Need help! IE search toolbar, reset homepages

I've been infected with something. My homepage keeps getting reset to something else, and my windows explorer has an IE search toolbar now. I went through all the steps to remove everything and even tried using hijack this to remove it. Then I would run it again and it would be gone. But then I restart my computer and it's back again. What do I do?!

 

Hi

This site has alot of good tools for cleaning up your computer. It's very important that the first thing you do is the following:

First, please follow ALL the steps in this Sticky thread READ ME FIRST BEFORE ASKING FOR SUPPORT: Basic Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal.
If you already have any of the programs linked in the tutorial please double check your version to make sure you have the latest one and that you have any/all updates for the programs.

NOTE: In order to resolve the issues you are having it is very important that you at least try to perform all the steps as outlined. If you have any difficulty please post back letting us know what steps you have completed, what you found while doing the scans if anything and details about any problems you have encountered in completing the steps. The more details you can provide the better.

Try this... you may find it's all you need. If not post your results and I am sure one of the PROS can help you. These guys are quite busy, as you can see by the number of posts, so hang in there. Good Luck!!

TheOldThug

 

Now I have a new problem. I'm not sure if it's related to what I had before, or if I'm just having really bad luck and it's happpening at the same time, but now my monitor won't start up. The last thing I did was use Hijackthis again to remove the IE search toolbar and the start pages to see if they would stay removed. Then I turned off my computer. And when I turned it on again, my monitor wouldn't start up. My computer would make all of it's usual noises like it's starting up, but I don't see anything on my screen. But the little monitor light is green and on. So then I turned it off and turned it on again hoping something would change. And now my little monitor light turns off too. Then I'd press the button to turn the monitor on and the light would stay green for a few seconds but then go black. This is REALLY stressing me out. Anyone have any insight?

 

No it never shows anything on the screen. The most it does is flicker a little bit, like a black screen to a grayish screen. I'm not near my computer at the moment, but when I do get a chance to test and plug in a different monitor, how do I tell if it's my monitor or my video card? Thanks in advance.

 

Ok, my monitor is working now, but I'm STILL having issues with the IE Search Toolbar. I swear I've done EVERYTHING. This is extremely frustrating. Running all the programs and doing all the scans didn't really turn up anything except for Spybot turned up a few items I got rid of. Then I ran Hijackthis and checked off the two things I saw with IE Search Toolbar and had them fixed. Ran Hijack this again and they were gone. Then I deleted the folder from Program files. Restarted my computer and it seemed okay for a few minutes. But then I see the IE search toolbar in my windows explorer again! Ran Hijackthis and there it was again! Somebody PLEEEAAASE help me. I don't know what else to do.

 

Ok, I think I fixed it, in case anyone else is interested. I'm not sure why this worked, but after I ran Hijackthis and fixed the items, I restarted in safe mode and THEN I deleted the IE search toolbar folder from Program Files and emptied the recycle bin. I had my internet disconnected too just to be safe. And now I don't think it has come back. Yet.

 

Ok, problem not entirely solved. No longer showing any symptoms i.e. adding bookmarks, showing IE Search Toolbar in windows explorer, changing homepage. But there still seems to be a trace of it. I found an IE Search Toolbar folder in Program files again. It just keeps coming back. I also found it in my list of programs in the Control Panel. I clicked to uninstall it and it said it was already uninstalled and was going to be removed from the list. Then later it was there again. But this time it went through the process of uninstalling it. But the folder is still appearing in my Program Files after I delete it. I am extremely perplexed right now. Can anyone help me? Just tell me what you need to know.

But with my monitor, I guess it wasn't plugged in correctly. I didn't touch anything between the time it worked and it didn't, and when I checked nothing seemed loose or anything, but I just unplugged and replugged some things and it worked!

 

Here's my log

 

Ok, so here's the rundown. First off, I think the fact that iexplore.exe was running may have had to do something with whatever was affecting my computer. I'm pretty sure I closed everything the first time I ran hijackthis, and I explicitly checked this time, closing everything and emptying the taskbar except the volume control. But when I went to go do the first step, killing the processes, it was still there, but I went ahead and killed that too. Also sys346.exe, sys422.exe, and sys52.exe, were not there but 3 of them with different numbers were, but I went ahead and killed those also.

Then after booting into safe mode, I deleted both a dsmanager32.dll and dsmanager.dll. And I couldn't find the javafix3.dll. When I went to find and delete the sys###.exe I found about 50 of them with them with different numbers that were all created around the same time. So I deleted all of those too. Hopefully that was okay to do.

And so far everything looks good!

Here's my new log.

 

Thanks for all your help chaslang!