[Jellikit]

I wasn't sure if I should post the question here, or maybe in the appropriate sub-forum of the Mini 10's.

I'll try to be as concise as possible, with giving as much info as possible.

Thanks in advance for any help.

---------- Post added at 06:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 PM ----------

After looking at some other threads, I guess I should go ahead and post the question here.
First, a little background info.
I'm not the most savvy of geeks, but I do okay most of the time when trying to work through issues on the computer. I was directed here by "Netbooks for Dummies" by Joel McNamara.
The comp (from the system info under My Computer) is an Inspiron 1011. CPU N280 @ 1.66GHz - 1GBram, using XP Home, version 2002, svc. pack 3.
The issues I'm having aren't debilitating. In fact, I'm writing this on it now. However, a few years ago, I started having issues with certain websites that I frequent. Mostly they're forums for racing, poker, and other favorites.
I believe the issue started after attempting to download a gif to use in a signature in one of my regular forums. After that, I started getting these pop-ups in the lower right corner of the screen. They usually relate to whatever page I'm viewing. I was getting them on the lower left a little too. I dloaded an add-on pop-up blocker from Firefox (which I use most of the time) and that seemed to stop the ones on the left, but not the right.
Those pop-ups also disable me from writing/clicking in the forum or page I'm visiting too, unless I scroll down enough to get the script I'm wishing to work on, higher than the pop-up.
Like I said, this hasn't stopped me. It's been over 2 years and I'm still able to use most things fine. But lately, if I go to, say, Yahoo's home page, I put something in search, and it does nothing. I think it's related to the bug I have, because if I go to their News or another page, it searches okay most of the time.
One other thing...I was going to do just a system restore point to attempt to fix, but when I open it, it takes two attempts, and when it does open it, the window is blank. No calender, no notes, no nothing in the window.
My next attempt after looking for help here was going to be a complete reinstall of Windows, but even that has me wondering that I may mess something up. And we don't have a master disc, and I don't see a restore partition...though I'm not sure I'm looking in the right spot.
Again, sorry if long-winded, but I thought having the most info on my problems would help to figure it out.
Thanks very much. Very cool that this place even exits!

[holmes4]

Welcome to MyDellMini! Sounds like you have installed something that is forcing ads on you based on your browsing. That you get these in Firefox is disconcerting, as most of the "badware" that does this targets Internet Explorer. You have something installed system-wide that is interfering with web requests.

What antivirus program do you run?

You could run System Restore by booting into the boot menu (hold F8 at the initial boot prompt, I think). I don't believe there was a restore partition on the 10V (which is what you have.) You could possibly get rid of the badware with something like Malwarebytes, or a good AV program (I like the Norton tools.)

[Jellikit]

Thanks Holmes, and thanks for the reply.
Here's where I'll probably catch some flack.
As I said, I'm not the expert on things, and since I don't really do too much sensitive stuff, or even a whole lot, I really don't use a lot of antivirus. I have Avast, but it's just the free one. Back when all this started, I received some help from my poker buddies on the issues, they gave a lot of help, and they suggested Avast and another one. Well, I don't think the Avast does much tbh. I know..."shell out some money ya' tightwad!"
I do plan on running a couple of antivirus programs after I get this all fixed. I read in that book I mentioned that the guy suggests running 3 at once. They're all free, so I'm not sure how much it would help really. I will likely follow any advice you guys give, so if you think it's necessary to shell out a few bucks for antivirus, well then that's what I'll have to do. Like I said, I don't do a ton, but enough on my forums, and FB to keep in touch w/ family, that it may be required to pay for the service.
I have read this entire book, and some really useful stuff has been learned, like finding this place. So hopefully my knowledge continues to increase, and maybe I can help someone like myself in the future. I'm not totally inept. I was the new-members coordinator and mod for PokerStars' pokerschool forum for a couple years. So I do okay in general.
After you read the info here, if you say to go ahead and check out the antivirus stuff you mentioned, I'll give it a shot.
Thanks very much!

[holmes4]

Don't run multiple AV programs - they get in each others' way. Check your Add and Remove Programs list for programs you don't remember installing and remove them if they're unwanted. Then run Malwarebytes and see what it finds.

[Jellikit]

Hey there Steve, thanks again man.
Now, I'm not gonna put the horse in front of the cart, but I think we may have it fixed.
I went to my racing forum where I usually have the most trouble. (Stewart-Haas Racing)
After about 15 mins, NO POP-UPS!
So far all I've done was remove programs. I googled every one I wasn't sure of, so I didn't delete something important. I think the culprit possibly could have been iLivid/searchqu toolbar, after looking through some info on it during my search. It may have issues with web browsers it turns out. It even said in the add/remove programs that it was used a couple weeks ago, though I never use it. That seems to be about the last time I was in the racing forum. SO....we shall see.
I will be still doing the a/v (Malwarebytes) you suggested after I look through a few more things.
I also removed a couple unnecessary windows components too to free up a bit of space.
One last thing, I misquoted the book on "running 3 a/v at once." He doesn't say that. It was 3 spyware programs he runs. 1) Ad-Aware Free, 2)Spybot-S&D, 3)CCleaner.
Thoughts on these? (remembering, this book IS from 2010, so I expect a little is outdated. I will still research programs before using them in case they're out of date.)
I'll let ya know how things work, but feel free to comment on anything here.
MUCH, MUCH appreciation Holmes!

[holmes4]

CCleaner is very popular - I don't like it. I don't think of it as a "spyware" program - it is a "registry cleaner" and in my experience creates more problems than it solves.

Spybot Search and Destroy is a very good anti-spyware tool, but I think you need the paid version for any serious protection. I haven't looked at Ad-Aware in a while, I thought that was just an ad blocker.

Avira is a decent free AV tool, if you can manage to ignore its constant pleas for you to "upgrade" to the paid version.

[Jellikit]

Well, I've not had luck w/ improving the search feature at Yahoo. I'm wondering if uninstalling firefox and reinstalling it may help?
I haven't looked at the other malware info you've given, but I did install malwarebytes and did a full scan. It found about a dozen things and I deleted all of them.
I did manage to find the original box for my mini...packed in Christmas bin. It has the windows xp disc and the drivers one as well. My question is this, as opposed to uninstalling firefox, running more av stuff, and all the other things, would you recommend just reinstalling windows from the cd? Truthfully, there's only pics and 1 program I wish to save. The program is pokerstars. The thing about pokerstars is that US players can't play for money, and they even booted most US players from the .com site and forced them into .net. The .net version just isn't as good. They won't even let US players install .com, but if you have it, you can still use it for "play money" games. So I do want to keep that.
That's really it, not too much else I wish to save, and if there is, I can save it on a (sd?) card. I have a 2GB card from my dig. camera.
Thanks!

[holmes4]

I can't help with Pokerstars - I don't know what you'd need to do to preserve it. Otherwise, yes, you could reinstall from the CD.

[Jellikit]

Okay, I think that's the route I may take.
One last question. I'm reading how to do the reinstall, and I shouldn't have any trouble w/ that. But it doesn't really say anything about removing win.xp first. Don't I need to remove the one on the comp before doing the install from the disc?

[holmes4]

It depends on what kind of XP disc you have. The one that came with my Mini 9 was a Dell-specific "disk image" and it just replaced everything. Otherwise, if you see what looks like a normal Windows install, choose "Custom" or "Advanced" (I forget what it's called) - then you'll be given an opportunity to delete existing partitions. Do that, and then install into the unpartitioned space.