Hello,
I have been using Avast for awhile now and have never any any problems until today. While I was on the Internet, i got a message stating I had some threat detected and recommended I run a boot scan on my computer. I went ahead and ran a full scan on my computer and it did not find anything. Before I left the house, I went ahead and scheduled a boot scan to be done on my computer right away after I restarted it. After being out for about 2 hours or so, I find my computer at a black screen and a blinking cursor on the top left hand side of my screen. I tried F8 to see if I can boot to safe mode but have been unsuccessful. I tried to select F10 and still the same thing, just a black screen with a blinking cursor. I have some family pictures that are on my hard drive which I do not want to lose and am unable to boot up to windows. Need help if anyone has any other suggestions. This all happened when trying to run a boot scan via Avast.
Oh man that sucks! I am so sorry! What a PITA!
It sounds like you got a vicious nasty rogue (fake) Anti-Virus alert as you browsed and searched On-Line. Remember everyone that if you get something like that, the best thing to do is DON'T CLICK on anything just browsing and searching. Bring up Windows Task Manager by doing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and within Task Manager, look for your browser in the Window, for example, if it is IE, it will say something like ie.exe. Click End Task, that will get you out.
Than open up Avast, Update the definitions, and schedule a Boot Time Scan.
NEVER CLICK ON ANYTHING FROM THE INTERNET WHEN YOU BROWSE THAT SAYS, "You have a virus. Immediate action is required to clean now!" You should only be working within the Anti-Virus program that you have on your computer and trust. Practically anything else will be a scam and a fraud.
Is there anything else this user can try to get this system up to at least somewhat of a usable state? Or is reinstalling Windows the only option?
Jack
PS. This is probably not going to help, but you could try booting into Safe Mode, and selecting "Restore Last Known Good Configuration." Maybe that might do it, although doubtful. If you get your desktop back, run a Full Boot Time Scan as soon as possible! (Remember to select "Move to Chest" for whatever it finds.) I would also recommend getting ASAP Malwarebytes from malwarebytes.org (note the .org extention) Update the program before you run it each time and run a full scan immediately.