Question
Phil H.  writes:
"My computer has been acting up on me lately. Sometimes it freezes for no reason or it takes too long for a program to execute a command or I get a bunch of error messages.  This started happening after I downloaded a file from the Internet. Can you help?"

Answer
03/14/99

Phil, there is a number of things that could be wrong with your computer, my best guess though is that you probably downloaded a virus along with that file.

Here are a few things you might want to try.

• The first thing you should do is to run a virus check on your system. Software like McAfee or Norton Antivirus will help you detect and get rid of viruses.

• Try running a utility program. There are a number of utility programs that will allow you to troubleshoot problems in your system and sometimes fix them for you. You can use programs such as First Aid or PC Advisor.

• If that doesn't work, you can try re-installing the software with which you are having the problem or you can try re-installing your Operating System.

If all else fails then this would be a good time to take your system to a computer technician and have him take a look at it because you may have hardware problems.

Keep in mind that antivirus and utilities programs come with a price tag and so do computer technicians.