Kelowna Computer Repair Blog

I have been a user of the ICQ instant messenger for many years now.  It was one of the very first instant messengers, and I was one of it’s early users.  I never have seen the need to switch to anything else, especially since I almost never use instant messaging at all.  Now a recent experience with ICQ has left me wondering if the whole project has been taken over by Russian hackers.

I installed the latest version of ICQ to communicate with people on a particular project, then uninstalled it when the project was over.  ICQ when installed, hijacked my search provider, and “enhanced” it with it’s own “ICQ search”.  Even after uninstalling the product, it left it’s hijacked version of my browser, and no matter how many times I delete it from my search providers, ICQ Search keeps coming back again.

I reinstalled the product to see if there was anywhere I allowed it to hijack my search provider.  Turned out that there is a link during the installation to “advanced settings” where you are informed that your search provider will be hijacked unless you uncheck the appropriate box.  That option should be wide out in the open during installation, and the fact that it wasn’t leads me to believe that ICQ 7 has been taken over by scammers at best.  The fact that you can’t remove it’s product establishes for me even further ICQs malicious intent.

Because ICQ has been around for so long, its likely that the virus scanners have not yet added it to their lists of malware to be protected against.  But the latest version of ICQ, ICQ 7, is definitely malware in my book leaving behind a trojan that keeps reinstalling the hijacked search tool.

Here’s a Google search for ICQ clones.

Don’t use ICQ – you’ll never get rid of it.

I had an unusual coincidence this week.  Two different laptop owners within twelve hours of each other reported a similar set of symptoms, and could not start their laptops.  One customer has a Hewlett-Packard dv6000 laptop, and the other has a Compaq Presario v6000.

Both companies are one and the same, and the computer is basically the same.

Both have known issues with the motherboard.  Hewlett-Packard / Compaq seems to be completely ignoring the issue on their public forums, but knows about the issue.  They have ducked responsibility on all users who’s laptops happen to last longer than two years.

Here’s where Hewlett Packard Compaq tells you how to get your laptop fixed.

Here is just one of many forums  where users are completely frustrated by this problem in HP mother boards that doesn’t go away after HPs “fix” and others who are refused any help at all from HP Compaq simply because their computers lasted more than two years.  Here’s another discussion about the new HP-Paperweight®  And here’s another.   And another. 

Here’s about 56,000 web sites returned on a Google search for “Compaq Presario v6000 series of laptop computers won’t start.

Here’s about 293,000 web sites returned on a Google search for “Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv6000 series of laptop computers won’t start”.

So I recommend highly that you purchase a computer made for you by your local computer store.  It’s the least expensive way to do it, and you’re likely to be able to get a more positive response when something goes wrong.

This feels a lot like an Hewlett Packard – Compaq rant than it did an informative column.  But you get what I’m getting at.  If a company doesn’t care that your $1200 laptop isn’t working after two years because of THEIR mistake, you should never, ever buy a computer from that company again.  I’ll never buy or recommend an HP or a Compaq computer to anyone.  I don’t know how they sleep at night.