I think I have a virus. What do I do?

[Ridders]

I am running Windows XP Professional, 512MB DDR, 80GB hard drive & AMD Athlon 2400. Norton antivirus running (skipped the last update for 5 days).

I do not have AdAware, CWShredder or Spyware active.

The problems I have experiened are;

- Can't use any software

- Can't download any software

- IE running slowly

- Can't save any pages to favourites on IE

- PC hangs on IE pages & sometimes with control panel

- Programs not responding

- Can't print

- Reporting rundll32.exe errors

After searching for help, I have tried (with no joy);

- Searching for rundll32.exe file (found)

- Scanning PC for virus using Norton (it got stuck after 10 hours of scanning)

- Scanning for virus using Trend. It wouldn't work.

- Restoring to an older date

- Running in Safe Mode

- Clean boot

- Downloading fixes (SPyware, CWShredder, AdAware) but I can't download anything

I do not have the original copy of Windows as I bought the PC second hand.

So, I cant run the disc over the top.

It seems to me that I may have a virus.

What do I do?

I think I need to buy an original copy of Windows (XP Home & no Professional as Professional seems overpriced & PC is only used for home use).

How do I save my films, pictures & music to a disc if I can't run my CD creator software? Also, how do I save things to disc as a compressed file (i.e save several music albums or films to one disc). Is this called a data CD?

How do I wipe my computer clean so I can load a new OS?

 

[jrbarnett]

Run HijackThis on your PC and post a log file here.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

John

 

[2ffat]

Can you run MSCONFIG?. Go to Start->Run and type MSCONFIG. Also have you tried using task manager to see what running?


James P. Cottingham

^{There's no place like 127.0.0.1.
There's no place like 127.0.0.1.}

 

[Ridders]

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/index.cfm?go=discuss.thread&threadid=131843&forumid=1

 

[philote]

Try going to

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

and running their free online virus scan to see if it picks up anything.

If that doesn't work, get a copy of the XP Home CD and do a "repair install" by booting from the CD. You can find instructions on how to do this by searching for "windows xp repair install". This won't overwrite any of your personal files but will hopefully fix your problems enough so that you can at least backup your files.