Fixed Neighbor's Computer - What Should I Charge?

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Bmwkid135

New Member
Hey there guys, I'm new to these boards and am not sure if this is where I ask this sort of question, but here goes anyway...

So, I've been working on my neighbor's computer recently (I now have just over 6 hours into it) and I'll be finishing it up today. What she wanted me to do was "Clean it up... make it run faster", but that turned out to be a great deal trickier than it sounds... see, her computer is riddled with viruses and runs slow as hell. Anyway though, after all those hours of work and headaches, I cleared it up as best as I could. It's not running magnificently fast, but it's running as fast as I can make it go (unless I start replacing internal parts). Basically to make a short list of what I did is that I painstakingly searched her computer for what was slowing it down, realized it was viruses after it wouldn't allow me to go on any site except weird mortgage sites and what not, tricked it into letting me download an anti-malware program, scanned and scanned... and scanned, removed all infected files, then I began with what she wanted me to do... I deleted all programs that she doesn't use (or won't miss), ran a disk cleanup, defragmented, and then ran another disk cleanup; and I believe it'll be the end of it today with me setting up her new printer (no big deal there). I'm sure I'm forgetting about some stuff here and there, but that's basically the gist of it so far;

After all that, my question is what should I charge her? She's made a couple hints towards it, but I didn't really know what to say as of yet. What worried me a little is that she said something along the lines of "Let me know what I owe you hourly...", and you know you always get screwed with this kind of job if you have to get paid hourly for it... so should that mean that I charge more for it hourly? Let me know what you guy's think! I know it's nothing really all that complicated, but there's a lot of time and energy involved in this fix up. Thanks.
 
Bmwkid135 said:
Hey there guys, I'm new to these boards and am not sure if this is where I ask this sort of question, but here goes anyway...

So, I've been working on my neighbor's computer recently (I now have just over 6 hours into it) and I'll be finishing it up today. What she wanted me to do was "Clean it up... make it run faster", but that turned out to be a great deal trickier than it sounds... see, her computer is riddled with viruses and runs slow as hell. Anyway though, after all those hours of work and headaches, I cleared it up as best as I could. It's not running magnificently fast, but it's running as fast as I can make it go (unless I start replacing internal parts). Basically to make a short list of what I did is that I painstakingly searched her computer for what was slowing it down, realized it was viruses after it wouldn't allow me to go on any site except weird mortgage sites and what not, tricked it into letting me download an anti-malware program, scanned and scanned... and scanned, removed all infected files, then I began with what she wanted me to do... I deleted all programs that she doesn't use (or won't miss), ran a disk cleanup, defragmented, and then ran another disk cleanup; and I believe it'll be the end of it today with me setting up her new printer (no big deal there). I'm sure I'm forgetting about some stuff here and there, but that's basically the gist of it so far;

After all that, my question is what should I charge her? She's made a couple hints towards it, but I didn't really know what to say as of yet. What worried me a little is that she said something along the lines of "Let me know what I owe you hourly...", and you know you always get screwed with this kind of job if you have to get paid hourly for it... so should that mean that I charge more for it hourly? Let me know what you guy's think! I know it's nothing really all that complicated, but there's a lot of time and energy involved in this fix up. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I'd probably go between £7 and £20 an hour personally.
 
agree with both above (or as a friendly neighbour, u can just not charge anything and ask her for favour if needed in the future :P)

You should make sure that you give her enough tips to not break her computer again though
 
What specific programs did you use to remove the infections? Did you use malwarebytes? Do the following so we can make sure its all cleaned up.

1.

Please download and run TDSSkiller

When the program opens, click on the start scan button.

TDSSKiller will now scan your computer for the TDSS infection. When the scan has finished it will display a result screen stating whether or not the infection was found on your computer. If it was found it will display a screen similar to the one below.

infection-found.jpg


To remove the infection simply click on the Continue button and TDSSKiller will attempt to clean the infection.

When it has finished cleaning the infection you will see a report stating whether or not it was successful as shown below.

scan-completed.jpg


If the log says will be cured after reboot, please reboot the system by pressing the reboot now button.

After running there will be a log that will be located at the root of your c:\ drive labeled tdsskiller with a series of numbers after it. Please open the log and copy and paste it back here.

2.

Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware from here or here and save it to your desktop.
  • Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
  • At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to
    • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
    • and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • then click Finish.
  • If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version. Please keep updating until it says you have the latest version.
  • Once the program has loaded, select Perform quick scan, then click Scan.
  • When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
  • Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
  • A log will be saved automatically which you can access by clicking on the Logs tab within Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

If for some reason Malwarebytes will not install or run please download and run Rkill.scr, Rkill.exe, or Rkill.com. If you are still having issues running rkill then try downloading these renamed versions of the same program.

