Recent Feedback
Google is my home page and I have Google Toolar. When I open my browser, it goes to the home page and then after about 10 seconds the address in the address bar changes by itself and I get the following message on the screen: 404. That’s an error. The requested URL /-7890*sfxd*0*sfxd*0 was not found on this server. That’s all we know.I have rebooted and redownloaded the Google Toolbar, but the error still happens. How can I fix this and get back to normal. jcm
Optional Information: Computer OS: Windows 7Browser: IEWhat have you tried so far?: I have restarted (rebooted) the computer twice. I also redownloaded and reinstalled Google Toolbar.
Thanks for using JustAnswer. My name is XXXXXX, X will do whatever I can to answer your question
what is the url of the page you see before you get the error?
The url starts as www.google.com/, then after about 10 seconds it changes to the following The requested URL /-7890*sfxd*0*sfxd*0 was not found on this server. That’s all we know.
what happens if you type www.google.com into your browser directly
The url starts as www.google.com/ then after about 10 seconds it changes to http://www.google.com/-7890*sfxd*0*sfxd*0#sfmsg_undefined@@
obviously there is no such page. I'm thinking it is something called a browser hijacker that you have
which is malware
what site did you download the google tool bar from?
When I open the browser and it first goes to Google.com then it does the same thing, i.e. I get the same error message whether I just open Explorer and go automatically to the Google home page or if I click on the Google button on the toolbar.
what browser are you using?
I am using Internet Explorer. A day or two ago I was downloading some OCR software and I got four or five toolbars that automatically installed (Yahoo, AOL, and others) without my approval. I tried to delete (uninstall) them all. Could that be when I got the malware?
yup
ok
here is what you do
first you will need to write down the url of this page. with pen and paper so you can get back to me
as this procedure may affect your favorite
s
the url of this page is
http://www.justanswer.com/computer/7fhn1-google-home-page-google-toolar-when-open.html
your on windows 7 correct?
Yes, I am using Windows 7 on a Toshiba Tecra laptop.
I just cut and pasted the url that you wanted me to write down into a word document. I assume that is as good as writing it down by hand.
a system restore should not affect a word document
if this happens though, i believe this website sends you an email when I write a response with a link
so you should be able to get back to me that way
1. click the Start button.2. In the search box, type System Restore3. in the list of results, click System Restore.4. If you're prompted for an administrator password XX confirmation, type the password XX provide confirmation.5. follow the steps in the wizard to choose a restore point(Preferably before you downloaded the ocr software)6. after the restore you will have to restart the computer7. then open your browser and type in the URL for this question that I told you to copy and let me know how it went
those are the instructions to do a restore
in the future be careful where you download software from, many sites are infected with malware. Download only from a trusted source.
If you do a google search to find an application be aware that usually the first 4 or 5 results are adds. and those sites are usually infected with spyware.
System restore sounds dramatic. Are we talking about changing all my settings? And what about my favorates, i.e. bookmarks, will that wipe out all my bookmarks?
the 5th or lower result is usually the official site
nope, nothing will be affected by doing a restore
only stuff that you worked on since you installed the ocr software
and got the malware
and that is only for system settings, you should not loose any documents, or favorites that you made prior to that date
this is not a full system restore. We are only going back to a point before you installed the malware
anyway, try it and let me know how it works out or if you get stuck let me know
Well, after doing four system restores, I finally got the bug out of the Google homepage. It no longer chages the url to the non-existent page; however, the google toolbar does not seem to be working properly. It says that it is there, but the toolbar is not visible, i.e. no buttons appear.
Experience: 20 years experience providing remote computer support