Please help me fix Google Chrome on my computer!

[What's his face]

Not sure if technical support for computer programs belongs here, but mods feel free to move this if I've posted this in the wrong place.

Anyways, I love Google Chrome. It's fast and easy to use. I used to love Firefox for the same reasons, but later versions haven't really impressed me. But Google Chrome has been acting up and I can't seem to fix it. Even uninstalling it and re-installing it doesn't work. Chrome won't load web pages any more. I don't get any error messages or a 404. It just hangs there and the tab at the top just says "Loading...". Before you say this is a problem with my internet connection, Chrome won't even open web pages I have saved on my hard drive nor will it open any of the "chrome://______" sections you can normally go to. Firefox and IE both work fine (aside from being not nearly as good).

Does anyone else know of this problem, or even better, how to fix it? I did a malware scan with 3 different programs (they found some stuff, but it didn't fix it) and I downloaded the most recent version. I'm using Windows 7.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Did something happen that made these problems start (i.e. a crash, an installation of some other software that might be conflicting with Chrome, a virus, etc.), or did it just happen on its own?

 

[What's his face]

Did something happen that made these problems start (i.e. a crash, an installation of some other software that might be conflicting with Chrome, a virus, etc.), or did it just happen on its own?

Actually, yeah. I had dowloaded an episode of LOST and it Windows Media Player wanted to download a codec it said it needed in order to play it. I've never had problems with that before so I said ok. The codec download/installation screen froze so I just downloaded a different copy of the episode. I don't know if that was just a screwy error of some kind or if it was malicious, but that was what seemed to cause it.

Frak. I hope I don't have to do a system restore.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Uh oh. I've heard talk of viruses spreading that way (i.e. the user gets a message that says a new codec is needed). I hope that's not what you got. Is this place you downloaded the episode from, reputable?

 

[What's his face]

I get all my torrents from isohunt. Whether that counts as "reputable" or not, I have no idea.

It could well be a virus. A virus that doesn't affect Firefox or IE, but only Chrome. Meh.

What's a good program to use to get rid of it, if it is indeed a virus? I used Spybot S&D, Adaware, and Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

Have you run a virus scan using Norton or Symantec? I'm not familiar with Malwarebyte, but I don't know that the other two pick everything up.

Unfortunately, this is an area I'm not well-versed in. I'm just a PHP/.NET developer.

 

[What's his face]

I FIXED IT!

Turns out my computer was indeed infected. There's a program called TDSSkiller and that seemed to do the trick.

Thank God I have my Chrome back!

 

[Brent]

Yeah, its real easy to get virus's and spyware and junk that screw up your stuff. I recommend having an antivirus program on your computer that also supports spyware protection, for example NOD32.

I also recommend having installed and run frequently MalwareBytes, which is free, and SpyBotS&D, you can also have AdAware (though lately I've found it a bloat of a program and don't really like it anymore.)

Microsoft also has a free antivirus program BTW.

 

[Canadave]

Also, to avoid similar events happening, download VLC Media Player. It comes with pretty much every codec you'd regularly encounter, so you shouldn't have any more problems of that nature.

 

[What's his face]

Also, to avoid similar events happening, download VLC Media Player. It comes with pretty much every codec you'd regularly encounter, so you shouldn't have any more problems of that nature.

Yes, I love this player. I shall use it exclusively from now on.