EXPLORER.EXE
IEXPLORE.EXE
USERINIT.EXE
WINLOGON.EXE

But DO NOT reboot the system and then try installing or running Malwarebytes. If Rkill (which is a black box) appears and then disappears right away or you get a message saying rkill is infected, keep trying to run rkill until it over powers the infection and temporarily kills it. Once a log appears on the screen, you can try running malwarebytes or downloading other programs.



Download the HijackThis installer from here.
Run the installer and choose Install, indicating that you accept the licence agreement. The installer will place a shortcut on your desktop and launch HijackThis.

Vista and Windows 7 users must right click on the hijackthis icon and click on run as. If the run as option doesn't appear then press and hold the shift key while right clicking on the icon to get it to appear.


Click Do a system scan and save a logfile

Most of what HijackThis lists will be harmless or even essential, don't fix anything yet.

When the hijackthis log appears in a notepad file, click on the edit menu, click select all, then click on the edit menu again and click on copy. Come back to your reply and right click on your mouse and click on paste.

Post the logfile that HijackThis produces along with the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware log

3.

And then a deeper scan.

Download and Run ComboFix
If you already have Combofix, please delete this copy and download it again as it's being updated regularly.
  • Download this file here :

    Combofix

  • When the page loads click on the blue combofix download link next to the BleepingComputer Mirror.
  • Save the file to your windows desktop. The combofix icon will look like this when it has downloaded to your desktop.

    cf-icon.jpg
  • We are almost ready to start ComboFix, but before we do so, we need to take some preventative measures so that there are no conflicts with other programs when running ComboFix. At this point you should do the following:

  • Close all open Windows including this one.
  • Close or disable all running Antivirus, Antispyware, and Firewall programs as they may interfere with the proper running of ComboFix. Instructions on disabling these type of programs can be found here.
    Once these two steps have been completed, double-click on the ComboFix icon found on your desktop. Please note, that once you start ComboFix you should not click anywhere on the ComboFix window as it can cause the program to stall. In fact, when ComboFix is running, do not touch your computer at all. The scan could take a while, so please be patient.
  • Please click on I agree on the disclaimer window.
  • ComboFix will now install itself on to your computer. When it is done, a blue screen will appear as shown below.

    cf-preparing.jpg

  • ComboFix is now preparing to run. When it has finished ComboFix will automatically attempt to create a System Restore point so that if any problems occur while using the program you can restore back to your previous configuration. When ComboFix has finished creating the restore point, it will then backup your Windows Registry as shown in the image below.

    erunt.jpg

  • Once the Windows Registry has finished being backed up, ComboFix will attempt to detect if you have the Windows Recovery Console installed. If you already have it installed, you can skip to this section and continue reading. Otherwise you will see the following message as shown below:

    recovery-console-prompt.jpg

  • At the above message box, please click on the Yes button in order for ComboFix to continue. Please follow the steps and instructions given by ComboFix in order to finish the installation of the Recovery Console.
  • Please click on yes in the next window to continue scanning for malware.
  • ComboFix will now disconnect your computer from the Internet, so do not be surprised or concerned if you receive any warnings stating that you are no longer on the Internet. When ComboFix has finished it will automatically restore your Internet connection.
  • ComboFix will now start scanning your computer for known infections. This procedure can take some time, so please be patient.
  • While the program is scanning your computer, it will change your clock format, so do not be concerned when you see this happen. When ComboFix is finished it will restore your clock settings to their previous settings. You will also see the text in the ComboFix window being updated as it goes through the various stages of its scan. An example of this can be seen below.

    still-scanning-clockchanges.jpg

  • When ComboFix has finished running, you will see a screen stating that it is preparing the log report.
  • This can take a while, so please be patient. If you see your Windows desktop disappear, do not worry. This is normal and ComboFix will restore your desktop before it is finished. Eventually you will see a new screen that states the program is almost finished and telling you the programs log file, or report, will be located at C:\ComboFix.txt.
  • When ComboFix has finished, it will automatically close the program and change your clock back to its original format. It will then display the log file automatically for you.
  • Now you just click on the edit menu and click on select all, then click on the edit menu again and click on copy. Then come to the forum in your reply and right click on your mouse and click on paste.


In your next reply please post:
  • The ComboFix log
  • A fresh HiJackThis log
  • An update on how your computer is running
 
at least 50 bucks... 6 hours is a long time to spend on something... a shop will charge at least 80 for basic diagnostics.
 
FuryRosewood said:
at least 50 bucks... 6 hours is a long time to spend on something... a shop will charge at least 80 for basic diagnostics.
Click to expand...

I agree with helping others for a reasonable price. Then again spending that much time I would have done a wipe.
 
I never charge by the hour. I charge by what I have done. Look at it like this. Someone that knows what they are doing and is good at it, can accomplish a hardware or software upgrade/fix or build faster then someone that doesnt. A person that isnt as swift ends up taking longer and makes more money. I have a standard fee for what ever Im doing.
 
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