A teetering system!

G

Guest

Greetings everyone!

Sometime in July I seemed to pick up a virus/trojan/nasty and because my
Norton Antivirus program didn't seem to be able to deal with it (the computer
closed down whenever the scan was about half way through) and neither could
Spybot (same thing happened!) - I became desperate and after trawling around
on the internet found Xoftspy and downloaded and bought it. The problem
seemed to have cleared up!

The other day I wanted to change my favourite 'home page' and when I tried
to access the 'Internet Options' I got a message telling me of 'restrictions'
and to contact my system operator! Well I AM the system operator so that had
me flummoxed!

I was given some advice to remove the Xoftspy program as it was probably too
aggressive - and to use Adaware. I downloaded Adaware - but it came with a
message about some corrupted files so that it could be installed. I removed
the Xoftspy anyway and tried to scan - but again it all closed down and I had
to 're-boot'.

I then read in a magazine (in answer to a question about this guy's claim
that he'd still got two unaccountable 'bad/virus' files after scanning) that
maybe there was something locked up in System Restore so it would be a good
idea to unlock the restore function and see if the viruses could be removed.
So, against my better judgement, I removed the 'restore' function (thereby
removing any chance of rolling the system back to a previous date! Duh!!!!!)
and tried scanning with Spybot - again the whole lot turned off.

Added to which, I now find that I have automatic updates that show the icon
- but which continuously shows 0% downloaded even after 20 minutes!

Is there any hope of:
a) being able to sort out this awful situation myself - re some sort of
'alien' resident on my computer?
b) getting back to a stable system that I CAN scan for viruses, use Spybot
and generally feel confident that I'm not going to see the computer version
of the sinking of the Titanic?
 
G

Guest

Gillyches said:
Greetings everyone!

Sometime in July I seemed to pick up a virus/trojan/nasty and because my
Norton Antivirus program didn't seem to be able to deal with it (the computer
closed down whenever the scan was about half way through) and neither could
Spybot (same thing happened!) - I became desperate and after trawling around
on the internet found Xoftspy and downloaded and bought it. The problem
seemed to have cleared up!

The other day I wanted to change my favourite 'home page' and when I tried
to access the 'Internet Options' I got a message telling me of 'restrictions'
and to contact my system operator! Well I AM the system operator so that had
me flummoxed!

I was given some advice to remove the Xoftspy program as it was probably too
aggressive - and to use Adaware. I downloaded Adaware - but it came with a
message about some corrupted files so that it could be installed. I removed
the Xoftspy anyway and tried to scan - but again it all closed down and I had
to 're-boot'.

I then read in a magazine (in answer to a question about this guy's claim
that he'd still got two unaccountable 'bad/virus' files after scanning) that
maybe there was something locked up in System Restore so it would be a good
idea to unlock the restore function and see if the viruses could be removed.
So, against my better judgement, I removed the 'restore' function (thereby
removing any chance of rolling the system back to a previous date! Duh!!!!!)
and tried scanning with Spybot - again the whole lot turned off.

Added to which, I now find that I have automatic updates that show the icon
- but which continuously shows 0% downloaded even after 20 minutes!

Is there any hope of:
a) being able to sort out this awful situation myself - re some sort of
'alien' resident on my computer?
b) getting back to a stable system that I CAN scan for viruses, use Spybot
and generally feel confident that I'm not going to see the computer version
of the sinking of the Titanic?

Try a clean install, reinstall XP in the same folder as the previous
installation and give the Win folder the same name as the previous one and
setup will delete your previous Windows. If that didn't solve, try formatting.
 
G

Guest

I think I'll get someone to help me with this - if the other ideas don't
work. Thanks to you both!
 
G

Guest

I think I'll try these ideas - thanks! I hope that the computer doesn't
decide to switch itself off when the threat of clearing the virus becomes
obvious to it!
 
R

Rock

Gillyches said:
Greetings everyone!

Sometime in July I seemed to pick up a virus/trojan/nasty and because my
Norton Antivirus program didn't seem to be able to deal with it (the computer
closed down whenever the scan was about half way through) and neither could
Spybot (same thing happened!) - I became desperate and after trawling around
on the internet found Xoftspy and downloaded and bought it. The problem
seemed to have cleared up!

The other day I wanted to change my favourite 'home page' and when I tried
to access the 'Internet Options' I got a message telling me of 'restrictions'
and to contact my system operator! Well I AM the system operator so that had
me flummoxed!

I was given some advice to remove the Xoftspy program as it was probably too
aggressive - and to use Adaware. I downloaded Adaware - but it came with a
message about some corrupted files so that it could be installed. I removed
the Xoftspy anyway and tried to scan - but again it all closed down and I had
to 're-boot'.

