Warning Your PC Is About To Crash

z_man22

Honorable
Nov 23, 2012
180
0
10,680
Hello, my girlfriends dad has an older desktop computer, (probabaly bought in 06) and they've been having problems with it and he said one day the computer said "Warning, Your pc is about to crash blah blah, please download this software" or something along those lines, is this a virus or malware?
 

fball922

Distinguished
Feb 23, 2008
179
24
18,695


I call it "hostageware". Buy or download this or your computer gets it! In short, yes, it is a virus/malware. Find a friend that can help clean it, or find a high school kid who will do it on the cheap. Please don't go to Geeksquad.
 
Sound like it has a virus that's claiming to be anti-virus software itself, in the hopes you will buy it to get rid of the problem.

Download a trusted free antivirus like Malwarebyte Anti-Malware to a USB, boot the laptop into "Safe Mode with Networking", install the anti-virus and run a scan. That will find and remove the virus.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/