“Virus Days”

For much of my life I thought a “virus” was a bug people got that made them sick for a few days. You know like oh he’s not at work today because he has a virus! It was only in the past few years that I begin to understand that a “virus” could also be an infection on your computer.

Even after I learned there were viruses out there that could harm your computer I didn’t worry that much about it. My son Sean, my minister and computer whiz, had installed stuff on my computer to protect me. But somehow some of those protections either expired or otherwise dropped off of my computer.

Thus last night I was working away on writing my movie reviews and went to “Google” to look up some information. I clicked on a site listing and the next thing I knew bells and whistles were going off and a big sign announced “Your Computer Has Been Infected!!!!” I felt like that kid on TV who heard “DANGER WILL ROBINSON”. It scared me silly. I was pushing buttons right and left trying to get away from this infection.

It ended up that I had the “antivirusPRO” virus and it is a killer. I immediately called for Sean to come over and he did, God bless him. He tried everything he knew but couldn’t get the virus destroyed. I was having fits. I could just see everything I had saved on my hard drive being eaten up.

Finally Sean admitted defeat and told me I needed to either call someone to come out or to take my hard drive to someone. So this morning I started making calls. I called one place which has a crew that will come out and work on your computer. They quoted a $299.99 fee. This not only included getting rid of the virus but also sprucing up and cleaning up my computer. That sounded a little steep to me.

I next called an independent computer store in Warner Robins, Georgia. This guy told me I would have to bring in my hard drive and the minimum fee would be $100.00 and the maximum fee would be $200.00. The third guy I called said he could work on it for $90.00, but if I wanted it expedited it would be $130.00. That meant a forty-eight hour turnaround. I told him I was looking for a twelve hour turnaround. He didn’t quote me a fee for that.

I called Sean and told him what I had been told, as well as the admonishment by the last guy that time was of the essence. He said the virus was probably spreading even as we spoke. Sean ignored that and told me to hold off until he could get to my house as he had one last trick to try.

He came over a couple of hours later and Voila! it worked. The man is a genius, plus he has God on his side. He reinstalled a virus blocker for me and my compute is now humming along. There is only one thing wrong. I just noticed the sound is not working. My computer is too quiet, and the music I usually play in the background is blocked out somehow.

I just called Sean again. He is on his way!
 

 

 

 

 

©2009 Jackie K. Cooper

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