Virus has completely disabled my machine

Hi all,

Got a really nasty virus that has done a serious number on my pc.

It started 2 days ago and I assume it came in through a malicious website that got it past my Spyware & anti-virus programs. I got a message from Zonealarm asking for internet acces for "svchost.exe". I wasn't paying attention closely, so I allowed it.

After that, I knew something was wrong. It hijacked my browser, and all my google search results would re-direct somewhere else. It blocked access to all known anti-virus/spyware sites & scans(including MajorGeeks) and shut down my e-mail through Outlook Express. It also blocked auto updates for AVG, Spybot and Adaware. Lastly, it completely disabled System Restore. Whenever I would try and access it in my System menu, I'd get error messages.

I tried Safe mode, but everything was the same. I ran Spybot and AVG in safe mode, and they came up with nothing. I could run HJT, and did so and got a log. Before I could post it here from another computer, things got worse.

My pc began to get unstable, and I was rebooting a lot. I noticed that an "iexplore.exe" was showing up in Task Manager under "SYSTEM" and using a lot of resources and I knew that wasn't right. I began trying to shut that down, but it kept coming back. Lastly, I got an error message that something had been improperly shut down, and that my machine was going to re-start.

Since then, I can no longer load Windows. It will start up, but I'll either get a blue screen with an hourglass, or I'll get to the "windows is starting up" screen and then nothing else will happen. I've tried every start-up option in F8, and nothing will boot up. My F10 System Restore was already previously disabled by the virus, so I can't use that either. It seems Windows is damaged or corrupted now, maybe through my own actions with the Task Manager.

I've had this Compaq since 2003, and any system restore or boot disks I may have had are long gone. Though, I could probably get access to some.

What should my next move be here? Is there anything I can do? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

Matt

 

Thanks, Tim!

Though, the link you provided says I should not run that process if I have an OEM installation of XP. This is a Compaq pc... is this safe for me to try?

 

Tim,

Okay, I went through all of that procedure and I discovered that all of my restore points have been wiped out. So, I did as the procedure told me and entered the repair lines in config that would let me "enter an altered version of the operating system" and back up my data.

However, when trying to boot up now I get a lsass.exe system error that tells me that a password value is wrong, and then the system reboots.

Is there anything I can do at this point? Or is this thing beyond fixing now?

Thanks,

M