Possible virus or keyboard issue?

Why hello there.

So, I have a Samsung Galaxy Appeal. I've had it since last November, and it's more recently given me a lot of issues.

It started a little over a week ago. The battery was always draining really fast, and ads would be showing up now and then. I know the ad part started shortly after I downloaded a music downloader called Music Paradise.

Anyways, one day I was texting and my phone's screen goes black. I wait a few minutes and the screen is fine. Then it just shits out at another point and I can't fix it for a long while. The back light would turn on, but there was nothing showing up on the screen. Eventually, from putting the battery in and out repeatedly, it began to work again.

I go to at&t, they tell me that it's lag, and to delete a bunch of programs and to download a task killer... so I do.

It dies again.

I go back and a different man claims it's a keyboard issue. I have it set to be sent to Samsung so they can fix it.

My replacement phone (it's a type of Android, but older) ends up having a black screen too after a day's use. Except this time when I touch the screen it goes black.. same look and everything from what my other phone was doing.

So I head back into At&t and the same guy tells me it's impossible it's a virus, then walks away. I'm helped by a different gentleman who tells me to not download a task killer and viruses are possible. Suddenly... my Galaxy Appeal turns on perfectly fine like nothing happened. I told him how I had my SD and SIM card in the other phone, and he told me it is in fact a virus.

I had my phone wiped clean.. SD card wiped out. It was perfectly fine for a week and it just did it again for a short while.

I downloaded and antivirus just to quickly scan and it came up empty, so I removed it.

I thought maybe since the ads happened a lot when I used Music Paradise, that it might be the issue. I'm very unsure though..

Any opinions??

 

Can I do a factory reset myself?

 

I'm really new to this whole smart phone thing, so thanks guys.

Is the black screen a common symptom of a virus though?

 

I did download it from Google Play, though haha