IT Boffs... please help

[Chris]

Last night some spyware decided to install it'self on to my new laptop... Norton then told me that my PC had an Infection.

I got Norton to do a full system sweep and it showed up with 1 spyware and 2 viruses, which it then asked me if I wanted Norton to remove them... so obviously I said Yes. This window kept popping up saying that something was a High Risk virus and was trying to get on to the pc... i closed this down but it just kept popping back up each time I shut it.

I shut the whole PC down, then started it back up... this stopped the Norton window from keep popping up.

I then went on to Google and typed in Sax-P... normally Saxperience is right at the top of the search results, but this time it was about 5 down the list.

I clicked on the link and the speakers made the usual click noise... but then they clicked again and it sent me to some Camurflage (sp) clothing site, so I clicked back and tried it again, but it sent me to the same site.... so I typed in RCI (holiday timeshare site), this is normally the 3 one on the list, but this time it was about 10th..... I clicked on the link and it did the usual 'click', then it clicked again and sent me to eBay.

What the hell has happened to my Laptop/Internet Connection and what the hell can I do about it???

Thanks for any help given.

Chris :)

[MrChips]

I've found Microsoft's "malicious software removal tool" good in the past - download from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

It installs, reboots your PC then does a big scan of your PC and sorts stuff out for you! Might be worth a try.

[furioAL]

Blimey, im not an IT boff.. but i would thoroughly recommend downloading ad-aware and letting that doing a system scan as it searches for spyware... it is a free piece of software so it wont make things any worse...

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5

I would also be tempted to make backups of any of your important files just incase you end up having to reformat your computer... Some of those norton popups are actually the virus and not norton... i had a virus that displayed those popup messages but i don't think i actually had norton installed...

Good luck mate... computers are great when they work, but when they go wrong they are absolute biatches and normally take ages to sort out..

Alex
:afro:

[mrorange2]

What version of windows do you run mate???

[Mystic]

Eeew, i hate spyware, totally pointless and far less exciting than actual spywear :A:

Give AdAware (http://www.lavasoft.com/)a shot, its pretty good at bullying spyware into submissal.

Have a look in your Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete menu) and see if you can spot the offending program's name in the processes list too. The authors of these things tend to be pretty unimaginative and covertly name the process 'SpywareProgram' :err:

[Chris]

I'm running XP.

I went in to Control Panel.....Add/remove programmes... I removed any programmes on there that looked like they were related to this.

I deleted all desktop and quick link icons and then emptied my recycle bin.

Still happened.

Chris :)

[Connor_scotland]

[QUOTE=furioAL;918563]
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5


Thats a good program

I have always found that Norton is crap mate. Get zonealarm and NOD32( if you have xp)

The nothing will get near your PC

If you want any info on hwere to get it gimme a PM

[Chris]

Tonight I was gonna delete all the cookies and temp internet files that I think might be related and also delete Axureus which was the last programme I installed on the PC... do you think that will do anything??

I'll give that link a go tonight.

Chris :)

[mrorange2]

Try adaware first then spybot search and distroy they usually get rid of most things if not why dont you try restoring it back to when it was working okay with the saved restore points within XP??

[Chris]

Try adaware first then spybot search and distroy they usually get rid of most things if not why dont you try restoring it back to when it was working okay with the saved restore points within XP??

Huh??? I'm not very technically minded, so I haven't got a clue what you just said about the restore points.

Chris :)

[Connor_scotland]

Spybot is full of spyware... really poo program

Get shot of Norton

Get Zonealarm, ad aware se and NOD 32 and you Pc will never have a problem again mate

[furioAL]

Just download ad-aware from the link in my first post... try that and see how it goes... it's a top piece of software and certainly wont make problems worse...

Tonight I was gonna delete all the cookies and temp internet files that I think might be related and also delete Axureus which was the last programme I installed on the PC... do you think that will do anything??

I'll give that link a go tonight.

Chris :)

Sounds like a good plan bud... also if you have any download software eg. imesh, kazaa etc... sometimes they get riddled with spyware... depending on what your internet security settings are download software seems to just fill your computer with spyware... so i vow never to use download software on my new computer...

Good luck getting it sorted bud!

Alex
:panic:

[Scott]

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24561

[Mystic]

Dont worry about Azureus either, its not to fault iv used it for years with no problems!

Run AdAware & see what it says then take things from there!

[Chris]

Cheers Scott.... another of the things that popped up was some Trojan thing.

I'll give these a go tonight and see what happens..... if not I think I'll take it to either Comet or PC World and get the PC Clinics to sort it out.

