Infected system

msetter · May 8, 2010

Good Morning,

My laptop became infected with something a couple days ago and I'm not sure what. I'm running Windows 7 ultimate, current security patches in place. I have Norton security suite running.

Initialy the issue was that fake antivirus scanner would pop up and in the alert tray warnings looking like Microsoft alerts would pop up with infection warnings. I ran a ton of things (list at bottom) and after 2 days of running full scans am to a new point. I can now log on as me without errors or popups, can't access the internet, and when I try to open anything tied to explorer it opens in a paint shop pro browser which I have never used and an icon for this is on my desktop that wasnt there before. I can't open control panel, nothing. I also under this logon can not access the internet.

If I log on as another user id (always keep a spare incase) I can get tothe internet but still can't open things.

Scans run more than once
Search and destroy
ad-ware
rootkit
norton full scan
microsoft defender
microsoft security expressions
malwarebytes - running now
installed spyware buster to lock down ie sites.

Every thing is coming up now as 0 infected.

any thoughts?

TimW · May 8, 2010

Welcome to Major Geeks!

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 aother 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.

Log in or Sign up

Infected system

msetter Private E-2

TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member