Computer Virus

[Farmersfan]

I downloaded a virus called Vista Guardian 2010 on Saturday and now my computer is FUBAR! I have Norton 2009 and Malwarebytes and it took 3 full scans for Norton to pick up the virus and quarantee it but the damage was done. It would pop up a fake antivirus message telling me that I am infected with like 100 different viruses and that I need to activate Vista Guardian to get rid of it. Once Norton got rid of the virus I was left with a computer that is really screwed. If I click on a icon on the desktop to open a file (any file) the computer will pop up a window asking me what program I want to use to open the file. I tried to go online by opening Firefox and Internet Explorer and neither would sign online. It kept popping up a window asking if I want to RUN or SAVE the file rundll.32. If I selected run it would open another indentical window until eventually I would have like 20 windows open and none signed online. If I selected to SAVE file it would save to my download location. After trying all day saturday I had about 20 rundll.32's saved in this file.
Since it's been about 2 years since a reformate I decided I would just reformat the whole drive and be done with it. But my DVD player will not recognize the System Recovery Disk at all. It will play movies, cds and will open other data disks but will not SEE the Recovery Disk.....(on reboot or manual explore)
Any computer knowledgable people on here that can help?

[Txbroadcaster]

Try to do a system restore

[BullsFan]

Talk to Bullaholic. When my mom's computer got a virus we couldn't fix, he took care of it for us.

[95mustang]

Originally posted by Txbroadcaster
Try to do a system restore

When doing the system restore see if you can go back to a date before the virus was downloaded and restore from there.

[Farmersfan]

Originally posted by Txbroadcaster
Try to do a system restore


I did a restore several times but nothing changed. And for some reason the restore points available were limited to less than 2 weeks ago. Perhaps I have my system settings set wrong.

[Daddy D 11]

Throw in barrel, burn, buy new one. LOL

[bobcat4life]

Duct tape fixes everything. If it doesnt work, try WD-40. Like my daddy said,


A man only needs two things-WD-40 and duct tape. If it needs more sticky, use duct tape. If its too sticky, try WD-40

[LH Panther Mom]

Sounds like the crap my husband got a few weeks ago. He had to un- and reinstall everything. During the process, he learned a couple of things.

All IE versions since 2003 have a hole that Microsoft has yet to patch.

Adobe Reader 9.2 and prior have a hole in them. 9.3 has a patch that fixes it.

Both these allow this type virus to get in. I'm not convinced that "paid" antivirus are the way to go. Hubby has a paid one (BitDefender - piece of crap!), son has Norton. BOTH got hit with it. I have a free download, Avast, and nothing.

[Ranger Mom]

Originally posted by LH Panther Mom
Sounds like the crap my husband got a few weeks ago. He had to un- and reinstall everything. During the process, he learned a couple of things.

All IE versions since 2003 have a hole that Microsoft has yet to patch.

Adobe Reader 9.2 and prior have a hole in them. 9.3 has a patch that fixes it.

Both these allow this type virus to get in. I'm not convinced that "paid" antivirus are the way to go. Hubby has a paid one (BitDefender - piece of crap!), son has Norton. BOTH got hit with it. I have a free download, Avast, and nothing.

Thanks for the reminder!! I have been meaning to put an anti-virus on here since my Norton ran out!!

I asked my computer guy what he recommended and he said Avast!!

[sinton66]

If all else fails, you can wipe the hard drive and reload windows and everything else if you have the cds. If not, you"re going to have to take it in for repair. There is another similar virus that calls itself "Personal Anti-Virus". Masquerades as an anti-virus but is actually a virus itself.

Avast is a good program. It actually uses the databases of several different providers.

[IHStangFan]

ESET.....best anti-virus software on the market hands down.

[SintonFan]

I like the new Kaspersky suite. I can lock out the kids after bedtime and all.:cool:

[Farmersfan]

Originally posted by sinton66
If all else fails, you can wipe the hard drive and reload windows and everything else if you have the cds. If not, you"re going to have to take it in for repair. There is another similar virus that calls itself "Personal Anti-Virus". Masquerades as an anti-virus but is actually a virus itself.

Avast is a good program. It actually uses the databases of several different providers.




Oh if only!!!!! As mentioned in my previous post my DVD drive will not recognize my system recovery disk. Instructions say to install DVD and reboot system and it will boot to disk but that doesn't happen. I also use windows explorer and try to open the disk but when I select my DVD drive to "explore" it tells me "no disk in drive." It works perfectly when I put movie DVDs or music CDs or any other disk I own in it but not the System Recovery Disk that came with the computer. I put the system disk in a different computer that my wife uses and it boots up perfectly. Any ideas?

[DU_stud04]

Originally posted by Farmersfan
Any ideas? check your pm's

[crzyjournalist03]

I'm assuming you've tried running your computer in safe mode and running the virus scan that way...if that didn't work, try running safe mode with connections active then try to research the ways to kill the virus you're dealing with (or use another computer).

My wife's computer caught a virus a couple of months ago that was deactivating her antivirus software and disabling the internet but was downloading and installing links to porn sites on her desktop. Then, at times we couldn't even get windows to start because of the havoc that the virus was wrecking. After figuring out where the virus was stored on the computer, I'd run my antivirus software in safe mode, then I'd go to the file where the virus was stored and delete it. Then we could start up windows just long enough to download the virus stopper that we found on a tech site. We'd have to run it two or three times for it to stop the virus, but then we were able to download something called Malwarebytes or something like that that the site recommended, and after running the complete system scan a couple of times (it took about 3-4 hours altogether), it cleared the virus and we haven't had an issue since.

[Farmersfan]

Originally posted by crzyjournalist03
I'm assuming you've tried running your computer in safe mode and running the virus scan that way...if that didn't work, try running safe mode with connections active then try to research the ways to kill the virus you're dealing with (or use another computer).

My wife's computer caught a virus a couple of months ago that was deactivating her antivirus software and disabling the internet but was downloading and installing links to porn sites on her desktop. Then, at times we couldn't even get windows to start because of the havoc that the virus was wrecking. After figuring out where the virus was stored on the computer, I'd run my antivirus software in safe mode, then I'd go to the file where the virus was stored and delete it. Then we could start up windows just long enough to download the virus stopper that we found on a tech site. We'd have to run it two or three times for it to stop the virus, but then we were able to download something called Malwarebytes or something like that that the site recommended, and after running the complete system scan a couple of times (it took about 3-4 hours altogether), it cleared the virus and we haven't had an issue since.




I did get rid of the virus by doing exactly that. Norton and Malwarebytes recognized the virus in Safe Mode and got rid of it but the damage remains. At this point I am simply determined to reformat back to original but can't get the DVD player to open my System Recovery Disk that came with the computer. I have moved all my moveable information to a external harddrive awaiting a reformat. thanks for your advice.

[Green Bling]

Mr. Bling downloaded the Security Tool virus and it totally crashed his brand new computer. Since it was under warranty, Dell sent a tech with a new hard drive and DVD drive as well. The virus took out both. Just saying they thought the DVD drive couldn't be repaired. They said they might get it going, but in a couple of weeks the virus would take it down again if both weren't replaced.