Got over 400 nasties DESPITE using Avast!r A

ulrichburke · May 11, 2012

Dear Anyone.

So I got Avast Free, as loads of sites told me it was the best free one. Happily carried on computing. Then things got very s-l-o-w and sticky so I ran Super Anti Spyware (paid for). And it found over 400 nasties!

Got rid of them all. Still trusting Avast, I carried on computing. I write music a lot, tried to bounce down a file as a sound file, instant crash. Looked in Device Manager to see if it said there was anything wrong with the soundcard - and got a blank screen. According to Device Manager, I didn't have any devices whatsoever.

So I'm doing ANOTHER Super Anti Spyware Special - full hard drive check. And thus far, it's found 11 nasties and counting. This is, don't forget, after it found over 400 a couple of days ago.

Now I pay for software, or - occasionally - get given copies of it by people I know off original discs. I don't download cracks and stuff. (OK, so being given a copy of something might have dodgy grounds but at least I'm not downloading the things!) And I don't do porn. But what I want to ask is this.

WHY is Avast supposed to be so all-fired good if it let 400 nasties through a few days ago and has let at least another 11 through a day or two later? It seems I might as well have a WELCOME sign on my hard drive with that piece of crapware on it. And accepting that I've debunked the myth of Avast superiority singlehanded, what SHOULD I be using to stop all these things getting through!?!

I've got XP with SP3 on a PC with 3gig RAM, 1terabyte hard drive and a quadcore processor. And a Soundblaster Audigy LE Soundcard, with the most recent drivers I can find.

Yours frustratedly - I've just lost 3 days work because my music software crashed when trying to bounce down the file to a soundfile -

ulrichburke.

Kestrel13! · May 11, 2012

Let's do a more thorough check please.

Please read ALL of this message including the notes before doing anything.

Pleases follow the instructions in the below link:

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide

and attach the requested logs when you finish these instructions.

**** If something does not run, write down the info to explain to us later but keep on going. ****

Do not assume that because one step does not work that they all will not. MGtools will frequently run even when all other tools will not.

After completing the READ & RUN ME and attaching your logs, make sure that you tell us what problems still remain ( if any still do )!

Helpful Notes:

If you run into problems trying to run the READ & RUN ME or any of the scans in normal boot mode, you can run the steps in safe boot mode but make sure you tell us what you did later when you post logs. See the below if you do not know how to boot in safe mode:

Starting your computer in Safe mode

If you have problems downloading on the problem PC, download the tools and the manual updates for SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes ( links are given in the READ & RUN ME) onto another PC and then burn to a CD. Then copy them to the problem PC. You will have to skip getting updates if (and only if) your internet connection does not work. Yes you could use a flash drive too but flash drives are writeable and infections can spread to them.

If you cannot seem to login to an infected user account, try using a different user account (if you have one) in either normal or safe boot mode and running only SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes while logged into this other user account. Then reboot and see if you can log into the problem user account. If you can then run SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes, ComboFix and MGtools on the infected account as requested in the instructions.

To avoid additional delay in getting a response, it is strongly advised that after completing the READ & RUN ME you also read this sticky:

Don't Bump! It Only Hurts You!!!

Any additional post is a bump which will add more delay. Once you attach the logs, your thread will be in the work queue and as stated our system works the oldest threads FIRST.

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Got over 400 nasties DESPITE using Avast!r A

ulrichburke Private E-2

Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member