Please help an idiot with his computer.

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I only use my computer for web surfing and just recently, whenever I click on a link of something I've searched, it redirects me to some spam site. I figure I have a virus, but neither my virus scanner, nor my malware scanner picked anything up. Any advice on what it may be or how to fix it?

EDIT: Thanks for the advice everyone! I think Jamboxdotcom had it right. I uninstalled a couple of suspicious things and Google seems to be working now.

 

[Snork Maiden]

I had this recently - it certainly is a virus, and no matter what scans I threw at it picked anything up. The only way I could get rid of it was just to reinstall Windows - I was well overdue a reformat anyway, so it wasn't so bad.

This [http://superuser.com/questions/163600/why-are-my-google-searches-redirected] answer on Superuser has two answers for trying to clean your system, but honestly the first doesn't look simple and the other is just more malware scanning. Everyone also supports a reformat as a sure-fire way to fix the stuff - it's not the end of the world, but it will take a few hours and you'll need a second hard drive to back stuff up onto.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

may not fix it, but it's worth trying: check your program list for recently added programs. i once had a "virus" that was actually just a program (it was definitely malware, but not at all hidden) that gave me random ads. i found it in my program list and deleted it.
if that doesn't work, you might try one of those free scanners like Norton Security Scan or whatever it's called. personally, i think it's garbage, but some people swear by it.
worst case scenario, take it in to a computer shop?

 

[Armored Prayer]

I'm sorting having the same problem as well.

I keep getting random pop up spams and for some reason text here are sometimes highlighted in green. It seems to only happen here and my scans find nothing. Any solutions?(also a noob with computers)

 

[dsmops2003]

Check your hosts file to see if there are other IP addresses listed:
http://www.tech-pro.net/how-to-check-repair-hosts-file.html

Check in Internet explorer and see if there are proxys setup:
http://www.proxyway.org/

reset your WINSOCK and FIREWALL

from command line (start > run > cmd) type netsh firewall reset and then press enter. Then type netsh winsock reset. Then reboot.

Also my thought is you have some malware that has disable your AV/Malware software.

If these options dont work let us know. Also feel free to post computer questions in our computer repair group.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Computer-Help

Also you may want to sandbox your browser. I have instructions in the Computer Help Group welcome page

 

[Canid117]

Try every virus scan you can think of and try a variety of different browsers. If that fails try finding the sneaky bastard in safe mode to get rid of it. If that fails you might have to nuke your operating system and start over.