Computer Help Needed

[fganger]

HELP! HELP! HELP!

I have a computer question, which I dearly hope one of you guys can assist in. The school secretary has an older H.P. running Windows 2000. She brought it to me to fix. It had just ran slower and slower until if finally stopped.

She had a virus program on it, which I ran. It found about 300 malicious programs. When I told the program to erase them, I found out that it was a trial program and one had to sign up on the Internet to fully activate it. The problem is that the computer is so slow that it is not able to connect to the Internet.

Do you guys know of a virus killer program, which one can buy on a CD and use, without needing the Internet? Is there a better way to do this?

Now just speak slowly, use small words, and keep it simple. :icon_redface:

Frank

[DarthRider]

I asked one of our IT gurus the same question...he said the answer is "MAC".
Smart ass.

Our new member Pistol probably has some ideas...he's a computer whizz (non-professional).

Dave

[arkline]

Frank,

If you have even the slightest network connectivity, you could run Housecall:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

It might help the situation. It is imperative that you/she/the school purchase a reputable anti-virus package. No ifs, and, buts, or whatevers.

You should be able to order something over the phone from here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832108274

Dave,

I love that Mac remark everytime I hear it. News was all over for the last couple of days how it only took 30 minutes to hack the latest and greatest OS X.

I say, ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for anyone who isn't taking minimum precautions....

[HiOSilver]

Frank,

You can download a program and burn it to CD for them. The inexpensive ones I've seen are shareware (I doubt you'll find freeware), just make sure the one you select doesn't require an internet connect to check for pattern updates before it will run (you can try it on your own system to find out). Here's an example of one I found by searching - I've never used it (but this site is well respected): Tucows (http://www.tucows.com/preview/421203) (Which I think stands for "The Ultimate Collection Of Windows Shareware"):)

Good luck!

[fganger]

On behalf of Maria, I wish to thank all of you for your help. I did download a program for her and burn it to a CD, but after the 12 hours to load it on her machine, it asked for an Internet connection. GASP!


I will try the download/burn CD idea again and see if that works.:058: I did not check to see if it would run on my Windows machine without an Internet connection.:icon_redface:

I like the Mac idea myself, but our district does not pay enough for her to afford one.

If I run into problems, I'll be back.:)

Frank

[Ed K]

Hey Frank,

Is it spyware or viral?

If its spyware, "Ad-Aware SE" is fast, good and cheap (free). You can download and should be able to burn it as well to a CD.

[fganger]

Ed,

It appears to be a mixture of both. Maria asked me to try and retrieve some of her files so there would be a backup, just in case. She wanted me to try and save her music files and some "Money" programs. I moved them to my portable hard drive. Then, just in case, I ran a virus program on my portable and picked up 10 "low threat" virus files.

To make it worse, Maria has two children who are in their early-teens. If they are like my two - gasp!:104: Almost every "free" program they want to go to, has adware packaged along with it.

I will try all of this. I really can't thank all of you enough.:eusa_clap:

Frank

[popgazer]

Frank,

Here' what I would do.

1- Restart the computer
2- press key "F8" while the compter is still in bios test,
before the windows splash screen shows up.
You will get a text menu. Something like:
o Windows
o Windows in Safe mode
o Windows in Safe mode with networking
3- Select "Safe mode with networking"

Now you have a system running in safe mode, which means system applications only are running in the background (which exludes viruses). You can now access the internet will full speed.

Download your software, and install it while still in safe mode. Run the software immediately and do all the cleaning.

However, the software may want to restart the computer following installation. In that case restart the computer, then, and repeat steps 1-3 so you can go back to safe mode with networking. And run the newly installed software.
It is generally preferable to run an antivirus in safe mode. Your network connection will be up, in case the software needs to retrieve updates etc.
After the cleaning is done, you shoud be able to restart as normal and have the system back to normal function.

Another, issue: Viruses and all kind of malware attach themselves to internet explorer (IE), and that's how they get launched whenever you try to access the internet. Try a different browser like Firefox. see http://www.mozilla.com

Hope this helps. If not, I can show you how to re-format the drive and install Linux.

