Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 02:13 AM

I am a little wary of celebrating yet (after the last episode) but I THINK it's finally back to normal, and thanks to you all for the pride and satisfaction I now feel, just the fact that I managed to follow the "idiot proof" instructions and arrive at a satisfactory conclusion is great, BUT....

Please don't ask how it's ended up here.

It has taken about two solid days of heartache, hair pulling, (not that I've got much to start with) and highly strung nerves.

I finally started by trying to do a repair, after booting from disk, which all seemed fine until it looked like it was doing a complete re installation and I could'nt stop it, anyway, it said it would take about three hours so I left it to get on with it, when I returned about three hours later it had got to about ten minutes then asked what language I wanted and had waited for me to click English, so then I was feeling sick for the next two and three quarter hours thinking I had lost virtually everything and was going to end up with a new clean pc to start from scratch.

When it had finished and rebooted it looked normal, everything was still there, the only difference was that the virus protection was turned off and a message saying computer at risk no virus protection,no problem I thought, just download microsoft essentials again, no go, kept coming up with an error code unable to load, investigated that, no luck, tried other progs no joy, none of them would install, tried onecare scans, still no joy, eventually tried my old AVG free which was still on there and it loaded, got rid of another infected file,took about an hour to update, then I got 59 updates from microsoft, then XP3 pack and after two days have now hopefully got back to normal, making sure that I have now backed up the whole thing onto my external drive and will do regular backups in future.

Still have absolutely no idea how I got here but I just hope it lasts a bit longer than last time now.

Grateful thanks to all,

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:24 AM

I've just noticed that my hd freespace has gone from about 75% down to 27% since I did what I did.

I looked in regedit and HKEY LOCAL MACHINE, SYSTEM, and it shows Control Set 002, Control Set 003,Current Control Set, and they all seem to contain the same things.

Do I need all three, or could this be where I have lost all my freespace? Can I delete two of them?

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 05:54 AM

willy - having several ControlSet keys in the registry is normal (the CurrentControlSet is just a pointer to which one is currently in use and is set at system startup). They contain only configuration information and should not be responsible for a 50% loss of free space on your system.

There are several possibilites: 1) You have a lot of things as temp files or files waiting to be deleted 2) You have lost some disc space - ie the system has lost track of it 3) The system thinks your discs are smaller than they are or the disc partitioning is not correct.

For 1) You can use a utility like the SpaceSniffer BillD linked recently here: Tech: Where are your files? What takes space?. You can download and install that, run it for your disc and you'll see where your space is going.

For 2) Right click on the disc letter in Explorer, select Properties/Tools and Error Checking. That should sort out any space that has been lost from the system records.

For 3) You should probably have a look at this first and just check that your disc is showing at the size it should be: Select the disc letter in Explorer, right click and select Properties and see what the Capacity is. If it's what you expect that's OK. If not, then the disc partitioning may be wrong and you may have to adjust it to get the rest of the space on the disc (info on this later if needed).

Have a look at these things and see where the problem lies - probably in the reverse order that I gave them!

(One final thought - you new install didn't install a separate system somewhere else than the default location did it?).


Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: olddude
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 09:47 AM

GREAT IDEA CHRISTINA!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: olddude
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 12:04 PM

John
just my personal thoughts, I took off several viruses last week from my friends PC's ... all protected by AVG ... I know people will disagree with me but AVG doesn't work IMHO ... please bite the bullet and buy mcafee. Every corp I work with uses it, I used it for years and I don't have virus issues and it has protected me from a host of them .. just my opinion ... if you still insist on a free one that panda cloud is getting some good press but I never used it ..

Dan

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 12:14 PM

Dan, I was perfectly happy with Microsoft Essentials, it was great, but for some reason it wouldn't download again. I even tried to download a trial Mcafee and that just froze halfway through.

