Just battled a nasty virus

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SlyPokerDog

SlyPokerDog

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I Vista x64 w/ AVG, Spybot and Windows 7 Firewall Control. I'm fanatical about updating all of them and I still got a really f'cked up virus.

This thing called "vista antispyware 2010" got into my system and disabled AVG, Spybot, the firewall and does some f'd chit to my reg files. Then it pops up and says I have all these problems and viruses in my system and for a fee it will eliminate them all. I guess it even hijacks IE but I don't use IE so I didn't have a problem with that.

Anyway, I was able to get into Microsoft.com's forums and was told to use this program -

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

The virus blocked me from running it so I had to rename the .exe I downloaded and then it ran fine. It installed, removed the virus and restored everything back to the way it was previously.

Just thought I would share this joyous experience in case anyone else happens to run into the same problem.

Oh, according to the Microsoft forums Norton users aren't protected either but the Norton and the Malwarebytes programs are not compatible and you have to uninstall Norton first but the virus won't let you do that.
 
fix my PC please.. my bro inlaw house sat for a weekend and my PC is f'ed now!
 
I've been having a problem since Jan. 1 where my pc acts like it's brand new every time I start it up. All the intros, all the settings. It says "user profile did not load properly". I lose my favorites, hibernate or sleep don't work. Upgrades and programs I download seem to be gone or hidden each time I start up again. I use IE8 mostly and have Vista.

Did it do anything like that?
 
Wheels said:
fix my PC please.. my bro inlaw house sat for a weekend and my PC is f'ed now!
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MARIS61 said:
I've been having a problem since Jan. 1 where my pc acts like it's brand new every time I start it up. All the intros, all the settings. It says "user profile did not load properly". I lose my favorites, hibernate or sleep don't work. Upgrades and programs I download seem to be gone or hidden each time I start up again. I use IE8 mostly and have Vista.

Did it do anything like that?
Click to expand...

Wheels, I would go into Start menu / Accessories / System Tools and run System Restore. I would pick a date to restore it to that was before your bro inlaw visited.

Maris, I would do what I just told Wheels but you should pick a date before Jan 1st. If it won't let you then you should try to hit the F8 key right when your system is first booting up. It will bring up a menu and you should select Safe Mode. After it loads into Windows (it will take longer then normal) then try to run System Restore.
 
My neighbor got that one. It took me forever to get in to reformat, and then the computer still didin't work right after I reloaded Windows for him. I gave up...........I'm not a computer wiz, but I used to get the blue screen of death back a few years, and when all else fails, I would reformat.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
Wheels, I would go into Start menu / Accessories / System Tools and run System Restore. I would pick a date to restore it to that was before your bro inlaw visited.

Maris, I would do what I just told Wheels but you should pick a date before Jan 1st. If it won't let you then you should try to hit the F8 key right when your system is first booting up. It will bring up a menu and you should select Safe Mode. After it loads into Windows (it will take longer then normal) then try to run System Restore.
Click to expand...

Did those several times each, never worked.
 
westnob said:
you should tell your sister he has a porn addiction :devilwink:
Click to expand...

As long as he could get her a green card I don't think Wheel's sister would care.

I think you meant he should tell his wife.
 
MARIS61 said:
Did those several times each, never worked.
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How old is your computer? Where did you get it from? You might want to just spend the money and have someone look at it.
 
MARIS61 said:
2yr old toshiba laptop.
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My gf has a Toshiba laptop about the same age. Hers would have similar problems. It turned out her hard drive was going bad (and it was a Western Digital). Have you made your restore disks yet or did they come with the laptop? You might want to have someone look at it. If it turns out that the hard drive is chunking data you should replace it. While you're at it you should also increase the amount of ram. You probably only have 1-2 gigs of ram so you should upgrade to 4 gigs (yes I know Vista x32 will only read 3 1/2 gigs but even a half gig extra helps).

If you really want to give your laptop a tune up ask the person who is replacing your hard drive to get you a OEM copy of Windows 7. (or if you are doing this yourself you can get the OEM copy of Windows 7 from where ever you purchase your hard drive from.)

My laptop runs much faster on Windows 7 then it did on Vista. Huge difference.

Hope this helps.
 
CelticKing said:
I always do that when a virus gets in and computer starts acting up, just fuck it and restart the whole thing from day 1. :cheers:
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some of us aren't smart enough to keep our music on a removable hard drive.:sigh:
 
westnob said:
some of us aren't smart enough to keep our music on a removable hard drive.:sigh:
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lol it sucks balls when that happens, plus having to install all the programs you need allover again, pretty much takes half a day to recover :sigh:
 
CelticKing said:
lol it sucks balls when that happens, plus having to install all the programs you need allover again, pretty much takes half a day to recover :sigh:
Click to expand...

