horrible horrible computer virus - what do i do now?

[Anonymous]

i am totally not tech savvy and use a personal laptop for a LOT of my work. (i have a desktop at the office)

so, as i was working on friday on my laptop, the screen suddenly went black for a second and then a blue screen came on with a blue background and a white stcik figure with the words "you're dead Jim!" coming out of a conversation bubble from his mouth. there was more on the screen, but it blinked off so quickly that i couldn't read it. the computer shut down, then said "installing updates" then spontaneously restarted. i disconnected from the network and turned it off and haven't turned it on since.

i have virus software; i run it frequently.

what do i do now? i am sort of freaking out as i have a lot of work related stuff on the computer... some of while is emailed in attachments to other people, so i can recover it there, but is it safe to do so?? where do i go to get this fixed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i am totally not tech savvy and use a personal laptop for a LOT of my work. (i have a desktop at the office)

so, as i was working on friday on my laptop, the screen suddenly went black for a second and then a blue screen came on with a blue background and a white stcik figure with the words "you're dead Jim!" coming out of a conversation bubble from his mouth. there was more on the screen, but it blinked off so quickly that i couldn't read it. the computer shut down, then said "installing updates" then spontaneously restarted. i disconnected from the network and turned it off and haven't turned it on since.

i have virus software; i run it frequently.

what do i do now? i am sort of freaking out as i have a lot of work related stuff on the computer... some of while is emailed in attachments to other people, so i can recover it there, but is it safe to do so?? where do i go to get this fixed?

Are you running Vista? can you revert to previous setting? I did this. Rescue function.

[Anonymous]

windows office 2010. not vista.

would reverting get rid of whatever virus is on the computer?

[Anonymous]

From what you said it doesn't sound like you have a virus. What were you doing exactly when you saw the message? Do you use chrome? Which anti-virus, anti-malware products do you use?

[Anonymous]

ummmm..... hmmmm.... virus software... i think its mcafee... ? does that help?

what about the stick figure? i just wondered if someone had gotten into my computer and the installing updtaes was actually spyware or something horrible installing?

[Anonymous]

Have you googled it? I just did briefly and I think you're fine. It sounds like it's something to do with google chrome crashing, not a virus. I think you can just turn your computer back on, but read a couple articles on it first.

[Anonymous]

Once you take care of this problem, I recommend installing Kaspersky antivirus software. I had a virus problem, and one of the viruses looked a lot like the one you describe. At the time, I had McAfee, I've since switched to Kaspersky. No problems so far.

[Anonymous]

Have you googled it?

I just did briefly and it sounds like it has something to do with google chrome crashing not a virus. you should be fine to turn your computer back on, but read a couple articles on it first

[Anonymous]

op here: thank you everyone for responding - i will google it - good idea- i always come to dcum first these days- sometimes its better than google... and thanks for the suggestion on the anti-virus software!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

so, as i was working on friday on my laptop, the screen suddenly went black for a second and then a blue screen came on with a blue background and a white stcik figure with the words "you're dead Jim!" coming out of a conversation bubble from his mouth.

http://chromestory.com/2011/01/hes-dead-jim-the-new-sad-tab-for-google-chrome/

[Anonymous]

Buy a Mac.

[Anonymous]

LOL it's chrome crashing, OP. Relax.

[Anonymous]

OP HERE: i am so relieved!!!!! this is what happens when i'm so un-tech-savvy - as i noted, i turned off the darm thing and haven't gone back to it all weekend...