[Promethean]

Another possibility would be to attach her hard drive to yours as a slave and run the antivirus from your machine on the slave drive to clean the virii. This poses a higher risk to you since now your data can be corrupted too. Just a thought though.

[fganger]

Good god, you guys are unbelievable. Why didn't I ask here before I tried to help her? Maria brought in her computer to me a couple of months ago and I did what I could for about a week. Christmas break was upon us, so she took it back with the intention of having someone else do it for her. No luck in that for her.

I like the idea of the “safe mode” and then connect idea and the “slave” idea. For the slave method, how would I connect her hard drive? I have a couple of CPU's which are set aside in my “parts” bin, which could pick up anything and it would not matter. For that matter, could the virus program be put on a clean, portable hard drive?

If so, I could then use it to scan a computer, which is already connected to the Internet. If I then used the same portable to scan hers, would it need/want to connect again?

I also thought of a “last resort” action, and that would be to initialize her drive and reinstall her programs. Any thoughts on this action? Along that line, does anyone here have a used hard drive which I could exchange with Maria's?

And thank you all for you help and ideas, PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING. I really need all the help I can get on this.

[supermotoC]

Then when that's all done, tell her to go & buy a Mac mini for $500. Then take a hammer to that PC. She can use any USB mouse & any USB keyboard she wants, and the monitor she already has. Apple computers (Macs) have too small of a market share to piss off enough programmers to bother to write virus' for the OS. Plus, no money goes to Bill Gates.

[Promethean]

Frank,
Let's see. It's been a while since I had to do this...so some details may be inaccurate.

If you open up your machine, you'll find a couple of connections going to the hard drive from the motherboard....one is the power supply and the other would be the data cable. The data cable should be labelled as to the disk that is the master and the one that is the slave.

Before connecting the secondary hard drive, verify that the jumpers are set to make this drive a slave.

Connect the power supply and the secondary drive.

Start the machine & force the slave/secondary drive to be recognized through the BIOS.

Boot into Windows.

Run your antivirus program with the secondary disk as target.

That should do it.

Do let me know if you have questions.

Oh! And yes, your primary disk should have an Operating System loaded on it (with an AV program). :)




Good god, you guys are unbelievable. Why didn't I ask here before I tried to help her? Maria brought in her computer to me a couple of months ago and I did what I could for about a week. Christmas break was upon us, so she took it back with the intention of having someone else do it for her. No luck in that for her.

I like the idea of the “safe mode” and then connect idea and the “slave” idea. For the slave method, how would I connect her hard drive? I have a couple of CPU's which are set aside in my “parts” bin, which could pick up anything and it would not matter. For that matter, could the virus program be put on a clean, portable hard drive?

If so, I could then use it to scan a computer, which is already connected to the Internet. If I then used the same portable to scan hers, would it need/want to connect again?

I also thought of a “last resort” action, and that would be to initialize her drive and reinstall her programs. Any thoughts on this action? Along that line, does anyone here have a used hard drive which I could exchange with Maria's?

And thank you all for you help and ideas, PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING. I really need all the help I can get on this.

[popgazer]

I would start by trying to disbale processes that highjack the network connections. Apparently the computer starts just fine, it is just too damn slow!

If you are familiar with tweaking the registery: run regedit
The go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Microsoft>Internet Explorer>Search

Remove entries such as "customizesearch" and "searchasistant"

Then go to :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Microsoft>Windows>Current Version>RunOnce
Remove any entries that do not look legit. Those would be names of programs that are not part of the programs that appear in the start menu.
Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Microsoft>Windows>Current Version>RunOnceEx

Repeat as above.

Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Microsoft>Windows>Current Version>ShellServiceObjectDelayLoad
and repeat the steps above.

Start the "Task Manager" and look at the running processes. Some are fairly familiar e.g. lsass.exe, svchost.exe etc.
See if you see one that looks suspicious e.g. f234xf.exe
Some of these will restart themselves right after you kill them, sometimes with a different name. So there is a bit of cat and mouse game while you ae doing this.
Usually asa you kill the memory/network hog, the computer will speed up.
BTW, if you see a running process and you are not sure, use another computer to goole the name exacly as you see it. You will immediately find out whether that process is legit or not.

