>> XP Home is Buggy, I Think<<

[Wayne B.]

I'm dealing with an XP Home that has DSL. SBC Yahoo is
the ISP. I'm not able to run msconfig to check the
startup programs (but I can run cmd and also mmc) and I
can't install winpatrol, I click it and just gives me the
hour glass next to the pointer for a split second and
that's it. There are a lot of sites that I can't get the
SBC Yahoo browser to bring up, but, IE will. There are
also, sites that IE can not bring up, such as Microsoft
Newsgroups. I had to install Opera browser off of my cd
to get around the internet with no restrictions.

I believe that there's some type of malware and/or virus
that's on this thing. The owner of the pc has Norton
installed but it isn't updated and it is not possible to
open Norton. I click on it from the start menu as well as
shortcuts and all it does is show the hour glass next to
the pointer like before.

I was able to run Adaware with no problem and it found
nothing major. I tried to run Spybot and all I got was
the hourglass again.

There are 6 svchost.exe running in Task Manager and one
of them is running 104 threads. IS THAT NORMAL???
IE pops up out of nowhere about every 5 minutes and
comes up with this site as the home page.....

http://www.casinopalazzo.com/index.php?sourceid=100336

and sometimes it's accompanied by an Xrated web page.

I just ran HijackThis and got a ton of things that it has
found. I'm about to go thru them now to see what can be
deleted. If someone out there has an idea of what might
be going on with it and/or has any advice for me to
troubleshoot this machine any further, please send me a
post.

THANX N ADVANCE. The Rookie/Wayne B.

 

[Kelly]

HijackThis should list them all, if not run the rest:

Ad-Aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Spybot
http://tinyurl.com/btf8

CWShredder (Line 313)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Hijack This
http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

Free Online Virus Scan
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

 

[Mike]

Despite the numerous posts in these newsgroups, there are many people who
run XP, Home and Pro, without any problems at all. If Xp was buggy as you
suggest, then these same people must be very lucky. I do not believe in
luck, and the reason that many don't have problems is because they don't do
anything stupid. By stupid, I refer to those that open attachments from
unsolicited e-mails, download and run dumb enhancements (chat users are
guilty of this), delete files that they believe to be wasting space without
taking the time to find out what the files actually do. install XP onto
computers that struggled to run Win 98, going to 'free' software sites to
get cracked versions of programs. The list could go on..

I will admit that security programs are not intuitive to new users. The
majority install firewalls and anti-virus programs and just accept the
default settings because it is not easy to work out how to set up for
optimal protection. This is an issue that software vendors should correct,
but you have to understand that many really don't know what they are doing
with even the simplest of software. Every computer installation is different
from others, and some people have a habit of not telling the whole truth
when they have a problem. Nobody likes to be seen as computer illiterate,
but reading through the posts can be quite scary. Computer users always come
here for answers after the fact, yet if they had done a little research of
their own, they might just have headed off problems before the occured.

The problems that your 'friend' has would appear to be caused by a
virus/trojan, possibly brought about by running no firewall and definitely
helped along by not updating anti-virus. At this point, most would give you
websites to visit, but I am not going to do that. I will, however, list a
few programs that might help clear the problems. In this way, your 'friend'
can learn how easy it is to search on the net.

Zonealarm.. Adaware.. Spybot.. McAfee Stinger.. Sygate Firewall.. and just
one site that is extremely useful in the event that one's computer is
hijacked by malicious stuff.. www.pchell.com

Good luck

Mike

 

[sgopus]

You need to follow the instructions for hijackthis
there is a particular forum for posting the logs from this
program, you need to go there and request assistance
from those really great experts.

Be aware, since it appears you have some type of virus
malware combination, the steps to remove it can be long
and convoluted, be prepared to take detailed instructions
and follow them step by step, else it will not work.
and you will be forced to format and reinstall..

 

[Plato]

I'm dealing with an XP Home that has DSL. SBC Yahoo is
the ISP. I'm not able to run msconfig to check the
startup programs (but I can run cmd and also mmc) and I

Run anti-spyware an updated anti-virus to fix your problems.

 

[Plato]

Despite the numerous posts in these newsgroups, there are many people who
run XP, Home and Pro, without any problems at all. If Xp was buggy as you
suggest, then these same people must be very lucky. I do not believe in
luck, and the reason that many don't have problems is because they don't do
anything stupid. By stupid, I refer to those that open attachments from
unsolicited e-mails, download and run dumb enhancements (chat users are
guilty of this), delete files that they believe to be wasting space without
taking the time to find out what the files actually do. install XP onto
computers that struggled to run Win 98, going to 'free' software sites to
get cracked versions of programs. The list could go on..

ditto