Would like some help please folks on the wife's laptop,its a Toshiba about a year old running the dreaded Windows 8.

Its never missed a beat and she loves it and i hate the OS,this morning it was fired up exactly as it is every morning,but when she started FireFox today it run FF s it should do,but the problem that we are having it changes screen by its own alternating between the 'Start screen' and 'Firefox' and nothing has been changed settings wise or anything like that.

The computer also has the latest paid Avast which is always updated and never changed any settings either,the 1st thing that i did was do a scan for any virus problems and the report is nil.

Any suggestions on what could cause this alternating between FF and the Start screen please,not sure if FF has had any latest updates that could cause this problem,only thing that she uses this expensive laptop on is Facebook games and no downloaded games.Thought i would mention the Facebook thing just incase they could have sneaked a code onto the laptop.

One other possible cause is could the Win10 free download icon that appears on the laptop that if you click it you will then get the free download,dont want to download Win 10 as version 8 is bad enough.

Any suggestions on this one please,can fathom most problems out but as i dont use Win8 myself i am not sure of the problems that can arise from this OS,but up till today she has enjoyed using it and not downloaded anything that she should not of done.

Have narrowed this down a little,it appears its not FF related,it appears to alternate between the Start Screen and the Desktop Screen so this is indicating a sole Windows 8 problem,as we have narrowed it down,could it be possible to have ticked something by mistake or some other external problem like say a virus or some other horrible thing.

Many thanks

There's probably an ants nest inside the keyboard, Mega.

Looks like your machine has been 'hi-jacked' from some malware or similar.

Download and run "AdwCleaner". Do be careful where you download it from though!
Unbelievably, one of the favourite download sites is CNet and it is responsible for dumping unwanted material onto unsuspecting users.

I would suggest: http://adwcleaner.en.lo4d.com/

You will see the latest version is '5.009'. Hit the Green download button to the RHS of the page which says 1.59MB.

'Hilary' on here put me onto this piece of software and I do think it is fantastic and should be a part of everyone's kit.

Agreed, Hils?

Not me, Doc, I've never heard of AdwCleaner.

The only thing I'd have said is that you need to be careful about hidden checkboxes which install unwanted toolbars and plugins whenever you download the free crap.

Agreed. That's the big problem for getting downloads with the CNet site.

The site I've mentioned for AdwCleaner in my link above is safe, IMHO. Or at least it was the last time I used it, which was sometime last week.

By 'safe', I mean you don't seem to get unwanted 'already ticked' boxes. Even the Piriform, the home site for CCleaner (Free and Pro), tends to give you one of those these days.

Hils

Hmmm?

I'm sure you suggested I try it to get rid of some unwanted tool bar or similar that just would not go away.

Ah well.

Just a quick update,have disconnected the laptop from the internet by taking out the network cable and the screen alternating has stopped,this will then allow me to do a full scan of the whole laptop and this indicates some sort of external attempt to highjack the pc.

At least i can work on the repair side of the problem then connect it back up with extra safety precautions or try and find out how it got pass my Avast full system protection.

I regularly use the free Malwarebytes anti virus software. Adwcleaner will generally clean adware type problems. Do you have a firewall running. I use Comodo firewall software and is also free.

Problems seem to have been resolved,by process of elimination it was i think the USB hub causing problems,why i dont have a clue,but have the mouse and wireless keyboard all working again and it performing exactly as it should do.

Will get a new USB hub tomorrow and connect everything thing back up again,well pleased that the problem has finally been located.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and i guess Hils :o)

Mega - leave the porn sites alone! :-)

I remember this post on ADVFN years ago.

Wife: why are you on the computer all the time?
Husband: I am looking at porn sites
Wife: Don't lie to me. You have been on ADVFN again.

Does anyone know if it is possible to watch sky over Wifi on a Samsung smart TV?

I've noticed that in the last few days my Monitor screen has started flicker slightly to about a third of the way down, does that mean the tube is on it's way out? It's a 21in square Cornerstone box and I really like it so I don't really want to have to get a new wide screen thing.

Stan Monitors are notoriously sensitive to magnetic fields. Nothing close by ?
ie a fan or phone.

I have recently put a Digital portable radio next to it, could that possibly be it DC?

Just switched the radio power off.. and yes no flicker so thank you super DC -):

Throw it out the window and see what happens Stan. :-))

Simple things sometimes Stan. lol Hope your keeping well, nice to see you back. :-))

Nice to be back DC thank you.