Chris :)

[Chris]

Cheers Mystic..... OK, I'll leave Azureus.

Chris :)

[Scott]

Go through that thread it should remove just about anything. Or you could try doing a system restore to last week or before the problem and see if that sorts it

[Chris]

Cheers for all the help peeps... I'll have a go at a few thing suggested tonight.

At last an IT forum... this will come in very handy!!

Chris :)

[Tammy_VTS]

if its a certain trojan etc... google search vcleaner.exe... put the exe file on floppy... boot into safe mode and run it :) will get rid of them.... only gets rid of certain files/trojans though :)

[MTR]

Adaware should really clean anything like that up. Just remember to update it's files when you first start it up. If you are feeling a tad more experimental then the microsoft defender that was posted above will help but it's a bit harder to use at first.

[Chris]

Left work early so I could come and sort this out.

I'm running a scan on Ad-aware now, but it's stopped at 'My Music' folder for about 15 mins now... what's all that about??

Chris :)

[MTR]

Left work early so I could come and sort this out.

I'm running a scan on Ad-aware now, but it's stopped at 'My Music' folder for about 15 mins now... what's all that about??

Chris :)

I would suggest it's big! ;)

Did you update the definitions at the start?

[Chris]

It only had about 180 song in it.

I've no idea what you mean by update definitions... please explain... thanks!

Chris :)

[barrett]

in the adware program there will be a button saying update this software or update definitions, click it and see what happens

[Chris]

Not a lot!!

It said something like "Couldn't find something or other".

Chris :)

[MTR]

Firstly click here. {sorry bout the wrong size pen lol}

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1940690/0/nouser_1940/T0_-1_1940690.jpg

Then here...
http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1940695/0/nouser_1940/T0_-1_1940695.jpg

If you have a firewall you may need to let adaware through to get the update.

Also go into the options and make sure you are scanning the whole PC. By default it's only doing a quick scan.

Hope that helps.

[Chris]

Done that and did the ful search, but it's still stopping at My Music.

Also when I goto C:/Documents and settings/Chris/my documents/my music it automatically shuts the explorer window down and won't let me access it... then a window pop sup with Data Execution Prevention.

This is getting really annoying... I can't do anything.

Chris :)

[Chris]

Another window keeps popping up every couple of minutes saying a virus has been detected and removed..... the name of the virus is 'Backdoor.Trojan'.

What can I do to stop this popping up.... it's telling me that it's been removed, but then pops up a couple of minutes later.

Chris :)

[Chris]

stil need help

or do you think i shoud just take it to pc world clinic and pay them to sort it?

How much would something like this cost me to get sorted??

Chris :)

[GrantW]

theres a computer shop in my town that does full restores for £20, and everything is backed up :y:

[Chris]

Glasgow's a bit far away from me down in Kent.... but maybe there's some small independent shops round here that would do that.... but then would that make my warrenty with Comet useless afterwards?

Chris :)

[Scott]

Chris use that thread i posted. If you follow all teh steps and its still not fixed, the forum will get you to do a test and post the results and the people on the forum find the faults and tell you how to fix it.

[Chris]

I'll have to try that tomorrow night as I've been trying to sort this f**king thing out since about 5:30PM and I'm bored out of my mind with it all now....... Think I need a good slep, then start a fresh tomorrow!!

Chris :)

[Chris]

Can't beleive I'm gonna spend a Friday night in trying to sort out a virus on my PC... Think I might numb the evening with beer and Chinese Takeaway.

Chris :)

[Connor_scotland]

Dude if you need a hand doing it Pm me and i will give you my msn addy

[Mystic]

Major Geeks is a good shout, those guys speak binary :geek:

[Chris]

Dude if you need a hand doing it Pm me and i will give you my msn addy

Cheers Mate.... I deleted MSN off my laptop the other night. Just hope it will let me download things like that with the virus in place!

Chris :)

[Chris]

Major Geeks is a good shout, those guys speak binary :geek:

I did 2 of the steps they say to do on that thread from Scott... gonna try the rest tonight and see what happens!

Chris :)

[Connor_scotland]

or gimme a PM and I will try and help

[Chris]

I've just installed ZoneAlarm... it's detecting intrusions on to my PC... since completing intallation 10 mins ago it's detected 146 intrutions so far and the number is rising about 1 every 3 seconds...

How can I stop these intrutions?? What would it be that is intruding??

Cheers Peeps!!