However I've yet to try it since I became "clean" as it were, but I will definitely end up buying something other than AVG.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: olddude
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 12:15 PM

I don't want to go on and on but this is important. My wifes friend diane got a bad one, she didn't want to bother me so she hired a girl to come to her house (cost her 150 bucks) her machine was protected by AVG ... 2 days later the virus was back, I went over and fixed it . this virus was attaching itself to adobe updater, scated right through AVG ... I loaded mcafee after I clean it and repaired all the files. 2 days later mcafee caught it trying to come in again .. took care of it ... I hate AVG I don't think it protects much of anything and I have a pile of examples. But like I said others may disagree but the act speaks for itself I think

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 01:06 PM

Posted in Another Thread so I won't repeat it here, but some extracts from Symantec's White Paper on threats found in 2008 might be of interest. (There's a link at that post where you can look at the entire PDF report).

That report doesn't go into relative performance of AV suites, but knowing what might be attacking you is of some importance in defending yourself.

Separately, scattered sources are reporting an increased incidence of attacks via "third party programs" in which vulnerabilities in programs you install (not part of the OS or of "big name" productivity suites). Major vulnerabilities have been found in Adobe PDF readers, Flash, various Multimedia programs, etc; and most of the suppliers of these "extras" have rather poor records on patching vulnerabilities quickly when they are found.

The absolutely worst thing you can do to expose yourself to infection appears to be careless use of FTP file sharing, with IM (instant messaging) and IRC (chat) systems growing to nearly the same frequency of infection.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: olddude
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 01:17 PM

John in Kansas
outstanding comment my friend

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 02:51 PM

Here I go again. Doing a disccheck and it got to 4 out of 5 then froze. I had to switch off to get out, nothing else worked.
When I reboot it comes up with the apology for incorrect start etc and choice of Start Normally, or Last good configuration, trouble is whatever one I try it starts on the normal startup screen then goes back to the same one Start Normally or Last Config etc.

Just keeps going round in circles. How the hell do I get out of this?

I think I'm on the verge of giving up computers full stop, for the benefit of my health and qall those around me!

Very Weary John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 05:46 PM

willy - how big are your disc drives. Stage 4 can take a long time with large disc drives.

Can you start the system in Safe Mode; if you can, do so. Otherwise see if you can start from disc.

Open a command window (Start/Run/cmd) and type the following command:

  >fsutil dirty query C:   (or whichever drive failed the check).

If this reports drive C DIRTY then chkdsk will always try to run at startup.

You can prevent chkdsk from running with the command:

  >chkntfs /x C:   (or C: D: .. if you have more)

This prevents the disk being checked on startup, even if chkdsk should run on it.

Then you can try running a quick chkdsk from the command line to try and clear the flag:

  >chkdsk /i C:

This only checks the file indexes (and not thoroughly) and doesn't do the stage 4 and 5 checks. Hopefully this will clear the dirty setting and stop chkdsk running on restart.

We still have to sort out your missing disc space! Did your drives show the full capacity or not?

(If you want to take this off the thread or want more info on these commands PM me; I should be online for a while).

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 04:35 AM

Just for clarification!

I start up and get the windows xp screen with the blue bar running to signify loading, then it goes to the "We apologise for the inconvenience" screen with options to start normally or last good config, or safe mode, safe mode with networking, or safe mode with command prompt.

If I do normal or last known, it starts the same sequence over again and ends up back at the same screen, if I do safe mode it goes to a black screen with loads of lines of text and then stops completely.

I haven't dared try safe with networking or safe with command prompt yet as I don't know if I will do more damage.

If I do nothing, it just keeps trying to restart and repeating the sequence over and over.

I tried booting from the windows disc and had option of reinstall or repair, chose repair and got a screen that said type exit so I did and ended up back where I started again.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 08:27 AM

I can get to the repair console booting by disc and have a command prompt, is there anything I can type in here to maybe do some good?

Weary John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: olddude
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 08:37 AM

yes you can just type the check disk command Mick said in his post

chkdsk /i C:

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 08:57 AM

Actually, I don't think you can do that form of chkdsk in the recovery console, but you can do the longer check:

  chkdsk C: /r

Only /r and /p (forces a check even if the disc isn't marked to check) options are available in the recovery console.

I sent the info by PM earlier today and he's trying chkdsk /r now.

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 09:13 AM

It seems to be checking,it says chkdsk is performing additional checking or recovery, got up to 75% then dropped to 50% and then stopped for quite a while but has now got to 52% so something is happening at last.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 12:54 PM

Thank you so much Mick, I did the check as per your info and it said checks and repairs to one or more items.

