Computer Guru's: My computer is almost dead!!!

B

Brian2by2

Experienced Member
Joined
15 February 2003
Messages
1,802
Location
Fort Lauderdale
Alright, if anyone out there can help me, I'm going to hell and back with my computer. I think I have a heavy amount of adware/spyware and possibly some sort of virus that disabled my McAfee!!

Whenever I try and log on, I'm getting constand " ___.DLL cannot load" messages and one is WINMM.DLL and it prevents AIM, Adware remover, and a few other programs from starting.

Then when I open up my IE, it automatically causes this one webpage pop-up ad to keep coming up over and over and over again and ends up freezing my computer!

Anyone have a link to a program I can download to remove this adware and possibly the virus?

Any idea how I can wipe out my computer's harddrive and just start fresh (nothing too important on htis computer that can't be replaced).

Thank you so much guys!
 
Adaware, at http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

Give that a run, it will find and remove most adware. On occassion (rarely) removing some of the nastier stuff can make windows unstable, but I rarely see that happen here at work.

There's also hijackthis http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_hijackthis.html

Scary looking icon, but it will generate a report of various things on your system. Post that here, and we can point out the stuff that doesn't belong.
 
spybot 1.3 is great

spybot works great for us!
do a search for version 1.3 is current.
there are lots of mirrors out there
trev
 
If you want to also know there is a great free antivirus software that you can try since like you said it won't let you into your Mcafee software. Here is the link.

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

Download it and update the software. Then run the scan. I hope it helps and removes the viruses that you "might" have.
 
I would FIRST back-up any/every document that you will need. Try disabling the virus, go to run>msconfig>start up, then uncheck "foreign" programs. Some viruses will appear there sometimes they like to hide them deep in the registry.

If you just want to wipe the system and start fresh(i'm assuming win 98 here), you need a boot disk and a cd with your operating system in it. "format c" is the command in DOS to wipe the hard drive.

Good luck
 
...and if all else fails, call "Mr.Wolf's Computer Services" on 555-9181. :D He'll take care of just about any problem.

<IMG SRC="http://www.punchstock.com/image/corbis/2936184/large/11615651.jpg">
<I><B>"Eliminating All Your Computer Problems"</B></I>
 
error message w/ anti-virus program above

Midnight_Raven said:
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
Click to expand...
hmmm, i have similar problem as B2B2, not w/ my mozilla but w/ my IE... it's basically junk'd and i can't get into the control-panel etc. I get numerous popups or detours to my desired url destinations. Also dialers keep activating.

I DL'd the program above, and i already have SpyBot and Adaware. The program above won't run on my systerm, when I tried to install it. I have WindowsXP w/ Athlon(2gig), 256k RAM, 60gig HD...

The error message i'm getting when installing is:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate this application.

:confused:
 
Last edited:
Spybot is going to solve alot of that, but it sounds like also might have a worm/virus/trojan if it killed your McAfee.
I'd run spybot/adaware, and once you're done with that either download AVG from the link Midnight_Raven suggested, or head over to www.antivirus.com and run their free Housecall scan. This way you wont have to actually install it, so its less likely to get hampared from whatevers ailing you.

If it does have a virus, i highly recommend you ditch McAfee, its really the worst antivirus solution out there.
Both Norton and AVG make very robust antivirus clients that catch stuff way more often than McAfee.
 
NeoNSX said:
... It might be worth your while upgrading to Windows XP.
Click to expand...

I HATE Windows XP! I have it on a laptop. On day I was trying to remove some old software from it, so I went to Control Panel, Add/Remove Software (the "correct" way to remove stuff), and found the programs to remove. Well, it turns out that during the removal of one of the programs, the uninstall program erased a shared file used by Windows XP. I couldn't even boot my computer upon restart!!! I can't remember what the file name was (a DLL file), but a search on Google showed me that many people had the same exact problem. Anyway, I just had to wipe the drive and start over. Luckily there was nothing valuable on there. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
computer glitch
 
yes, thats it, try the online scanner!