I then read in a magazine (in answer to a question about this guy's claim
that he'd still got two unaccountable 'bad/virus' files after scanning) that
maybe there was something locked up in System Restore so it would be a good
idea to unlock the restore function and see if the viruses could be removed.
So, against my better judgement, I removed the 'restore' function (thereby
removing any chance of rolling the system back to a previous date! Duh!!!!!)
and tried scanning with Spybot - again the whole lot turned off.

Added to which, I now find that I have automatic updates that show the icon
- but which continuously shows 0% downloaded even after 20 minutes!

Is there any hope of:
a) being able to sort out this awful situation myself - re some sort of
'alien' resident on my computer?
b) getting back to a stable system that I CAN scan for viruses, use Spybot
and generally feel confident that I'm not going to see the computer version
of the sinking of the Titanic?

The icon in the notification area has nothing to do with the malware
issues. That's probably SP2 in the queue for downloading to your
system. It can take many days for it to arrive because it comes in bits
and pieces, or it can come all at once. However, do _NOT_ install SP2
until your system is clean and running perfectly. Otherwise it's a
recipe for disaster.

To clean your system boot into safe mode and run the spyware and virus
cleaners. First start with Trend Micro's Sysclean. Download the
program and signature files, turn off system restore, boot into safe
mode (when the computer reboots repeatedly tap the F8 key after the BIOS
screen is displayed in the very beginning), and when the menu comes up
choose safe mode. Run the scan. Also run Spybot S&D.

Note: All virus and spyware cleaning should be done from safe mode.
It's most effective that way.

After that reboot to normal mode, turn system restore back on, and run a
full virus scan. At that point try installing Adaware, and the other
cleaners I list below.

Trend Micro Sysclean
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp

Trend Micro Signature File
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp

Run these programs to check for spyware/malware. After installing
update them, then boot into safe mode and run them. You should update
and run them weekly.

Cwshredder
http://aumha.org/freeware/freeware.php#cwshred

Ad-aware SE
http://www.lavasoftusa.com

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner
http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10247783.html

Pest Patrol Free Pest Scanner
http://www.pestscan.com/ScanOrTrial.asp

If you’re still having problems after running these then run HijackThis
and post the log to one of the specialty forums, _NOT_ this one.

HijackThis
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3155

Forums to Interpret HijackThis Logs:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/

After your system is clean use these programs to help keep it clean:

Spywareblaster
www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html

Spywareguard
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sgdownload.html

IE-SPYAD
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ehowes/resource.htm

For viruses, run at least two of these online scans in addition to your
regular up to date AV program:

Online and Downloadable Virus Scanning:

Panda ActiveScan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

Bit Defender Online Virus Scan:
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/license.php

Symantec Online Virus and Security Scan:
http://security.symantec.com/ssc/home.asp

TrendMicro:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

McAfee Online Virus Scan:
http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/mfs/default.asp

RAV AntiVirus - Scan Online
http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/

F-Secure:
http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml
 
G

Guest

Gillyches said:
Greetings everyone!

Sometime in July I seemed to pick up a virus/trojan/nasty and because my
Norton Antivirus program didn't seem to be able to deal with it (the computer
closed down whenever the scan was about half way through) and neither could
Spybot (same thing happened!) - I became desperate and after trawling around
on the internet found Xoftspy and downloaded and bought it. The problem
seemed to have cleared up!

The other day I wanted to change my favourite 'home page' and when I tried
to access the 'Internet Options' I got a message telling me of 'restrictions'
and to contact my system operator! Well I AM the system operator so that had
me flummoxed!

I was given some advice to remove the Xoftspy program as it was probably too
aggressive - and to use Adaware. I downloaded Adaware - but it came with a
message about some corrupted files so that it could be installed. I removed
the Xoftspy anyway and tried to scan - but again it all closed down and I had
to 're-boot'.

I then read in a magazine (in answer to a question about this guy's claim
that he'd still got two unaccountable 'bad/virus' files after scanning) that
maybe there was something locked up in System Restore so it would be a good
idea to unlock the restore function and see if the viruses could be removed.
So, against my better judgement, I removed the 'restore' function (thereby
removing any chance of rolling the system back to a previous date! Duh!!!!!)
and tried scanning with Spybot - again the whole lot turned off.

Added to which, I now find that I have automatic updates that show the icon
- but which continuously shows 0% downloaded even after 20 minutes!

Is there any hope of:
a) being able to sort out this awful situation myself - re some sort of
'alien' resident on my computer?
b) getting back to a stable system that I CAN scan for viruses, use Spybot
and generally feel confident that I'm not going to see the computer version
of the sinking of the Titanic?
I recommend running Symantec or McAfee ONLINE FREE SCAN.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top