Error message! Help please!

[Guest]

I am getting the following message, with a black window popping up behind it.

C/Windows/Temp/h91746.exe
The NTVDM has encountered an illegal instruction.
CS: 0542FIR: 01d4 OP:63 68 652f31
Choose close to terminate the application.

Then there are two buttons to choose from to click on, one reads close, the
other reads cancel. I have chosen close each time, but it keeps popping back
up about every few hours.

Any help is appreciated

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I am getting the following message, with a black window popping up behind it.

C/Windows/Temp/h91746.exe
The NTVDM has encountered an illegal instruction.
CS: 0542FIR: 01d4 OP:63 68 652f31
Choose close to terminate the application.

Then there are two buttons to choose from to click on, one reads close, the
other reads cancel. I have chosen close each time, but it keeps popping back
up about every few hours.

Any help is appreciated

Your machine is probably infected by spyware or malware.
Download and run AdAware to clean it up.

 

[Guest]

I have ran ad-aware numberous times, as well as microsoft anti-spyware, but
it has not helped.

 

[Malke]

I am getting the following message, with a black window popping up
behind it.

C/Windows/Temp/h91746.exe
The NTVDM has encountered an illegal instruction.
CS: 0542FIR: 01d4 OP:63 68 652f31
Choose close to terminate the application.

Then there are two buttons to choose from to click on, one reads
close, the other reads cancel. I have chosen close each time, but it
keeps popping back up about every few hours.

Any help is appreciated

You've got malware. Do the preparatory work here:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Then do the removal steps here:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Smitfraud_Trojan

Finish up with the other general malware removal steps at the first
link.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Thank you.
However, those are very intricate steps, and I'm afraid I'll mess up and
complicate things further.
Is there any alternate route?

 

[Malke]

Thank you.
However, those are very intricate steps, and I'm afraid I'll mess up
and complicate things further.
Is there any alternate route?

No, I'm sorry but there isn't. Removing malware can be very complex. It
is a wise person who knows their skill level. Take your machine to a
professional computer repair shop (not your local version of
BigStoreUSA). There is no shame in doing this; I don't hesitate to take
my car to the mechanic.

Otherwise, back up your data, format the drive, and do a clean install
of Windows. This means starting over. Install drivers and programs from
installation media, restore data from backups.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install

Malke

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

.. . . and after following Malke's excellent advice, review your
Internet surfing habits. The malware you have did not arrive
by itself - someone must have clicked various things that
should have been left unclicked. Screen savers are a common
problem, as are pop-ups that promise to speed up your PC /
speed up your Internet access / keep your PC free from
spyware (!) etc. etc. If you found a tasty-looking sandwich
in the gutter, would you pick it up and eat it? Probably not,
yet many people will cheerfully download anything from the
Internet as long as it looks pretty, promising or interesting,
in spite of knowing nothing about the author and his intentions.

Also consider using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.
It appears to be much less of a target for spyware and
malware.

 

[Guest]

I see. I suppose taking it in to a repair shop would be the only alternate
route?

I understand that malware originates from pops-ups, but when I was tracing
back to the last things I did, I just downloaded Windows Service Pack 2. But
there's a slim to none chance that malware could be embedded in that
download, right?

The next thing I did was temporarily allow pop-ups because it was blocking a
window. And then another person used the computer that same day...

 

[Guest]

And also, since it's only a window poping up every hour telling me about an
illegal action, I could tolerate it for a bit. But, does it gradually get
worse? Should I have it repaired immediately?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Your malware did NOT arrive with a Service Pack. It
was delivered while you were surfing the Internet. It might
have been there for quite a while. Check the following
folders for .exe and .dll files, sorted by date:

c:\Windows
c:\Windows\temp
c:\Windows\system32

If the dates are recent and if they have funny names such as
h91746.exe then they are most likely malware. The dates
give you an idea when they installed themselves.

You can probably live with the malware for a while. After
a while it might cripple your machine. I have seen badly
infested machines that were slowed down to a crawl.