Windows XP Pro--System Infected

[Guest]

My system has slowed significantly. Have check DSL connection and it is
fine. Last night desktop turned up side down and many windows strated to
open. Have Norton Antivirus and Ad Aware, have run both. Problems presist.
Any suggestions?

 

[Ted Zieglar]

If you suspect you are infected with a virus or spyware, you must completely remove the infection. "Have Norton Antivirus and Ad Aware, have run both" is not enough. Both of these have to be running in the background at all times and be continuously updated; and with spyware you often require several products to identify the infection.

If you are virus- and spyware-free you must think back to any recent changes you made to your software or hardware. If you are unaware of anything you might have done that would have affected your computer in this way, your only recourse is a clean re-install.

(I presume you don't have a known-good backup of your system partition, since you would not be posting if you did.)

Ted Zieglar

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

If you suspect you are infected with a virus or spyware, you must completely
remove the infection. "Have Norton Antivirus and Ad Aware, have run both"
is not enough. Both of these have to be running in the background at all times
and be continuously updated; and with spyware you often require several
products to identify the infection.

That's not "how to remove the infection", that's "how to attempt not
to be infected". I don't see any advice on how to clean up an
infection that is already there, and I sympathise with Ted there,
because this is far from easy in XP - because you have to build your
own 21st century equivalent of the "DOS boot disk and virus checker".

The point is, if malware has set itself up to run whenever Windows
runs, including Safe Mode (which is trivial to do), then you can't
rely on antiviris scanners and similar tools that are run from this
infected environment.

If they work, great; no surprise when they don't.

If you are virus- and spyware-free

And you know that - how? Just "have faith"?

you must think back to any recent changes you made to your software or hardware.

Not easy, given that:
- modern software tends to "update" itself
- AutoChk automatically "fixes" broken files after bad exits
- the malware problem

If you are unaware of anything you might have done that would have
affected your computer in this way, your only recourse is a clean re-install.

So that's it, eh? The "New Darkness" standard; if your PC misbehaves,
and the reason doesn't make itself obvious, you just have to destroy
the entire installation and start over? Does your GP offer to "put
you to sleep" like a lazy veterenarian whenever you *might* be sick?

That's usually a "feature" of some display adapters, such as Intel's
integrated graphics - it's called "display rotation" and often there
are hotkeys left "live" to do this automatically. Hit one of those
hotkey combinations accidentally, or choose a "backwards" screen
resolution such as 768 x 1024, and whammo.

Yep. Firstly, what version of Windows XP (i.e. what Service Pack
level) are you on? Do you have a firewall enabled (or added)?

Next; tell me more about these "windows" that started to open. Does
this problem still happen if you disconnect from all networks,
including the Internet and any WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.?