Ran the RUN & READ me, but still getting a black screen.

Welcome to Major Geeks!

You forgot to attach the requested log from MGtools; however don't bother right now since I will ask for a new scan with it below after running another tool. You have a Master Boot Record infection to fix.

Please also download MBRCheck to your desktop

• Double click MBRCheck.exe to run (vista and Win 7 right click and select Run as Administrator)
• It will show a Black screen with some information that will contain either the below line if no problem is found:
  • Done! Press ENTER to exit...
• Or you will see more information like below if a problem is found:
  • Found non-standard or infected MBR.
  • Enter 'Y' and hit ENTER for more options, or 'N' to exit:
• Either way, just choose to exit the program at this point since we want to see only the scan results to begin with.
• MBRCheck will create a log named similar to MBRCheck_07.16.10_00.32.33.txt which is random based on date and time.
• Attach this log to your next message. (See: HOW TO: Attach Items To Your Post )

Now run MGtools per the below instructions and attach the requested MGlogs.zip file

• Using MGtools

Also address the below Warning/Questions?

WARNING: Do you have all important data backed up? You really should do this before continuing on to the next steps I will be posting after I see the above log since we will need to rewrite your MBR to fix this and while most times this can be done without any problem, these infections can react badly and that could result in a PC not being bootable. You really don't have much choice though since these infections are too dangerous to your security to leave on a PC.


Also note if you have a Dell PC which uses a non-standard MBR ( or another manufacturer's who does similar to Dell) , fixing the mbr may prevent access the the Dell Restore Utility, which allows you to press a key on startup and revert your computer to a factory delivered state. There are a couple of known fixes for said condition, though the methods are somewhat advanced. If you are unwilling to take such a risk, you should not continue but you risk serious problems leaving this infection in place and thus your only other option would be to try using the Dell Restore Utility to return a factory ship state which will remove everything you additional you have put onto the PC.

 

Please address the questions/warning too.

 

Yes I noticed and they do the same thing as Dell and have a Factory Restore partition.

Why is this PC being run with no protection? Is it because it was slow ( which is due to the fact that it does not have enough memory to properly run Windows XP)?


Now if you wish to continue and fix the malware - please do the following:

• Run MBRCheck.exe
• Wait until you see the following lines:
  • Enter 'Y' and hit ENTER for more options, or 'N' to exit:
  • Options:
    [1] Dump the MBR of a physical disk to file.
    [2] Restore the MBR of a physical disk with a standard boot code.
    [3] Exit.
    Enter your choice:

• Please push the 'Y' key and then press Enter
• When the program asks you to Enter your choice: enter 2 to Rstore the MBR and press the Enter key
• Now the program will ask you to "Enter the physical disk number to fix (0-99, -1 to cancel):"
  • Enter X and press the Enter key.
• The program will show Available MBR codes as below

• You need to select your version of Windows frrom the list. For example, enter 0 or 1 for XP or enter 3 for Vista.....etc. and then press Enter.
• The program will prompt for confirmation. Type 'YES' and hit Enter.
• Left click on the title bar (where program name and path is written). From menu chose Edit -> Select All
• You will see all the text in the window get highlighted.
• Hit the Enter key on your keyboard to copy all of the text into the clipboard.
• Paste that text into Notepad, save it to your desktop as MBRfix.txt
• Restart your PC.
• Attach the MBRfix.txt file to your next message..

Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista or Win7, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).

Then attach the below logs:

• C:\MGlogs.zip

Make sure you tell me how things are working now!

 

In your last logs I saw the below

Code:

Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB 
Available Physical Memory 95.29 MB

Which is really to little memory to run Window XP. Try shutting down ALL protection software and other unnecessary programs first and the run MBRcheck again. If that does not alleviate the out of memory problem, reboot into safe mode and try running it.

 

The correct information is not in the graphs. It is text under the Physical Memory (K) heading and you have to look at the number to the right of Available. Then since this is in K bytes, you would have to divide by 1024 to get the equivalent number in MBytes. For example, when you had only 95MB available, this is the same as 97,280 K bytes.

In safe mode, you did have more memory left

Code:

Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB 
Available Physical Memory 305.76 MB

So it is not likely that it is really a memory issue. It could be a problem due to the malware itself. Could be a new form. Try the below tool instead.

• Download bootkit_remover.rar
• Click the underlined DOWNLOAD text to download the file and save it to your Desktop.
• You then need to extract the remover.exe file from the RAR using a program capable of extracing RAR compressed files. If you don't have an extraction program, you can use 7-Zip
• After extracing remover.exe to your Desktop, make sure that you really see the remover.exe file directly on your Desktop and then continue with the below.
• Click Start, Run then copy and paste the below into the Run box and click OK.

