I'm baaaaack

On the way home the other night, I stopped and explained my computer woes to Assistant Manager, Jim, at my neighborhood Staples. I told him that it was SUPER UPER DUPER slow in loading pages and when it finally did and I was in the middle of doing something, an ad would pop up asking me if I wanted to "take advantage of all the money making opportunities that were available through Google!" When I would go to my task manager to close it, it would close any other page I had open, too and I would lose anything I was working on.

I asked him if I could just install Norton and see if that would remove the virus.

No, not THAT Norton!

I had always used Norton before and it never let me down. However, my employer offered me McAfee for FREE and you all know how seduced I am by FREE . Well, this time it came back to bite me in the ass.

"No, sorry," Assistant Manager Jim said, "it sounds like your system is probably too far gone already. You would need to bring it in to have us remove the virus."

Well, I wasn't about to put that kind of money into an older computer so I thanked him and spend the next few days at work shopping around for a new computer.

Don't judge me. I still got my work done. Sort of...

I debated between a laptop and desktop but when it comes down to it, I'm really a desktop gal. I HATE typing on a laptop. HATE IT.

So then I narrowed it down to Dell or HP and I found an HP that I really like. Oh boy! And it had a webcam so I could record stuff and post it for you guys. I didn't like the thought of spending a chunk of my income tax refund on it but I was excited to be getting a new computer and I had totally justified the cost in my head anyway.

Then I read over your comments (I can see them via Stat Counter at work but I can't log in to my blog) and Simply Suthern had suggested restoring to an earlier date.

I hadn't tried that! I hadn't even thought of that. I could kiss him! Don't worry, I would let you all watch...

So last night, I came home and started my computer in safe mode and went to a date last week when my computer was functioning fine.

No luck.

It still just sat and sat and sat some more and it was impossible to get it to do anything. So I turned it off and tried restarting it again.

Same thing.

Crap! I just had this feeling that if I could remove the current anti-virus and download Norton, that it would work. And if it didn't, I had only spent 40 bucks on the Norton download.

THREE HOURS LATER...I was able to remove the McAfee and start the download for the Norton. I was so happy and I had such a good feeling that this was going to work!

50% downloaded.......

65% downloaded.........

80% downloaded...........

Yes! C'mon, baby. Mommy can use the extra money on new shoes and liquor...

95% downloaded.............

C'mon. C'mon. C'mon. C'mon.

I looked at the clock and it was almost 12:30AM. I was tired but feeling pumped, too.

98% downloaded...............

I held my breath................

"How would you like to make millions with Google?"

SON OF A BITCH!!!!

Well, fuc# me, that didn't work.

I went to sleep and tried again the next night. And guess what?

IT WORKED!!!

It removed whatever the heck kind of virus was on here. Yay, Norton!

So, what's the lesson here friends?

Buyer beware? Well, that doesn't really apply.

I know! There's one thing all you free stuff whores like me need to keep in mind.

Sometimes you get what you (don't) pay for.