Chris :)

[LucaZone]

technically intrusions is used very widely

in most cases it is spam systems pinging your PC to see if you exist. It will then log you for later attacks. Such as email spamming and such.

Remember the internet is only as big as the people using it, so all kinds of stuff out there is monitoring internet useage and ssheeet. So long as you have a good protection system (Zone/McAfee/Norton) you should be good agasint any lethal attempts.

[Chris]

technically intrusions is used very widely

in most cases it is spam systems pinging your PC to see if you exist. It will then log you for later attacks. Such as email spamming and such.

Remember the internet is only as big as the people using it, so all kinds of stuff out there is monitoring internet useage and ssheeet. So long as you have a good protection system (Zone/McAfee/Norton) you should be good agasint any lethal attempts.

It's up to 1157 now... so are you saying they are nothing to worry about if I've got zonealarm/norton etc??

Chris :)

[Chris]

It's still not letting me access C:/Documents and Settings/Chris/My Documents.

It just shuts it down and some pop up window comes up with Data Execution Prevention.... is there anyway I can disable this pop up so that I can access my files??

If I don't manage to sort this out then I will be taking the laptop to a PC Clinic to get it sorted.... but I wanting to save money and try and do it myself.

Cheers Peeps!!

Chris :)

[Scott]

if its not major then just turn the alerts off in zonealarm, those small warnings dont mean very much.

Have you done all teh jazz in that thread i posted yet, honestly mate follow the thread it will get fixed.

[Scott]

also one of the first things it will ask you to do is scan in safe mode.

Update all your antivirus and spuware programs, restart the laptop up and tap the F8 key as its booting until it beeps and brings up a menu, choose safe mode and hit enter, enter on windows xp operating system.

Once it loads run all your anti virus gear and anti spyware and note anything it finds but cant remove. Then restart normally, google the virus/trojan/spyware thats left and you should find instructions on removing it

[Chris]

if its not major then just turn the alerts off in zonealarm, those small warnings dont mean very much.

Have you done all teh jazz in that thread i posted yet, honestly mate follow the thread it will get fixed.

Yeah I went through all the steps on Majorgeeks cheers mate.... it seems to have stopped the Norton window popping up with the Backdoor.Trojan virus thing in it.... but it's still stopping me accessing 'My Documents'??????????

Zonealarm seems to have stopped on 1443 intrusions of which 6 were high-rated... what does that mean??

Scott, I'm so glad you finally caved in and put this new forum up. :y:

Chris :)

[Chris]

also one of the first things it will ask you to do is scan in safe mode.

Update all your antivirus and spuware programs, restart the laptop up and tap the F8 key as its booting until it beeps and brings up a menu, choose safe mode and hit enter, enter on windows xp operating system.

Once it loads run all your anti virus gear and anti spyware and note anything it finds but cant remove. Then restart normally, google the virus/trojan/spyware thats left and you should find instructions on removing it

What was supposed to ask me to scan in safe mode??? Nothing asked me that!!

Chris :)

[Scott]

looks liek they ahve adjusted the thread a little, follow this thread steps 1>6 then if sitll problems follow the last step running hijack this and post the results and someone will tell you whats wrong

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

[Chris]

Just had to call Virgin Media as my internet connection failed.... the ethernet cable was to blame, so I've got it running through USB cable at the moment...

Just tried clicking on the 'Remove files from Norton Quarantine' link an that website Scott, but it wouldn't connect to the website in the link!!

I think I'm gona have to take it to PC World as I seem to just be going round in circles at the moment!!

Chris :)

[Chris]

I dropped my laptop off round my IT technician mates house.... he seems to have sorted the virus out now... thank god!!!!

But now I have a new problem.... everytime I turn my laptop on it loads up to the screen with the account icons on it...... then it restarts, but goes through some blue screen with a percentage going up with FAT32 somewhere on the screen.

Anyone know why this is happening and how I can stop it or should I get my mate to have a look at it again??

Cheers Peeps!

Chris :)

[Scott]

what happens after it runs through the FAT32 screen? sounds like its checking the HDD to me but im not sure

[Chris]

It shows a load of figures then after about 45 seconds it finally goes on to the screen with the account icons on it... I can then use the laptop as normal.

HDD???

Chris :)

[Scott]

sorry Hard Disc Drive, it does sound as if its scanning itself though i havent seen it doing it so im only guessing. Few of the guys on tomorrow should know.

Weird its not formatted in NTSC though

[Chris]

It's just annoying as it doers it everytime I turn the PC on.... I have to wait about 5 mins in all before I can start using the damn thing.

Chris :)