Square One - Help please

[Roy Starrin]

Over a recent dinner, a friend asked me get hold of his daughter (a
perennial grad-student in Oregon, I'm in Virginia Beach) and see if I
could help her, as she was complaining that her computer was running
slower and slower, not booting properly. etc.
I had her run Bellarc Advisor and send me the profile. She is running
Win-ME ( hey, don't shoot the messenger) on an about 5 year old Compaq
with plenty of HD space left, 900 AMD, but only 128 KB of memory.and a
dial up connection. She's broke, and apparently lacks a geek among
her friends out there. And, she apparently doesn't do newsgroups,
either.
Anyhow, no antivirus programs were listed. When questioned she
responded: "I have never installed an antivirus program."
OYE!!!
Based on some of the responses I have gotten, she is going to need
something very simple to start attacking the problem. I am sure no
computer guru, and though an avid reader of this group, not a virus
whiz either.
Best I could determine is perhaps to have her download/run
Sysclean_FE and go from there.
Am willing to help her try anything, but we are going to need step by
step simple instructions (am about to send her How to boot your PC
into Safe Mode).
Any thoughts/ideas/plans would be greatly appreciated.
TIA
Roy

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Roy Starrin" <[email protected]>

| Over a recent dinner, a friend asked me get hold of his daughter (a
| perennial grad-student in Oregon, I'm in Virginia Beach) and see if I
| could help her, as she was complaining that her computer was running
| slower and slower, not booting properly. etc.
| I had her run Bellarc Advisor and send me the profile. She is running
| Win-ME ( hey, don't shoot the messenger) on an about 5 year old Compaq
| with plenty of HD space left, 900 AMD, but only 128 KB of memory.and a
| dial up connection. She's broke, and apparently lacks a geek among
| her friends out there. And, she apparently doesn't do newsgroups,
| either.
| Anyhow, no antivirus programs were listed. When questioned she
| responded: "I have never installed an antivirus program."
| OYE!!!
| Based on some of the responses I have gotten, she is going to need
| something very simple to start attacking the problem. I am sure no
| computer guru, and though an avid reader of this group, not a virus
| whiz either.
| Best I could determine is perhaps to have her download/run
| Sysclean_FE and go from there.
| Am willing to help her try anything, but we are going to need step by
| step simple instructions (am about to send her How to boot your PC
| into Safe Mode).
| Any thoughts/ideas/plans would be greatly appreciated.
| TIA
| Roy


Hi Roy:

I have created a new tool called the Multi AV Scanning Tool. It contains all the
functionality of the Syscean Front End utility (Sysclean_FE)but also adds the AV scanners
from McAfee, Sophos and Kaspersky. I also suggested three other anti malware tools.

For non-viral malware...

Please download, install and update the following software...

* Ad-aware SE v1.06
http://www.lavasoft.de/
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

* SpyBot Search and Destroy v1.4
http://security.kolla.de/

After the software is updated, I suggest scanning the system in Safe Mode.

I also suggest downloading, installing and updating BHODemon for any Browser Helper Objects
that may be on the PC.

* BHODemon
http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=3550&file=11&evp=245a87539eea8ed6904332b4b8b8442d

For viral malware...

* Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute; Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose; Unzip
Choose; Close

Execute; C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your software FireWall or allow WGET.EXE to go through your
FireWall to allow it to download the needed AV vendor related files.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in Normal Mode.
This way all the components can be downloaded from each AV vendor's web site.
The choices are; Sophos, Trend, McAfee, Kaspersky, Exit this menu and Reboot the PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or you can
download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have downloaded the files
needed for each scanner you want to use, you should reboot the PC into Safe Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to run in Safe
Mode. It is suggested to run the scanners in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more comprehensive PDF help
file. http://www.ik-cs.com/multi-av.htm


* * * Please report back your results * * *

 

[Max Wachtel]

(e-mail address removed) AKA Roy Starrin on 12/27/2005 in

Over a recent dinner, a friend asked me get hold of his daughter (a
perennial grad-student in Oregon, I'm in Virginia Beach) and see if I
could help her, as she was complaining that her computer was running
slower and slower, not booting properly. etc.
I had her run Bellarc Advisor and send me the profile. She is running
Win-ME ( hey, don't shoot the messenger) on an about 5 year old Compaq
with plenty of HD space left, 900 AMD, but only 128 KB of memory.and a
dial up connection. She's broke, and apparently lacks a geek among
her friends out there. And, she apparently doesn't do newsgroups,
either.
Anyhow, no antivirus programs were listed. When questioned she
responded: "I have never installed an antivirus program."
OYE!!!
Based on some of the responses I have gotten, she is going to need
something very simple to start attacking the problem. I am sure no
computer guru, and though an avid reader of this group, not a virus
whiz either.
Best I could determine is perhaps to have her download/run
Sysclean_FE and go from there.
Am willing to help her try anything, but we are going to need step by
step simple instructions (am about to send her How to boot your PC
into Safe Mode).
Any thoughts/ideas/plans would be greatly appreciated.
TIA
Roy

******************Reply Separator*************************
It might be better all around to save all important
files,pictures,registration codes,etc for installed software and do a
format/install using the compac restore disk. But before that you need
to teach her "safe-hex" and how to use anti-virus and anti-spyware
programs. I have written some pages that may help you(see my sig below).
max
--
Virus Removal Instructions: http://home.neo.rr.com/manna4u/
Keeping Windows Clean: http://home.neo.rr.com/manna4u/keepingclean.html
Windows Help: http://home.neo.rr.com/manna4u/tools.html
Specific Fixes: http://home.neo.rr.com/manna4u/fixes.html
Forums for HiJackThis Logs:
http://home.neo.rr.com/manna4u/forums_for_hijackthis_logs.html
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