Virus issue

markyboy.1967

markyboy.1967

Messages
8,171
Name
Mark Molloy
Edit My Images
Yes
My daughters laptop has just picked up a virus of some sort. She cant get on the internet, everything is running slow and icons are being added to he desktop.

I have tried to load AVG free but it fails at the end of the process. Im currently running Spybot to see what it can find out. What is my next move to try and fix this for her. Laptop runs XP Home.
 
The inability to access the internet and the failure of AVG to load suggests a trojan. What is the nature of the icons being added to the desktop - and what message, if any, do you get when attempting to access the net?

The first thing I would do is give myself a set period of time before going with the nuclear option - total reinstall. Many a time I've faffed about for hours when I've known in my heart after just 20 mins that the best solution is to reinstall the OS.
 
Try getting into safe mode (usually its pressing F8 repeatedly while it boots up).

Then run whatever security programs there are on the laptop. Get rid of anything nasty, turn off the system restore, reboot as normal and then turn the sys restore on again.

If that doesn't work, try downloading some free security on to a USB stick via another machine and see if you can run them on the laptop from the USB stick.

If this doesn't do it, see if you can find out what the nasty is and Google for a solution, there may be a specific fix.

If everything fails you may need to reformat the laptop after you have saved the important files.

Dave
 
Google Aria PC and order yourself a copy of Norton Internet Security 2010 for around £14 - £15. I still have people bringing me computers/laptops with all the free so-called security virus software and when I tell them they have got a virus I get the usual response "I cant have AVG says I am clear" then I show them what Norton has found and they are totally gobsmacked.

I tell people this but they still use these free programmes which are more trouble than they are worth.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Adey can you please explain to me my people are still coming to me with virus ridden machines while using these free programs.

They are useless.
 
AFC said:
They are useless.
Click to expand...

That's a bit dramatic and, I feel, paints a false picture. Most are far better employed than nothing at all but I have to say I don't rate malwarebytes at all and I've never heard of superantispyware. The name alone puts me off.

Were you talking about just those two - or all free anti-v progs? Although I no longer use it, I rate avg fairly high and Avira, too.

Not all anti-v programs will react to all the nasties out there. Even Norton will miss one occasionally.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend Norton to anyone. Although much improved in this respect in recent years, it still has a habit of hogging resources like no other. When I used to repair PCs, I would remove Nortons at the outset and tell the client to reinstall it themselves if they still wanted it.

People should remember that the greatest tool for preventing malware infecting computers is the soft squidgy thing working the keyboard. It's also the greatest threat to computer security by far.
 
I can only speak as I find and people are bringing me machines with free virus software on them and Norton is still finding virus' on these machines.

I would sooner have Norton hogging resources than keep reinstalling everything because my machine is virus ridden.

I have always used Norton and will continue to do so, which of course is my choice.
 
Thanks folks. I currently have McAfee on the other pc and laptops but i put AVG on the youngest daughters when she got it but for some reason it either hasnt run or missed issues.Just need to get it up and running again and i will put McAfee on as i have never had an issues in 3 years use on the other pc/laptops. I never adde to youngest dauhters as her netbook isnt the best spec and i know McAfee can take up resources.
 
2blue4u said:
The inability to access the internet and the failure of AVG to load suggests a trojan. What is the nature of the icons being added to the desktop - and what message, if any, do you get when attempting to access the net?

The first thing I would do is give myself a set period of time before going with the nuclear option - total reinstall. Many a time I've faffed about for hours when I've known in my heart after just 20 mins that the best solution is to reinstall the OS.
Click to expand...

It does state the netbook is under a hreat from a trogan attack but it says "unknown "
 
Most trojans these days have only one aim - to collect banking information. I would advise against attempting to connect to the internet until fixed.

Personally, I would start a reinstall.
 
I think the "paid for" versus "free" security is more complicated than one is good and the other is not.

Got to declare my angle. I use loads of free software, including security. I have used AVG, ZoneAlarm, Asquared and SpyBot Search and Destroy for the best part of seven years.

I have no idea whether any of these do well in tests but I have had only one nasty in that time and that was my fault (many years ago I clicked "Yes" without looking carefully enough). From my point of view these work, so why would I pay for security?

