Computer Problem!! Help!!

[irishbosoxfan]

Ok I am not the savviest person when it comes to computers but I know something is most definitely wrong with mine!!

I wasn't on it yesterday at all and when I got off of it on Saturday night it was running fine.

Well I just got on and it's all jacked up!

First it took forever to get from my sign in to my desktop--just had the little spinning circle with "preparing your desktop" for the longest time

Then as my desktop did load it showed the picture for the shortcut then it went white then the picture came back.

At the same time it said my device detector wasn't working and asked if I wanted to shut it down.

And it didn't load my Yahoo Messenger.

So finally the desktop settles down so I click on the IE icon and I get AOL????
It's been MSN since I bought the computer--I never ran anything AOL on it.

Oh and I am signed out of every website!

I'm thinking ok somethings wrong...Who can I ask? Then I thought of the DIS and know you guys have been great at this. So I click on my favorites button and I got nothing. Every single one of my favorites is gone!!


Does anyone know what this is? And is there any way to fix it?

Please help!


EDITED TO ADD: Stuff's missing from my desktop--I don't know what though because I only use a couple of items on it on a regular basis but there's not as many pictures as there was before!

 

[irishbosoxfan]

OMG MY pictures are gone!!! I just clicked on the icon for my camera photo program and nothings there!

 

[LilyWDW]

Have you run a virus/malware scan? If not, do so.

I'm a lot better at this sort of thing when the system is in front of me.

 

[Praying Colonel]

--Did you reboot and try again?

--If your computer runs Windows, is it updated? How about your anti-virus? When's the last time you updated it?

--If you can, download and run Malwarebytes, which is good at detecting malware and fixing problems. Also, I'd try this external virus scan. ESET makes Nod32, which IMHO is the best paid anti-virus software out there.

But if someone's gained access to your computer or you suspect they have, the only foolproof way to insure it's fixed is to back up your data and reinstall Windows.

 

[We_Love_Disney]

Can you do a system restore?

 

[bdoyledimou]

Sounds like it shut off improperly and restarted in SAFE mode.

just restart in NORMAL mode.

 

[zetachi]

Can you do a system restore?

ack don't do that until its a last resort. As one poster said it might be in safe mode but that would clearly by visible as it says safe mode.

Any other users in the house use it? Sounds like your user profile may have been messed up.

What version of Windows?

As another user said Malwarebytes is very good. So is SpyBot and Adaware.

 

[irishbosoxfan]

Sounds like it shut off improperly and restarted in SAFE mode.

just restart in NORMAL mode.

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted!

When I made my first post i had to sign in then I had to sign in when I made my second post.

As everyone started answering I was going thru one by one trying to see if that was the answer and it looks like the one above was it!!

It said nothing about safe mode at all. It didn't ask when I signed in and there was nothing on the desktop or even when I got online that indicated it was safe mode so I don't know.

What I do know is that I shut it down then started it the same as before and it seems to be working fine now.

So i have no clue what caused it do what it did but I can say it scared the crap out of me!!

I just got this computer not that long ago because I had a virus on the old one that caused me to lose everything and I was so afraid it was happening again!

So Thank You to everyone!! Your answers kept me focused and not panicking!

 

[bdoyledimou]

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted!

When I made my first post i had to sign in then I had to sign in when I made my second post.

As everyone started answering I was going thru one by one trying to see if that was the answer and it looks like the one above was it!!

It said nothing about safe mode at all. It didn't ask when I signed in and there was nothing on the desktop or even when I got online that indicated it was safe mode so I don't know.

What I do know is that I shut it down then started it the same as before and it seems to be working fine now.

So i have no clue what caused it do what it did but I can say it scared the crap out of me!!

I just got this computer not that long ago because I had a virus on the old one that caused me to lose everything and I was so afraid it was happening again!

So Thank You to everyone!! Your answers kept me focused and not panicking!

Simplest items first (fyi, i manage a global team of IT professionals fixing pc problems 24/7...i just poked one of my windows guys with the symptoms and he immedietly said safe mode He gets teh credit not me!)

 

[FireDancer]

Actually it didn't sound like safe mode (that loads a completely different graphics driver and you would notice the downgrade in resolution) it sounded like it loaded a generic profile, often known as "Default User" instead of yours. It happens from time to time and usually just requires a restart to load the proper profile.

Had you right clicked on the start menu and selected explore you would probably notice it has your loaded as that profile instead of your own. As long as you know the administrator password (or have the security settings overly promiscuous) you could have still gotten to everything so in the future don't panic.

Either way glad it worked out for you.

 

[Carl]

And all of this is why I have a Mac. None of that happens with it.

 

[bdoyledimou]

And all of this is why I have a Mac. None of that happens with it.

Yeah, you just get

 

[zetachi]

Simplest items first (fyi, i manage a global team of IT professionals fixing pc problems 24/7...i just poked one of my windows guys with the symptoms and he immedietly said safe mode He gets teh credit not me!)

hmm might want to consider a new windows guy as that was def not safe mode as FireDancer stated you would know if it was safe mode as the graphics would have been severely distorted due to generic drivers (read super large icons)

 

[diznygirl]

Yeah, you just get

What's that a picture of?

 

[Carl]

I've never seen that on my Mac. I think I saw it once on an old Mac Plus - many years ago.