After my Windows 7 computer died in March of 2015, I got a Hewlett-Packard Windows 8.1 computer from Walmart:

atariage.com/forums/topic/236241-array0-degraded-intel-rapid-storage-technology/

[HP Pavilion 500-223w Desktop PC with Intel Core i3-4130 Processor, 8GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive and Windows 8.1]

Avast screwed up my computer in May of 2018 and the PC magically healed itself, but it never quite acted right after that. I guess my free Avast subscription must have expired or something about a month ago because it kept being blank and not doing anything when I opened it. I uninstalled it, but of course, Avast acts like a virus and blocks the Windows anti-virus from working after Avast has been uninstalled. I wasn't going to fiddle with the registry and risk messing up my computer to fix the problem, so I didn't have any anti-virus protection. I should have re-downloaded Avast, but I was sick of using an anti-virus program that acts like a virus.

My old version of Firefox was giving me problems. It was slow so I disabled some add-ons. It wouldn’t load properly after restarting it, so I uninstalled it and downloaded the latest version of Firefox. I forgot that I didn’t have No-Script running and Googled how to get the tabs at the bottom, then got a virus. I unplugged my external hard drive as fast as I could and I couldn’t turn my computer off so I yanked the plug from it. [The Best Buy guy thinks I downloaded a fake version of Firefox from a lookalike web site (thanks to money-grubbing ad happy Google) and got the virus that way instead of visiting an infected web page.]

My sister and I went to Best Buy to see what our options were. The guys at Best Buy were trying to talk me into getting my computer fixed, but once I said it was windows 8.1, they quickly changed their minds and said "oh yeah, you do need a new computer." We had a little over $200 left on the Best Buy Card, so we used $200 of that and the rest on my sister's credit card. Here is the 64-bit computer that we ended up getting:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-desktop-intel-core-i3-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-128gb-solid-state-drive-hp-finish-in-natural-silver/6290502.p?skuId=6290502

 

This seems to be the same one at Amazon:

https://amzn.to/2JGap2x

Roadrunner mentioned Webroot in my status update while I was away from AtariAge and that’s what the main helpful guy at Best Buy recommended, so we got It for a year. It's nice to have confirmation that we got the right thing.

The plan is to put Webroot on the new PC, put the hard drive from my virus-infected computer into an enclosure (turning it into an external hard drive), plug that into the new computer with a USB cable, then use Webroot to kill the virus. I’ll get any files that I need off that hard drive that I haven’t already made back ups of on another external hard drive. Problem is Best Buy didn’t have any hard drive enclosures. I guess I’ll have to order it from Amazon. Please post the one you think might work.

Even after the guy carried the computer out to the car, I still kind of felt like somebody kicked me in the stomach and punched me in the chest. It’s nice to have a new computer, but since I can’t remember anything useful, it will be hard to start all over again and try to get a few of my favorite programs installed and set up the way I like them.

After Best Buy, my sister extended my birthday fun. We went to a Mexican restaurant, then we went to Dave and Busters to play Wednesday half price games. We played air hockey, ski ball, a couple basketball games, a sit down Jurassic Park game where you shoot dinosaurs, and a couple random other games. I felt better after that.


Update (2019y_05m_05d)
My sister was able to go back and get an $85 credit because they had a sale on the computer a couple of days after we bought it. The previous price was $529.99. The sale price was $449.99.

I've been slowly recreating my life:

randomterrain.com/rt-useful-software-and-addons.html

Most of those programs are now installed on my new PC. A few more to go. Maybe the latest version of Stella will work on this computer.



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