Various Problems With Malware...

Mislarieth · Jul 11, 2011

Okay, so, a couple weeks ago, my family's internet router was attacked by malware. It sent us all malware and stuff and generally screwed up our computers we got them all fixed, except for mine, because I guess I was hit harder than everyone else because of my idiotic lack of anti-virus (I could never find the time to install a free one, and now I have to pay for that move). I was able to get the virus/malware stuff off that everyone else had gotten, but now I have different viruses....

So, enough with the back story. The problems: Search engine redirection (I tried to follow the tutorial here: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=230267 but I was unable to do step 4 (which is my problem) because no matter what I did, I couldn't get the file to run (I followed their instructions and everything)), random deselection of all windows (selection of desktop, I guess...), and Internet Explorerer is running all of the time and I can't end it (in the background... I just see it on task manager, and it's always like, 4th or 5th from the most memory used).

What I've tried: Several scans (I installed AVG and did plenty of scans there, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Spybot - Search & Destroy, msert, HijackThis...), I've also done ATF-Cleaner... I've tried a lot of things

So, this is my first post here... Should I also post my hardware? Oh yeah, I'm running Windows XP Pro 2002 Service Pack 3... So yeah, thanks! What should I do?

TimW · Jul 11, 2011

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.

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Various Problems With Malware...

Mislarieth Private E-2

TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member