Posted on 10/31/2008 10:12:07 PM PDT by lowbridge
This is a bit lengthy, so please bear with me.
Damn, but I did something stupid and downloaded something I shouldnt have (no, not porn. get your mind out of the gutter :-)). When I downloaded this virus, the cmd screen came up and showed the following: crack.exe, serial.exe, number.exe, keygen.exe AND readme.bat
I panicked, deleted those things, but it hasnt fixed my problem. It seems to have hijacked my internet explorer browser. When I clicked on the IE icon, it brought up the IE browser for all of a second or two before closing. (So, I used Firefox to browse the web, which is working, thankfully) Oh, the IE browser did appear, that is when one of those pop up advertisements comes up. Which I had NO control over. It came up whenever it felt like it, then it stays open untill I close it. BUT I could not use it to browse the web as there are no buttons, tool bar, address box, etc.
And it seemed to prevent me from running/installing spyware. Oh, I was able to download the applications of some spyware programs, but then when I tried to open the application and run them, the damn virus wont let it! I have run a scan with some freeware spy scanning programs and much to my shock they revealed over 250 problems. worse of which are named "spyware.igmonster", zlob, (also spelled out by one scanning program as zlop (with a "p"), trojan.infostealer.bankers
Some spyware programs seemed to be able to download, but when I ran them, they seem to have failed in getting rid of the viruses. (I am using freeware as I do not have any money to buy a good anti virus program) Some seem to do more harm than good as one such program seems to have made me delete some important windows files (a couple of ".exe" files. The spyware program warned me about deleting such a file because it was in my WINDOWS folder, but I chose to delete them anyways as the spyware told me that they were infected) because when I tried to shut down my computer, it gave me a blue screen and an error message (coooo21a). So I had to manually turn it off, but even sometimes that didnt work, so I have to unplug it.
That isnt the end of it.
It was bad enough getting that error message when I tried to shut down my computer, but after another attempted fix of the viruses, it got worse. Now I get that blue screen with the error message when I turn on my computer and try to boot up! I would get a blue screen with the folllowing message;
STOP: c00021a (Fatal System Error) The Windows Logon Process System process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0x00000000 (0x00000000 0x00000000) The system has been shut down
And the computer wouldnt do anything. It would just sit there with that message staring at me. I would try to shut down the computer by pressing the power button on the tower, but even that wouldnt work! I would have to unplug the computer to get it to shut off!
NOW I'm getting it when I'm trying to start up my computer! I've tried to get around that by starting it in safe mode, but then I just get the above 'fatal error" all over again.
How can I fix this? Can I fix this myself (I'm not computer literate) or do I need the services of a professional (how much do they usuallly charge?)
I have always used lavasoft but the last time I tried to scan I received a message saying it wasn’t free any longer or some such wording, so I gave up.
After reading your post that it’s (still) available and free, I just tried scanning and it went o.k.—I have 108 “critical objects”-with an exclamation point. Seems to me there was a “spider” rathr than an exclam. point. Also 29 negligible objects. I’ve just been thinking I need to find another system, so thank you. If I were a 4 year old instead of a grandmother, I would be more computer savvy!:)
I assume this means I have nothing to worry about. We have Norton antivirus and Life Update frequently.
By the way, my computer is less than a year old. I got it back in December 2007.
Your machine still might be under warranty. If not call them anyway and explain your problem.
I'm a Mac guy but I suspect Dell might be willing to send you replacement disks for your OS which means you are basically out of the woods (assuming you don't have any files you want to save from your hard drive)
“With a MAC, what would happen if you tried to download the same virus,”
Nothing would happen. Mac is a different operating system so it has no effect. In fact, I have opened emails with viruses in them and nothing happens. There are two reasons Macs don’t get viruses, no one writes viruses for macs because there aren’t enough macs around to spread them, and viruses are harder to write for macs.
I will contact Dell support and see what they say.
By the way, I made a mistake in the title. The error code in the title of this thread reads: c00021a, when that should be four zeros, not three. The error code I get is : c000021a
And this: 0x00000000 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
Is supposed to be this: 0x00000005 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
(I dont know if that makes any difference)
wrong
good luck.
Linux is fine and safer for net surfing. My thinking is that you have a nice expensive machine for which you've already shelled out money for the-not-real-cheap XP so you may as well stick with that. And XP is more user friendly and there is more software available for it, especially games.
If you want to make your computer a dual boot machine, that's an option but I suspect you will find yourself using one OS 99 percent of the time and it won't be Linux.
Now, if you were buying a new machine, Linux would certainly be something to consider since it would save a nice bit of change.
Or if you want to play around with Linux, get yourself one of those church thrift shop machines and download (free) Ubuntu for it.
OR if you want to play around with Linux, now, make yourself a Ubuntu disk (which will run from the CD) and give it a spin on your Dell computer while you are waiting for your XP disks.
Heck, since you are going to format hard drive anyway (this means destroying all the data on there now), you may as well install it and play with it while you wait. You should have no problem connecting to the web
Another thing, when you do get your Dell working download Firefox and use that as your browser rather than IE. It is much more malware resistant.
Lowbridge, with regard to my last post. Don’t format your hard drive until you talk to Dell.
I understand that you have a Dell system and bought it in December 2007.
Use your brother’s computer and go to Dell support site and check if your system is still under warranty:
(click on Warranty Status)
If you still have warranty, then call them.
If you out of warranty, then go to their support site (http://support.dell.com/ ), and under the title Windows XP Support chose: How to Restore Your Computer´s Software to the Factory Settings.
You can find more specific support to your system by choosing Product Support from the main support page.
Going back to factory settings means you will lose all the programs you installed since you bought your System and that goes for all the work/files you previously created.
I hope you have the recovery CD’s that came with your system, so you can follow their instructions. If you don’t have the required CD’s, I think you can order them on their site.
It wont be hard to do the task. Good luck!
Shocking simply shocking!!!!!!
It was a joke. ;)
I didn’t realize your computer was less than a year old. You should get it repaired under warranty. Chances are they will swap your hard drive and you will just have to pay shipping to send the old one back in.
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