Posted on 12/04/2004 10:11:38 AM PST by streetrepair
Hi Folks,
Was trying to fix a friend's PC last night. She's running XP Home and uses a cable modem for access to the internet. As soon as you boot up the machine, dozens of Internet Explorer windows start running in the background, flooding the system, and thereby grinding web performance/access to a halt almost immediately.
I ran Norton Anti-Virus 2005 and it found no problem. I also ran AVG anti-virus software and that too found no problem. If anyone has ideas on what I can do to kill whatever it is that's running in the background, causing this, I'd be most appreciative for your suggestions.
Many thanks...
Do as I do: Promise God never, ever to visit another porn site ever again unless it's some kind of wild, mystifying accident, and then reinstall the system.
And I'm hoping that this won't ruin the MBR.
It would be helpful if you would:
a)Post the url's that these browser windows are pointing to.
b) Take a screenshot of your running processes and post that, as well.
:O)
P
Did you try to use Norton as your boot disk? If not, try that and follow the instructions. You will have to delete this virus before the operating system boots.
Yes, I used Norton as the boot disk as well. Sorry I forgot to mention that. No virus was found. I also ran the software after Windows loaded. Still found nothing either way.
Uplug cable. Copy Important Stuff. Reformat.
Webroot.com provides some trial versions of software that you can use for a couple of weeks...free.
Use it to solve your problem.
Thanks. The first thing I tried were both Ad Aware and Spy Bot. Didn't fix the problem, unfortunately.
Okay, then it's not a virus. It's malware/spyware. Sounds like it is running with a vengeance, too.
Above someone mentioned Ad-Aware. Download it and use it. It's free. Or you could pay for the professional version.
God help me I am trying not to do this but I cannot resist. Try getting a Mac. It will make such a difference. I know I know - but there I have said it.
Would that be the Master Boot Record?
Speaking in geek acronyms is usually not much help.
My one wish for Christmas is to have enough mac users finally to have shi***ads write viruses and trojan horses for it and we can finally get rid of the children on these threads.
Boot in safe mode (try F8) and see what is in the startup folder. Remove everything there. I suspect you have a shortcut in your startup folder that is pointing your IE to an evil site. This would not show up on any virus scan or ad-aware type utility.
I've been thinking about Mac. After all the virus programs cost and the other things.....it may well be worth the change.
Did you go from PC to Mac? What is the biggest change?
and.....what the hell do I do with my office files: word, Access,etc.?
Why don't you just restore the system to a previous operating date?
I have always had a Mac but have to use a PC at work. Trust me - the Mac is so much better. As far as your current files, just get Office for Mac. It is better than the PC version anyway. And you might also want to get Virtual PC. It is an emulator that is produced by Microsoft.
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