Virsus / Adware scans

[Barnsey]

I'm new to this so please bear with me. Whilst very unsuccessfully
trying to find why my computer cannot get an internet connection I ran
a full virus scan which goes well up to the point where it attempts to
scan file mstsc.exe in C\Windows\Systems32. At this point the scan
looks as it is running but appears to just get stuck. Key strokes
thereafter freeze and I am forced to unplug.
I also ran a full adware scan showing a file apparently saved in a
quarantine folder. I have tried to delete it but cannot as a message
tells me the disk is full or write protected. Is this common, how can
I delete this?
This is all an attempt to find the cause of my failed broadband
connection and would be grateful for some help.

 

[Poprivet]

Not much info to go on there, but ...

I'm new to this so please bear with me. Whilst very unsuccessfully
trying to find why my computer cannot get an internet connection I ran
a full virus scan which goes well up to the point where it attempts to
scan file mstsc.exe in C\Windows\Systems32. At this point the scan
looks as it is running but appears to just get stuck. Key strokes
thereafter freeze and I am forced to unplug.

How long are you waiting before you decide it's locked up or frozen? Try
letting it "work" for several minutes, say while you have a cup of your
favorite beverage, and see if it comes back to life. Don't pay attention to
any "not responding" messages; those are misnomers and do NOT mean the
program has quit running. They usually mean it's waiting for some event to
happen. Which is the reason to wait longer.

Unplug? Why? Doesn't CTRL-ALT-DEL work? Again, give it time in case it's
having to wrestle control away from some running process.
If you've actually pulled the plug from the wall a few times, then stop
what you're doing and take the time to run chkdsk on each disk drive you
have. Go to the Command Prompt and type the command chkdsk /r
and press Return. Let it work. It will report any errors it finds and
attempt to fix them. There are 5 stages to the test. Do this for each hard
drive. When you run it on your boot drive, probably C, it'll tell you to
restart in order to run it; that's normal.

I also ran a full adware scan showing a file apparently saved in a
quarantine folder. I have tried to delete it but cannot as a message
tells me the disk is full or write protected. Is this common, how can
I delete this?

If it's quarantined, it can be ignored for the time being until you get
other things straightened out.

This is all an attempt to find the cause of my failed broadband
connection and would be grateful for some help.

Ain't that the way? BTDT!
Come back with the results after you've done all the above. Be very
specific about any error messages you come across; write them down and put
them here.

HTH
Pop`

 

[Barnsey]

Not much info to go on there, but ...


How long are you waiting before you decide it's locked up or frozen? Try
letting it "work" for several minutes, say while you have a cup of your
favorite beverage, and see if it comes back to life. Don't pay attention to
any "not responding" messages; those are misnomers and do NOT mean the
program has quit running. They usually mean it's waiting for some event to
happen. Which is the reason to wait longer.

Unplug? Why? Doesn't CTRL-ALT-DEL work? Again, give it time in case it's
having to wrestle control away from some running process.
If you've actually pulled the plug from the wall a few times, then stop
what you're doing and take the time to run chkdsk on each disk drive you
have. Go to the Command Prompt and type the command chkdsk /r
and press Return. Let it work. It will report any errors it finds and
attempt to fix them. There are 5 stages to the test. Do this for each hard
drive. When you run it on your boot drive, probably C, it'll tell you to
restart in order to run it; that's normal.


If it's quarantined, it can be ignored for the time being until you get
other things straightened out.


Ain't that the way? BTDT!
Come back with the results after you've done all the above. Be very
specific about any error messages you come across; write them down and put
them here.

HTH
Pop`

My definition of frozen is several hours. I monitored the scans'
progress up to the point it reached the mstsc.exe file (possibly less
than an hour) and left it for several more hours. At this point all
responses, both key stroke and mouse does not respond eventually
leaving me with not much option but to pull the plug. As for error
messages, on the occations that i have shut down normally (not having
run the scan) i have got the message telling me that my virtual memory
is low and Windows is correcting it. Apparantly unsuccessfully as this
now happens on each normal shut down.
Most grateful for further suggestions.

 

[Elmo]

My definition of frozen is several hours. I monitored the scans'
progress up to the point it reached the mstsc.exe file (possibly less
than an hour) and left it for several more hours. At this point all
responses, both key stroke and mouse does not respond eventually
leaving me with not much option but to pull the plug. As for error
messages, on the occasions that i have shut down normally (not having
run the scan) i have got the message telling me that my virtual memory
is low and Windows is correcting it. Apparently unsuccessfully as this
now happens on each normal shut down.
Most grateful for further suggestions.

Here are a couple of things you might try:

- See if your a/v will let you schedule a boot scan, which will run
before malware can take control.

- Click Start, Run, type SFC /SCANNOW, click OK. If any files are
damaged or missing, they'll be replaced. You may need to reboot
afterwards so damaged files will be replaced.