Advice on what might be a virus

[draugen]

Hi, my brother downloaded a film clip on facebook. After that his computer was working overtime uploading, when he was on the internet, about 1/2 as much as the computer would be downloading. His hardisk was constantly working.
He ran McAfee antivirus program, no viruses was reported. He went on Facebook and went to where he had downloaded the film clip, and alot of people had comented that it contained a virus.
My brothers computer symtoms as he describes them are:
the symtoms descibed above plus that the computer suddenly turns itself off, where right after he can not turn the computer on again.
His computer retired the other day, with a "poof" and a litle bit of smoke coming from it. We desided it could be his computer's power supply, and he bought another power supply. He got his computer working again, but now he is experiencing the same symtoms he had before his computer went "poof".
Could this be a virus, in wich case how do he get rid of it?

Ahead of time, Thank you very much.

Christian

 

[kjv1611]

1. Malwarebytes Antimalware - download it, install it, quick scan with it.

2. SuperAntiSpyware - same..

3. Try a different AV instead of McAfee - Microsoft Security Essentials and/or Avira Antivir are my personal choices. I'd start with both to help protect.

4. Might not hurt to install a firewall - Comodo Internet Security.

You can find all of these at

http://www.download.com

and other download sites as well.

What version of Windows is he running?

There may also be other issues than just a virus. I doubt a virus caused the poof of smoke. That sounds more like an electrical issue - the power/AC adapter or battery, or else a motherboard issue.... VERY bad capacitors for instance.

If the laptop is old, it may seriously be time to consider a replacement.

Regardless of anything else, I'd seriously recommend backing up any important data to an external hard drive, flash/thumb drive, DVD, network, whatever is available..

 

[goombawaho]

Your post will likely being nominated for "Incoherent Post of the Week" if you're not careful.

"but now he is experiencing the same symtoms he had before his computer"

You really didn't describe any symptoms OTHER than the puff of smoke. You talked about uploading and downloading and viewing videos which are just normal activities.

If none of the utilites that KJV1611 mentions detects anything and the power supply holds together (no smoke), then there's nothing to worry about.

By the way - a puff of smoke COULD be some dust burning, especially if it does it with a new power supply. Take it outside and blow it out with a leaf blower (low speed) if you have one.

I would have a hard time believing that two power supplies could go poof just like that UNLESS you have major power problems. But a virus could never cause the POOF.