XP - adaware problem - help!

[Brigitte]

I messed up a friends computer by recommending she install and run ad-aware.

She had been complaining that her system was running slow, so I told her
about spyware and suggested ad-aware. She installed and ran the scan. It
found over 500 items, so I told her to quarantine all items. I think she
became impatient with the amount of time it was taking to proceed, so she
shutdown the computer without letting it finish.

When the system came back up it wouldn't go online. Gave some sort of
networking error message when she tried to log onto Yahoo Messenger, and
none of the other online applications would go online.

We attempted to "restore" all the quarantined items, but it would always
lock up while attempting to do this.

I don't have much experience with XP and I'm not sure how to proceed at this
point. She attempted to reload windowsXP onto her computer, but apparently
the CD won't work anymore. I gave up with trying to help her over the
phone, so offered to go over there after work today.

Any idea what it was that ad-aware could have eliminated that the system
would require to go online? Any ideas what I should do? Not sure she's
ever saved a restore point in her XP. She isn't real 'puter savvy, so I
doubt that she did.

BTW, the computer is a Gateway system. She purchased it in 2002 and it came
with winXP. That's about all I know about the computer.

Any help and/or advice is greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Brigitte

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I messed up a friends computer by recommending she install and run
ad-aware.

She had been complaining that her system was running slow, so I told
her about spyware and suggested ad-aware. She installed and ran the
scan. It found over 500 items, so I told her to quarantine all
items. I think she became impatient with the amount of time it was
taking to proceed, so she shutdown the computer without letting it
finish.

When the system came back up it wouldn't go online. Gave some sort of
networking error message when she tried to log onto Yahoo Messenger,
and none of the other online applications would go online.

We attempted to "restore" all the quarantined items, but it would
always lock up while attempting to do this.

I don't have much experience with XP and I'm not sure how to proceed
at this point. She attempted to reload windowsXP onto her computer,
but apparently the CD won't work anymore. I gave up with trying to
help her over the phone, so offered to go over there after work today.

Any idea what it was that ad-aware could have eliminated that the
system would require to go online? Any ideas what I should do? Not
sure she's ever saved a restore point in her XP. She isn't real
'puter savvy, so I doubt that she did.

BTW, the computer is a Gateway system. She purchased it in 2002 and
it came with winXP. That's about all I know about the computer.

Any help and/or advice is greatly appreciated.

AGAIN.. Please CROSSPOST - do not MULTIPOST!

Nah - it likely finished, it likely was just so heavily infected with some
of the nastier spyware/adware/malware infections that it broke a few
things..

Get this to her:
http://cexx.org/lspfix.htm

See if that can help her situation with the Internet.

Also check her Internet Settings and make sure she is NOT using a proxy
(Control Panel -> Internet Properties -> Connections tab -> LAN Settings
button -> Unless you KNOW she has a proxy - everything is UNCHECKED.)

 

[Jone Doe]

I messed up a friends computer by recommending she install and run ad-aware.

She had been complaining that her system was running slow, so I told her
about spyware and suggested ad-aware. She installed and ran the scan. It
found over 500 items, so I told her to quarantine all items. I think she
became impatient with the amount of time it was taking to proceed, so she
shutdown the computer without letting it finish.

When the system came back up it wouldn't go online. Gave some sort of
networking error message when she tried to log onto Yahoo Messenger, and
none of the other online applications would go online.

We attempted to "restore" all the quarantined items, but it would always
lock up while attempting to do this.

I don't have much experience with XP and I'm not sure how to proceed at this
point. She attempted to reload windowsXP onto her computer, but apparently
the CD won't work anymore. I gave up with trying to help her over the
phone, so offered to go over there after work today.

Any idea what it was that ad-aware could have eliminated that the system
would require to go online? Any ideas what I should do? Not sure she's
ever saved a restore point in her XP. She isn't real 'puter savvy, so I
doubt that she did.

BTW, the computer is a Gateway system. She purchased it in 2002 and it came
with winXP. That's about all I know about the computer.

