Malware Virus? Can't open or run programs!

perfectpawn909 · Jun 4, 2009

Looks like I got a virus on my home pc…not sure when or where, all I know is yesterday I got a few popups while online, just on regular sites. So I tried to open the Malware Bytes Anti-Malware software I downloaded last year, which is fantastic at getting rid of trojans and etc. But get this – the program wouldn’t open! Even right clicking and clicking “open” didn’t work, nor did right clicking and clicking “open as.” And what’s worse – none of the programs on the desktop will open, ie Spybot Spyware Removal, Ad Aware, etc. Even going into the C drive and finding the actual folder and clicking from there, it still won’t open.

I found this online scan place – Trend Micro Housecall. It scanned my PC for 4 hours…I let it run overnight. I woke up and checked it – it had found 15 instances, with a few trojans (some of which appeared to be Ad Aware features). I clicked “remove all” and it ran for another hour or so. I was asleep but my wife saw it when it finished – she said the result said “some malware could not be removed.”

Anyway…she browsed online after that and didn’t get any popups or anything. But programs – apparently ONLY spy/malware/virus-detecting programs – will still not open!

Another clue that I’m infected: if I do a Google search, the results display in a super large font, which happened the last time I was infected.

I found this list of online scanning software:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11168

Does anyone think any of these will work? My goal is to bypass whatever’s preventing me from opening these programs – to find and detect it via an online service. Or does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

TimW · Jun 6, 2009

Welcome to Major Geeks!

You will need to at least get us the MGLogs.zip....and do try renaming the scan tools and try running them in safe mode.

Please follow the instructions in the READ & RUN ME FIRST link given futher down and attach the requested logs when you finish these instructions.

If you have problems where no tools seem to run, please try following the steps given in the below and then continue on no matter what you find. You only need to try the TDSSserv steps if having problems getting scans in the Read & Run Me First. If TDSSserv is not found, just continue on with the READ & RUN ME.

TDSSserv Non-Plug & Play Driver Disable

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide

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.

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, Malwarebytes and Spybot ( 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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Malware Virus? Can't open or run programs!

perfectpawn909 Private E-2

TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member