I have had someone take over my PC....for the third time!! No thanks to McAfee

[Kelly33377]

In August of this year someone hacked into my computer and locked me out: What I was doing when this happened is my new PC was running very slowly, ran at least 5 McAfee anti-virus scans that came up clean, I went into my Settings in Windows and tried to do a scan using Microsoft Defender and that is when my screen started popping up blank black boxes and I immediately unplugged the power cord to my PC.  Now go into late October Same thing when I tried to get Windows deffender to run a one time random scan after finding that I was not the Administrator, Owner, and I had no permission to view any of the file properties anymore; I was put under a guest account by someone other than me and someone had opened an Xbox account under my name 😠!  I did a few system restores to no avail, then I called HP to try and resolve the problem: I gave them a clear description of the situation and I had an error code 0x81000202.The Customer Service representative told me that I had a hacker on my computer. The CS representative said that "For a fee we can use Phone a friend".....I patiently told her that I am on a fixed income and that I did not have the money at that time. Plus I reminded her that I was under Warranty what it does cover are repairs and IT support for a 2 years and I do have the recent which shows that I paid it and the number on it. "Oh, I see no warranty here. It does not cover this. The best you can do is just shut off the computer".after she said that I waited for her to give me further instructions as to what to do. She said nothing at all for 10 seconds.  I was really beside myself. So I just hung up the phone....as if it isn't bad enough that someone again had gained access to my computer to all my personal files like my bank account number and who knows what other sensitive information they may have gotten?  Also this problem has not gone away. I have spoken to IT techs over at Microsoft and there are countless others that do not have anything good to say about McAfee anti-virus.

 If I do not hear back from anyone at HP to either tell me how to fix this or to replace it. I am (as much as I don't want to 🙄) Heweltt Packard leaves me with no other choice than to call the Better Business Burreau to file a complaint and I will be calling the Attorney General's Office as well. I do not want to  go that route but from all the really poor customer service which really goes to show that HP does not care about their customers. Really sad people.

 Sorry to rant but I don't know what else to do. If someone can help me fix this please let me know and I will give you all the screen shots you need everything that I have in my notes on this.

Thank you for your patience and time.

[WAWood]

@Kelly33377 

Lets cover your history and threats, first.

No antivirus software guarantees that it will protect against ALL infections.

As to the file ownership, your are not the Administrator of this PC and never have been. What you have is a misunderstanding of Microsoft accounts.  MS changed their default account creating policies with Windows 7 to prevent rootkit infections.  So, since then, new accounts are Standard Users with some Admin rights -- which is why you get prompted for a password when you try to install new applications.

But from your comments, it does sound like your default account got switched to Guest -- and that pretty much prevents you from doing anything useful on the PC. I don't know how that happened, but my guess is that you were using Free WiFi somewhere and a "hacker" got into your PC as a result. These places with Free WiFi don't tell you of that risk because they want you to buy stuff there, not take your business elsewhere.

There is literally NO WAY to clean an infected PC to guarantee that any and all malware is gone due to the ability of some hackers to HIDE their files from AV software.  You run the AV tool think your PC is clean, and then a day or two later, it starts acting up, again.

What DOES work is something known as a Factory Reset -- and the options for doing this are described below:

Let's get the basics out of the way first. A factory reset completely rewrites the entire contents of the disk drive. It erases everything in the process. All your accounts, settings, personal data, and installed applications are gone. Period. There is no way to do this and keep ANYTHING. That is how this works.

This, despite Urban Legends to the contrary, is not a Miracle Cure for whatever ails your PC. If your PC is crashing on you, this will NOT fix that. If your PC is taking a long time to reboot, this will NOT fix that. If your PC is running hot and/or shutting down while you are doing video streaming, this will NOT fix that. If Windows Updates are failing due to lack of disk space, this will NOT fix that.

That said, it will fix some problems. If Windows is corrupted and you can't do a Repair-Install, this will take care of that. If drivers are not working and you can't get drivers from the HP website product page for your model PC, this will restore HP drivers. If you've been having serious problems with Windows Update and simply want to start over with a clean slate, this will take care of that.

Here are the following ways to accomplish a factory reset:
1) Factory reset using internal HP image
2) Factory reset using external HP image you make
3) Factory reset using external HP image you buy

Each of these is discussed in some detail below ...

---------- Factory reset using internal HP image ----------
HP preloads most PCs with a compressed Windows Image that can be used to completely restore the PC to its original condition. This image is contained in the Recovery partition, and if it is intact, it will generally work well.

To do this, you press the Esc key repeatedly while rebooting and when the HP Startup Menu appears, you select the option to do the reset -- usually F11. This will take a couple of hours or more to complete and when done, your PC will start over with initial setup screens. That means that EVERYTHING previously on your PC will have been erased: accounts, settings, personal data, applications, drivers.

NOTE that the disk drive has to be in excellent condition or this will fail. So, BEFORE you do this, instead of pressing F11 as above, press F2 to run diagnostics. If the disk test passes, you should be able to run the reset.

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you make ----------
HP provides a Cloud Recovery tool that you can use, together with a 32GB USB stick, to create your on HP reset media.

Here is the link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

This works the same as the factory reset described above.

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you buy ----------
For those PCs not supported by the Cloud Recovery, in some cases, HP offers Recover Media for sale. This can not be downloaded; instead, it must be ordered from HP.

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities.

In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click &quot;Update&quot;.<br><br>If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the &quot;+&quot; symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Support.

HP contact info: https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true

If HP no longer carries the media you need, another site you should check for HP Recovery Media is: http://www.computersurgeons.com/

These work the same as the factory reset described above.

[Kelly33377]

Well whatever makes you feel good about yourself. Why don't you think a little before you speak.  You obviously work HP. 

The bottom line is if it was not for this fake anti-virus by the name of McAfee which IS NOT  protecting my computer as well as they claim and when my same problem has happened to other people AND HP will not even recognize my 2year protection plan ....well you do the math,  it is bad business to not respond to your customers and have little insulting people who really don't know what they are talking about attack your customers...well it looks like your company is failing miserably

[WAWood]

@Kelly33377 

I agreed with your that your PC has probably been hacked and told you both, what WOULD work and WOULD NOT work -- to fix that.

I even provided detailed suggestions of things you could do to reset your PC and restore it to working condition.

So now, your response is only to badmouth me and HP -- if that is how you are going behave -- rudely, then you get no more help from me at all.