Having said that, I make sure the security progs are kept updated, and run regularly. I am also very vigiliant about how I use the machine. If I don't know where the email is from, it gets ditched and I know that my bank will not ask me for details via an email, and sometimes I run an online scanner, like FSecure, as an extra check.

As already said the user is the most important factor and perhaps people who want their PCs sorted out may be inexperienced users and are not using the software correctly.

Dave
 
Malwarebytes is very good at sorting out stuff other program miss

If you have problems installing it, download it to another pc then load to the infected machine it from a flash drive and rename the exe file to fool the virus
 
Tringa said:
I think the "paid for" versus "free" security is more complicated than one is good and the other is not.

Got to declare my angle. I use loads of free software, including security. I have used AVG, ZoneAlarm, Asquared and SpyBot Search and Destroy for the best part of seven years.

I have no idea whether any of these do well in tests but I have had only one nasty in that time and that was my fault (many years ago I clicked "Yes" without looking carefully enough). From my point of view these work, so why would I pay for security?

Having said that, I make sure the security progs are kept updated, and run regularly. I am also very vigiliant about how I use the machine. If I don't know where the email is from, it gets ditched and I know that my bank will not ask me for details via an email, and sometimes I run an online scanner, like FSecure, as an extra check.

As already said the user is the most important factor and perhaps people who want their PCs sorted out may be inexperienced users and are not using the software correctly.

Dave
Click to expand...

My neighbour had 8 viruses on his PC recently. None were detected by Norton.
I have run AVG free editions for 10 years and never had an infection, but it has blocked a few in it's time.
A lot of the paid for versions are only better than their free counterparts because they may give hourly updates.
 
AFC said:
Adey can you please explain to me my people are still coming to me with virus ridden machines while using these free programs.
Click to expand...

because theyre stupid and click on stuff they shouldnt? thats where my money would go, and certainly not on buying norton..

last time i read up on av detection rates (couple of months ago when i was writing an av proposal for work) most of the top 10 were free av packages.

as said previously try MSE (scored better than norton last i looked) or avast (again better score) and spybot or malwarebytes.
 
AFC said:
Adey can you please explain to me my people are still coming to me with virus ridden machines while using these free programs.

They are useless.
Click to expand...

Eh? Most of the free anti-virus/malware programs out there knock spots off of the commercial offerings. Malwarebytes and Superantispyware are both well respected and competent programs. I'd suggest that you tell your clients to a) steer well away from porn/warez sites and b) check their systems more often. ;)

I'd ditch AVG though, and go with either Avira or Avast. :cool:
 
tijuana taxi said:
Malwarebytes is very good at sorting out stuff other program miss

If you have problems installing it, download it to another pc then load to the infected machine it from a flash drive and rename the exe file to fool the virus
Click to expand...

Sorted out my Trojan problem for me when everything else failed (including my paid for programme...)
 
I used Norton for years but 3 years ago binned it and went to Kaspersky. Recently they upped the price so I've installed AVG.

On my laptop I've run AVG for 5 years and still have no problems.

Then again I don't use Bittorents, and definately not Limewire the two things youngsters like to use and are almost guarentee'd to download trojans. I've even had a bloke at work who thinks he's great and runs only Norton download a program that destroyed his external WII drive.

Many people still swear by Norton and for them I say use it and be happy. I'll stick to Kaspersky and AVG :D
 
Avast seems to work well .... and it's free! ... or at least the free version is ;)
 
"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit"

:D

seriously though, click "start" then run and type in: msconfig (click OK)

have a look through "startup" and if theres anything in there that looks iffy let us know and we can advise :)
 
I've been using Spyware Doctor , from PC Tools. I haven't had a problem with spyware or viruses since I first bought it to rid my system of an otherwise unremoveable virus, some years back. The PC Tools forum and staff are very helpful too.

For a belts and braces approach, I occasionally run Malwarebytes too although it never finds anything after Spyware Doctor has done it's stuff.
 
I installed and run a scan through Malwarebytes and it has found issues. I pop up box tells me to check the log to see the issues but i need to OK the pop up box first and this then closes the Malwarebytes program. I run a scan again and it finds the same amount of issues so it hasnt deletd or dealt with them--how do i fix this?
 