"%userprofile%\Desktop\remover.exe" fix \\.\PhysicalDrive0

• Now reboot your PC and after reboot continue with the below instructions.
• Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista or Win7, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).
• 
  
  Then attach the below logs:
  • C:\MGlogs.zip

Make sure you tell me how things are working now!

 

Sorry to hear that. This was why we said to make sure information was backed up. This kind of problem rarely occurs when we have been fixing these Master Boot Record infections but the risk is still there. Your logs showed the below

Code:

      Size  Device Name          MBR Status
  --------------------------------------------
    149 GB  [URL="file://\\.\PhysicalDrive0"]\\.\PhysicalDrive0[/URL]   Known-bad MBR code detected (Whistler / Black I
nternet)!

And this infection definitely needed to be fixed and the only way to do that is to rewrite the MBR.

You could try powering off the PC and waiting a few minutes then try powering on and see if anything changes. Also try booting to last known good configuration. If that does not help, do you have your Windows boot CD? If not then try booting to the Windows Recovery Console that for some reason you installed on Drive I (perhaps with combofix or perhaps it came preinstalled with the PC and is part of your HP Recovery Partition ). I saw the below in your ComboFix log.

Code:

i:\cmdcons\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons 

If you can boot to the RC, you may be able to run the below procedure to restore a different registry hive:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545&sd=tech

 

If BootKit Remover was able to rewrite the MBR properly then the infection should be gone. The problem is we will not know until you can boot back into Windows to run a new scan to see if the infection is gone.

Just doing a format and reinstall would not remove the MBR infection if still present. You need to rewrite the MBR which repartitioning would do. Also if the HP Recovery Console allows you to reimage back to factory ship state, this reimaging may correct the MBR too.

 

Hmmmm! Try booting to the Recovery Console and at the command prompt, type fixmbr and hit the enter key. After it runs, reboot the PC and see it you can boot into Windows.

 

See if the below procedure can be used.


http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897

 

Let's hope that will work so you can avoid a total reinstall from scratch.

 

The repair may have effectively changed the registry to an earlier point in time before it was installed making it necessary to reinstall.

Windows is not case sensitive. Thus the below are all the equal

C:\Program Files
c:\program files
c:\PROGRAM FILES

Now download the current version of MGtools and save it to your root folder. Overwrite your previous MGtools.exe file with this one.

Run MGtools.exe ( Note: If using Vista or Win7, make sure UAC is still disabled. Also don't double click on it, use right click and select Run As Administrator )

Now attach the below log:

• C:\MGlogs.zip

Make sure you tell me how things are working now!

 

Actually it did not run properly due to what you did. As stated in the instructions for MGtools, if you want it to run properly, it has to be saved and run form the root folder of the drive you are booting Windows from. Thus if you boot from the D drive, you need to have D:\MGtools.exe and run it. If you are going to boot from the C drive, you need to have C:\MGtools.exe and run it. Some of the scans did not run properly this last run and were not updated from the previous 7/31/2010 run date. Also if you have two boot drives (C and D) which one are we trying to clean. These last logs look like you booted from drive D but you ran MGtools from drive C which has made things quite messed up and confusing. I going to give you a fix to run but this time you must make sure the you BOOT from the D drive and that when I ask you to run a follow up scan that you also run it from the D drive.



Uninstall the below old versions of software:
Java(TM) 6 Update 16
Java(TM) 6 Update 18

Now we need to use ComboFix

• Make sure that combofix.exe that you downloaded while doing the READ & RUN ME is on your Desktop but Do not run it!
  • If it is not on your Desktop, the below will not work.
• Also make sure you have shut down all protection software (antivirus, antispyware...etc) or they may get in the way of allowing ComboFix to run properly.
• If ComboFix tells you it has expired or need to be updated to a new version, make sure you allow it to update.
• Open Notepad and copy/paste the text in the below quote box into it:

• Save the above as CFscript.txt and make sure you save it to the same location (should be on your Desktop) as ComboFix.exe
• At this point, you MUST EXIT ALL BROWSERS NOW before continuing!
• You should have both the ComboFix.exe and CFScript.txt icons on your Desktop.
• Now use your mouse to drag CFscript.txt on top of ComboFix.exe
• Follow the prompts.
• When it finishes, a log will be produced named c:\combofix.txt
• I will ask for this log below

Note:

Do not mouseclick combofix's window while it is running. That may cause it to stall.


After reboot, now install the current version of Sun Java from: Sun Java Runtime Environment

Now run Ccleaner. Only use the Run Cleaner button. Do not run anything else on any other forms.

Now run the D:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista or Win7, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).

Then attach the below logs:

• D:\ComboFix.txt
• D:\MGlogs.zip

Make sure you tell me how things are working now!