When I tried to start again it went to check disc on a blue screen which was where I was yesterday, this time when it got to 4 out of five 2% it stopped again but I ignored it this time and eventually it went through the lot and restarted properly, so hopefully I am now back to normal again, apart from my reduction of free space, which I think I will just have to live with at the moment.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 01:15 PM

John

Glad you're at least running now. If you're still missing a lot of space and your disc appears to have the correct size and chkdsk didn't recover any, you might try the program I referred to earlier (link here: SpaceSniffer) and see if it finds any unusually large files on the disc.

Before that you might just like to check for any space recoved by chckdsk. Recovered space may be in files with names like FILEnnnn.CHK in directories with names like Found.000, Found.001
I think these may normally be hidden, so you may have to right click on C drive in Explorer, Select Tools/Folder Options/View and click the Show Hidden Files and Folders radio button. These files are the orphan pieces of disc that it couldn't assign to known file names. Normally they can be deleted, but you might want to look at them if you think you've lost something important - you may get part of it back.

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 11:03 AM

What a great prog SpaceSniffer, I love it.

Huge, huge embarrassment people, spacesniffer found my "lost" GBs.

Just before my problems started I had been transferring VHS tapes to convert, which because of all the hassle I forgot about,(that's my excuse anyway) so I am now the proud owner of 78GBs more free space.

Thanks Mick for your patience, sorry I goofed, but I have learnt a helluva lot over the past few days with all the help I have had.

Hope I don't need to ask again for a long,long time. fingers crossed.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 11:22 AM

John

Glad you're back to normal!

I quite liked SpaceSniffer too. I do know where most of my space is, but it did remind me of a few big items I'd forgotten about.

Stay clean!
Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 10 - 03:07 PM

I just got clobbered by something that, as best as I can figure, must have jumped into the system if I moused over something on the page at Photobucket after uploading an image there. A dialog box popped up telling me I had a trojan and Windows wanted me to load a new program to kill it. I was using firefox, and saw the download box pop up and Adobe Acrobat start to open, but I was using WinPatrol and Kerio Firewall and they were asking if I gave permission to open these. I didn't, but still got clobbered.

This program, whatever it was, loaded through a file called Kolobok.pdf. I closed browsers and ran a quick scan with the antivirus we use from work (Microsoft Share Point). Didn't find a thing. So I opened Spybot Search&Destroy, updated it, and let it scan. It found several things that tried to affect registry changes, and in the process of infecting the computer had set up dialogs to disable task manager, disable the ability to change wallpapaer, and make no active desktop changes. Even after finally getting the little red X from my system tray to go away I couldn't change the desktop back to it's original background. I used System Restore to go back a couple of days. Earlier today I had changed my wallpaper (to none, with a black background) and the desktop was none with a white background as a result of this attack. System restore put me back to the horsehead nebula in Orion that I had on before.

This was nasty. It is how it got there that is troubling--I wasn't downloading anything, I didn't open anything. I moused over something.

Last week a page and dialog box opened and tried to tell me I was under attack. A dialog box with the typical blue bar on top and the white x appeared, and I know they had set this up so clicking the x wasn't going to close it. I did click it to see what would happen, and it opened a web page (firefox again) that gave me a screen that looked like firefox was running an active scan and I needed to act swiftly. I always close these things with the control/alt/delete access to the Task Manager, but as you can see from above, that wouldn't have worked, and simply turning off the computer would have allowed the thing to write itself to the registry during shutdown.

I will reiterate: if I ever meet one of these designers on the street, I'm going to kick him in the balls. Hard.

Looks like it's time to do a big backup again.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 08:42 AM

Well after all my problems, the only thing left which I might just live with to save cocking it up again is that when I tried to install McAfee as advised, it keeps telling me that Microsoft Essential Virus Scan needs to be deleted as it is incompatable.

The trouble is I deleted that when I had to reinstall AVG as that was the only one that would work. So apparentley there is still a part of Micro virus scan hiding somewhere. I even tried a special cleanup tool from Microsoft which is supposed to completely remove all traces, but that hasn't worked either.

