Gateway/Virus/Program Problem

Hey Geeks!

I just returned home for a little r and r. And within 6 hours of being home, I crashed my Ma's computer! Well, actually, it's not really that bad , but it's kinda fun exagerating a bit!

Here's the deal...I really didn't get too far into the "Grand Cleanup" I had planned for her computer. I started with virus scan from the Panda webpage. But after only scanning about a fifth of the drive, and finding 151 viruses (151!), the computer locked up. Upon restarting the computer, I can't connect to the internet (she uses dial-up from Earthlink). When I click on the "two-connected-phones-and-computer" connect icon, nothing happens...just nothing. Also, there's a small Earthlink connect icon in the systray, which I tried clicking on. When it tries to connect I get this message

Now, when I try to click anything in the Control Panel, I get this message

So, what do you guys think? What should be done? Can I download the .exe file somewhere? Or will that file be on the System Restore disks she has?

Here are the specs for the computer:

Gateway Select 750, AMD Athlon 750mhz, 128MB Memory, 32MB nVidia Riva TNT M64 Graphics Accelerator, 20 GB 7200RPM Ultra ATA HD, Windows 98se

Also, a bit of gossip on the tech-support...so, my ma took the computer into the shop a few monthes back for some program related problem. The tech guys turned off the NAV Corporate (yeah, I know that proggie sucks...one of my plans for the "Grand Cleanup" was to get rid of that and put on Avast!), so that it doesn't turn on at startup...I think she's been running for about 3 monthes without anti-virus! I'm no tech guy, but turning off the AV sounds kinda stupid to me. Is it?

Also, also...an ADSL question (cause my ma's thinking of switching from dial-up): ADSL can run on a phone line without interfering with phonecalls, right? For example, you're connected to the internet, but people can still call you no problem...

 

yes..

as for your virus problem. Well, is there any chance you can download AVAST and burn it to a cd or maybe span it on some floppies using winrar and then install it? Sounds like she's all messed up. You may have to run the SFC to repair files.

What OS is she running?

 

Done and done, kodo! My whole plan for the "Grand Cleanup" was to install a bunch of proggies I had downloaded onto CD from MG. Avast was one of them! Also, Zone Alarm, Ad-Aware, Spybot, CrapCleaner, RegCleaner, and such! Will there be a conflict with the NAV when I run Avast? NAV is still installed, it's just not running. And, like I said in the original post, if I try to run Add/Remove from the Control Panal, then I get that error message.

What's SFC?

She's running Windows 98se.

 

SFC=system file checker need cd for that. I don't know that the restore cd will be sufficient for this.

AVAST should run no prob even with NAV installed so long as it's not enabled. You might as well remove it while you're at it and leave AVAST on there.

 

What cd do I need for this? The original installation cd?

I'll try installing Avast and running it. But, like I said in the original post, running anything from the Control Panel brings up the error message about not finding the "rundll32.exe" file. Where do I find that file?

 

you need a windowsXP cd.

Why do you need to go into the control panel to install the software?

 

My ma's computer (the one having the problems) is running Windows 98se. Does that change anything?

To uninstall NAV I need to go into Control Panal->Add/Remove Programs, don't I?

 

Bump!

Couple of questions: Will the "System Restoration CD" restore the missing "rundll32.exe" file? If not, how can I get that back?

I ran Avast on the computer. It found about 400 or so viruses. They were all Beagle-N or BeagleFamily viruses. Avast couldn't repair them (since it was just loaded, it had no file-restore point), and I put them in the Chest. I hesitate to delete them. What should I do?

Thanks

 

I can't use SFC in Windows 98 because one of the files that it uses, MSINFO32.exe, is an infected file. A lot of other files important for different programs are also infected: I can't load Outlook Express because the msimn.exe file is also infected.

How do I get these files back. I have a couple of disks here that might be useful, but I don't know what I should do with them: one is the "System Restoration CD" and the other is the "Operating System Backup CD". Will either of those be able to supply missing .exe files?

Please help.