Any help and/or advice is greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Brigitte

First off, you didn't 'break' her computer. She did by not having her
security settings set to not allow spy ware in in the first place, and then
allowing it to accumulate to the point of having that much crap on the
system. I can only assume she isn't running any type of anti-virus, or if
she is, she isn't making sure it stays up to date, and may also have a
virus.

Also I would suggest deleting any spy ware found, instead of putting it in
quaranteen. You want it OFF the system, not just moved somewhere else.

But again, this isn't your fault your friend does such things.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Also I would suggest deleting any spy ware found, instead of putting
it in quaranteen. You want it OFF the system, not just moved
somewhere else.

Sorry, that's very bad advice, as far as I'm concerned. It's far
safer to quarantine the "supposed" spyware, run for for a few
days, then delete it if no problems have surfaced. Not everything
Ad-aware catches is necessarily bad. In the particular case
you're responding to, it would appear that something that was
quarantined caused a problem. Putting it back may fix the
problem, and if it hadn't been quarantined, that wouldn't have
been an option.

 

[Steve Nielsen]

I messed up a friends computer by recommending she install and run ad-aware.

She had been complaining that her system was running slow, so I told her
about spyware and suggested ad-aware. She installed and ran the scan. It
found over 500 items, so I told her to quarantine all items. I think she
became impatient with the amount of time it was taking to proceed, so she
shutdown the computer without letting it finish.

When the system came back up it wouldn't go online. Gave some sort of
networking error message when she tried to log onto Yahoo Messenger, and
none of the other online applications would go online.

We attempted to "restore" all the quarantined items, but it would always
lock up while attempting to do this.

I don't have much experience with XP and I'm not sure how to proceed at this
point. She attempted to reload windowsXP onto her computer, but apparently
the CD won't work anymore. I gave up with trying to help her over the
phone, so offered to go over there after work today.

Any idea what it was that ad-aware could have eliminated that the system
would require to go online? Any ideas what I should do? Not sure she's
ever saved a restore point in her XP. She isn't real 'puter savvy, so I
doubt that she did.

BTW, the computer is a Gateway system. She purchased it in 2002 and it came
with winXP. That's about all I know about the computer.

Any help and/or advice is greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Brigitte

You didn't break it, she did. Computers are not lamps, toasters, washing
machines or TVs you can power on and off at will without danger of
damage. She parks her car before she kills the engine, doesn't she?

Because of the power loss I'd start with a disk error check; Start, Run
type in
CHKDSK /F
hit enter, answer "Y" and reboot and let it do the disk check.

Then I'd repeat the Ad-aware scan (and let it finish - run it in Safe
Mode if you have to).

Also scan with updated Spybot Search and Destroy, it catches things
Ad-aware misses and vice-versa.

Moving on to the network error... what is the complete, verbatum error
message?

Steve

 

[Brigitte]

I messed up a friends computer by recommending she install and run ad-aware.

She had been complaining that her system was running slow, so I told her
about spyware and suggested ad-aware. She installed and ran the scan. It
found over 500 items, so I told her to quarantine all items. I think she
became impatient with the amount of time it was taking to proceed, so she
shutdown the computer without letting it finish.

When the system came back up it wouldn't go online. Gave some sort of
networking error message when she tried to log onto Yahoo Messenger, and
none of the other online applications would go online.

We attempted to "restore" all the quarantined items, but it would always
lock up while attempting to do this.

I don't have much experience with XP and I'm not sure how to proceed at this
point. She attempted to reload windowsXP onto her computer, but apparently
the CD won't work anymore. I gave up with trying to help her over the
phone, so offered to go over there after work today.

Any idea what it was that ad-aware could have eliminated that the system
would require to go online? Any ideas what I should do? Not sure she's
ever saved a restore point in her XP. She isn't real 'puter savvy, so I
doubt that she did.

BTW, the computer is a Gateway system. She purchased it in 2002 and it came
with winXP. That's about all I know about the computer.

Any help and/or advice is greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Brigitte

Thank you to everyone who replied. We didn't have to restore. All we did
was reinstall the software for her ISP's DSL modem. That did the trick.

Brigitte