[kozmo]

I run on Win 95 and I have a Word Marker Virus. Any solutions on how to get rid of the damn thing? Also, if I save a document at school with my floppy, I can't re-open it at open. It tells me to reformat, but then I lose all of my saved info.

Beginner needs help!!

[Anne Troy]

It has just hit me. I didn't know what you meant and now I realize you have a Word MACRO virus. They're easy to get rid of--I have no idea how to get rid of a marker virus. Sorry, kozmo, that's funny. Thank you for the chuckle. Now, in return, I'll help you get rid of it! Close your Word program. Find and delete the file called normal.dot on your hard drive. If you don't know how to easily find files on your hard drive, let me know. If you've got more than one normal.dot delete them all. That should take care of that.

As for the floppy disk. It sounds to me like either the disk is bad, which is VERY common, or that one of the PCs has a bad floppy drive. To test these things out, we do like everybody else, we rule out stuff. So, first, try a brand new floppy disk. Formatting the disk first is a really good idea, so put the disk in. Open My Computer, right-click on 3.5-Inch Floppy and hit Format. Let it format. You don't have to give it a label, but you can. Now, can you take that floppy to the OTHER PC and save a file to it? Can you then read that file? If not, you've got something going on with the difference between the two floppy drives probably. If you've done this before and it's worked fine, then it's probably just a bad floppy. Get a new one like I said.

[kozmo]

Thanks Dreamboat for your reply. I have no idea in how to find normal.dot. As for the floppy, it still doesn't work. Any other solutions?

[kozmo]

Dreamboat, this is the message that I get when I try to attach a Word document through Yahoo's e-mail.

Powered by Norton
Virus Alert: The file you have uploaded is infected by virus W97M.Marker.A. This file has been cleaned, but your computer may be infected.

[Anne Troy]

Oops, sorry. Sound so much different with the A added to it. Now it sounds familiar. Anyway, I've never been a virus expert--I don't get them.

Here's how you find files, in this instance, we're finding normal.dot.

Hit Start-Find-Files or Folders.
In the "Named" box, type normal.dot
In the "Look-in" it should say something with ( C : ) behind it. I have to space it out or all you'll see is a smiley face...
The "Include subfolders" checkbox should be checked.

Hit find now.

I've looked up the virus and here's the information you need, which may or may not include renaming the normal.dot file:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/marker.html

[Edited by Dreamboat on 03-19-2001 at 05:17 PM]

[kozmo]

I have one, so I'm assuming not to delete it. Any other suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

[Anne Troy]

No, you HAVE to delete it or at least rename it.

Here's the deal on normal.dot:

It's the default template for Word. It becomes corrupt very easily. Some people install Word and then say, "where's my normal.dot file?" Well, there isn't one until you try to create a new document. Why? Because Word creates one when it doesn't FIND one. By deleting or renaming normal.dot, Word doesn't find it when you launch Word next time, so what does it do? It creates a new one--without any macro viruses in it!

Hope this makes sense...

[kozmo]

Dreamboat, you are the bomb. Thank you so very much.

[Anne Troy]

Glad it worked, koz!

[kozmo]

I thought it was ok, but the virus still continues to exist. Help!!

[Anne Troy]

...on your system. Do you have a virus program installed, and when is the last time you updated its dat files?

[kozmo]

Never updated DAT files. Don't know how to do it either.

[Anne Troy]

Are you running one at all?

Do you have $30 available on a credit card? Go to http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/clinic/ov_clinic.asp

It is so easy, it's ridiculous. Meanwhile, while I wait for you to reply, I'm going to see if there's somewhere online where you can do a check right now for free.

What kind of internet do you have: dialup? cable? other?

[Anne Troy]

Here's one that says it's free. I cannot help you with how to use it, but I think our Bryan can. You can always find him in the Internet forum, so you could post a question there if you like. Tell ya what, I'm gonna tell him to come in here and tell us if this is the one, or what.

http://antivirus.cai.com/

[kozmo]

Thanks again.