Or do I need to take off my tin foil hat?

[IncompleteSenten]

I bought a laptop last year. Cheap one, about £400.
It worked great until the preinstalled antivirus 'free trial' ended and I was invited to buy it.
I clicked no (I prefer malwarbytes)

From then on the laptop was shite. Constantly freezing, programmes stopping, taking ages to boot etc.

I put it down to it being a cheap laptop

A few weeks ago I absolutely lost my shit with it and bought a new one - 16GB ram, much better overall

It was amazing. Opened things like lightening. Really great.

This morning I get notified of my 'one time offer' to buy anti virus subscription that is pre installed on the laptop.

I clicked no.

My brand new fast as hell laptop is now fucking frozen!!!

Can't get any response from the mouse touch thing, control alt del to bring up task manager is fucked.

I'm seriously starting to think there's something in these preinatalled antivirus things that are programmed to fuck up your computer if you click no!

Or am I being a nutjob?

YANBU - antivirus companies create issues in order to flog their product and have indeed fucked up yet another of your laptop's as punishment for not taking their subscription

YABU - go have a cup of tea and calm your tits, you whackadoodle

Is it definitely something preinstalled? Sounds like you may have clicked on a dodgy popup ad...

Did you try reinstalling your first one? There's lots of steps to try before buying a new laptop! I've never experienced this though. Just make sure the old software is properly removed if you are t going to be using it. And if all else fails, do a clean reinstall.

You need to make sure you're properly removing the programmes if you aren't using them after expiry. There's removal tools for some of them to make sure it's all gone.

More likely something you’ve installed/opened/done with it that’s fucking it up.

Oooh I don’t know. I doubt they’re pre-installing things to cause problems, but we do seem to have moved into an age where technology is a subscription rather than a one off purchase, which I find very annoying from a financial point of view.

I've been moaning that my laptop is very slow. DH had a look a it and said there are 3 separate anti virus programs on it all fighting each other...

What did the notification look like?

It's highly unlikely the anti-virus software that came with your laptop would need replaced after a few weeks - if it was a year, maybe? It's more likely the notification was dodgy.

Has the anti virus program maybe reverted to the free version, which could be very chunky and memory hungry. Maybe make sure you've uninstall all programs related to the anti virus software

YABU. If you installed malwarebytes on the new laptop, that may be the problem. It might be worth uninstalling it to see if that helps. Failing that, take it to a computer shop or service place and have them look at it.

I use Norton 360 and never had a problem. It also comes with cloud backup for your files and utilities. You get what you pay for.

Erm.

Ok.

Well. It turns out that when I pressed the button that turns off the stupid backlight on the keyboard I accidentally turned off the mouse pad .

Everything is fine now. Laptop is responding, touchpad thingie moves the pointer just fine.

Let me know when you've stopped laughing at me.

@IncompleteSenten

Erm.

Ok.

Well. It turns out that when I pressed the button that turns off the stupid backlight on the keyboard I accidentally turned off the mouse pad .

Everything is fine now. Laptop is responding, touchpad thingie moves the pointer just fine.

Let me know when you've stopped laughing at me.

I salute you for your honesty .

You need to check you have fully removed the antivirus software that's no longer being used. Norton especially is notorious for being difficult to remove, but McAfee and others are almost as bad. Search for "Fully remove Norton" or whatever it is, there are tools to remove them properly.

Next, ensure that you only have one antivirus package installed (even if only one is active, others can interfere with it).

Search "Windows Security" from your desktop to check whether Windows' in-built protection is active.

Are you me?

@IncompleteSenten

Erm.

Ok.

Well. It turns out that when I pressed the button that turns off the stupid backlight on the keyboard I accidentally turned off the mouse pad .

Everything is fine now. Laptop is responding, touchpad thingie moves the pointer just fine.

Let me know when you've stopped laughing at me.

@IncompleteSenten

Erm.

Ok.

Well. It turns out that when I pressed the button that turns off the stupid backlight on the keyboard I accidentally turned off the mouse pad .

Everything is fine now. Laptop is responding, touchpad thingie moves the pointer just fine.

Let me know when you've stopped laughing at me.

Made my day. And I'll be laughing for a while

@IncompleteSenten

Erm.

Ok.

Well. It turns out that when I pressed the button that turns off the stupid backlight on the keyboard I accidentally turned off the mouse pad .

Everything is fine now. Laptop is responding, touchpad thingie moves the pointer just fine.

Let me know when you've stopped laughing at me.

I love you for being so honest and witty

I took my laptop to tech support at work because I couldn't hear anyone in any of my meetings. Turns out one of the F keys mutes it and un-muting it through the volume controls doesn't affect that. Embarrassed when they had to generate a ticket after looking at me like I was a dick and pressing one button.

I'd have a look at the older laptop too. A £400 laptop should last years. Start with uninstalling any programs you don't use.

I am cringing myself inside out right now!
😂😂😂

I'm glad it looks like some of you are just as bad though!

@IncompleteSenten

Erm.

Ok.

Well. It turns out that when I pressed the button that turns off the stupid backlight on the keyboard I accidentally turned off the mouse pad .

Everything is fine now. Laptop is responding, touchpad thingie moves the pointer just fine.

Let me know when you've stopped laughing at me.

Bless you

I once ranted and raved at my laptop, cursing it for repeatedly dropping the wifi connection and cursing myself for not stumping up the cash for a more expensive one.

Turns out the wifi on/off button was next to the power on/off switch and I'd been pressing it by mistake

@CorrBlimeyGG

I'd have a look at the older laptop too. A £400 laptop should last years. Start with uninstalling any programs you don't use.

I'm going to wait a while in case it turns out I pressed a daft button there too. I can only take so much embarrassment in one day. 😂

Ah - it's Friday. Get some rest over the weekend and you'll be right as rain.

What's known in the industry as

"Error exists between chair and keyboard"

Glad you're all fixed now

@HappyAsASandboy

What's known in the industry as

"Error exists between chair and keyboard"

Glad you're all fixed now

Also referred to as PICNIC - problem in chair, not in computer