Open the program and you should have lots of tabs at the top, can't remember if its logs or quarantine you want, think its quarantine
Anyway one of them will give you an option to delete the nasties, don't worry its not one of those find a million things and now pay 30 quid to get rid of them type programs

All you need will be there and should rid your laptop of the offending trojans or whatever
 
tijuana taxi said:
Open the program and you should have lots of tabs at the top, can't remember if its logs or quarantine you want, think its quarantine
Anyway one of them will give you an option to delete the nasties, don't worry its not one of those find a million things and now pay 30 quid to get rid of them type programs

All you need will be there and should rid your laptop of the offending trojans or whatever
Click to expand...

I open the program and i want to scan, i do the scan so the program can find the issues. I cant scan and then go to logs or quarantine.

So i open program then what should i do?????
 
It will already have found the issues from the scans you have already undertaken twice, look in the logs or quarantine as explained above

No need to keep scanning, just delete them and all should be well again
 
When i scan and then it finishes i get the box/popup telling me scan is complete and to hit the " Show results " button. I need to close the popup box first and when i do this it closes the program down. I restart and look at the log and quarantine tabs and there is nothing in them--completely empty. If i do another scan it finds the same qty of faults as the previous scan whic makes me think its not dealing with them.
 
Last edited:
Just remembered, click ok when the box says scan complete,you need to be on full screen or maybe scroll down/across then at the bottom right there will be a tab that says show results then go from there to delete by checking the box against the nasties
Restart the computer and all should be right with the world

Hope that helps Mark
 
Last edited:
No problem, started to annoy me why it wouldn't work, hope it cleared some of the crap out
Another good freebie is CCleaner from here http://www.piriform.com/ gets rid of old rubbish from the registry especially left over bits from uninstalls
 
2blue4u has given spot on advise in post #1 - but unfortunately the best advise is usually the last thing you want to hear

a format is the only way to go in these situation - read up on 0 day vulnerabilities and then make your mind up on how effective these quick fix tools will be against removing them, after running them your PC may look fixed, but how will you know if it actually is, the truth is these tools are only marginally more effective than crossing your fingers and hoping for the best?
 
I wouldn't log on to my online banking with a computer I knew to have had a virus infection without a format and re-install.

I certainly wouldn't put any more stock in paid for anti-virus versus ad-supported. No package picks up everything. The only way to stay clean is to not run any software that hasn't come from a trusted source, and make sure Windows Update is set to automatically install critical updates. You'd be very unlucky to pick up a drive-by from your web browser unless you were visiting dubious websites.
 
Karlos said:
2blue4u has given spot on advise in post #1 - but unfortunately the best advise is usually the last thing you want to hear

a format is the only way to go in these situation - read up on 0 day vulnerabilities and then make your mind up on how effective these quick fix tools will be against removing them, after running them your PC may look fixed, but how will you know if it actually is, the truth is these tools are only marginally more effective than crossing your fingers and hoping for the best?
Click to expand...

And I thought I was paranoid ;):p

Zero day exploits are pretty rare and quickly caught, fixed and added to the databases for the most part. I'd say that your approach was overkill.

Scanning with known good anti-malware software is perfectly adequate.
 
This is slightly OT, but I wonder if anyone can offer suggestions?

I'm running Windows 7, 64 bit, on a Sony Vaio. It seemed pretty bulletproof until I moved from SA to the UK a couple of months ago, but I'm having problems now. The machine periodically freezes, for no apparent reason, and the insertion point jumps randomly in Word 2007 every now and again.

I've done a bit of internet research and these issues seem to be quite commonly reported, with many people blaming a Microsoft bug - possibly in one of the automatic update downloads. There are suggested solutions online, but some of these involve editing the registry and none are reported to be 100% successful.

Microsoft security is enabled and I'm running Avast. I also run Ad-Aware and CCleaner periodically. Is a reformat the only option here?
 
neil_g said:
are you sure its not a mouse issue? wouldnt be the first time ive seen the mouse freezing and or jumping due to a dead/dying touchpad..
Click to expand...

I don't think so. The machine is only a few months old, which doesn't necessarily preclude this, but it seems to be quite a common problem judging by the discussions on the internet. I did download and install TouchFreeze which helped, but didn't eliminate the problem. This wouldn't explain why the machine is freezing either, or would it? Sorry, I'm comfortable with computers - when they work - but I'm not very technical.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top