Starting with the computer fail. It's Windows 2000 Professional. I log in and a bunch of error messages pop up giving fatal error messages for various processes that normally start on startup/login. I try to open Epson Scan, doesn't open, I try various methods and eventually get it open. Then I try to scan something and get various error messages amounting to me not being able to scan anything. I try to use GIMP to scan through that, GIMP starts but can't load the menubar and gives an error. Firefox doesn't even attempt to do anything. The only thing I can get to work is Solitaire. :P Half the time the Start menu won't open either, if I click on Start or press the Windows key nothing happens. I managed to Windows+R and run dxdiag, it said nothing was wrong but DirectX was missing a bunch of .dll files, which is also what I think most of the programs were missing. It also said things like 'C:/blahblah/name.dll is not a valid Windows image, please consult your install diskette.' for the errors that occurred on login.

 

As far as I can tell, the hard drive hasn't had a random partition die, and is not missing RAM.

 

Second thing. My mom had her email account hacked by some random gmail account (hers is a yahoo) and sent out emails to her whole address book saying she's stuck in Wales and needs money (dumb Nigerians). It erased her whole (13 yrs worth, not backed up) address book (which is what she's most sad/angry about) and tried to take it over (she managed to get it back with the recovery questions). However, it keeps taking the account away randomly when she logs in &c, &c so what can we do to fix this or report the address, and is it possible to get the contacts back? It's definitely a problem on Yahoo's end, we don't have any viruses (scanned yesterday before it happened and today right after), and my Gmail/Fb have not been hacked.

 

Thanks for handling my inept computer issues. :P

Several of my close friends have had the exact same email hack happen to them, so you are not alone. As for all the errors, try booting into safe mode and seeing if you still get errors. Usually you just press F[enter number here] like F7, F12, etc. (Many times it says on startup what to press for boot options). You should be able to open up Epson Scan or whatever you were trying to use, as well as other utilities to try and figure out what is going on.

 

If your mom is getting her email hacked consistently, I assume he/she has infected your computer with some way to track key input. I suggest using a virus scan software like AVG, Avira, etc., and use SpyBot S&D. That checks for malware and spyware. If it's on Yahoo's end, well just call them I guess and let them know. Do all you can to protect yourself on your end though.

We already scanned with Norton (twice), nothing's wrong on our end. This is the first time she's been hacked in 13 years with the same email address.

 

Yahoo doesn't appear to have a customer service number (well not that my mom could find anyway). If you know of one, please pass it along, it'd be useful.

We already scanned with Norton (twice),

 

There's your problem. You can either keep Norton and get Malwarebytes and scan with Malwarebytes too, but I would advise on changing Norton for either Avira antivir or MSE.

Why is Norton the problem when no one else who uses that computer has had an account hack? It's the newest version of Norton, so it's not eating the obscene amount of memory it used to.

 

Plus, I can't do anything about that particular issue.

Norton still isn't the best. Id try Spybot S&D. For your mom, the best option is probably just starting a new account.

Did you try using Spybot like it has been suggested? And what is the progress on your non working computer?

Apparently the other computer has some sort of virus and it got into the OS, so my dad needs to wipe it and reinstall Windows. Then there will be no internet as nothing [my dad trusts] supports 2000 anymore. Not happy 'cause that's the comp attached to the scanner and I won't be able to use it for some time.

Apparently the other computer has some sort of virus and it got into the OS, so my dad needs to wipe it and reinstall Windows. Then there will be no internet as nothing [my dad trusts] supports 2000 anymore. Not happy 'cause that's the comp attached to the scanner and I won't be able to use it for some time.

 

Your dad does not trust Mozilla Firefox? That runs on Windows 2000. Unless you were talking about anti virus programs, which I am sure there are some ones out there that still support Windows 2K (just look around) And I would seriously consider trying to get your dad to get Windows XP. It is so much better then Windows 2000.

 

Good luck with whatever you do.

Sorry meant AVs. Firefox is already on that comp.

 

We're going to get a new one, presumably one with Windows 7 even though everyone in my family but me hates it for some reason.

 

Plus then we'll probably have 3 comps in the house with internet, as we have an XP currently without access because of a lack of AV but our Norton is a 1 user/3 comp edition so I might ask my bro to give up admin account on it (some dumb reason my dad won't give us his 'trusted internet' access if we still have admin rights on the comp. i'm not thrilled with his handling of said situation.)

Plus Norton is one of the worst antiviruses on detection rates :S.

Just get AVG free, works on my 2001 P4 without any problems, and only uses about 2 MB of RAM with Resident Shield disabled. Why is your Dad so paranoid about internet access?

Just get AVG free, works on my 2001 P4 without any problems, and only uses about 2 MB of RAM with Resident Shield disabled. Why is your Dad so paranoid about internet access?

 

Not the right one to suggest, it has pretty bad detecting rates, but I could go look around and see which good ones run on those old computers.

Norton still isn't the best. Id try Spybot S&D.

I can agree with this. Spybot S&D is amazing even though its free. Another site I use is called AVG. You can get a free version that might help out.