Originally Posted by
rumbataz
There may well be a hardware issue as it seems Windows is discovering your touchpad during a boot. This shouldn't happen under normal circumstances. If you know how to get into the BIOS then you may find a hardware test option - if you feel confident about doing that then that's the first thing I would do - just to ensure that the hardware is okay. However, if you're not confident of booting your machine and accessing the BIOS then I wouldn't do it. Be sure not to change any settings in the BIOS if you do boot into the BIOS.
I'm going to set this suggestion aside for the time being.
Within Windows I would run a full virus-scan and also a malware-scan (I don't what anti-virus tools you have on your machine). There's also a possibility that you've got a browser-hijack.
I don't think my browser's been hijacked (seen that before) but I will do the full virus scan and malware scan.
If you're using WiFi, are you sure you are connected to the same WiFi connection that you normally use?
Confirmed.
The 'unknown computer' or 'unknown device' message is interesting. Can you clarify what the exact warning from Yahoo is?
I've actually received the unknown device warning from Yahoo, Google and Facebook. I have two-factor authentication set up for all three sites and all required me to input a code (texted to my cell in Yahoo and Google's case, used the mobile code generator for FB) to log in today because they said they didn't recognize my device. FT and Amazon also required me to log in, though neither uses two-factor authentication (that I'm aware of). I'll make a note of the language if I get the request again.
Have you been sent an email recently saying you're connecting from an unknown device and giving you a link to click on? Perhaps that was a phishing email?
The only notice I've received is FB's standard message telling me I'd logged in from a new device. I'm pretty attuned to phishing emails and wouldn't have clicked on a link in any event.
I would also try a different browser to eliminate Chrome as the root cause (the problem could be cookie-related). I would recommend Firefox.
I actually use both Chrome and Firefox simultaneously, though the only site I log into regularly from Firefox is Feedly, which didn't ask me to log in today. I know from experience that if I do try to log into FB, Gmail, etc., on FF that I'll also get the unrecognized device since, in my experience, both the browser and the hardware will trigger this message.
Finally, I wasn't trying to get you to run any cleaning software from my first post! I was merely asking if you have run anything like that previously. On occasions some cleaning software can be a little aggressive and remove things that should not be removed. However, the default settings of CCleaner are usually fine. You almost always get loads of Registry keys that are not needed anymore.
Oops! Well, it doesn't seem to have screwed up anything as far as I can tell.
Thanks for the help. Right now the new mouse driver is installed, so I expect everything to work as expected -- the test will be after rebooting my computer at some point down the road.