8 replies to this topic

[zeroradius]

So I have a virus on my laptop. It comes up as "Malware Protection" If I exit out of it than it minimizes to the dock but won't go away. If I open up task manager to try to close out of the virus task manager automatically closes itself. I can't run cCleaner. I downloaded the bitDefender pen drive rescue "CD" and booted into it. After a full scan it found nothing. My laptop has been rendered useless, I can't even do a system restore. Any Ideas?


Edit: I found my installation CD. I am going to try and boot into it and do a restore.

[lethalwire]

:irritated:
Good luck.

[zeroradius]

The disk did not work either. I got this:

Quote

An Unspecified error occurred during system restore. (0x8000ffff

I'm going to try a different restore point but just in case are their any other suggestions?

I also need a good free anti-virus for once this is fixed. I can't afford another seat for norton at the moment.

[sam_coder]

download a copy of super antispyware portable, and stick it on a USB key

restart your computer into safe mode with networking (using F8 right before windows starts on a reboot)

after your logged in safe mode, stick the USB key in, and run Super Antispyware,
its a COM file, it will run like a program

update the definitions (the reason for starting safe with networking)

and run a full scan.

afterwhich , boot into windows normally, and if you can download and install Malwarebytes Antimalware, same thing, update and run a full scan (this one installs)


once all this mayhem is cleaned up, you want to disable system restore (which deletes all old restore points)
and then re-enable it, and create a new restore point.

You might also want to grab a copy of Little Registry Cleaner (its GPL), and run that to sort out any other loose ends.

Another action you might consider which helps prevent malware infections is Spybot Search & Destroy, it has an "immunization" function, which redirects known bad hosts to localhost, and restricts known browsers from installing known bad cookies etc.

best of luck!

[sam_coder]

Oh, and antivirus, I dunno, I run Avast! Free, and I find it's pretty good.

Some of my customers use AVG, and I'm not certain if anyone can prove it's better or worse than Avast!.

[zeroradius]

Thanks Sam +rep I restored the computer back to March. The restore finally worked. I am waiting for it to restart to see if the virus is gone. If it did not work I will try what you said. If it did work i will get all the tools you recommended and save your advice as a .txt file for the next time i have something like this happen. I will also be downloading avast on my next day off. Thanks again!

[sam_coder]

fantastic! and thanks for the rep!

dont forget that once you get this working the way you want, you need to disable your system restore (to remove possibly infected restore points) and then reactivate system restore, and create a new clean one.

Last thing you want, is to accidentally restore the computer to an infected state at some point.

[zeroradius]

Hmm it appeared to work but then when i logged into it and it said it was not able to finish the restore due to antivirus being on....... the good news is that the virus is gone so it dose not matter. I will disable the restore tomorrow morning (i have to go to work now) and enable it as you suggest. Again thanks Sam I appreciate it.

[Alexander]

I believe the Microsoft Security Essentials scanner is good complement for an antivirus such as AVG, I've used it solo on some client computers who did not want a full antivirus and it seemed fine for malware.