desktop continually reloads...

[Tony Meyer]

OK, here's another one. My son helpfully managed to get a trojan installed
on my machine, a nasty piece of work called Puper-D. I nailed it ok, but
then my desktop would continually reload, and freeze as Dr watson came up. I
disabled the good doctor in the registry to see what the problem was, and it
was an application error in explorer.exe. I reloaded windows XP pro as a
repair install, assuming the trojan had damaged the OS, and now I'm not
getting the error message, but the desktop continuously refreshes about
every 12 to 15 seconds, and takes anything on it out. Any ideas whats
causing this? Thanks so much.

 

[Malke]

OK, here's another one. My son helpfully managed to get a trojan
installed on my machine, a nasty piece of work called Puper-D. I
nailed it ok, but then my desktop would continually reload, and freeze
as Dr watson came up. I disabled the good doctor in the registry to
see what the problem was, and it was an application error in
explorer.exe. I reloaded windows XP pro as a repair install, assuming
the trojan had damaged the OS, and now I'm not getting the error
message, but the desktop continuously refreshes about every 12 to 15
seconds, and takes anything on it out. Any ideas whats causing this?
Thanks so much.

MVP Kelly Theriot has a utility that might help. It's on Line 157 here:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Malke

 

[Kelly]

That should do it, thanks Malke and good luck, Tony.

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Tony Meyer]

Thanks Malke, but this registry entry has not made a single bit of
difference. I still have the problem. I'm starting to think of a reformat
and clean install... then I think of all my photos and music and documents I
have neglectfully failed to back up, and the hours and hours of work in
getting it back how I want it... any more ideas? cheers

 

[Malke]

Thanks Malke, but this registry entry has not made a single bit of
difference. I still have the problem. I'm starting to think of a
reformat and clean install... then I think of all my photos and music
and documents I have neglectfully failed to back up, and the hours and
hours of work in
getting it back how I want it... any more ideas? cheers

OK, not to panic! First of all, there are ways to get the data off. I'll
give you a few; if the instructions seem daunting then it's time to
take the machine to a good professional computer repair shop (not your
local equivalent of BigStoreUSA). There is no reason to feel shame at
that; I don't hesitate to take my car to the mechanic.

1. Take the hard drive out of the sick computer and slave it an another
machine with a working XP installation. Copy the files off using
Windows Explorer. You might need to take ownership of the files
afterwards:

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Scan the files with a current version antivirus (not earlier than 2004)
using updated definitions before opening anything on your nice clean
computer.

2. Boot the sick computer with Knoppix, a Linux distro on a live cd. You
will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR
a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data. To get
Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and
third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso from
www.knoppix.net and create your bootable cd. Then boot with it and it
will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the usb thumb
drive, right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties
and uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it.
Note that the default mouse action in the window manager used by
Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS
Windows' double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn
the files to cd/dvd-r's.

Now that you've got your data, you can address the problems on the
damaged Windows install. I suspect your computer is either still not
clean - I've never seen a machine that was infested with only *one*
type of malware and I do this for a living - and/or you have damaged
system files. Either perform advanced cleaning, take the machine to a
professional, or of course you can always do a clean install. With XP,
a clean install is always the last resort and there are things you can
do first, but get your data off immediately.

Let me know if you need more help.

Malke

 

[Tony Meyer]

OK, Malke, I think getting data off will not be a problem, its just the
sheer volume of it, like about 14 gigs of music, and the same of photos,.,
however, I will take care of that. can you tell me more about advanced
cleaning? Thanks.. Tony

Thanks Malke, but this registry entry has not made a single bit of
difference. I still have the problem. I'm starting to think of a
reformat and clean install... then I think of all my photos and music
and documents I have neglectfully failed to back up, and the hours and
hours of work in
getting it back how I want it... any more ideas? cheers

OK, not to panic! First of all, there are ways to get the data off. I'll
give you a few; if the instructions seem daunting then it's time to
take the machine to a good professional computer repair shop (not your
local equivalent of BigStoreUSA). There is no reason to feel shame at
that; I don't hesitate to take my car to the mechanic.

1. Take the hard drive out of the sick computer and slave it an another
machine with a working XP installation. Copy the files off using
Windows Explorer. You might need to take ownership of the files
afterwards:

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Scan the files with a current version antivirus (not earlier than 2004)
using updated definitions before opening anything on your nice clean
computer.

2. Boot the sick computer with Knoppix, a Linux distro on a live cd. You
will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR
a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data. To get
Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and
third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso from
www.knoppix.net and create your bootable cd. Then boot with it and it
will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the usb thumb
drive, right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties
and uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it.
Note that the default mouse action in the window manager used by
Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS
Windows' double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn
the files to cd/dvd-r's.

Now that you've got your data, you can address the problems on the
damaged Windows install. I suspect your computer is either still not
clean - I've never seen a machine that was infested with only *one*
type of malware and I do this for a living - and/or you have damaged
system files. Either perform advanced cleaning, take the machine to a
professional, or of course you can always do a clean install. With XP,
a clean install is always the last resort and there are things you can
do first, but get your data off immediately.

Let me know if you need more help.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Malke]

OK, Malke, I think getting data off will not be a problem, its just
the sheer volume of it, like about 14 gigs of music, and the same of
photos,., however, I will take care of that. can you tell me more
about advanced cleaning? Thanks.. Tony

Here is a link to malware removal steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

You may need to run HijackThis and post your log to one of the forums
(not here, please). Make sure you read their posting FAQ first.

http://www.aumha.org/a/hjttutor.htm - HijackThis tutorial by Jim
Eshelman
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/index.php?showtutorial=42 -
another tutorial
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30
http://spywarewarrior.com/viewforum.php?f=5 - Spyware Warrior HijackThis
forum
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/
http://castlecops.com/forum67.html

You might also look into making a Bart's PE to clean up your machine so
you can work with Windows outside of the operating system. Warning:
doing this is extremely geeky.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Malke