Computer Masters... Norwegian Needs Help

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

I was teasing my friend Todd Brunengrabber about a comment he made...
He said he was CI (Computer Illiterate)
I told him that out West , CI meant Cast Iron...
Well fate and karhma jumped up and bit me for that...
After resolving a glitch last week using System Restore, I encountered a major problem today... My Avast siren went off while surfing a music site that Steve showed me.... Said that a virus had been detected.
Just before this a few popups made it past my popup blocker, were ads to block Spam.
My system froze up, so I turn the computer off, then turned it on, went to my Internet properties, deleted all cookies, temporary internet files and history.
I then did a thourgh scan of all local disks and the siren went off five times in all. The good thing, it didn't freeze up went I moved these files to the safety chest as prompted to do by the software.
After the scan was complete and here's where I think I botched up...
I opened the chest to view the infected files and without any hesitation, I deleted them. At this point I thought all was well...
I went online and bang... I get these time stamped windows from nowhere and one that asked me if I wanted to block spam from my emails.
I did another full scan and nothing was detected...
Went back online and the same thing... except this time the computer wanted to go online by itself also... Same problem I was having a couple of weeks ago.
It was then that this "Brilliant" Norwegian remembered the system restore tool...
I tried it but I got a window saying nothing on my computer was changed and that system restore was incomplete... Remember those five files I deleted??
Damint... Just got another time stamp window goodie...
Well, I sure the hell wish I could remember the names of those files, 'cause I'm sure at least two or three of them had something to do with system restore tool, because I was watching where the scan was when it was scanning and the siren went off at least twice while it was scanning the system restore files...
I've been on the MS website for most of this evening trying to solve my dilema and find a way to get those files back... Followed all their advice and instructions, even did some stuff in safe mode, but I'll be damned if anything worked...
I'd sure like to get the system restore tool back, cause that's a major lifesaver for me and my system...
If only I had thought of doing system restore before deleting those files, I think I'd be in the clear... Meanwhile I think I have three trojan virus's doing stuff... One wants my computer to go online by itself. One, maybe two keep giving me these time stamp windows... Something about w w w . w e b 2 .b e r l i n a d s ??? and another one giving me a window prompting me to have all spam blocked from my email.


Any savy computer experts have any advise???


Arrghh!!! These time stamp popups are really starting to anoy me.

[asianflava]

I'm not a computer expert but I usually take a drastic approach when things get FUBAR. I save all the files that I don't want to loose, pictures, music, etc. onto an external drive, then I do a reformat. I'll do a fresh install of Windows and whatever else I run. It's amazing how much faster your computer runs when you get rid of the junkware that collects.

This is a drastic measure so do it only as a last resort.

[toypusher]

Dean,

Didn't the files your deleted go to your 'Recycle' bin?? If so, just restore everything in the recycle bin.

You might want to download (not install yet) some other antivirus (like AVG Free or something else) then disconnect from any phone line or dsl connection (break the physical connection) to your internet.

Then install and run the antivirus, reconnect to the internet and get updates, disconnect and rerun the antivirus.

If I had access to the system, there are some manual things that can be done to get rid of trojans and what not , but you have to be careful.

As Rocky says, a fresh install in probably in order. Reformatting may not be enough, though. Find someone that knows how to use 'fdisk' for you and you will be much better off when doing a fresh/clean install.

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Kerry,
The recycle bin was the first place I checked...
Found a log, which said there were 8 trojans and 4 trojan generators eliminated...
Man... When virus's strike, do they always show up in mumbers like this???
All these items were listed within about 5 minutes from from the first one to the last one...
I found that the time stamp things were from a program called internet speed generator or something along those lines...
To my surprise their was a new program on my computer by that name, so I deleted it and it seems to have stopped those popups...
I think all I have to do now is figure out how to get my system restore tool to work again...

Rock,
If I end up taking that route, I'll hand my keyboard and disks over to Kevin...

[Micro469]

What you can do is reinstall windows. It won't change your personal files, but will reinstall the files that somebody..(not you, the other guy) deleted in the first place.....

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

John,
The install is easy... finding the disks might turn into a quest.
My office would give your shop a run for it's money...

