I don't have time for this

[FROG MAN]

I just went through our office managers PC. Installed all the latest Microsoft updates,AVG antivirus update,Spyware/Malware scan and reg clean, HDD defrag, and upgraded her ram. The machine has been running excellent for a week. I came back this evening and after she opened an email from another employee ZAP. All crap breaks loose. The Firewall is turned off,Windows update disabled,Antivirus disabled, Internet explorer won't run, and we can't connect to the internet.It does boot up normal but that is about it. I tried a system restore to a previous point but it won't allow that either. I think a bad virus has grabed it but I'll run a hdd utility in the morning. ANY Ideas or similar experiences?

[BoomerCPO]

The only idea I can offer you is take the computer out to the parking lot and beat the darn thing into submission with a baseball bat.

 

 

Boomer........who is known to have done just that with his last computer.

[KeithR]

Try This !

[ddoggma]

Download and install this app.Follow the directions. It really works. You may have to boot her computer into "safemode" to get it to install and run. tap f8 as its booting for safemode http://www.superantispyware.com/?tag=GOOGLE-SUPERANTISPYWARE

[BuddyRich]

Could be, Did the employee pc that sent the email have any symptoms ? Did the employee actually send it and was there an attachment that she opened in it ?

[FROG MAN]

Yep sent an attachment which she opened and printed out no problem. I don't think the other machine has anything. It may have been a coincidence but other people in our company have had crashes lately.

[Yammer Dan]

I can't help with this one but I do have a bat and a lot of fusteration

( can't spell)

[BoomerCPO]

I can't help with this one but I do have a bat and a lot of fusteration

( can't spell)

 

[BuddyRich]

It may have been a virus then. You got a couple of choices. Spend several hours trying to figure it out.Then try to clean it up. Or, Get a portable drive and copy any important files she needs to it. Set it aside so you can check it with a virus scan later. Fdisk the current install which will eliminate the virus and reinstall everything. I generally download and drivers needed before doing it and put them on a thumb drive.

Either way is gonna take time. You'll need all install keys also.

The good thing is the drive is still operating. Also when copying everything goto the folder options on the c: drive and select to show hidden file and folder and system files. then copy the entire Documents and Settings folder to the portable drive. I sometimes copy the whole drive except the windows folder and the pagefile.sys if its in the root. That way I generally get everything. There are a few other files in the root you can't copy. Those are the hidden files. They will be grayed out.

[SilvrT]

those are virus symptoms if I ever heard any.

[Marcarl]

Take two asperins with a glass of water, go to bed, and when you wake up in the morning, it'll be a new day.

[Icechip]

I had a similar problem. Usually when I get a bug I can fix it but this one had me for a few days. Doesn't allow any updates to any software, defender, AVG, Spybot, none of them.

Found this through numerous searches and it worked. I was able to do all my updates as soon as the program finished it's operation. Sorry I can't recall the name of the bug it found as I am not at home.

 

Trojan Remover 6.7.5

 

http://www.simplysup.com/tremover/download.html

 

free 30 day trial

 

Icechip

[Guest Yamahawg]

If you think it is truly a virus. First copy important files over to a removable source and dont forget to scan them before you move them back on another computer.

Then search online to find out how to Start your Virus software to scan at system boot up. It will probably require you to start the computer and boot it to a command prompt then type in the command line you found for the virus program.

(Most informative sites will tell you how to get the command prompt at boot up. How depends on what Operating System you are running.)

If that does work and catches the active virus, things may return to normal. If the virus program catches it and things are still screwy you may have to do what Buddy Rich told ya and Install from Scratch.

If things are OK I would do one additional thing for Prevention. Many of todays viruses embed themselves in the System Restore files and after things have been normal for a few days they show themselves again. So if the scan gets rid of your virus and all is well it would be a good idea to Turn off System Restore, (You can do that by right clicking on My Computer and selecting PROPERTIES from the list if your running XP. Several tabs will be displayed, one will allow you to turn off System Restore,then Reboot your machine. That will dump the old restore files from memory. Next Reboot again and then go back and turn System Restore back on and create a Restore Point.

 

Hopefully it works for ya... Good Luck

[usnmustang]

You may want to try booting in safe mode, no network and then run your scans. Sometimes you have to run it multiple times in safe mode to clear the virus or spyware. Then do a normal boot and run your scans on startup. You also might want to try SPYWARE HUNTER in safe mod and normal if that doesn't do it.

[PBJ]

Yes I had almost the same thing happen to me last week. i still can't get the windows automatic updates to come on. But I nuetralized the damn thing buy going to Seurity Tango you can Google it. There thay have several anti spy, ad, and mal ware protection along with spy doctor and others. Some protect , some just warn but eventually it semed to get the pop up to stop.( some to fake spyware soft ware).

 

Oddly when it happened something was going on with Google , this was last saturday and when My brother and I were trying to download the anti spy ware there were these prompts on Google saying the spy ware could damage your computer. I think it may have been a web wide attack Google said it was only a glitch in its systems but i think it was something bigger.

[timgray]

Step 1 - REMOVE admin privileges from her and a lot of that will stop.

 

Step 2 - disallow all attachments from email. if it's not in a ZIP format it's deleted on the email server.

 

These two things made the biggest difference in a office of 300 users. Switching to a good Antivirus like NOD32 solved everything else, infection free for 2 years now. WE have not had a problem here since we got rid of the "popular" anti virus programs that really dont do anything.