I did a regedit and looked for something there but couldn't see anything related, surely there is some way I can get a list of ALL the files and then delete from there if it shows up.

John

I'm a bit nervous about only having AVG now after what happened before!

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 09:40 AM

I was just near the end of a post with links to the Last Free Version (search on that site) of Kerio firewall, to WinPatrol (the free version) and Spybot Search&Destroy when I got the blue screen. I think this is the old AVG problem I had. So though it is more aggressive at getting the stuff you might encounter, you lose data and your place, etc. when the computer shuts down unexpectedly. I'll have to research this problem further before I tell you to adopt it. But McAfee has not been the industry standard for 10 - 15 years, so I wouldn't be in a rush to install that one.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 09:53 AM

OK Thanks SRS.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Bernard
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 11:10 AM

If McAfee won't install, it's because there is still a nasty lurking somewhere which is blocking it...

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: olddude
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 11:13 AM

Boot to safe mode and try to install Mcafee

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 01:50 PM

Okay, so I decided I was going to repair the file that gives me the AVG blue screen of death rather than use a program that isn't as aggressive at getting nasty bugs. I set up the XP to repair mode but now as it trys to finish setup it hangs in Installing devices. I've disconnected scanner, extra hard drives, the ethernet cable, but I have a card for the monitor that is way newer than the drivers for the old monitor.

Even as I was typing that it seems to have gotten past device installation, but now it can't find tons of files. Shit.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 03:00 PM

XP isn't doing an elegant job of repairing itself. Once it hung up it seemed to lose it's way. I'm trying one more time, and if it doesn't work, I'll pick up a copy of Win7 on campus tomorrow and upgrade. Right not it doesn't even have a functioning mouse.

Grrrrrr

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 03:21 PM

AV programs and suites trade position frequently in reviews of what's best at any one time. My choice has been a suite (paid for) that stays consistently near the top in the ratings, but others may choose to switch about as the threats change.

If you're going to look for good protection, especially in free-ware, it's good practice to check fairly frequently whether your current choice has continued to be a best choice for your needs.

Without recommendation, here's the most recent I've seen in a review by a fairly reliable source:

Lab Testing Antivirus Software, 02.04.10, Neil Rubenking, PC Magazine.

Only 8 AV programs/suites are reviewed, so it's not an "all inclusive" review, but there are comments on some of the more popular ones people here are using that may be of interest.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: olddude
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 03:26 PM

SRS
boot to safe mode and run this
windows safty scanner

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 08:03 PM

I'll try this again. I set up a regular keyboard on the laptop.

I am reinstalling XP Pro because after a couple of attempts to repair the OS with the disk it stopped responding. I realized the advanced hardware on it was making it hang in that device installation stage, and then it wouldn't start up again when I had disconnected a lot of stuff. It was missing tons of files because it couldn't find or read SP2, and I downloaded and tried a fresh copy and it wouldn't use that either.

I've picked up Win 7 but it has to go in over XP to use this academic version, so I'm putting XP over the old install. I've been putting all of my files on a different drive letter, so while it won't be pretty, and there is a lot of stuff that I'll have to "own" or "claim" from this new setup, but it is there.

Ironically, I was preparing to run a big backup when all of this happened.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 10:16 PM

Partway there. At least I'm on that computer, but will have to figure out how to wrench Win7 around to my way of doing things.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:00 AM

I've done the windows safety scanner three times but that won't clear it either, I need to find how to go into the list of every file to see if I can find something that looks like a stray essential security file!

The question is HOW!

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Acorn4
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:29 AM

Use "search" for this - if it's AVG you're trying to get rid of put that in as a string of letters, but also "grisoft" - I've just installed "Kaspersky" AV, which seems to be doing a very good job.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 12:06 PM

No it's not AVG it's a leftover from Microsoft Security Essentials that I seem to be stuck with.

I was very happy with the microsoft security and I wanted to reload it but it won't install again 'cos it says it's still there, BUT IT'S BEEN DELETED. aaaaaaRGH!

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:28 PM

wilbyhillbilly

When you removed Microsoft Security Essentials, did you just delete files or did you use Control Panel to remove it like you should have?

If you just wiped out files, there probably are still entries in Registry that are telling the system that it's already there.

