Serious computer virus help!!!!

[catnapper]

Hubby opened an email today....... from someone he didn't know.... and it unleashed a mass of destruction on my poor widdle computer.

Lets just say, we have images we would prefer not to look at. :rolleyes: It keeps popping up, I keep getting sound bites from commercials... Target, Duracel, etc. Its NOT pretty. It has infected my computer so that I can't do a system restore and it won't let me update or reinstall my virus protection. The only thing it let me do is run a spyware scan, which did nothing to help the matter.

I think there's a way to find out what programs are running and disable them. I have no idea what to do.... I know about Control/Alt/Delete to get to running programs, but what ones do I need? How do I know which ones might be the viruses? and how do I keep them from starting up on their own again?

UGH -- I want to wring hubby's neck. :mad: He KNOWS better. :rolleyes:

Help help help!!!!

[Husky_mom]

it really depends on whic programs youa re using.. but maybe if you post a copy here we might say.."hey, that´s not familiar to us" so unless you have a program running that it may be it..

can u get S&D.. search and destroy.. you can get it free..

[Karen]

You may need serious help, there's nothing we can do from here, sadly. I'd take it somewhere tomorrow morning, and have a professional look at it.

[catnapper]

Unfortunately, the computer is not worth the cost of repair. :( Its gotta be 6 years old. I broke our new one a couple months ago when I dropped it! :eek:

Can I kill hubby? It'll be much faster! :p

[Lady's Human]

It's probably malware as opposed to a virus, and if I remember correctly the animal in question is a pain in the tail to remove.

Unless you have a ton of patience, find a local computer store and talk to them. It's almost impossible to diagnose without seeing exactly what the comp is doing, and removals are malware/virus specific procedures.

[catnapper]

Or, I could just leave it on the computer and let hubby deal with the mess he made! My laptop should be back from repair any day now. Bwahahahahahaha

Though, sitting here, in a quiet room, and then hearing a loud commercial come from nowhere is quite interesting.

[Moesha]

Here is a link (http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/)to Panda's online virus scan. It is free, although it can take a long time to scan. It will clean some things for free, and then it will let you know of other things, like cookies, that may have infected the computer. That may give you an idea of what exactly you're working with.

[blue]

If you still have internet access do what Husky_Mom said and download, install, and scan with Spybot S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html), Malwarebytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php) would also be good.

One of the reasons I like Avast is it warns you before anything gets installed when downloading anything hinky.

[catnapper]

Here is a link (http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/)to Panda's online virus scan. It is free, although it can take a long time to scan. It will clean some things for free, and then it will let you know of other things, like cookies, that may have infected the computer. That may give you an idea of what exactly you're working with.

I tried panda on this computer years ago and it acted like a virus. I actually PAID for that version of Panda too. :o

I think I got it down to a virus called "Malware Defense" I uninstalled it out of the programs add/remove box, but its still showing up in the programs file. Hey, since I got it removed from the add/remove linup, I at least haven't had any unwanted pop-ups. The problem now is that every google search won't let me view the results, so I don't know how to competely remove this virus.

I have the feeling there's at least one other vrus, but thats the one I've found.

Also, with updating my McAfee, it said to uninstall Spybot. I did that in the add/remove box too, but its still showing in my programs folder. It won't let me manually remove it because it says a part of it is in use. :confused: ANNNNNDDDD, McAfe won't let me reinstall a new version while the spybot is still on the computer. Waaaahhhhhhhh.

[Hellow]

As I always say, install Linux.

Although, I could help, but you have to get the exact name of the virus. There are many that do things like what you stated.

[Freedom]

Do you have your original disks? It will take a few hours, but you can just reload everything to the day you bought the computer. Then, it will take a few days/weeks for all the automatic updates to go through (6 YEARS of them!)

I had to use the restore disks on my tower this past summer, I messed it up big time.

MAKE SURE you copy any photos, Word and Excel files and the like first as they will be lost.

[blue]

Although, I could help, but you have to get the exact name of the virus. There are many that do things like what you stated.

There are also viruses that can get around the .exe of many commercial anti-virus programs.

Malware Deffense is the virus. From what Ive been reading Avast can catch it and remove it.

[Catty1]

Shut off computer. Restart. Press F8 repeatedly to go into Safe Mode.

You will see a list of options - choose Safe Mode with Networking.

After you get in there, go to www.malwarebytes.org and download the free version (blue icon).

While it is updating and loading it will seem to disappear for a minute or so, but just wait.

Do the short scan first. This could take 8 minutes or 40 minutes, depending. It will let you know when it is done.

Tell it to Remove everything. It will want to restart the computer. Do that. Run it again if need be.

Rogue Spyware is a royal ******* to get out! If you have your system (Windows XP or whatever) disc, back up your documents and pictures and reinstall it.

GOOD LUCK!

NAUGHTY HUBBY! :p

[Lady's Human]

*@#$&^(!@*&$^!*@$ Malware defense.

I've had that before, once on my laptop (Thanks, DoD....:p) and a couple times on other systems.

It is a PITA to remove. Install malwarebytes, after installation distonnect the comp from the net, run until it says your system is clean, (sometimes takes 2-3 times), run S+D until it comes up with no threats, run the shield on S+D, and then beat whoever opened the email repeatedly about the head and shoulders.

[Marty]

Sorry I just got here and don't know if this is your problem but I received this in my email today...

Hi All,

I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!
I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.

It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

[kokopup]

Part sent by Marty

Hi All,

I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!
I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.

It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.
Reply With Quote


This is an email that in some form has been around since 2001. It has been sent out with various themes but always the Key give away "Zero Sector". It is a fraud.

The malware threat is real but this email has nothing to do with catnappers problem. Her problem is not related to her zero sector.

[Catty1]

Yep. You meant well, Marty, but emails like that are hoaxes. Google the subject line on them and you will see a lot of search results on hoax websites.

Three clues that emails are hoaxes:

1. Using many CAPITAL LETTERS in case the reader CAN'T READ. ;)

2. "Send this to all your friends!" lol

3. "Checking Snopes and it is for real" - the latest line in many such emails. Yeah, it IS for real - a real hoax!

[smokey the elder]

I had a malware at work and they used Malwarebytes to get rid of it. The malware was a popup that breached the popup blocker, and was the one that said something like "You have 104 trojans and 523 viruses on your machine". Now in nearly 7 years here I've had maybe one or two real viruses, so I smelled fish and contacted IT. They sent me Malwarebytes and had me install it and it cleaned up the program.

[StaffyDaddy]

McAfee is a resource goblin... On every computer Ive had it causes lag time, even on one's ive optimized. It's my personal preference, but I use Mozilla Firefox as my browser (it does not store personal info and scans any attachments) along with Kaspersky Internet Suite. It is one of the top rated anti virus programs, and is a one stop deal. No need for running multiple programs. It's fast, effective and even has a couple of features that others dont. Not to mention it's easy on the resources and won't slow your computer.

Last year I had a desktop that got infected, and it got so bad it shut my hard drive down. The computer wouldn't even turn on. Now your computer may not be worth repairing, but perhaps you have some valuable files on it, so they( computer repair shop) can actually extract files onto a disk for you, or even a new computer or external hardrive. Then you can buy another one and protect it from the start. Kaspersky is the way to go. It's on our work computers in all four stores and every employees personal computers at home