No Safe Mode, Indestructible Viruses

[ChasesGrandpa]

I am really frustrated! I am trying to fix my daughter’s PC. It is an E-Machines unit. They ship with IRC enabled. She did not have any virus protection, or not enough.

When I got it, it would not function except to display a “security center” window saying a virus was detected and click on this link. I removed the disk and installed it in my PC as the second, non-booting disk. I used Norton Symantic Endpoint Protection to remove about 10,000 risks.

I reinstalled the disk in my daughter’s PC, but it would not run exe files. It would display a window prompting for an application to open the program. Regedit.exe was no help. I found an exefix.com program to fix that.

So I turned off system restore and ran Norton, Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and Registry Repair Wizard 2009 multiple times. I disabled Norton when running the MS and MB scans.

I have never been able to use the safe mode. I press F8 and get an options menu. If I select anything except Normal boot, it lists a lot of file names, the screen goes blank, I get the E-Machines splash screen, then “We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully.” The only choice that “works” is the normal boot.

The more I work, the less progress I seem to make. Now my 2 USB flash drives don’t work in her PC. So I try looking at the device manager, but it is only a blank white window. Fortunately, the SD card works. Norton no longer responds to requests for a quick or a full scan. And I can’t install or uninstall Norton because the “Windows installer service could not be accessed”.

Thanks for reading my post. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[BadBigBen]

In this case, I would go ahead and do a fresh install, as it seems that the OS is scrambled and damaged too much...

so hook up the drive again to your PC, get the personal data off of it, then install it again in your daughters PC and do a clean install...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[ChasesGrandpa]

I was afraid that I would have to do that. My daughter says she does not have the install disks. But the most important part is the data and, like you said, I can get that.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[kjv1611]

As for the install disk, if you have another with the same OS, you may be able to use that to restore. You might be able, even, to use another OEM install disk other than eMachine, if it's just the OS, and plug in the Serial Number from off your daughter's PC.

If that won't work, or if not available, or you don't' want to try it, then you could also purchase the original restore disks from eMachines..... and you may be able to find them through a 3rd party vendor for less.. say around $15 or $20.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[ChasesGrandpa]

I now see that I was a little too quick to disable services. I re-enabled plug and play. Now the USB memory stick and Device Manager work. I used HijackThis to remove a suspicious registry key and now Norton works. I am scanning now (risks found so far: 0).

Safe Mode still does not work.

 

[kjv1611]

Well, if you're gonna trudge through cleaning it up instead of a reinstall, then I suggest you try a bootable scanner. One that I've used that's good if you can get it to run is DrWeb CureIt (live CD). I'm sure BadBigBen would recommend the same:

http://www.freedrweb.com/livecd/

The download link is near the bottom of the page. Otherwise, just follow the instructions for downloading and burning it to disk.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[goombawaho]

OR

Rescue Wizard CD from Avira - bootable, scans and cleans

http://www.free-av.com/en/products/12/avira_antivir_rescue_system.html

 

[2ffat]

I would use both. What one misses the other may catch. I also have a beta of Helix but that is no longer available but the CD is GREAT!


James P. Cottingham
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]