IE, Firefox, Opera, not working after virus removal

I've been helping a family friend remove 25 viruses off her computer after her son went nuts on the porn, and some jerk who called himself a tech took thier comp home and installed some things he should not have... we installed firefox as well as opera by request of one of the moderators here and a friend who is a programmer, from my thread in maleware,. he suggested i post for help in here to try and find a solution to the problem. she is running XP home. since the virus removal and everything cleaned and cleared, ths morning she was no longer able to access any secure sites from IE, Firefox and nothing at all from opera, i've checked all security settings, cookies, firewall, antiv software, there is nothing that i can find other than possible damage to the windows files that would effect this, and if so, other than reformatting, which i'm about to do, are there any suggestions to try and fix the issue, also, she does not have the original xp disk, she has the dell reinstall disk.
thank you for your time.

 

To check the files, you can run "sfc /scannow" from a run line or command prompt.

If possible, could you test it to see if it works in safe mode with networking?

Do you have Service Pack 2 installed?

 

svc pack 2 is installed, i'm not getting anywhere with scannow cmd in prompt and i'll check on the safemode w/ networking right now, thx

 

Sorry to throw weblinks at you, but alot of good steps are here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/870700/en-us

Also, there is a host of dll files you can re-register for this type of thing, I'll try and find a list.

 

yep, i can access them in safe mode with networking!!

 

Probably not a file issue, then- Any firewalls appart from the SP 2 one?

 

just the windows one

 

OK, lets try this (make sure you leave the windows firewall on for this):

1st: go to tools-> Internet options in Internet Explorer, go to advanced, uncheck "enable third party browser extentions", reboot, and test.

2nd: If that fails, go to start-> run, "msconfig" (without the quotes). Assuming you are in normal startup, go to the startup tab, hit "disable all", go to the services tab, check "hide all microsoft services" (right above the OK button- don't go through with the rest of the steps if you can't find it), click "disable all", hit apply, hit close, let the computer restart, and see if you have the same problem. If it works, slowly re-check stuff until you find the cause of the problem, and let us know what it is.

 

did that first actually, no luck

 

Ok, open up device manager, go to view->show hidden devices, hit the plus between non-plug and play drivers, and see if you see anything that starts with "sym" or "nav", or something called "mpfirewl" (or very similar), or "VSDATANT".

Let us know!

BTW, in safe mode with networking, were you in the customer's account, or the "Administrator" account? If the second, maybe try a new user account, if you have not already done so.

Best of luck!

 

I ended up reformating her machine for her, setting her up with all new vscan stuff, firefox and a pw to keep her son from surfing porn on it. ty so much for your help.