Yesterday I was called to a customer's flat to fix an unknown problem with her PC, which turned out to be no Internet connection, even though after talking to the provider on the phone, the modem was in working order. Since I was not aware of the problem before I went, I didn't take my laptop to check the connection with another computer, so i returned today with the laptop and the Internet was working fine.
The lady is very old (about 85), deaf and knows nothing about tech, so one has to bear that in mind.
This morning I added a network card but that didn't fix the problem and also reset winsock and various other settings using ipconfig (CMD with admin rights), but all I got were errors.
I then strapped the PC to my bike and brought it back to the lab, where I carried out yet more winsock/DNS/IP resets, to no avail.
I had installed windows 7 on the PC last year, so was familiar with it, yet someone had installed AVG which I hate and also PC Repair, which appeared to be malware.
I then restored to last December and managed to get Internet access, but wasn't happy with AVG and PC Repair being installed as it already had MSE.
I uninstalled both, ran Malwarebytes which quarantined several threats, then I lost the Internet again.
Deep down, I knew I was going to have to format and reinstall windows, but was hoping to avoid it due to the time constraints and the work involved. I had already done it twice on this PC.
I then ran numerous fixes from Microsoft to no avail, reinstalled network and other drivers, then began to tear my hair out.
I finally decided to reinstall Windows 7 from a USB 3 pen drive, but that wasn't recognised by the BIos, so had to revert to a DVD, which took forever.
This all started at 0930 and it's now 1600.
One of the other reasons I didn't want to reinstall Win 7 is because she always loses her passwords and getting them back takes hours and she can't hear what I'm saying. All in Spanish, to boot!
Windows is now reinstalled and I can only assume that the combination of AVG and PC Repair screwed up the IP config and any attempt to fix it was being blocked and believe me, I looked everywhere.
Actually, I've had this problem with AVG before and uninstalling it fixed the problem.
I never want to see this fucking PC ever again and just hope it hasn't got boomerang DNA embedded.
