Sorry

I didn't know that there was a previous event where someone was asking for money, etc. But I am really struggling IRL and thought that maybe some of you would be nice and help a bit. So I am sorry to all of you for all of the drama. On a second thought, instead of asking for money for a new computer, does anyone know how to get rid of a very bad virus on a Dell Inspiron 530? It will boot up in safe mode and access the internet but doesn't run any other programs other than Mozilla Firefox. Thank you.

EDIT: Forgot to mention its a Vista.

Previous event? you mean thousands... per day.

You own quite a nice in world busness as I hear it. Plus 4 RL jobs!!!


Here is the previous thread: /327/ae/306891/1.html

As for helping, just reinstall vista.

Your computer came with a cd, or it is an option when you boot it up.

I have clicked the restore option, it tells me that it has been broken or some sort. And well I am still sorry for asking for money.

if you can go into safe mode and access the internet - and if it is a virus causing the issue - i suggest you go to this site - http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml - run the free online cleaner - you will have to run it under IE - this sorts pretty much everything

Well, have you tried any virus scanners? A lot of people like AVG Free http://free.avg.com/

No one can really help you with your problem unless they know exactly what the problem is.
And yes I realize the best you can really explain it is "a virus".

Are you sure the problem is what you think it is? Sometimes it is best to post exactly what is wrong, details on what happens etc. You say other things wont run... well why? what error messages do you get?

Why don't you head over to the technical issues forum, and post a thread, covering what I asked and posably any other info you can give.

Awww, *hugs*.

People asking for money is frowned upon in most venues i believe. I do feel for you that you having computer problems. That is just as bad as car problems for many people. I hope you fall into some cash and can remedy your computer problems.

I know that it is a trojan. When I go into the reg. mode it lets me on for maybe 5 minutes then gives me the blue screen of death.

Other post:
IE will not run. Don't know why.

Sad thing is I had just started designing skins and other things. Then this happens! Ugh! I miss SL so very much. :/

not a system restore, an actuall reinstall of windows. just back up any info you need, insert your recovery disc and follow the instructions. Make sure your recovery disc has the drivers that will get you back online, if not, go get those first. (I did a reformat recently and didn't have those drivers, had to go to someone else's house, load them on CD and bring them home before I could get online to update everything else).

Listen, never mind all the other goose chase, just go get help from the experts at majorgeeks.com

Run through this "READ ME FIRST" tutorial, following every step thoroughly, and if this doesn't clear up the problem, you can register there, post in the proper section (the information is in the tutorial) and they can assist you with removal.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

You folks who are suggesting she try some virus scanner probably aren't aware of just how bad the viruses have gotten lately.

It's no longer bored programming students looking for a mention in the news. Malware is a serious business these days. A network of computers that a rogue programmer can control to perform attacks on other networks or send spam through can be worth a lot of money.

They don't want their work compromised and they are well informed of what the threats are, how they work, how to get around them and how to keep them from working. Once a serious virus gets in, it hides itself, installs companion programs to protect itself, disables any existing protection, kills internet inquiries and blocks access to websites about itself and updates itself on a regular basis.

AV vendors have hundreds of thousands files of known malware to watch out for, and new ones happening all the time, trying new tricks. In comparison, virus writers have only a handful well known security programs, and it's suprisingly easy to get someone to push that red button.

To the OP. Contact the manufacturer, and tell them you have an issue that requires a total reinstall, and that you need a set of disks. (Computers seldom come with restore disks any more folks.) They'll probably charge you, but it will be less than the cost of a new computer. If it's out of warranty, find someone local who are willing to do the reinstall for you. If you absolutely must have a rock bottom cost, consider a install of Ubuntu. It does most of what most people typically do on computers right out of the box, (Including run SL.) And learning to use it won't be any more difficult than going from, say, WXP to Vista.

Once you've taken care of the issue, STOP DOING THE THINGS THAT GOT YOU INFECTED. Whatever it was. Downloads of whatever from untrusted sites or torrents. Operating constantly as administrator. Clicking "OK" on every box that pops up. . .You probably already have a good idea of what it was.

Good luck.

