Strange characters after reboot

[Zholla]

Greetings all. Ahter playing Quake III I rebooted the PC
and when it finished there were strange characters marking
all Icons and text on the desktop and all folders. Usually
I do a system restore but this time there were no restore
dates for September, it would not allow me to go back to
previous months and I am stuck. My inportant data is
backed up. Is there any way to restore the PC to normal
without erasing all the data on the primary drive? I would
rather not if I do not have to. The primary drive is a 160
gig, the second a 100 and the last a 40 gig. I only have a
restore disk which came with the Systemax. this happens
periodically...once a month or so but I am stuck now. your
help if you please. I am a novice.

 

[larry]

Well wouldn't the install of quake III be suspect? Is
quake III that important to you? How about uninstalling
it.
I noticed you didn't include virus and spyware scans for
those free downloads to help with everything they promise
but don't tell you about startup programs and registry
items that fool with your pc.

If you don't have virus protection, Symantec test your
computer's exposer to online threats.
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?
langid=ie&venid=sym

If you don't have reliable spyware removal, you can get
it with spybot free at :

http://www.net-integration.net/index.php?
page=spybotsd#clean

I suggest you run the spybot scan. It will run awhile.
WHen finished ,clean recommended. Some entries will be in
memory. The program ask if you would like to fix at next
boot up. Reply yes

It has an automatic backup so you can restore fixes.

You'll also need to remove startup registry items also.
Highjackthis is available free at:

http://www.net-integration.net/index.php?

They can help you with interpreting logs. Just follow
their instructions. You can wait for their interpretation
or you can look for 04 startup entries. I suggest you
delete any software startup thats not store bought
software.