BTW, the attached-drive approached should work to remove/clean malware. But i wonder whether the AV checks and fixes the registery on the slave drive !!
Any one knows for sure ?? If it does I would recommend it. It would less hassle to attach the drive than try to track down processes.
Good luck.

[Promethean]

AFAIK, you're right...you can't really clean the slave's registry in the attached drive approach. That's something that has to be attempted after the malware files are deleted by the AV scan and the drive is reattached as a master and one runs Spybot/Adaware on it.

That's how I would do it.


BTW, the attached-drive approached should work to remove/clean malware. But i wonder whether the AV checks and fixes the registery on the slave drive !!
Any one knows for sure ?? If it does I would recommend it. It would less hassle to attach the drive than try to track down processes.
Good luck.

[fganger]

I have one more question (for now), if this does not help/work, what would happen if I switch hard drives on her computer? I have one, which has been initialized, and has Windows 98 installed on it. This drive used to run Windows 2000 or ME, I can't remember which. The only thing on this disk is the operating system. If I exchange it with Maria's disk can I install her original back-up disks? Maria had already asked me to try and save her music and Money Program files, which I did. Could I just place them back on her “new” hard drive?

Frank

[Promethean]

Yes. :)



I have one more question (for now), if this does not help/work, what would happen if I switch hard drives on her computer? I have one, which has been initialized, and has Windows 98 installed on it. This drive used to run Windows 2000 or ME, I can't remember which. The only thing on this disk is the operating system. If I exchange it with Maria's disk can I install her original back-up disks? Maria had already asked me to try and save her music and Money Program files, which I did. Could I just place them back on her “new” hard drive?

Frank

[fganger]

You may be a man of few words, but they say alot.:058:

Thanks guys,
Frank

PS: Abhijeet, did you see my post with the offer of my Valentine? Not for keeps, just to play with, take a month or more - no sweat.

[Promethean]

Frank,
Thanks for the offer of the loan of the Valentine. I probably won't take you up on the offer right now.

On a different topic....how about you, Tipstall and I get together for a ride one of these days before you move off to FL? Do let me know. :)

[popgazer]

Windows 2000, 98, ME !! Yuk. MS OSes don't play well together.
I wouldn't recommend installing win98 on anybody's machine, even less when someone is already having virus infection problems.


what would happen if I switch hard drives on her computer?
If the computers don't have the exact same hardware, the system may complain at start time that it is not finding the hardware for which it was configured. The OS basically loads the driver, the driver returns an error "hardware not found". OS will first remove the installed driver because the hardware is no more availble and, if you are lucky, runs the hardware wizard that, if you are even more lucky, finds a suitable driver for your machine and installs it.

can I install her original back-up disks? Maria had already asked me to try and save her music and Money Program files, which I did. Could I just place them back on her “new” hard drive?

There will be no problem with the data, but the programs will need to be re-installed using the original disks. When programs install themselves they put their configuration in the registery. At start time the program checks the regitery to retrieve its own configuration data (e.g. license key etc.) in order to start properly. A copy is very likely designed to fail if it is not registered properly.

If nothing works, in terms of wiping out the viruses, and you do have the original disks of the OS and programs, and you have saved your data.
I wouldn't spend more than an hour to try to rid of the malware. Reformat the disk, and reinstall the OS from scratch, do all the os updates MS. Install AV, then install the programs and data back onto the computer. It may take 2-3 hours, as opposed to maybe days trying to track down visues.

[Promethean]

Karim,
Good catch...although Win9x will load a default driver to get things working....the resolution might suck at first unless you install the correct driver but it would work nevertheless.

[fganger]

Sounds like an excellent idea. Perhaps Penelope will find my bike (in the middle of his manhood) attractive. If all goes well we may hear the pitter pat of little exhausts coming from the garage.:041:

Frank