XP Gone MAD

[Belprice]

Hi everyone,

I pray someone can help me.
I had some viruses on my system and ran a spyware and virus removal program.
Now I can't get into windows at all and when I do get in my desktop keeps
disappearing and reappearing and the computer keeps crashing. Also , when I
try and run the recover thingy it asks me for the administrors pasword/or log
in and I don't know what this is. I have ran spotbot and VGA 8.0 ? and they
both found loads of problems. But as I say I can'y get into my own computer.
Also , when I did manage to get in I got a message about some run dll or
something was missing or counldn't be found.
Please help as I need to work on this computer urgently today.
TA very much!

 

[Malke]

Hi everyone,

I pray someone can help me.
I had some viruses on my system and ran a spyware and virus removal
program. Now I can't get into windows at all and when I do get in my
desktop keeps disappearing and reappearing and the computer keeps
crashing. Also , when I try and run the recover thingy it asks me for the
administrors pasword/or log in and I don't know what this is. I have ran
spotbot and VGA 8.0 ? and they both found loads of problems. But as I say
I can'y get into my own computer. Also , when I did manage to get in I got
a message about some run dll or something was missing or counldn't be
found. Please help as I need to work on this computer urgently today.
TA very much!

I understand that you are upset, but from your post it is hard to know
exactly what you did. First you say that you can't get into your computer
and then you say that you can. Which is it? And I'm not sure what you mean
by "spotbot" and VGA 8.0".

Probably your winlogon has been damaged by the malware. The Recovery Console
is asking for the Administrator's password, not your user account password.
If this is XP Home, the Administrator password is probably a blank. If this
is XP Pro, the password is whatever you used when you set up the system. If
you set an Administrator's password in either XP Home/Pro and can't
remember it, use NTpasswd to change it to a blank. Then you can use the
Recovery Console.

However, I'm not sure what good booting into the Recovery Console will do
you. Normally with the winlogon issue, the malware has replaced the
userinit value with its own file. Without knowing what file that is (or if
that's really the cause), the Recovery Console won't help you. You're
better off slaving the drive in another machine and working on it from
there. Or if you don't have another computer, you may also be able to work
on it from outside the system with a rescue disk such as ERD Commander
(old, expensive program that has been discontinued) or a specialized Bart's
PE.

You know your own skills and what equipment you have on hand best. A better
choice may be to take the machine to a reputable local computer repair
shop. Of course, this will not produce immediate results and will not be
free. You may have to live with that and do the work that can't wait on a
friend's machine. I don't suggest using a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type
of place.

Malke

 

[Jim]

I understand that you are upset, but from your post it is hard to know
exactly what you did. First you say that you can't get into your computer
and then you say that you can. Which is it? And I'm not sure what you mean
by "spotbot" and VGA 8.0".

Probably your winlogon has been damaged by the malware. The Recovery
Console
is asking for the Administrator's password, not your user account
password.
If this is XP Home, the Administrator password is probably a blank. If
this
is XP Pro, the password is whatever you used when you set up the system.
If
you set an Administrator's password in either XP Home/Pro and can't
remember it, use NTpasswd to change it to a blank. Then you can use the
Recovery Console.

However, I'm not sure what good booting into the Recovery Console will do
you. Normally with the winlogon issue, the malware has replaced the
userinit value with its own file. Without knowing what file that is (or if
that's really the cause), the Recovery Console won't help you. You're
better off slaving the drive in another machine and working on it from
there. Or if you don't have another computer, you may also be able to work
on it from outside the system with a rescue disk such as ERD Commander
(old, expensive program that has been discontinued) or a specialized
Bart's
PE.

You know your own skills and what equipment you have on hand best. A
better
choice may be to take the machine to a reputable local computer repair
shop. Of course, this will not produce immediate results and will not be
free. You may have to live with that and do the work that can't wait on a
friend's machine. I don't suggest using a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type
of place.

Malke

To Malke:
Probably the OP meant Spybot Search & Destroy and AVG 8.0.
To the OP:
Sorry, it will take (even someone who knows how) much longer than today to
sort all this out.
Jim

 

[Malke]

To Malke:
Probably the OP meant Spybot Search & Destroy and AVG 8.0.

Possibly, and that would be a good guess. However, I make it a practice to
never guess what an OP means when giving tech support in writing about a
machine I've never seen.

Malke

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi everyone,

I pray someone can help me.
I had some viruses on my system and ran a spyware and virus removal
program.
Now I can't get into windows at all and when I do get in

Sorry, but either you can get in or you can't. You need to provide an
accurate and clear description.

my desktop keeps
disappearing and reappearing and the computer keeps crashing.

Sounds like there is still a lot of damage to the system.

Also , when I
try and run the recover thingy it asks me for the administrors pasword/or
log
in and I don't know what this is.

If you are referring to the Recovery Console, try pressing the Enter key.

It's asking for the "administrator" account password.

I have ran spotbot and VGA 8.0 ? and they
both found loads of problems. But as I say I can'y get into my own
computer.

It's not clear what you mean here.

Also , when I did manage to get in I got a message about some run dll or
something was missing or counldn't be found.

That's often a good sign., meaning that a piece of malware was removed, but
the reference that launches it is still there. You have to manually remove
this.

But if the PC does not work stably, that's another story entirely.

Please help as I need to work on this computer urgently today.

You may need to but it's unlikely that you'll be able to.

You should not rely on an infected or unstable system, and with respect, you
don't appear to understand how to fix the problems that are manifesting.
You may need hands-on assistance.

You should start with a backup of your data, and this is easy if you have
another XP system with enough drive space and an external drive case.

HTH
-pk