Most downloads of Microsoft programs will give you a list of files, with file sizes and issue dates, if you search hard enough for it (so that you can check for authenticity). If you're stuck with Registry entries but not the files, you may be able to use regedit to search for the filenames in the download list. This may not work though since often the files are compacted for download and a file in the download may "unpack" to several files with different names.

Your computer also should have an installation log for the program that you can theoretically "read backward" to see if all the "steps" were backed out; although I can't tell you where to find the logs on your machine, and they can be deleted by Disk Cleanups.

Also, the current "final version" requires that Microsoft recognize your OS as "genuine." I'm not sure whether that requirement was imposed for betas. Since Microsoft will give you "critical" updates even for "unregistered" OS installations, getting auto-updates doesn't prove that your OS installation is registered properly - and changes you've made recently may have "corrupted" or lost the registration. You might try "re-registering" the OS to make sure you're getting all the goodies. (If you go to the update site and select "Custom Install" it should ask you to "register your computer" in order to see optional updates, if that's part of the problem.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: bobad
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 04:39 PM

Have you tried the Microsoft Live on line scan that olddude linked to above?

Every time I run it it finds and removes a substantial no of unneeded registry items so if that is where your problem lies it may just be the solution.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 12:22 PM

John, it did check that I had a "genuine" version and I did delete via control panel and even tried a special tool from microsoft that said it was to clean files that are sometimes left after deletion, that didn't work either.

Bobad, I've now tried olddude's advice a total of three times and that hasn't worked either, which is why I am now struggling,:-)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 12:47 PM

wilby

Puzzling, at least.

My recollection is that WinXP has a control panel section called "Security ..." something or other, where you can tell the system which of Microsoft's several "Security" programs to use, or tell it that you want to use your own.

With early Microsoft stuff, you could just turn them off there, without the need to uninstall them, and they were prevented from interfering with installation and use of "other" security programs.

Perhaps something is still set there that's telling the update site that you're using something you don't have?

Another (remote?) possibility is that a selection to use the Microsoft Security Essentials was left turned on, and an update actually had already re-installed it, or part of it - between the time you deleted and cleaned and the time when you went back to get it. (???) (The reinstall might have omitted putting back new icons etc, which would make it less than obvious that it came back.)

I'm just guessing, of course, since I don't have a WinXP machine still running to look at.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 12:50 PM

Reinstalling your operating system really isn't a big deal, and that would solve the problem.

The essential thing is to have an external hard drive you can use to save all your data, and other stuff, such as installation files for any programs you need that you haven't got on CDs, or are readily downloadable, and so forth.

It's a bit of a drag, and it ties you up for a few hours, but it means you've got a cleen computer that's running the way it should. And once you've done it it's easy enough to do over again every few months, if you are organised enough to keep the re-installation stuff up-to-date. I always make a firmn resolution to do that, and always fall down on it...

If you are using Windows it's pretty certain you are going to have to do it some time, so now's maybe as good a time as any to get your head round it.

Oh yes, it's obvious, but... Make sure to unhitch that external hard disc before you start reinstalling. Then when the machinehas done its pieces, you just reload the stuff you want reloaded on to the main computer.

If the problem is on the extenal disc, the thing to do is temporarily store any stuff that's on it which you want to keep, and reformat the disc.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 01:56 PM

Reinstalling your operating system really isn't a big deal, and that would solve the problem.

Kevin, those are famous last words if ever I've heard them. I just tried a security repair, using the OS disk to repair, not replace XP-Pro, and it killed it.

In hindsight, I would tell you to disconnect every device you've ever attached to the thing before you start doing that, because if it has to fool with drivers for devices that are newer than the OS, it hangs. That's what mine did, and I had to discontinue the work and it never went back to the old position after that.

I installed Win7, and it looks kind of loopy, but it put my old OS in an "old" file name and I found all of my desktop files. I had saved most of the important stuff on a different letter drive, and now the main trick is the train programs to look at the correct letter drives. All of those names changed.

It's not all back, there is a lot of reinstalling to do, but (knock wood) it could have been worse.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 02:06 PM

You could also try CCleaner, which I've used a few times to clean up the registry and to uninstall some software (when Control Panel Add/Remove Programs wouldn't populate - I uninstalled some things I wasn't using with CCleaner and then Add/Remove worked again!).

