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View Full Version : Spyware on new, offline Acer laptop

superportal
02-26-2006, 02:31 AM
I just bought an unopened Acer Aspire 5672WLMI laptop from CompUSA.

I brought it home. Did the auto-install. Installed Zone Alarm Security Suite from CD. Installed Ad-Aware from a CD. Ran Ad-Aware.

Now Ad-Aware says I have a CoolWebSearch spyware/trojan (detected in registry entries). That's one of the worst spywares to try to get rid of.

The computer has not been online yet. It's not even been in a room with internet access.

Is this normal??? I have to contend with spyware from Acer before I have even been online???

I'm not a happy camper. Maybe this is a false alarm? I'd be interested if anybody else has a similar experience.
Chakz
02-26-2006, 04:12 AM
The problem is not Acer. CompUSA connects all their computers to the Net to update stuff like Norton etc.. CoolWebSearch is really easy to get rid of, go to Google and type "download cwshredder.exe" without the quotes.
euph_CF
02-26-2006, 08:00 AM
i had the same issue with a 8204 out of the box install....no connection to the net yet.
LanceMoreland
02-26-2006, 08:44 AM
It was on my 5672 also. My box was sealed. Spybot removed it, no problem.
kwright0614
02-26-2006, 09:38 AM
It was also on my 8204. I did go on the net to load microsoft's defender antispyware and superpi. I assmued I got it from the super_pi site. Not so sure now.
wynand32
02-26-2006, 09:51 AM
I'm pretty sure it's part of the build, amazingly enough. Not sure how that could have happened...
digitalfx
02-26-2006, 10:28 AM
I'm pretty sure it's part of the build, amazingly enough. Not sure how that could have happened...

Yes I agree as I had it to brand new from CDW. AdAware removed it.
Jivedaddy
02-26-2006, 12:02 PM
I had them too, and my unit from CompUSA was double sealed in boxes and had just arrived in the store. That's crazy that a computer manufacturer would allow their systems to ship infected with spyware.

JD
digitalfx
02-26-2006, 12:05 PM
unless they were paid to put it in
superportal
02-26-2006, 01:22 PM
Thanks for all your comments. I'm glad I'm not the only one but that's weird.

Shame on Acer for doing that.

There are probably loads of people who don't catch it and end up suffering later.

Hopefully I got rid of it now..we'll see.