New laptop has virus?

[homer]

GF just bought what she thought was a new Lenovo computer. She turned it on and accessed the internet and got some weird audio message saying "your computer has been blocked....."

We looked up the message and it seems to be a malware thing. How in the hell does that get on a new computer? Did they sell us a refurbished one?

[nate82]

GF just bought what she thought was a new Lenovo computer. She turned it on and accessed the internet and got some weird audio message saying "your computer has been blocked....."

We looked up the message and it seems to be a malware thing. How in the hell does that get on a new computer? Did they sell us a refurbished one?

 

A refurbished one would get reset to the factory defaults meaning they fixed whatever the issue was and then tested the unit. The only thing I can think of is that you bought an open item and returned laptop.

 

Should be easy to fix though all you need to do is restart the laptop and have it open in safe mode and then download an anti virus and remove the virus. Another option is to replace the hard drive and reinstall windows on that new hard drive. Probably would be a good idea as I am assuming the hard drive you have is probably rather small and is filled with bloatware.

[DHonks]

That's very interesting....new or possibly cancelled/refurbished? A Chinese manufacturer may also be more likely to be prone to something like this, although while Lenovo is a Chinese company, most brands are made there. That sounds problematic

[zurch1818]

Since it is a new computer...can't you just format the HD and start with a clean Windows install? You should be able to use the Windows Media Creation tool to do this. If the computer is having internet connectivity issues you can always create a USB on a different computer.

[LouisEly]

You can also download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware onto a jump drive on a separate computer then launch it from the jump drive on this computer.

 

Sometimes malware can get on ancillary hardware (plug-in mouse/keyboard/etc.). Was anything else plugged into the laptop (mouse, keyboard, etc.)?

[homer]

Nope, nothing else plugged in. This was literally right after she turned it on and went through the setup. Next thing was open IE.

 

Given that we just don't trust this computer we are probably going to just see if they'll ship a new one since she doesn't need it right away. Thanks for the suggestions guys.