[sledge]

most of the time if you get a bad problem....Just set the time back on your computer, restore to an earlier date.... you might have to set a date, just before the problem..........

[caseydog]

Here's how I solved my computer problems...

http://www.apple.com/mac/

CD

[subtearanean]

Here's how I solved my computer problems...

http://www.apple.com/mac/

CD

Casey...Don't speak too loudly. I support Macs. We, as a userbase, have our own set of problems that can crop up. I trust you have Applejack installed?

Dean...find the OS install disks. Take the time to do a fresh and clean. You'll have a better end experience. While building it back up document each step as you go, and save that for the next time this happens (it will). Or, clone a pristine system and archive it for later use.

I still don't know how you Windows people put up with it.

[Mike B]

And this is why I use Linux....


Mike
Hayden Lake, ID

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

most of the time if you get a bad problem....Just set the time back on your computer, restore to an earlier date.... you might have to set a date, just before the problem..........

Sledge...
That is what I'd like to do... On my opperating software that feature is called system restore... I think it's MS's way of admitting that windows xp does have problems...
I can't get it to work, no matter what restore point or date I choose...
I deleted some infected files that were in a safety chest in my Avast! antivrus and I'm thinking that because of those missing files, that's why system restore isn't working now.

[asianflava]

This picture is especially funny to me because we had the same thing happen at work. When we transitioned to Macs (again) they had a 42in plasma sunk into one of the walls to show how the factory was performing. There was a brand new (at the time) Mac Mini prominently displayed under the monitor. One day, I was heading into the factory and it was showing a Windoze XP screen. Don't give me the "Macs can run both OSs", because this was way before that happened.

I asked them why we were going to Macs after the first attempt was a glorious failure. They said that wanted to support our customer. Well, shortly after, Apple had Intel make their processors. Our management continued with the Mac roll out saying that they were faster (comparing them to a 5yr old PC). Well, come to find out these Macs won't run all the software we use. They tired a few things but couldn't get full functionality. Luckily we never got rid of the PCs, now they are upgrading the old ones. The Macs are nice in the factory, they don't take up a lot of room and work fine for what they are used for. We have new desktop PCs which make life a lot better.

I don't want to start another Mac Vs PC thread. I saw this pic on the internet recently.

[Podunkfla]

Dean... Unfortunately, some of the nastier trojans these days disable system restore. These guys are evil that write this stuff. I have successfully fixed similar problems with the help of the guys at MajorGeeks.com:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html
Usually, you use a program like hijackthis to get a list of what's on your PC and post it to their forum. They can point out who the baddies are and how to get rid of them. Best of luck... been there!

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Brick,
I've got system restore working again...
Tried create a restore point, which turned out to be the exact moment in time I clicked the button...
Did a system restore on my newly created checkpoint, at the time about 5 seconds previous and it worked.
That tells me system restore still works...
I think the trojans are gone, but there's a mess left behind...
I've found boxes checked that I know were unchecked before and my internet still wants to connect by itself... I've got the connect automatically box unchecked, but the little internet window where you enter your username and password still pops up by itself...
I've also noticed weird things I didn't notice before, like how many ports there are...
For some reason I thought I only had port 80 and maybe another one, but now I'm seeing a long list of different numbered ports... maybe those are created when my antivirus updates itself???
Problem is I don't know squat about this sh-stuff...

[Podunkfla]

Brick,
I've got system restore working again...
Tried create a restore point, which turned out to be the exact moment in time I clicked the button...
Did a system restore on my newly created checkpoint, at the time about 5 seconds previous and it worked.
That tells me system restore still works...
I think the trojans are gone, but there's a mess left behind...
I've found boxes checked that I know were unchecked before and my internet still wants to connect by itself... I've got the connect automatically box unchecked, but the little internet window where you enter your username and password still pops up by itself...
I've also noticed weird things I didn't notice before, like how many ports there are...
For some reason I thought I only had port 80 and maybe another one, but now I'm seeing a long list of different numbered ports... maybe those are created when my antivirus updates itself???
Problem is I don't know squat about this sh-stuff...

Dean... Assuming you can still get on line somehow...
Here's MajorGeeks Malware removal guide:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407