20 years of being a professional nerd..

[Jeff53404]

Time to upgrade: If you're using a PC, go with Windows 7 and regularly use System Image Backup. Then, if you ever get into a problem situation, you can easily restore from the system image backup. For this, you will either need an external drive or many DVDs for the backup. Restoring or rebuilding a drive from original discs, plus updates, is a nightmare and very time consuming. I've rarely had good luck with restore points and all the anti-virus programs mentioned are good.

Now, before I do something that may cause problems, I run the backup program and give the file a date and time. Then, if I experience problems, I just restore.

[Road King Cole]

If you do wipe and reload. Double make sure you have EVERYTHING backed up to restore. ESPECIALLY the wifes stuff!!!!!

don't ask...

rkc

[Danglide]

wipe it and install Ubuntu linux!..or else install Ubuntu to run alongside windows.the computer will be much faster.and no virii.

also,it's free.only reason to run windows these days would be for games.

www.ubuntu.com

[BOUTYM]

Originally Posted by Danglide

wipe it and install Ubuntu linux!..or else install Ubuntu to run alongside windows.the computer will be much faster.and no virii.

also,it's free.only reason to run windows these days would be for games.

www.ubuntu.com

One of those Linux guys eh? While I'll give you Linux is lighter and faster, it isn't for your average PC user that have been with Windows since touching a PC. To this day I don't recommend Linux on the desktop. It can be overwhelming to the average user to have to learn something else, especially how the file structure works. Not to mention the Windows UI is years ahead of any Linux rendition I've ever seen. Linux for special use servers, fine. Desktops, not so much.

[Danglide]

Originally Posted by BOUTYM

One of those Linux guys eh? While I'll give you Linux is lighter and faster, it isn't for your average PC user that have been with Windows since touching a PC. To this day I don't recommend Linux on the desktop. It can be overwhelming to the average user to have to learn something else, especially how the file structure works. Not to mention the Windows UI is years ahead of any Linux rendition I've ever seen. Linux for special use servers, fine. Desktops, not so much.

have you ever tried the Ubuntu interface? users have to learn a new interface anyway if they go to windows 8.I have my wife using it,and she finds it easier than windows.Not to mention the install is way easier.

[BOUTYM]

Originally Posted by Danglide

have you ever tried the Ubuntu interface? users have to learn a new interface anyway if they go to windows 8.I have my wife using it,and she finds it easier than windows.Not to mention the install is way easier.

I'll admit I haven't tried it lately, so maybe it's vastly improved. I have been meaning to setup another virtual to try it out, but haven't had time. I still don't recommend it though for the average user. Possibly if the machine comes with it and the manufacturer will support it, but I don't know of many laptops/desktops shipping with Linux on them. Now while there is a pretty large support base for Linux, much of that is in the form of open source forums and such unless you pay for whatever flavor of Linux you use and get support through the publisher. If you get the freebie versions you're on your own to deal with the multitude of useless smart asses you find in techie forums. Not everyone has a buddy that's a Linux guru.

Just about everyone has some experience with Windows, limited or otherwise. It's far easier to get help with Windows than it is with Linux. Not to mention all the software that is available for Windows that's not available for Linux. Sure, you can run emulators, but those come with their own quirks and for the average user just add sh!t to the ball game.

Understand, I am not down on Linux and make heavy use of it myself when it's appropriate, but until it's widely used and supported OS I simply don't see value in it for the average user.

[Danglide]

Originally Posted by BOUTYM

I'll admit I haven't tried it lately, so maybe it's vastly improved. I have been meaning to setup another virtual to try it out, but haven't had time. I still don't recommend it though for the average user. Possibly if the machine comes with it and the manufacturer will support it, but I don't know of many laptops/desktops shipping with Linux on them. Now while there is a pretty large support base for Linux, much of that is in the form of open source forums and such unless you pay for whatever flavor of Linux you use and get support through the publisher. If you get the freebie versions you're on your own to deal with the multitude of useless smart asses you find in techie forums. Not everyone has a buddy that's a Linux guru.

Just about everyone has some experience with Windows, limited or otherwise. It's far easier to get help with Windows than it is with Linux. Not to mention all the software that is available for Windows that's not available for Linux. Sure, you can run emulators, but those come with their own quirks and for the average user just add sh!t to the ball game.

Understand, I am not down on Linux and make heavy use of it myself when it's appropriate, but until it's widely used and supported OS I simply don't see value in it for the average user.

not meaning to hijack this thread,but other than gaming,there are free apps for almost everything else you'd want to do.and they're all free in the software center.

the thing is,you don't NEED support for it like windows.

I honestly haven't found anything other than games that I would have to go to windows for.I have XP installed on a dual boot on my desktop and laptop,and the only thing I've used it for is to program my thundermax.

you can keep windows and install in a dual boot,it does it itself.for the average user doing web browsing,email,office apps,multimedia,it works very well.

[Rendell]

Originally Posted by Danglide

have you ever tried the Ubuntu interface? users have to learn a new interface anyway if they go to windows 8.I have my wife using it,and she finds it easier than windows.Not to mention the install is way easier.

Yes, I have and I like it. The wonderful Ms. Sherri (My Wife) and the Kids nope. No dice, nix, nada.. They hate it. The kids would rather have the MAC OS (Which with many Dell laptops is easy to accommodate.), The Wonderful Ms. Sherri is straight up windows. I tried to help her get used to using Ubuntu on the "Coffee Table" Notebook it was the second worst 15 minutes of my life. The first was when I tried to teach her to drive a standard transmission. I would rather go re-enlist and be permanently assigned to the Kunar Valley in Afganistan, than try either of those again.

[Danglide]

not meaning to turn this into a linux vs windows vs mac thread,just an idea of something to try.

EDIT: i'm not a command line geek,or a programmer.