gavin18787
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 05
Location: Basildon, Essex
User status: Offline
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Laptop seems to have aquired a virus. Xp keeps flagging up a ballon at the bottom from the toolbar saying thats its infected and when ever you try and open a program ie internet explorer you get an error and it closes the program and comes up with the "do you want to report this error" message.
Would buying some anti-virus software help or has it got past that point?
If so how do I go about reformatting it? Ie deleting everything and starting again?
As it still works (just) so I could burn important stuff like my itunes libary to disk and then fuck the rest of the stuff off.
Drives supercharged Tec with torque  
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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It sounds like you have some malware installed on your system.
Download and install some spyware removal software, then try rebooting into safe mode (press F8 before the Windows XP boot screen comes up when you turn the laptop on) and run it, it should find and remove it then.
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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imo, install Avast anti virus (free) then set it to perform a boot time scan (it'll ask you this when it has finished installing)
Then you won't need to worry about booting in safe mode as it'll automatically do the scan before windows starts. If it finds anything, it'll notify you and give you options as to what to do with it - the 2 I'd suggest to look at is to delete or put in quarantine 
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gavin18787
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 05
Location: Basildon, Essex
User status: Offline
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Cheers chaps
Do you reckon I could download the files from this PC onto a memory stick and transfer them onto the laptop?
As internet explorer doesnt work at the moment on the laptop due to the virus.
[Edited on 03-05-2009 by gavin18787]
Drives supercharged Tec with torque
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Yup only way to do it anyway mate. Just download the .exe files then stick them n a USB stick, plug into laptop and install.
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PhilC
Member
Registered: 21st Jan 06
Location: Lancs, UK
User status: Offline
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Swine Flu...
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gavin18787
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 05
Location: Basildon, Essex
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by PhilC
Swine Flu...
Think ive caught it from it too 
Got that program on my phone so will try and install it on the laptop. Will see how it goes
[Edited on 03-05-2009 by gavin18787]
Drives supercharged Tec with torque
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gavin18787
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 05
Location: Basildon, Essex
User status: Offline
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Right installed avast antivirus and did the boot scan.
It found and deleted 43 items ranging from trojans to fake security programs.
Everything seems to work fine now. Only thing is the antispyware tool on my internet (bt yahoo one) keeps saying that it is finding items. But if you tell it to delete them it just finds them again on the next scan 
Drives supercharged Tec with torque
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Coolio - sounds promising.
The BT scan is probably detecting the Avast scanner. TBH, ditch the BT one and get Avast registered for the free home user license as it's far more capable.
I'd also suggest installing Spybot S&D and allow the Resident to run all the time too - this will then monitor each time ANYTHING tries to change the registry and gives you the option to allow or block it. Also run the Spybot scanner as that's bound to pick up a load of crap too
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Daveskater
Premium Member
Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
User status: Offline
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Get rid of the BT anti-spyware and replace it with SUPERantispyware and Spybot. Both of them are free, and will be better than the BT one. Spybot has a very good immunisation system, which actually stops a lot of things from installing on your computer. The TeaTimer module that Rich mentioned is good, the general rule of thumb is to only allow the actions if you're installing something etc, otherwise it's more than likely malware trying to install.
Those two and Avast are all you need really 
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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gavin18787
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 05
Location: Basildon, Essex
User status: Offline
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the main thing that the bt one finds is tracking cookies (fair enough) but it keeps saying its found 2 trojans and a fradulent security system called antispy 2009
Might just ignore it as everything else is working spot on
Drives supercharged Tec with torque
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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If Avast hasn't found it, then it's not there tbh. The BT ones probably corrupted. Avast will find more than that will!
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gavin18787
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 05
Location: Basildon, Essex
User status: Offline
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You on commision from avast 
Although on a serious note thanks for the help, Very much apreciated
Drives supercharged Tec with torque
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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 Your not the only one to say that!!
Should be with the amount of people I've put their way! But no, just like to spread the word about a good free programme
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Daveskater
Premium Member
Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by gavin18787
its found 2 trojans and a fradulent security system called antispy 2009
If you aren't getting popups from the task tray then chances are it's not actually there.
Go to Start > Control Panel > Add/remove programs (XP) or Uninstall a program (Vista) and see if there is anything along the lines of "antispyware 2009" in the list. If there is then uninstall it.
There are loads of rogue antispyware and antivirus programs out there, see this list: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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