Go to Trendmicro and us their online scanner, that has worked for friends of mine!
Yes, and also get norton and scrap Mc.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

Play the virus quiz while it scans your drives!!!
Trev

I'm not a whiz but I know my buddy came over once and had to stop all access to the files that where causin problems on my computor then restart, that way they didnt' start up when my computor booted up. Then we where able to get rid of those files that where causing the problems. I wish I was smart! duh!
 
ok, I'll assume you've got windows 98

"How do i delete those?!"

write down the filenames, then boot into safe mode. Or just boot straight to the command prompt. (hit F8 key when it says "windows is loading")
since those files are not being loaded into memory when you're in safe mode, you can delete the files off your disk.

Why does it keep saying "WINMM.DLL cannot properly start"
a quick google led me to this: microsoft knowledge base article


as for the spy/adware, check out:
http://www.computercops.biz/downloads-cat-14.html
lots of great info on their site. And, if it can't be removed with ad-aware or spybot, then download "hijack this!" from that download page. It will get rid of anything, but it's not very user friendly.


and if you just want to erase everything and start over, which might not be such a bad idea, it's easy.
Just insert your original windows cd into the drive, reboot, and there should be an option in the windows installer to format the drive before installing windows. (haven't used win98 in about 6 years, so not sure where exactly)


hope this helps,
-andrew.
 
Brian2by2 said:
UPDATE: I ran mcafee and found 6 viruses/trojans but they're all write protected so I can't delete them~?!?

Some are adware, but most say "Trojan Name" or "Program name"

example: C:\_ restore\archives\fs1.cab
Trojan Name: StartPage-DU


How do i delete those?!
Click to expand...

http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/11369.html

(If you don't find the cwshredder or hijackthis programs at the links listed in the instructions, just do a google search for other download locations.)

Print & follow ALL the instructions exactly per Response #37.
 
You cannot delete a program that is running Brian. They must be turned off before deleting them. The safe mode function is worth a try, or you can do it from DOS mode, or like I suggested before go into msconfig and shut down all non OS programs... then delete.

Good luck
 
Brian2by2 said:
UPDATE: I ran mcafee and found 6 viruses/trojans but they're all write protected so I can't delete them~?!?

Some are adware, but most say "Trojan Name" or "Program name"

example: C:\_ restore\archives\fs1.cab
Trojan Name: StartPage-DU


How do i delete those?!
Click to expand...
Yea, I agree pretty much with what others have said. hit the F8 key during boot up to bring up a menu of boot options. If you have one that says "Safe mode with Networking" , else just "Safe Mode", choose it. then go the the trendmicro website www.antivirus.com and run the scan, it will then be able to remove the files.

I HATE Windows XP! I have it on a laptop. On day I was trying to remove some old software from it, so I went to Control Panel, Add/Remove Software (the "correct" way to remove stuff), and found the programs to remove. Well, it turns out that during the removal of one of the programs, the uninstall program erased a shared file used by Windows XP. I couldn't even boot my computer upon restart!!! I can't remember what the file name was (a DLL file), but a search on Google showed me that many people had the same exact problem. Anyway, I just had to wipe the drive and start over. Luckily there was nothing valuable on there.
Click to expand...

I'm in disagreement with ya here. From the standpoint of someone that has to help people with computer problems every day Windows XP is the greatest. It runs the smoothest, is least likely to throw a Blue Screen of Death, and the menus are easy to navigate (If an 80 year old lady can figure it out, anyone can).

I run WinXP on all my machines, and will continue up until maybe after Longhorn is released
 
"windows 2000" = windows nt 5.0
"windowsXP" = windows nt 5.1

windowsXP is bloated and slow, IMHO. Under the hood, it's essentially the same as win2k, which is faster and more stable.
 
Brian2by2 said:
UPDATE: I ran mcafee and found 6 viruses/trojans but they're all write protected so I can't delete them~?!?

Some are adware, but most say "Trojan Name" or "Program name"

example: C:\_ restore\archives\fs1.cab
Trojan Name: StartPage-DU


How do i delete those?!
Click to expand...
If you're not using NTFS, you should be able to boot up to DOS using a floppy or CD, then delete those files via the command line. You might also try using Process Explorer to determine what processes might be utilizing those files, and kill them to eliminate the file protection issue, so that you can delete the infected files.
 

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