Maybe things in the US are different than over here in Germany, but doesn't Dell have customer support? What do they say?

And if it's "just" a trojan or virus, there's a lot of hope, you certainly don't need a new computer.

I would go with the options in DanceswithRobots post. Once a virus has breached the antivirus defenses then the antivirus program is useless. Your system can sometimes be saved but action needs to be taken in the first few minutes. And with a really hot virus then you are talking seconds to shutdown your computer and work from safe mode. The first thing any self respecting virus does is disable your antivirus, HijackThis, SpybotSD, hosts file etc. Days later is waaaaaay too late.

Dances has the best answer- but u certainly can't hurt anthing worse while u wait for the reinstall discs (The Geek Squad @ Best Buy if you ha e them will charge a little over $100 for the total reinstall btw).

OK- do you have access to another comp? Because many virus won't let u access sites that might possibly solve the issue. Your virus scanner if it can run at all might be able to tell you what particular thing got u.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/ has a program for free that is pretty good at beating the nasties- good luck.

Got to http://www.ubuntu.com download the live CD. Put it in your DVD Rom and boot up, play aorund with it if you like it install it and you won't be bothered with viruses... SL works very well with it

There is a VERY SIMPLE diagnostic you can try before you go further.

Run your computer in regular mode and wait for the blue screen of death and then hit any key. I hit F8 thinking I wanted my computer to reboot in safe mode when this happened to me and the blue screen of death disappeared and my desktop reappeared. Blue screens of death are not supposed to disappear like that. There is a virus called Joke.bluesod, and my computer had it. It installed a fake blue screen of death screen saver.

If your blue screen of death is fake here is your next step. Either from Firefox or another computer, search for "joke.bluesod removal" or "bluesod removal" You can get manual removal protocols. The protocols are tedious because you are going to be editing and removing registry files, but it beats reinstalling everything. Not all viruses block access to themeslves.

Also sometimes you need to run anti-virus with the system restore turned OFF. This happened to me a couple of weeks ago and it took several tries and a fair number of reboots, but my Norton finally slew the virus.

Good luck.

little more involved then that I have just found out. I tryed mounting it with magiciso but it gave me fits. so I ordered the free cd. but anyways Dances has the best answer

I had a few viruses and malware awhile back that made my computer almost unusable, disabled the registry, borked google searches, spammed me with pop-ups, etc. Actually, one way I got around the google search redirects was selecting the cache instead of the direct link. That always seemed to work somehow, and I browsed forums that way for help pertaining to my problem.

I also had an outdated Norton Antivirus. Gah, I despise Norton. Anyway, after several "fix it" utilities and registry hacking I managed to expunge Norton and a few of my more malicious virus symptoms and somehow magically got Spybot Search & Destroy and AVG installed and running. After those two were in place they pretty much destroyed all the bad crap on my PC. Haven't had a problem since. Anyway, I'd recommend checking out Spybot Search & Destroy and AVG. They're probably common and popular options for people, and they're free.

This is what I was talking about when I suggested you do if you need a solution with a rock bottom cost. Horny said it better tho.

You can boot off an Ubuntu CD, and run just fine. If you like it, you can use a program called wubi to install it without messing up your Windows partition. SL actually seems to run a little better under Ubuntu, and in my case, I didn't have to track down a single driver.

Welcome to the forums, Nikki. You've got some good advice on the virus issue already, I won't add more. I will ask if you're running a firewall on that thing .. if not, my personal recommendation is ZoneAlarm, I've used the free version for years and it's done an excellent job.

I'm glad you didn't run away from the forums, and felt you could still post here.

Once people quit commenting that post, it will disappear and be forgotten.

Okay I just went in safe mode and found something in the processes, a file called csrssc.exe and csrss.exe I know that one is system and one is the virus. I've have ended the process but it pops back up, etc. Its been probably 2 weeks since I got the virus so its too late?

I never run from anything, lol. I don't think SL forums go over 3 pages on main page right? (I've noticed in textures that it doesn't anyways.)

This is the same folks that I mentioned earlier on- the Malwarebytes people. Really recommend you download this and run it. It is very good virus killer.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8792