StartPa trojan horse and the disappearance of Notepad

[james]

I have been infected with the StartPa.BM trojan for the
last month. I have Windows XP with all the latest
security updates (I'm set up for automatic updates
although it always asks me first) and Sophos anti-virus.
Everytime I hook up to the internet on dial-up, or open
windows media player or IE or any other on-line program
whilst on broadband, Sophos Intercheck detects another
copy of the virus. It's always in the Windows/System32
folder and always a random string of letters .dll file
(e.g. lkajd.dll). I use Sophos to delete it, have tried
turning off system restore, safe mode etc. but it always
comes back under the same circumstances. I have also
noticed that Notepad has dissapeared. From what I have
read the virus is supposed to change IE's homepage but it
doesn't. However since becoming infected I'm suffering
from massive slowdown and am nearing my wits end. Please
HELP! Any advice anyone can give me would be massively
appreciated.

 

[Paul Bobrowski]

It would be best to backup all of your inportant documents and then format
your hard drive and do a new install of windows. Then set all of the
updates for windows and install a virus scanner.

Before you open anything you backed up, perform a virus scan on it with the
latest virus definitions. Then restore your documents to where you want
them.

Once a windows box gets infected with a virus it's very hard to be certain
that you get it back into a clean state. Alot of times a format is the only
way to be certain. I'm not sure how many of the modern virii will load onto
the boot sector of your hard drive, but most appear to require windows to
run so a format should kill them.