Hello Caedes members. As some of you know, my faithful P3 finally gave up the ghost 2 months ago. 2 weeks ago, I bought an HP Compaq Presario with an AMD Sempron3000+...not a great pc, but a good place to start and easy to mod to what you really want. Problem is this: HP PRE-LOADS their pc with 3 spyware programs in which hackers and trojans notoriously use to keep ports open so that they may piggyback into your system. In setting up my new pc to my cable modem, my pc connected to the interne, and sure enough, I got 2 VERY UGLY worm/trojans. These don't show right away. What they do is take their time, and re-write your registry. By the time you figure out you have a problem, it is already too late. The ONLY way to remove them is through regedit. The best anti-spyware and AV programs cannot delete them. Now here's the rub. You can only delete them by going through run then regedit, but by modifying the registry, they protect themselves because the disable run, right click options, and task manager. Going into control panel freezes the system!!!I used external software to run regedit and deleted these nasties, but in doing so, they took their mutated registry friends with them. So buyer beware!!! If you are thinking about an HP or Compaq (same company) IMMEDIATLY uninstall : BackWeb, Wild Tangent, and Weather Bug. Now HP/Compaq will tell you this IS NOT spyware, but as I am a member of a well known hacking community, and have a great deal of knowledge in this area, I can tell you without doubt, that this ABSOLUTELY is spyware. Do not let your pc connect to the web if these programs are on it. The 2 viruses are called P2Pnetworks.exe and MSConfigs, not to be confused with the very important MSConfig. So now that I have got my warning out to you all, I will be offline for a while while I reformat, shred, then re-install (clean install) winXP, and get a bug free pc. Whether you have or are thinking about an HP/Compaq or not, beware of these programs I listed. They seem harmless, but they are not. Alone, they do no damage, but as I said, they are a way to piggy back through an open port, and THIS is how they are bad and let gremlins in.

Thanks for the info, also beware software programs you buy come bundled with some trash to, especially game programs...

If a program asks you to install ANYTHING other than the program itself, it is, most likely, a bundle. And, as bayoubooger noted, this is where the spyware will get you!!! Spyware in itself is not really evil, but it opens ports that would otherwise be closed, and these open ports let all the nasties in. BTW, I have wiped and shredded my 2 week old pc drive, and did a clean install with MY stuff not theirs, and so I'm back and ready to rock n roll.

I had a compact pc once... had so many troubles with it until a friend formatted it and reinstalled everything in new fresh , no compact junk! Afterwards it was rolling and never froze again or anything else! So I guess I learned the hard way! Thx Jenn for the warning! Never a compact again!

Having recently just purchased a HP this has got me quite worried. I had a search for these programs you've mentioned but have found no trace. I'm far from an expert in this field so could it be i'm looking in the wrong place?

Cheers.........

I have had an Compaq for a year now and have had no problems with it.. I love my computer..I have never been sorry I purchased it.. The only fault I can find is that I didn't get a big enough hard drive. There are no traces of two of the programs you mentioned.. I have the Wild Tangent, because I own some of their games and I have never had any trouble with this program.. Any problems I have had, have always been quicky solved with the assistance of HP tech support.. They have been absoultely fantastic.

Those two lines of PCs have always been of cheap and poor quality, shame on you Caedes members. You should know better. ;)

I bought the best computer I could with the money I had to spend.. I do not believe that HP products are cheaply made. They came highly recomended from a person I trust. He is a game developer, and the company he is vice president of uses HP computers. Any problems I have had, have been caused from my own inexperience, not the fault of the computer or the manufacturer....

My mistake, I only meant on the entire range of PC's those are on the lower quality side. For the money they are a good deal, same with Dells even though I would never buy them. The thing is for what most people do with computers, they will never tell the difference I am comming from a different background. But hey, if I had the money I'd ditch the PC and get a G5! hehe

G5 is nice...very nice indeed...I have my dreams of one day having a nice AlienWare pc, but for now, with the meager funds I had available, Compaq was within my budget...at least it came with an AMD which is easy to upgrade and customize compared to P4's. I am glad Morwyn has not had probs, however, unfortunately, it seems that I am not the only one who has had these complaints. I simply wanted to call attention to the fact that there are 2 new bugs out that do considerable damage, and I got them thanks to my new Compaq and it's pre-loaded software.

