Nasty one.. Any ideas?

giles337 · Post by **giles337** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:30 pm

Upon switching on my computer today, everything seemed fine. When I got to the Windows XP logon screen, and entered my password, however, everything went bad. The system took many times longer than usual to log me on. It finally did, and I attempted to connect to the internet. No long. My dialer program loaded, but upon pressing the connect button, nothing happened. Odd, I though, so I tried to open mozilla, and got a message saying "Not enough memory to run, Windows Media Player will now close," [From a plugin that links WMP with Mozilla.]

The same error occurs running windows media player alone, and any other program I try and run, simply doesn't. I get nothing with half of what I try and run, and the problem is simpl getting worse. Now I don't even get a start bar when I log on. System Restore tells me it is "Unable to run" along with all other utilities that might shed light. I'm quite simply stumped. Anyone exerienced similar?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:44 pm

I had a similar problem last Spring....

It turned out my system had been hijacked...
After trying everything possible, I finally ended up replacing my hard drive....

Not a fun experience, I hope this isn't your problem

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 1:25 am

Ouch, does sound like a bit of a bugger. Do the usual of running anti-virus software, and anti-malware programs. If that doesn't work, make sure that it is infact a software related program, rather than the possibility of your RAM perhaps frying.

munna · Post by **munna** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 4:28 pm

By using Task Manager check your CPU and PF Usages, if the CPU usage is too high you may have spyware/virus problem. What's about your PF usages is it greater than the amount of your RAM.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:33 pm

Hopefully he can open up his task manager...
When the hijacking spyware had control of my computer I wasn't able to access it....

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:43 pm

I'd definitely suggest a good virus checker and spy checker. Most of the first are commercial, but Ad-Aware from Lavasoft is an excellent anti-spyware program that has a freeware version.

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 2:23 am

Here's another idea to do, I've had to use it before.

Start -> Run -> 'msconfig'.

From there you can access your startup programs, and if you see something suspicious, you can stop it opening on startup, and that could stop the program.

If it won't let you do that, there is another way that I've done once, but that requires programming and some other difficult stuff, so it's not worth going there.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:15 am

If you don't already have an anti-virus programme, Avast is excellent, and it's free .
http://www.avast.com

You could also download Stinger, a very good removal tool from Mcafee that routs out a whole nest of different viruses.
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=stinger

I have found that Ad-Aware is good, but it doesn't get everything, especially if you have been deluged with the nastiest of the nasty..

Counterspy, which I have found to be quite a lot better than Ad-Aware, offers a fully functional trial version, which is good for 15 days.
So you could also download that, and use the trial period to fully clean out your machine.
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/CounterSpy.cfm

And to help keep crap from getting onto your computer in the first place, I highly recommend Spyware Blaster, which is also freeware.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:04 pm

Good selections, DW. I'd add Spybot to that list. I haven't tried Counterspy, but both Spybot and Ad-Aware are free, and excellent. Taken together, they catch everything nasty that gets picked up on the bottom of your shoe as you walk the Web.

Grimar · Post by **Grimar** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:08 pm

if you are not able to open task manager, this is what you have to do. go into your windows folder, then continue to the win32 folder. it may be hidden!

now, in there, find the task manager. copy it, and run the copy. it will then work!

from the task manager, end all procceces that are not standard! then run anti virus, anti spyware etc...

i will also suggest a antispyware program.. http://www.microsoft.com and DL "microsoft defender" or something like that

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:19 pm

Good point Fable; used in conjunction with one another Spybot and Ad Aware do a great job!

Regarding CounterSpy. It is the only commercial antispy product worth paying for, IMO. It is excellent software, and comes at a very attractive $20 USD, which is significantly lower than the competition.
What I particularly like is that their trial version both detects and removes spyware, so you can properly try them out.

Most of the others give you "free" scans that strangely enough.. find all kinds of junk on your computer, and then tell you to buy their product if you want to actually remove it. And once you do buy it, and run a scan, all of that supposed spyware on your computer no longer seems to be present..

That hasn't happened to me personally, (or, at least, I haven't been conned into falling for it after doing a scan) but I've read all kinds of reviews criticizing brands like Xoft and Spyware Doctor for the practice. I'm amazed they're able to get away with it... but that's another thread.

giles337 · Post by **giles337** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 2:14 pm

I'm behind a Zone Alarm firewall, so I'm pretty sure I haven't let something hugely nasty in. Hijack!This, Spybot search and destroy, and adware all drew blanks, so I have settled for offloading anything important onto a removable hard drive, and am currently reinstalling XP on my machine. If this doesn't solve it, I'm not sure what I'll do. Sit in a corner and cry, probably

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:51 am

@Grimar: Wow, that's great, I'll have to remember that one. Just an update on it, for Windows XP, it's system 32 folder... or at least for me it is.

@Giles: Just be careful. If you have copied the things off your hardrive, they could be infected. As such, once you reinstall windows, load up on security, have it on full alert, and then, and only then, try and get the data back across.

Malta Soron · Post by **Malta Soron** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 11:35 am

Scanning the data is the first thing to do when you connect the external HD.