AntiVirus 2009 Pro - can't run any Read & Run Me programs

Hi - I scanned similar threads and didn't find this situation. If there is another thread that addresses this please direct me and I'll hopefully get what I need there - the short version is that step 3 programs will not run for me.

I have been infected with AntiVirus 2009 Pro on a laptop running Windows XP SP3. The LT had recently been reformatted for my husband to use for work and had very few applications on it, including no antivirus or firewall packages. Live and learn the hard way I guess!

The internet connection has been hijacked preventing me from downloading the files directly onto the infected machine so I downloaded everything onto another LT, burned to a CD and transferred.

In step 1 I uninstalled the Trend Micro that my husband installed before handing this off to me (the install didn't work due to the malware). There are no other antivirus programs installed.

I had very few of the applications listed in the add/remove program steps and none of the java applications. I installed the new java, set the msconfig, had no quarantine folders, emptied the recycle bin, ran Ccleaner in normal and safe mode (to get the admin account) and rebooted back to normal mode.

Step 2 was fine.

Step 3 (Windows XP Cleaning Procedure) has been a total failure:

SAS is the only application that has come close to working and that was only after I downloaded the supplemental program to get around the malware. However after a full scan I get the blue screen of death, even after de-selecting the Kernel Access options. I tried it a couple of times and it ID's more than 200 items to remove but the remove process fails. It will not work at all in safe mode.

So I have continued onto the other steps and have met with even less success:

Spybot will not launch, but if I right-click on the C drive it will allow me to scan with spybot, which finds no problem files.

MBAM is installed (thanks to the handy renaming tip) but also will not launch. Nothing happens when I try to start it.

Combofix will not launch. I downloaded the XP Windows Recovery Console and on my good LT, moved the windows file over the combofix file to see it merge and launch. When trying this on the bad machine (with fresh downloads of each file) nothing happens. Clicking on the combofix application does nothing.

Given that everything has failed so far, and I have been working on this for more than 16 hours I have not yet tried MGTools. I will try that later (my husband is able to still use his work applications and save his files to a flash drive to transfer) but in the meantime was wondering if anyone has any tips. Are there similar workarounds to the SAS patch that will successfully launch any of the other programs?

Many thanks,

Jen

 

Thanks so much for replying - I was not able to run anything in safe mode a couple of days ago. We actually had it serviced yesterday and the tech was able to get some malware off (antivirus 2008 & antivirus 2009) but said that there is a lot he wasn't able to get and some of what's left may be more stubborn than those two. Before resorting to a total disk reformat I will try the read and run me steps again and will post any logs that I am able to get.

Many thanks,

Jen