Your inability to connect to the internet when booting from the D drive is not due to malware. It appears you have no drivers for your network interface card loading because it shows the media is disconnect. You will have to work this in the Networking Forum.

 

I did not ask you to remove any registry entries with CCleaner. Are you referring to the try to simply delete the Java entries with CCleaner? If so, you should not be doing that since it needs to be uninstalled, not just deleted.

You should not be doing anything except what we ask you to do.

Based on previous logs, it is likely booting from drive D

I know this was not mentioned, but you really should not keep retrying things that don't work. Just stop and report the problems. It can be dangerous to keep running tools like ComboFix over and over again especially when failures are occurring.

Let's try another fix and get some new logs. Only try fixes once and then report back and attach new logs.


Copy the bold text below to notepad. Save it as fixme.reg to your desktop. Be sure the "Save as" type is set to "all files" Once you have saved it double click it and allow it to merge with the registry.

Make sure that you tell me if you receive a success message about adding the above
to the registry. If you do not get a success message, it definitely did not work.




Now download The Avenger by Swandog46, and save it to your Desktop.

• Extract avenger.exe from the Zip file and save it to your desktop
• Run avenger.exe by double-clicking on it.
• Do not change any check box options!!
• Copy everything in the Quote box below, and paste it into the Input script here: part of the window:

• Now click the Execute button.
• Click Yes to the prompt to confirm you want to execute.
• Click Yes to the Reboot now? question that will appear when Avenger finishes running.
• Your PC should reboot, if not, reboot it yourself.
• A log file from Avenger will be produced at C:\avenger.txt and it will popup for you to view when you login after reboot.

Now run Ccleaner. Only use the Run Cleaner button. Do not run anything else on any other forms.

Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista or Win7, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).



Then attach the below logs:

• C:\avenger.txt
• C:\MGlogs.zip

Make sure you tell me how things are working now!

 

See if you can get the old Java versions to uninstall using the below:

Revo Uninstaller


Run C:\MGtools\analyse.exe by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator). This is really HijackThis (select Do a system scan only) and select the following lines but DO NOT CLICK FIX until you exit all browser sessions including the one you are reading in right now:

O2 - BHO: Sky-Banners Browser Enhancer kqxxt - {C7554B61-D154-43C8-BF11-3F52FA55A5ED} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\kqxxt.dll (file missing)
O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll (file missing)
O2 - BHO: JQSIEStartDetectorImpl - {E7E6F031-17CE-4C07-BC86-EABFE594F69C} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib\deploy\jqs\ie\jqs_plugin.dll (file missing)
O20 - Winlogon Notify: reset5c - reset5c.dll (file missing)

After clicking Fix, exit HJT.
Now install the current version of Sun Java from: Sun Java Runtime Environment

Copy the bold text below to notepad. Save it as fixme.reg to your desktop. Be sure the "Save as" type is set to "all files" Once you have saved it double click it and allow it to merge with the registry.

Make sure that you tell me if you receive a success message about adding the above
to the registry. If you do not get a success message, it definitely did not work.

Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista or Win7, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).


Then attach the below logs:

• C:\ComboFix.txt
• C:\MGlogs.zip

Make sure you tell me how things are working now!

 

Your logs are clean.



If you are not having any other malware problems, it is time to do our final steps:

1. We recommend you keep SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for scanning/removal of malware. Unless you purchase them, they provide no protection. They do not use any significant amount of resources ( except a little disk space ) until you run a scan.
2. If we had you use ComboFix, uninstall ComboFix (This uninstall will only work as written if you installed ComboFix on your Desktop like we requested.)
   • Click START then RUN and enter the below into the run box and then click OK. Note the quotes are required
   • "%userprofile%\Desktop\combofix" /uninstall
     • Notes: The space between the combofix" and the /uninstall, it must be there.
     • This will uninstall ComboFix and also reset hidden files and folders settings back to Windows defaults.
3. Go back to step 6 oof the READ ME and renable your Disk Emulation software with Defogger if you had disabled it.
4. Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.
5. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.
6. If running Vista, it is time to make sure you have reenabled UAC by double clicking on the C:\MGtools\enableUAC.reg file and allowing it to be added to the registry.
7. Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis.
8. Goto the C:\MGtools folder and find the MGclean.bat file. Double click on this file to run this cleanup program that will remove files and folders
   related to MGtools and some other items from our cleaning procedures.
9. If you are running Win 7, Vista, Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:
   • Refer to the cleaning procedures pointed to by step 7 of the READ ME
     for your Window version and see the instructions to Disable System Restore which will flush your Restore Points.
   • Then reboot and Enable System Restore to create a new clean Restore Point.
10. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:
    • How to Protect yourself from malware!

 

You're welcome. Surf safely!

 

I'm sorry but these are not malware issues. You should discuss this issue in the Software Forum.