Computer slower than a foaming snail

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by Love3angle, Jun 22, 2010.

  1. Love3angle

    Love3angle Private E-2

    Hello and thank you for your site!

    I had this system running well in November with suggestions from your "protection" forums and switching internet browsing to Firefox. Another user in the house was not careful about what cookies he accepted or denied, and was locked out of being able to log on to several sites. He went in a changed some settings on Firefox and cleared all blocked sites and this has been crawling ever since.

    All logs attached. Thank you.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Love3angle

    Love3angle Private E-2

    Remaining log - MG tools.
     

    Attached Files:

  3. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Please download HelpAsst_mebroot_fix.exe and save it to your desktop.
    Close out all other open programs and windows.
    Double click the file to run it and follow any prompts.
    If the tool detects an mbr infection, please allow it to run mbr -f and shutdown your computer.
    Upon restarting, please wait about 5 minutes, click Start>Run and type the following bolded command, then hit Enter.

    helpasst -mbrt

    Make sure you leave a space between helpasst and -mbrt !
    When it completes, a log will open.
    Please post the contents of that log.


    *In the event the tool does not detect an mbr infection and completes, click Start>Run and type the following bolded command, then hit Enter.

    mbr -f

    Now, please do the Start>Run>mbr -f command a second time.
    Now shut down the computer (do not restart, but shut it down), wait a few minutes then start it back up.
    Give it about 5 minutes, then click Start>Run and type the following bolded command, then hit Enter.

    helpasst -mbrt

    Make sure you leave a space between helpasst and -mbrt !
    When it completes, a log will open.
    Please post the contents of that log.

    No matter what happens with the above, attach the above logs and then immediately continue with the below in normal boot mode!

    Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, 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!
     
  4. Love3angle

    Love3angle Private E-2

    Hi Tim, and thank you!

    Ok, here's what I did:
    I ran the helpasst tool and it did not find anything. It said "Help Assist profile not found. User & Kernel MBR ok. The tool has completed."
    I ran mbr -f twice and shut down, waited ~10 min, restarted and waited 5 min.
    Ran helpasst -mbrt - log attached.
    Ran MGTools Getlogs - attached.

    Things are definitely faster but not up to what it was. :)
    Please let me know if there is more to do, thanks!
     

    Attached Files:

  5. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    You did not allow MGTools to run to completion. Please run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, don't double click, use right click and select Run As Administrator).
    Wait till it tells you it is finished.

    Then attach the below logs:

    * C:\MGlogs.zip
     
  6. Love3angle

    Love3angle Private E-2

    Ok, logs attached. :) I got the same error about the processdll.exe failing to initialize properly.
     

    Attached Files:

  7. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    Your main reason for being slow is this:
    Code:
    Total Physical Memory    512.50 MB    
    Available Physical Memory    189.79 MB
    I strongly advise you to cleanup your Desktop. Remove everything but links to run programs. Do not download and save programs here and definitely do not use it for long term storage. You need to keep ComboFix.exe here for now as we need it, but we will be removing it when we are finished with your cleanup. A cluttered Desktop is malware's playground and it can also cause performance degradation especially when you start saving large files here like you are doing.

    Now let's have Combo remove that last folder:
    * 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 needs to update to a new version, make sure you allow it to update.
    * Open Notepad and copy/paste the text in the below code box into it (make sure you scroll all the way down in the code box to get all lines selected ):
    Code:
    KILLALL::
    Folder::
    C:\Documents and Settings\HelpAssistant
    
    * 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.
    If it asks you to overide the previous file with the same name, click YES.
    * Now use your mouse to drag CFscript.txt on top of ComboFix.exe
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v666/sUBs/CFScriptB-4.gif
    * 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.

    Now run the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, 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!
     
  8. Love3angle

    Love3angle Private E-2

    Hi Tim,
    I cleaned off the desktop and ran everything as stated. I hit a snag when combofix rebooted the machine and all my antivirus stuff came back on. It stalled it and it wouldn't produce a log file.

    I shut all the AV stuff back off and ran it all again, starting with the script file. Logs attached. I did get the same processdll.exe error that I've gotten every time I've run MGTools.

    Thank you
     

    Attached Files:

  9. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    The HelpAssistant folder is still there. See if you can't manually delete it. If you can't then let's try to do so with Avenger:

    Download The Avenger by Swandog469, and save it to your Desktop.

    * Extract+ avenger.exe from the Zip file and save it to your desktop

    Please disable all anti-virus and anti-spyware programs while we do the following (re-enable when you are finished):

    * 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 the C:\MGtools\GetLogs.bat file by double clicking on it (Note: if using Vista, 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!
     
  10. Love3angle

    Love3angle Private E-2

    Hi Tim,
    Ran avenger and GetLogs.bat. files attached.

    I looked through the files and folder to see if C:\Documents and Settings\HelpAssistant was still there and it's gone but I did notice there's a C:\HelpAsst_backup folder sitting there. Do I need to get rid of that, too?
     

    Attached Files:

  11. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    '
    As part of the final clean up, yes, you can delete that as well. If you look in your MGLog.zip and open the newfiles log, you will see just how much junk was in that Helpassistant folder!! That and your need to double your ram would probably account for all of your slowness issues.


    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 real time 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 of 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:

     
  12. Love3angle

    Love3angle Private E-2

    Looks like everything is done. :)

    I'm reviewing the Protect pages again just to see if I have changed or need anything from last time. I hear Symantec AV is not the greatest and AVG is, but I'm concerned about the warnings on AVG. What do you recommend?

    Thank you, again!
     
  13. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

  14. Love3angle

    Love3angle Private E-2

    Excellent, thank you. :)
     
  15. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    You are most welcome. Safe surfing. :)
     

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