newbie here...please excuse if i ...

[texasharper]

What does it mean when virus scanner says
"unable to scan: the file is a decompression bomb"
"unable to scan: archive is password protected"
"unable to scan: OLE archive is corrupted"
"unable to scan: installer archive is corrupted"

and what should i do about it?

thank you for any and all help!!

[TimW]

This is fairly typical with some scanners (which are you running and why).

Are you having malware issues?

If so, what are they?

[texasharper]

uh, avast 4.7, i know it's neccesary to have anti-virus software...am i not supposed to run scans for viruses?
i am not sure what you mean by issues...but it hasdetected several viruses and a trojan. does that help?

[TimW]

Yes it does.....

Please follow our standard cleaning procedures which are necessary for us to provide you support. Also there are steps included for installing, running, and posting HijackThis logs as attachments.

• Run ALL the steps in this Sticky thread READ & RUN ME FIRST Before Asking for Support
• Make sure you check version numbers and get all updates.
• Very Important: Make sure you tell us the results from running the tutorial...was anything found? Were you unable to complete any of the scans?...Were you unable to download any of the tools?...Did you do the on-line scans as suggested? etc.

• After doing ALL of the above you still have a problem make sure you have booted to normal mode and run the steps in the below link to properly use HijackThis and attach a log:

Downloading, Installing, and Running HijackThis

Make sure you also rename HijackThis.exe as suggested in the procedures. Use analyse.exe for the new name. This is very important due to some new infections going around.

• When you return to make your next post, make sure you attach the following logs and that you have run these scans in the following order too:
  • CounterSpy
  • AVG Antispyware log - ONLY IF NEEDED you were not able to run CounterSpy
  • Bitdefender - from step 6
  • Panda Scan - from step 6
  • runkeys.txt - the log from GetRunKey.bat
  • newfiles.txt - the log from ShowNew.bat
  • HijackThis

NOTE: You can only attach 3 files in a single message so it will require that you use two messages to attach all of these logs!

[texasharper]

will do. Thank you for your prompt reply. i must tell you ...i am petrified. i do not have alot of confidence in my computer skills. please no 2x4's.

[TimW]

The Read and RUn instructions are detailed, but easily performed.

Do all that you can and attach the logs when finished.