Computer Help!!!!

[mredskins]

So my Dell laptop, 1515 Insiperion (sp) has this spyware/virus that keeps making my computer go to a anti-spyware software site. It also blocks some functions on my computer like add and remove programs, EI, etc... Ialso get a punch of pop ups that look like windows.

I can still surf the web with Firefox though.


I totally use this computer for nothing more then surfing the web. Has nothing saved on it. So if wiping it clean is the option I am cool with that but don't know how to do it.

IF anyone can help be much appreciated I don't want to give Dell $129 to fix it if I don't have too.

[CRedskinsRule]

I had one bug that kept popping up like it was an antivirus program, took me about 2-3hours one morning but finally found a program malwarebytes that downloaded and installed even with that pain in the butt bug. It ran its scan and did a good job of cleaning it up. the malwarebytes download was free, and didn't give me any other side effect issues. here is the link to their site if you want to try it Malwarebytes.org.

[MTK]

I use that program too, seems to do a good job ^^

[mredskins]

Ok thanks, I will give it a shot.

I think I have Anti-Virus 2009 spyware.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Honestly, Malwarebytes might have trouble installing if you have one of the nastier viruses.

Download a program called Combofix and save it to your desktop. Rename it something totally different, and then run it. Basically 90% of my day consists of cleaning this type of crap up lately. It's an epidemic. I also read that 80% of this crap comes from PDFs, so I would update Adobe Reader immediately.

[Longtimefan]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

Honestly, Malwarebytes might have trouble installing if you have one of the nastier viruses.

Download a program called Combofix and save it to your desktop. Rename it something totally different, and then run it. Basically 90% of my day consists of cleaning this type of crap up lately. It's an epidemic. I also read that 80% of this crap comes from PDFs, so I would update Adobe Reader immediately.

There is an Adobe Reader update available now.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Originally Posted by Longtimefan

There is an Adobe Reader update available now.

Yeah, I had to LOL at that yesterday.

Basically, I run a server here that allows remote installs to the whole campus and I JUST finished installing Reader 9.3.0 and then they come out with a security update to go to 9.3.1.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

Honestly, Malwarebytes might have trouble installing if you have one of the nastier viruses.

Download a program called Combofix and save it to your desktop. Rename it something totally different, and then run it. Basically 90% of my day consists of cleaning this type of crap up lately. It's an epidemic. I also read that 80% of this crap comes from PDFs, so I would update Adobe Reader immediately.

It won't allow me to run combofix, any other ideas? It is download but every time I try to run it gives me an error message.

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by mredskins

It won't allow me to run combofix, any other ideas? It is download but every time I try to run it gives me an error message.

Yeah, same thing on the one I had, it's getting corrupted by the virus

try using a boot disk like avira's to help clean it up initially

[saden1]

If you're looking for any other ideas maybe it's time to toss Windows and its anti-viruse software out of a proverbial window and go with Ubuntu?

Proud to be Windows free for 7 years.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Originally Posted by saden1

If you're looking for any other ideas maybe it's time to toss Windows and its anti-viruse software out of a proverbial window and go with Ubuntu?

Proud to be Windows free for 7 years.

I feel the same way about Linux as I do about Mac, except I like it a little more. It's free and you can do "most" of the things that you can do on both PC or Apple. The reason I still stick with PC is the reason I said above: market leader.

As long as the majority of activities that I do are written with PCs in mind, that's the OS I want to stick with.


And Matty, I would say that's probably true. If you start seeing messages again, I would be a little concerned about a rootkit, but it sounds like it's all clear.

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by saden1

If you're looking for any other ideas maybe it's time to toss Windows and its anti-viruse software out of a proverbial window and go with Ubuntu?

Proud to be Windows free for 7 years.

Ubuntu isn't a bad choice for someone breaking away from Windows. Software keeps me on Windows though; I'll run an alt OS for a few weeks and then once I have to boot back into Windows it's hard to go back to Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE or whatever I'm running at the time. Emulators are coming along well but not quite what I'd want. Eventually I'll build a comp just for VM purposes.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Originally Posted by tryfuhl

Yeah, same thing on the one I had, it's getting corrupted by the virus

try using a boot disk like avira's to help clean it up initially

If you have that issue, you just have to rename the .exe file. Most of the Vundo variants block programs from running until you rename them.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

If you have that issue, you just have to rename the .exe file. Most of the Vundo variants block programs from running until you rename them.

I did rename it and still had trouble getting it to run.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

After running Combofix (preferably in safe mode) then run Malwarebytes to remove the remnants.