Just burn a backup to a couple of DVD's after you have it all set up the way you like with everything including all the Microsoft updates installed.

Instead of going back to scratch just restore from the DVD's.

WAY EASIER!
 
SlyPokerDog said:
Just burn a backup to a couple of DVD's after you have it all set up the way you like with everything including all the Microsoft updates installed.

Instead of going back to scratch just restore from the DVD's.

WAY EASIER!
Click to expand...

Good idea, just never got to doing it. :dunno:
 
malwarebytes is good, combofix is handy too for hard to remove stuff.
 
and id recommend making a ghost image of your boot partition after a clean OS install + all the apps etc u regularly use are in. its a better failsafe option :)
 
A timely thread. I got some virus that blew by my Norton, AVG and Iobit security programs like Tony Parker going past Ha Seung-Jin. Thankfully, we have an IT guy on staff and I had the luck of remembering two days before, "Gee, it's been a while since I've backed up my hard drive". I opted for the wipe and reinstall.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
Wheels, I would go into Start menu / Accessories / System Tools and run System Restore. I would pick a date to restore it to that was before your bro inlaw visited.

Maris, I would do what I just told Wheels but you should pick a date before Jan 1st. If it won't let you then you should try to hit the F8 key right when your system is first booting up. It will bring up a menu and you should select Safe Mode. After it loads into Windows (it will take longer then normal) then try to run System Restore.
Click to expand...

hmm never thought of that thanks.. so would that save all my stuff that I had before that?
 
weird I click system restore and when I go to click "next" to get the process started... nothing happens.
 
Wheels said:
weird I click system restore and when I go to click "next" to get the process started... nothing happens.
Click to expand...

You could have a virus or some other evil thing infecting your computer. Do you have spybot and the malware program I listed installed?

Did you run them?

Have you ever used System Restore before?

Is it even turned on? If it's not turned on there won't be anything to restore to.

You might want to say a prayer to St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes if all else fails.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
You could have a virus or some other evil thing infecting your computer. Do you have spybot and the malware program I listed installed?

Did you run them?

Have you ever used System Restore before?

Is it even turned on? If it's not turned on there won't be anything to restore to.

You might want to say a prayer to St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes if all else fails.
Click to expand...

I have Spybot and Malaware on there and when I double click them they dont open, its like this virus knows lol. AVG runs but only finds tracking cookies and doesnt seem to fix it. I havent done a system restore. How do I turn it on? (thats what she said :P ) Yeah I think I might have to pray on this one lol.
 
Wheels said:
I have Spybot and Malaware on there and when I double click them they dont open, its like this virus knows lol. AVG runs but only finds tracking cookies and doesnt seem to fix it. I havent done a system restore. How do I turn it on? (thats what she said :P ) Yeah I think I might have to pray on this one lol.
Click to expand...

OK, try this - download the malware program again. Right click on what you just downloaded and rename it. It's going to be called something like "malwarebytes.exe" so just throw an "x" in front of the malwarebytes or you can rename it entirely to something like "SlyPokerDogIsAGod.exe" but make sure you leave the " .exe " part alone.

The double click it so you can reinstall the program. It will ask to update itself, let it. Then let it run. It should find and fix the problem.

After that go to your start menu and find Spybot. Right click on "Spybot Search & Destroy" inside the Spybot start menu directory and select "Run as administrator" (this only is an option if you're running Vista or Windows 7). Scan for problems, fix them, yadda yadda.

Hope this helps.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
OK, try this - download the malware program again. Right click on what you just downloaded and rename it. It's going to be called something like "malwarebytes.exe" so just throw an "x" in front of the malwarebytes or you can rename it entirely to something like "SlyPokerDogIsAGod.exe" but make sure you leave the " .exe " part alone.

The double click it so you can reinstall the program. It will ask to update itself, let it. Then let it run. It should find and fix the problem.

After that go to your start menu and find Spybot. Right click on "Spybot Search & Destroy" inside the Spybot start menu directory and select "Run as administrator" (this only is an option if you're running Vista or Windows 7). Scan for problems, fix them, yadda yadda.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I'll try that exe rename part and just for your help I'll name it SlyisGod lol. The other part probably wont work cause I have XP. Thanks for the info though!
 
Wheels said:
I'll try that exe rename part and just for your help I'll name it SlyisGod lol. The other part probably wont work cause I have XP. Thanks for the info though!
Click to expand...

Still run the Spybot, you just don't need to do the right click part. Just run it after you have run the malware program.
 
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