My Tuesday Night

2/03/2012 computer , Dell , virus 1 Comments

On Tuesday night, Kevin was looking at a picture of an airplane on bing, clicked on it, and got a malicious computer virus called ‘System Check’.

Yikes!

It’s bad, bad, bad, you guys. So be careful when you go surfing the net, looking up things.

This virus can block your internet and stop you from downloading or installing removal tools, which it did with Kevin’s computer. So I went on my computer and found a website that had directions to try to remove the virus. Kevin tried it three times, and it still didn’t remove it. Then he called Dell and talked to a guy from India.

The guy was really nice. He tapped into Kevin’s computer and started removing the virus. When he got to the last step on removing the malicious virus, this was what he said, and how the rest of the conversation had played out.

Dell guy: "Mr. Ford, I see you haven’t paid for our Dell technical support team. For only two-hundred dollars, I can get rid of this virus for you."

Kevin: "I’m not paying you two-hundred dollars. I’ve already spent a lot of money on this computer, and I’m not going to continue doing it."

Dell guy: "But Mr. Ford--"

Kevin: "But nothing . . . Look. I appreciate your help, but I only use my computer for games and looking stuff up. I don’t need a computer."

Dell guy: "But a computer is like a car, Mr. Ford. Sometimes you need to spend a lot of money for parts and to maintain it."

Kevin: He laughs. "I can’t drive my computer, and I own a 1964 Ford truck. The parts for it are cheap, and I can fix it myself."

Silence (I’m guessing the Dell guy was momentarily speechless because what do you say to that?)

Kevin: "You know. If you had told me this up front about the two-hundred dollars, you could have saved us both a lot of time."

Dell guy: "Yes, Mr. Ford. You do not want to pay for Dell’s technical support?"

Kevin: "No."

Dell guy: "Very good. I will undo what I already have done now."

Kevin: "I appreciate your help. I know it’s not your fault, but I’m not paying two-hundred dollars to fix this computer. I’ll unplug it and be done with it for all I care."

Dell guy: "I understand. You have a goodnight, and good karma to you, Mr. Ford."

When Kevin got off the phone, I offered him a couple suggestions on how we could fix his computer, but he was so annoyed with the whole situation that he didn’t want to talk about fixing it.

"Can you believe, that Dell guy only had to press one button to eliminate the virus from my computer, but wouldn’t do it until I paid him two-hundred dollars?" Kevin ranted.

Yeah. I know. It sucks.

Afterwards, I went upstairs to take a shower. When I came back down, Kevin’s computer and the router were unplugged, and he switched out my monitor for his big screen monitor. He told me he almost took the hard drive out of his computer because he was so disgusted with it. And then, for the rest of the night, I had to listen to him rant about how evil computers were, and that they were a detriment to society, followed with examples to support his claim.

I know he can’t stand computers, and if it was up to him, we wouldn’t have them. However, I love my computer, because in this day and age, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do effectively, without it. I also love looking things up and learning new stuff. Kevin respects that though, which I appreciate. He told me that night, he doesn’t expect me to feel the same way he does about computers, and he’s glad I don’t change my opinions to fit his. And then he continued with his rant.

That was my Tuesday night, and Kevin’s computer is still unplugged, sitting on his computer desk.

Oh, and since he unplugged the router, my computer can’t recognize my IP address, so now I have to disable, and then reenable my computer in order to get the internet. I don’t know how to fix it, but right now I’m not bothered enough by it to do anything about it.

Anyway, If you get a pop-up window saying your computer has been infected, and you need to download their program to get rid of it.

Don’t.

I think Kevin thought he was downloading a picture of an airplane, when really it was the virus. So if you need to download something, be cautious because it might be infected with that virus.

Happy Friday!