My mom and I have both had compaqs and we both had trouble with our computers since the day we got them. I had a laptop and she still has her desktop (which seems to short out every time I go near it so that she chases me out of her office when I'm home). No slight to Morwyn (you know I <3 you!) but those computers are evil. But we got them before the Compaq and HP merger so things might have changed I guess. I have a Sony now and I love it :)

Unfortunately, it seems any of the lower end pc's can get away with the lower prices by placing spyware programs on the pre-install...and get kick backs from the spyware peeps. A good friend of mine who is a computer guru and owns his own pc biz told me of horror stories about brand new low-ends going wacky then frying. When the people took it to him for repairs, he saw seriously corrupted registry entries, he say mostly thanks to the pre-installs...and he wishes I would have contacted him before buying mine. My sis has a fairly new eMachines and it had a meltdown last night AFTER she tried to heal a virus by using her eMachines recovery disks...I would have lived with a virus...hopefully her pc isn't so corrupted that she can access F* clean, reformat then clean install just the OS. Honestly, my friend says to blow out all pre-installed stuff except for drivers and to use your own OS and none of the pre-installed prog's. Sony is an awesome pc...is it a VAIO...if it is...I am SO jealous :)

You cannot compare a Compaq or HP to an e-machine, those are junk.. Also, Hp products are not low end machines but mid range, for those of us who don't have money enough for anything better.. At least it isn't a Mac.. Anyone who buys a preloaded machine and doesn't have the sense to remove at least weatherbug and backweb, before going online doesn't know as much as they think they do.. Didn't you explore your machine before you went online??? I have only been using computers for 3 years and I removed that before I ever put my internet access in.. I did not use the preloaded programs for that either. Those were removed also.. I spent the first 24 hours exploring and finding out what was in the machine and removed anything I didn't want, before I nstalled my nternet program.. Next time you purchase a preloaded computer find out what is installed and remove anything yoou don't want before you go online, saves a lot of hassle..

Wipe the operating system and reload XP Pro. Or should I say experimental Pro. The only problem is that sometimes computer companies load things in memory that conflict with operating systems.
I'm sorry to say its not so much your machine as it is XP . What can I say Gates allows his company to make things that don't work well with other programs. And the worst thing is , Long Horn is comming out and it's worse.

Actually, I know quite a bit about software, and I DID not have any opportunity to go through and blow out the crap, as it would not allow me to do anything but follow their stupid instructions to even GET to a point where I could blow out the crap...F8 was not accessable at that time. And I am not saying that higher end HP's are crap, I used to WORK for HP in the early 90's and they were ahead of their time...HOWEVER...the practice of getting kickbacks from spyware companies is a load of poo, and for that, I do have issues with HP. And IF I were able to afford it, I could very easily build my own non crap installed pc from bottom up. However, as I have chosen to dedicate my time to educating my children, we are living on a slightly slimmer budget, and so I got what I could afford. NOW it works beautifully, but then I wiped it and put MY programs in. I am sorry Morwyn if you take some offense to my posting, I simply wanted to bring to light the now all too common practice to pre-install spyware, and for others to make sure they check as soon as they can and delete the spyware before it creates a big problem. For those of us on a budget, the last thing we need when we spend $500 we don't really have is to have a massive pc failure because corporations are installing spyware. And THIS not everybody knows, and what I was trying to warn about.

I can accept that.. Nearly all computer companys are putting spyware, even into their better quality computers.. I detest this practice as much as I detest "music" in stores.. Beleive me when I say there isn't much I detest more..There is nothing I can do to change the practice and I do beleive that people should be aware of it. Corporations will do what they want, as long as there are no regulations and excessive profit is allowed..For everyone who reads this thread, please see what is pre packaged in your computer as soon as possible, and please before you go online.. Remove anything you have no use for, and if you aren't sure get help..

