Infected Mini laptop...

[mrcaptainbob]

Dang! I was searching for a funeral home and when I clicked on it's dotcom site I got redirected. Not knowing what was happening I did it a second time and got redirected to yet a different 'search' engine. I finally did get what I wanted, but then the system stated popping up with security warnings and did a virus system scan before I could stop it. I can't even do a restore. There's nothing on this system that I care to save and would like to just format the disc and reload software, but I have no discs with it. It's a Dell Mini running XP.
I was operating through FireFox at the time. Now there's a yellow shield located in the lower right corner of the screen that was never there before. I can't get into config either.
Is there a way to save this unit? (Hardware-wise?). I'll reload all software if I can get to it.

[mikeylikesit5805]

Hey,

Ive been working on computers for a long time. This is what I would do.

Shut the computer off, start it up, holding down "F8" when the "safemode" screen comes up, select safemood with networking.

Download malwarebytes. www_.malwarebytes.org/ just download the free version Let it update and scan.

Next Download Startup CPL www_.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml and disable all the start up functions.

Install CCleaner and get all the crap off. www_.piriform.com/ccleaner

Let me know how that works.

Thanks!

[mikeylikesit5805]

make sure to get rid of the _ in the URL's so that you can go to the website, it wont let me post links.

[mrcaptainbob]

Laptop issue..

I did the F8 safe mode. Clicked on Administrator. I tried running the usual Mozilla, but it would not work. Tried the IE and that would not work either. So I cannot download those sites unless in regular mode. The message while in safe mode was : Error 12007
*server name or address cannot be resolved.
*could not make http, https or ftp connection.

Should I download those while in normal mode? By the way, there is only 8% (607mb) left on this system. Defrag is a chore now.
Thanks for the help.

[Awaz]

Dang! I was searching for a funeral home and when I clicked on it's dotcom site I got redirected. Not knowing what was happening I did it a second time and got redirected to yet a different 'search' engine. I finally did get what I wanted, but then the system stated popping up with security warnings and did a virus system scan before I could stop it. I can't even do a restore. There's nothing on this system that I care to save and would like to just format the disc and reload software, but I have no discs with it. It's a Dell Mini running XP.
I was operating through FireFox at the time. Now there's a yellow shield located in the lower right corner of the screen that was never there before. I can't get into config either.
Is there a way to save this unit? (Hardware-wise?). I'll reload all software if I can get to it.

Yes, you should be able to save it. You said you did an antivirus scan. Is that a scan you did using the antivirus installed in your computer? Or is it a website that popped up saying antivirus scan is needed? There are some scam 'antivirus' website out there that will pop a message via your browser ( IE or whatever you use) that you have security issue and need to scan your computer. If you click that scan button, 9 times out of 10, they will lock your computer and then you pretty much have to pay them to 'fix' the problem. There may still be a way to resolve that issue - but need to know if that is what happend to your computer.
The yellow shield maybe microsoft updates? Hover your mouse over it and it should say.

[Speedbump]

If it's what I call the "you've got a virus ""virus"", you will need a SATA/IDE to USB adaptor. You have to remove your hard drive and use the cable and another machine with the updated virus scanners. I like Malwarebytes and Avast. The two of them have worked good for me to remove this from about five different machines. Well, actually one of them twice. She's blonde. She even sent them the money once.

This is a very sophisticated virus and they keep changing it, so it gets more difficult each and every time.

[mrcaptainbob]

Laptop....

Yep! It claims my computer is infected and all I have to do is send them some money and they can fix it. Now when I try to load FireFox, I get a message that the proxy server will not load. At this point the only way to turn it off is to hold the power button down, as there is no more cursor control.

[Speedbump]

Sure sounds like the virus that I described above. You can buy one of the cables I mentioned from Best Buy or Comp USA etc. I think mine was in the $20.00 range. Well worth the cost as you can hook up any hard drive and access it as if it were in your machine.

There may be other ways to remove this virus, but I do know that the antivirus software don't seem to see it coming and the virus seems to be pretty good at shutting your antivirus software off.

[Awaz]

What Speedbump said is a good way to get rid of it. But instead of getting the cable, I just hook up the bad drive as a slave drive by opening up the good computer. But if you do not mind spending the 20 bucks for the cable, you then just open up your infected comp to get the drive. I do not know if one cable supports both SATA and IDE - maybe Speedbump can enlighten us on that. If not, check what it is and get the right cable.

I am also wondering if you can actually load a good antivirus software in a thumb drive and run it from there. Are you able to even load the computer and get to the desktop?

I usually use McAfee and Norton. McAfee is resource hog but I got a souped up gaming rig. I would think any well known antivirus can get rid of it. I had to deal with that virus only twice in my father-in-law's comp. I was able to get rid of it using CA antivirus.

[Speedbump]

Yes, it can be used with either SATA or IDE. Sometimes it gets a little finickie as to which you plug in first the power or the USB cable, but trial and error usually wins out.

[mrcaptainbob]

Cable info...

The cable you guy's are talking about....one end is USB and plugs into the good-desk-top-PC and the other end is a SATA/IDE and that would plug in where on the mini-laptop? It sounds like I cannot use a double ended USB to go from the PC to the mini? I do have a Trend Micro item that is about the size of a cigarette lighter and plugs into the mini laptop's USB. But that does not work either.

[NightBird]

It almost sounds like this bug has disabled the usb ports so that he can't network and scan remotely. That means its time to get the screw driver out and physically pull the drive and put it in a external drive box to scan and clean it. Or it may have corrupted some key system files.

Which to me means a reinstall of your OS.

After the drive is clean you could try booting it and using system restore to get back to your original settings. Or you could use device manager to directly reenable the devices ie usb ports and mouse etc that you need.

Before you do anything though write down the information you find on the general (first page) or the system information window that you get to by right clicking on the my computer icon and left clicking on the properties section. The license number and information may allow you to get replacement disks From Dell or microsoft. You have to talk to them though as I have no experience with this.

For what its worth when I've ended up on one of "those sites" the second I get the first redirect I shut the browser down, scan the system and remove all cookies. I've never been infected that way. I also keep my virus protection updated with automatic updates and I update first if I haven't been on for more than 24 hours. I'm running Trend internet security which was recommended to me by the IT folks where I work.

I hope some of this helps. Good Luck

[Speedbump]

Here is a picture of the kit I'm referring to. Like NiteBird said, you will have to get the hard drive out of the computer to use this kit. It looks similar to this one I just found on line.