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possible virus, any info?
Not on my pc…. thank god. But on my mother in laws!!!!! 😛
Story so far…..
PC wouldn’t boot up so started it with the windows disc in to repair anything. Finally got into it and ran McAfee – 93 trojans and 1 virus found. Cleared the lot and ran the Uninstaller Pro program Dave mentioned before to clean up the registry etc. Everything was fine until it connected to broadband, then it started to send out loads of nonsense emails!!!!!! Now were back to it not booting up again.
Sounds to me like there’s a virus McAfee didn’t pick up.
Any suggestions? -
16 Replies
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Hi Marcella….McAfee not picking up virus’ isn’t uncommon…To be honest, each antivirus program out there has it’s pros and cons with regard to them finding specific viruses. It all depends on users submitting viruses for analysis….It might be a new (ish) virus to which there is no fix…..you didn’t catch the name of it did you?
Adam
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No, no name Adam. Just clutching at straws here….! 😕
I’ll see if I can get some other anti virus software and install and run that too – might pick up something McAfee missed! -
Set your firewall up temporarily to block outlook or outlook express from acessing the internet and get some of the online scanners to have a scan
It isn’t a wise move to have more than one anti virus package on your computer.
I would try hijack this it should certainly see some thing download for free and run it ave a gander at the forums there you might find something there.
As said above even the best antivirus programe plays catch up.Goop
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Goop,
there’s no details in Outlook. Her email is all on line with BT…. 😕 Anyway …. just off now to go up and have another look at it. I may need vodka upon my return! 😮
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quote Marcella:I may need vodka upon my return! 😮another good excuse :lol1: :lol1:
nik
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[geek mode]
Prepare to ditch Mcafee – it’s not that great….Spend £10 / $20 and buy Zonealarms Anti virus (and firewall), it’s ‘marvellous’. For a 1 year subscription. I run it at home but Sophos (£"chi-ching") at work. Never had a virus intrusion for two years – runs in the background and a LOT faster than Norton ("joke in a box").
Run full scans & it’ll do it’s stuff….
If you’re not familiar with Zonelabs / zonealarms, they do great FREE firewall software (you grant permissions to what you want – not complicated).
Bottom LEFT of this page – it’s ALL you’ll need.
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp[/geek mode]
Hope this goes smoother….
You mention it’s not booting – when / where is it getting ‘stuck’. At the POST (black screen – technical stuff), or as it enters Windows…
Might be a re-install to repair any corrupted files (does leaves data intact) – but gives mixed results 🙄
Dave
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OK Geek man, here goes……
just back in. Not looking good. When I said ‘didn’t boot up’ I meant, black screen, detect ide drive, secondary master dvd ……. XXXXXX no more! As bad as that. Got it going with a windows repair ……. again. But now the broadband won’t sync!!!!!! Possibly a BT fault rather than the pc tho ….. maybe!
Ran the anti virus software whilst in safe mode but still found nothing. There’s definitely still something on it, I’m sure.
I’ll have a look for the software you’ve just mentioned and give that a go tomorrow. ANYTHING is worth a try!!!!!!!!Nik – my excuses only get better eh!!!! Anyway didn’t have to wait til I came home, the in laws fed me brandy while I was there! *drink*
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quote Marcella:Nik – my excuses only get better eh!!!! Anyway didn’t have to wait til I came home, the in laws fed me brandy while I was there! *drink*
yep they sure do…… 😀 and i bet the inlaws were standing at the front door with a brandy ready waiting for you :yes1:
shit heres marcella coming hurry up and get the bloody bottle out
nik
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I find that odd! The email viruses usually exploit outlook and outlook express….I’m too tired to think straight, but I don’t think the viruses are clever enough to configure outlook or outlook express to send out mail….maybe it’s something else? I’ll have a think about it… 🙂
Adam
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zone lab and AVG (full versions) do it for me, but best thing to invest in is a router with a built in firewall whether you have a network or not.
Peter
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quote Marcella:…..Ran the anti virus software whilst in safe mode but still found nothing. There’s definitely still something on it, I’m sure.
I’ll have a look for the software you’ve just mentioned and give that a go tomorrow. ANYTHING is worth a try!!!!!!!! ……….Not unusual that!! – Some anti-virus (eg. Norton) rarely finds much if it’s well hidden…or CLAIMS to delete it – only to reappear a couple of boots later.
If ANYTHING is worth a try, and you’ve had enough – save off any data she might want to keep (USB Mem stick), and make a note of any and all passwords & usernames – and REALLY make sure you have the drivers for EVERYTHING, especially the broadband router!!. – Start again – XP reinstall – follow prompts for format etc.
There ARE ways of starting MUCH cleaner than that – but without running FDISK or a data overwrite program, it should suffice for a basic (non-boot sector) virus.
The other way is to create a SECOND XP operating system on the same PC – and choose the new one on boot up, the old files will still be visible (with a bit of digging) and you can clean to your hearts content. I’d only do this as a stop-gap to retrieve data….after that, the "other Dave’s" advice – back-up, start again…..
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Back up and start again is fine, but some viruses, trojans etc, may be present in your data, so when you re instate your data you may have the same problem 😥
Peter
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i would turn the system restore off when doing a virus/trojan scan…as its the wee blighters fav place……. 😀
nik
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hmm… yeah could be a virus mucking around with the boot… but you said
XXXXXX no more
what was the real message? or a freeze?
1: Virus has wiped out the boot sector… I hardly hear of these problems these days
2: Trojan virus spyware could have been ran on computer, normally email trigger.. pain in the arse.
3: Faulty Hard drive, heat got to it? is it ticking like a time bomb? or booting smoothly, is windows juddery?
4: Any smoke? 😮 -
Set your dog on it Marcella :lol1:
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Dave (Rowland!) starts to boot up then screen goes blank with ‘no signal input’ message. No smoke :lol1:
BUT…. got around that again last night , also started to back up everything just in case a format is on the cards 😕Nik – turned the system restore off too. John is going up today again and he’s going to delete the previous restore files just in case anything is remaining in there.
Lowery – you’re a cheeky bugger! 😀
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