The only way to have a truly awesome computer for a truly awesome price is to build it yourself. its not difficult, and if you dont know what your doing you can find tutorials online. i just built a great computer with an athlon AMD 3500+ processor and a geforce 6600 graphics card for about $900. oh and the best place for computer stuff is tigerdirect.com.

Isn't tiger direct awesome??? Also try pcclub.com
If I could afford more, I'd build me a pc to rival Alienware for less than half Alienware's price...AMD64 dual, Radeon, you name it...but then I'd never GET TO BE ON the pc because my hubby would be gaming on it all the time...so I guess it's a good thing I can't afford to build my dream pc right now!!! :0)

You can still build your own with moderate components. I did that for my brother recently and came out with a computer that can play just about any game out now, although that wasn’t my intent for around $500 and that was still using quality components. No Celerons or AMDs or off-brand pci accessories. Really it just comes down to knowing which components to use and what to stay away from. Then you get a large hammer and put it together. Homemade PC right there! j/k
I agree about Alienware, they are so overrated and priced just as much.

Alienware has amazing graphics, and for gaming purposes they are tops...but even if I won the lottery, no way would I pay between $2500 and $4500 for a pc!!! This compaq I got, will be easy to modify, though, so as I have a little extra cash, upgrades will be made...I can invest maybe another $500 into what I have now, and be $3000 ahead of the game. My Radeon will be one of the more expensive componants...I need a bigger fan too, to handle the higher temps for what will be running, but fans are cheap...I can get a 1G card for about $125, but since this is only a 256, with 3 slots, I'll probably do away with those and just go big from the start...once I do what I want to, the speed will be INSANE, and gaming will definately be real time instead of a few seconds lag. This is a basic AMD, eventually I want to upgrade to a 64 dual, but since those are pretty new still, I'll wait a while because I can't afford it. I try to use items which are made for my purposes, which is graphics based, so some things I spend more on, others, I don't have to...don't need a super high tech sound card, but do need a good vid card...etc...

hehe, I hear you on that one. I'm sitting on a Radeon 9600 pro that just isn't getting the job done anymore but I want to wait it out for a good 512Mb card to come out if I can. Does anyone have information about that?

I haven't had the time to read this discussion thoroughly, so pardon me if I sound off in left field somewhere. I'm in charge of over 1000 PCs within the College of Education and Human Services. We've tried a number of different brands of PCs over the years with varying amounts of success. We've been happiest with Dell computers and service. This year, again, we're going with Dell after taking a very careful look at HP, Gateway, IBM, Micron, Tangent, and others. But even with the Dells, we totally erase whatever preinstalled garbage comes on them and install a fresh, clean Windows operating system from scratch. We install all the OS patches, virus software and updates, and Spybot Search & Destroy before connecting them to any network. They give us a lot fewer problems that way. Once we have them running smoothly and the software all installed, we use Symantec Ghost to back up the entire machine. That way, if something catastrophic does happen, I can have it back to it's original, clean state in about 20 minutes. You may find this to be the best solution for your Comcrap computer (whoops, excuse me) too. For what it's worth - my 2 cents.

Yeah, after my complete registry failure within the first week, I blew out THE WHOLE THING, then installed using my xp, my security, etc...haven't had one prob since...GREAT PC...now...Of course, any hint at being a compaq was pretty much erased, then shredded...it's a compaq in name only really...which means an AMD processor that I can build off of...and all of MY files...which are the best apps available...I'm SERIOUS about my pc security...that's the one place I don't like to mess around!!! Ghost is good, but whatever you do, STAY AWAY from GoBack which is offered on Norton's security systems 2002-2005 (and possibly prior...but I know for sure from 2002 to now...GoBack has damaged more pc's than you can imagine!!!! Including my previous one...of course my various pc guru family members failed to mention this to me....my father in law works for sun microsystems, my brother is a repair tech for a large Hawaiian corporation, my friend owns a pc repair shop (he repairs and also does custom builds)...and do you think ANYONE bothered to mention to me about GoBack???

lol, I lost 2 computers to spyware and virus combinations, and now Im so paranoid about security I have sp2 with the firewall spybot s+d, ad-aware, mc-afee antivirus, norton antivirus, and I use ghostsurf even though im really sure what it does :-)

I built my own machine. Unless you're looking at the absolute bottom of the market it works out cheaper (honest!). I built a reasonable machine but I could have built a much cheaper one if I had chosen. It was really only the absolute lowest priced ones that I couldn't match for value (Dell mainly).

