Computer Virus Infection

Lately I have been getting a strange popup on my Windows machine. The dialog says “Error: Runtime error 216 at 7C9105F8”. It is annoying since it becomes the top window when it pops up. So I will be typing in another window, and this error will pop up and grab the focus. The other day this was happening every minute or so. What am I supposed to do? I tried to do a Google search on the exact error. However the only hits I get say I should run an up to date antivirus program on it.

So I install a copy of McAffee VirusScan that I have. Then I immediately update the software to get the latest virus definitions and patches from McAffee. As soon as McAffee starts up, it keeps giving me warning messages about e-mail problems. That is strange since I am not even running my Microsoft Outlook. I take a look at the McAffee e-mail problem log that the software has been collecting. That’s when it hits me. I got some spam software installed on my machine. And the darn thing is sending out spam e-mails as if they were coming from me.

The funny thing about all this is the topic of the spam messages that the rogue software is trying to send from my machine:

• Q1a: Wicked meds
• Don’t you wanna be horny again?
• Man is a Man!
• Z4: Unsure and hesitating?
• You will feel confident in sex
• Keeping the male problem to yourself?

LOL! This is tragic but still very funny. So I chose to let McAffee find and disinfect all the viruses it can find. The bad thing is that McAffee is really slow. It seems to weigh down my system. After it found all these problems and eliminated them, I still got the original error message that caused me to seek help in the first place. Darn McAfffee. At least it does not happen as frequently. Maybe McAffee did rid me of other problem software running on my machine. But I don’t care about that. I removed McAffee from my system.

Does anybody have any advice on how to combat the Runtime error 216? I really want to know.