(You can download it from - amongst other places - CNet here: CCleaner).

I'd use the Registry button and let it clean things up there, but also have a look under Tools for the uninstall programs to see if there's anything odd left there.

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 02:57 PM

I'd never try a repair rather than a replace myself. Disconnecting things makes sense of course - though I don't think that applies for the keyboard and mouse.

It really isn't that big a deal, if you've got an adequate external hard drive, and some idea of what programs you've installed, and where to get the makings for putting them back in afterwards. If those are famous last words, my computers must have the nine lives of a cat. They always end up better after a good reinstall, even when they felt on their last legs before it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 05:35 PM

JiK, I forgot to say "thanks" for the link to the PC magazine reviews of AV software. I went there and chose Avast this time instead of AVG. I used to have email come from them regularly; I must not have renewed my email list settings at some point.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: GUEST,Captain Farrell
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 05:48 PM

I had the blue screen of death on my second computer.I sent for a free cd Linux Ubuntu.Install ubuntu and wipe windows. Computer now works fine and no viruses.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Amos
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 06:02 PM

Have you taken the step of deleting all .tmp files? Malware sometimes resides there.


Q

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 04:37 AM

Thanks McGrath, but after the last heartstopping experience I had when I thought I was doing a repair and instead was doing a reinstall, I'll take it to the shop next time I get desperate. (I'm a coward).

It's working fine at the moment and I have done a full backup onto my external drive, just in case of future problems, it's just niggling me that I cannot reload The Microsoft Essentials programme and am stuck with AVG now, although I have to say it seems to be doing the job at the moment.

I tried CCleaner a while back, no joy, also got rid of temp files, I'll investigate JiKs suggestion, but it looks as though it will just have to stay as it is until the next major disaster rears its ugly head. Thanks y'all,

John

I will however save this thread and all its advice for future reference, its been quite a learning curve for me.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 05:43 AM

willy - just one final thought. Have a look at this post on problems installing Microsoft Essentials: Problems Installing Microsoft Essentials. It might not be the same installation problem, but it might suggest things to look at.

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 07:33 AM

"Taking it to the shop" isn't always a good thing, especially if "the shop" is PCWorld. They can really screw your computer up, and take ages to do it. One time I sent it in for a second hard disc to be put in, and they removed the original one instead and sent it off to be junked...

A repair is really much more complicated than a reinstall, and more likely to go wrong.

Here are the incomparable Les Barker's thought on the subject (with a nod towards a George Formby song):

I bought a computer,
It cost a thousand pound;
But every time I switch it on
It keeps on falling down.

I used to think it was my friend
But now it drives me 'round the bend;
You'd be surprised the time I spend
Reinstalling Windows.

I switch it on; what is this?
Something wrong with "config.sys"
This isn't my idea of bliss,
Reinstalling Windows.

I want to share my printers
And I want to share my files,
I want to share my anger 'cos
It drives me bloomin' wild.

My songs, they say, can be sublime
I've conquered cadence, mastered rhyme
But, nowadays, I spend my time
Reinstalling Windows

Reinstall, oh what fun!
It says it helps you get things done;
Every day now everyone's
Reinstalling Windows.

Look again, it will say
All you do is "plug and play"
Why do I spend every day?
Reinstalling Windows

It can't find my printer
And it can't locate my mouse;
The other day it told me that
They were in another house.

Still unplugged, still unplayed,
I e-mailed God in search of aid;
He's far too busy, I'm afraid
Reinstalling Windows.

Up at dawn for one more try;
Does it work? Can pigs fly?
How do I expect to die?
Reinstalling Windows.

I used to like a drink or three;
No time now, don't call for me;
I'm going to spend eternity
Reinstalling Windows.

Subject: RE: Tech: Re my: Help! Serious Virus Plea.
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 09:49 AM

Mick, I did most of that, actually that is where the cleanup prog came from, but the last bit(which I looked at)is frightening and I dare not start messing around in that Microsoft file.

McGrath, we have a great independent "shop" a few miles up the road so I'll be ok there if I need them, Love the ditty.

John