Of course the other great thing about building your own is that you install everything from scratch. This discussion is certainly an eye-opener.

I've been a Compaq user on both of the only two computers I have ever had the opportunity to buy. I've never had a major problem with either...barring the two OS errors I've had. In fact my compaq athlon 1500+ notebook(1.3 ghz) consistantly processes faster than either of my friends (a 1.9 ghz HP P4 notebook or a 2.1 ghz dell celeron notebook)
Basically, if you're smart with your computer no problems should occur.
Remember, msconfig, ad-aware, add/remove programs, and ccleaner are your friends.

"Remember, msconfig, ad-aware, add/remove programs, and ccleaner are your friends." especially when Microsoft are letting you have their spyware removal tool beta for free at the moment

Kinda like I could 'let' you have a net to catch a bear when there are guns elsewhere for the same price...
I'm also willing to bet the ms tool doesn't get rid of the ms spyware. :o

Actually...beware of ad-aware...while still the best, it has been rumored in the techie circles that ad aware may be climbing into be with WhenU. Alluria software already has, and if the rumors prove to be true, it will be a sad day for me...because I won't use any software that looks the other way when it comes to WhenU or New.Net...and I love ad-aware!!! ccleaner is most definately your friend, and so is spyware blaster and spybot s&d, for advanced users, hijack this is your BEST FRIEND...but the best friend of all...GOOGLE...because through it, you can educate yourself on the newest uglies so that you can be prepared in case your software fails you....And the jury is still out on Microsoft Anti-Spyware...it was formerly Giant, and they were by far the best...but being that Bill Gates is the devil...
I use it every now and then, and so far it has done well...but I don't trust much of anything that is Microsoft...For added protection, change to Firefox for your browser, it doesn't have the holes or hackability that IE6 does, and is fast and easily customizable with themes, plug-ins, and extentions.

If the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.

I wouldn't touch an "off the shelf" PC.... EVER.

As mentioned you can build one from scratch much cheaper and get far more bang for ya buck while doing so.

You get what you want and you know it's squeaky clean.
Mines a pretty handy beast of a machine and I paid a fraction for it compared to what a store would try and charge me for the same spec and some of the after touches/Mods done to it.

I'm baffled however, someone who is supposedly into a big hacking community and in the know buying an off the shelfer and a HP Compaq at that? What were you thinking?

because...
quite simply in pricing parts, it was in fact CHEAPER to buy off the shelf, by about $100...and when I didn't have that money to begin with, I went with what I could afford...sometimes you must take the devil with the deal, and this was just one of those instances...
and again, this post was simply to enlighten others to potential problems...not just with Compaq, but any off the shelf pc...
and while I can build my own given the funds, not everyone knows how...so instead of being a condesending a**, I went ahead and posted this to let others who buy from stores a potential risk...
That is what I was thinking Paws.

There's been a comcrap under my desk since 1999. It's still going. Granted, at this point, the only original parts are the cpu & mobo, and a cdrw drive (the rest being replaced in incremental upgrades). The speed doesn't matter anymore since all it does is store files and play music and movies. The reason I bought a compaq way back then? $1800 for an Athlon 500 with a voodoo3 at that time was an absolutely killer price. Sometimes you can get a better price doing it yourself, sometimes you simply can't beat the volume pricing of the big boxes. But I suppose I was just lucky to have picked one of the first-gen athlons, before compaq had a chance to pull out all sorts of proprietary parts.