Posted on 04/15/2009 8:08:49 PM PDT by girlangler
Can any freepers give me some advice on how to get rid of the Rapid Antivirus that appartently has infected my laptop?
I am desperate. I have some deadlines and even my Internet Explorer, Firefox won't operate. FRUSTRATING!!
Thanks in advance for any advice.
What antivirus do you have on there? Give us more info.
Freebies:
Malwarebytes anti-malware
AVG Anti-virus
Avast AV
I personally like
PC Tools Spyware Doctor & AV but it is not free.
Also this webpage:
http://www.spywareremove.com/removeRapidAntivirus.html
What anti-virus program are you running?
I like solo antivirus and then I run spybots, then ad-aware. If things are still not fixed, I will run hijackthis.
I have found an antispyware tool that is free to download and will remove this malware. The software is SuperAntiSpyware. Its friendly and works well.
First off, I have to admit I am totally illiterate when it comes to computing (except writing my articles, emailing them to the publisher, and surfing the net, mostly FR).
I have McAfee antivirus software, don’t even know what version. About 1 1/2 years ago I had a problem with downloading a spyware, and a freeper (a dear friend) suggested Spybot Search and Destroy. I have depended on that since, and have had no problems.
I am now on my laptop, at my Mom’s (she is elderly and sick) and last night I was trying to write a column, surfing a few websites (keywords about wildlife, animals in a certain state, for article ideas), and suddenly I had all these popups telling me I had a virus. Since I had that experience before, I knew better than to hit any button loading this *** up. I hit NO, or the X, to no avail, I still ended up with an icon on my desktop that I now know is that rapid antivirus.
I had to leave today (attended TWO Tea parties in small towns). I want to write a (promised) report of these, as well as a column that is NOW overdue, but all day I can’t even open Firefox or IE.
I am on here now, so apparently I have somehow managed to resolve some of these issues, but I need to get this danged virus off. I don’t want to even think about paying for anything right now, if necessary I will later.
Thank you all for your advice. I’ll probably be up all night trying to download what you suggest and try to resolve this.
Crazy **. I don’t undertand it. I spent the past 15 years or so using MACs on my job (when I worked fulltime) and for companies that had experts to take care of all this for us. Since I have decided to work at home, and use a PC, it has been a nightmare mostly. I think I will go back to being a MAC user!!!
If you do manage to get a good anti-virus scanner downloaded, you might want to restart your computer in SAFEMODE ...
I use AVG, Spybot and StopZilla
rarely can I not kill the bug
but insidious crap ...trojans mostly ...leftover crawls in yer registry start-up and mimics other .exe stuff....
iexplore.exe, bbsubi.exe, qqtask.exe and all sorts of HP junk, adobe program files, java and lost run.dll crap and just continues to slow ya down..you get duplicate start stuff and can’t figure which is real and which is a worm
I’m not sure anyone short of a real seris tekkie can totally clean a computer that is heavy net use.
good luck
google yer precise bug and check the forums, beware lots of sites sell the cleaner and some are proably the same folks who made the bug to start
I don't know if the anti-virus stuff could be loaded onto the laptop using a USB port device or if you'll need burn a copy to CD. Since you say that your browsers won't work, then you might have to bring the medicine in the form of CD or USB device.
Otherwise, if all efforts of getting antivirus software transported to the lap-top fail ---
You might try booting from OS (operating system) disk, if you have a copy.
Hit F12 early, within first few seconds upon start up, which should open a choice of booting normally, booting from disk, etc. Choose "from disk". You will need to utilize the up-down keys on the keyboard, for the mouse won't work at this juncture...
If successful to here, you will then be offered a choice of reloading the OS (don't do this unless NOTHING else works!) or emergency repair. Choose repair, of course.
At this point it's easy to get confused, for after following the on-screen instructions, it will ask if you have a "repair disk". The OS disk is not a repair disk, so take the choice which requires the computer to search for the program. Sound crazy, I know, but it is an MS platform...
If you get that far following the on-screen instructions, it's possible(?) the OS can be repaired. I cannot guarantee this as a fix, for I'm no expert, but I do have an old Windows 2000 OS dependent laptop which I have to periodically submit to this treatment to keep the USB port wireless working.
Otherwise, if one needs to reload the entire OS, be aware you will LOSE all the documents you have. If that turns out to be the case, I sure hope you have some USB thumbdrive devices and their needed software already loaded on your computer, so that you can download onto them what is on the laptop which you wish to "save".
This reloading of the OS is called "nuking", like nuclear weapons, so be careful. It will wipe out all info not on the original OS disk, for reloading the OS is overwriting. Avoid it as being only a last ditch effort. And that to save the machine only, for the data will end up nuked into (near) oblivion. Only a highly skilled and well equiped pro would be able to restore the info at that point.
bttt
Go to www.malwarebytes.org and download that and run it. Next dump McAfee and go with AVAST anti-virus. You can find it at www.downloads.com under anti virus and both the programs are FREE. I also run Spybot and Super anti spyware on all my computers including laptop.
Thanks CVA.
I appreciate and respect your opinions.
Did you make it to a tea party today? I went to one small one today in Jellico (of all places), and another in Jacksboro, which had a HUGE turnout!!!
There is hope for our country. Those voters who stayed home in 2008 were out in force, the SILENT majority.
Thank God. It’s about time Americans wake up. The last election was a farce, we need to take back our country!!!
Now back to my computer problems.
Instead of posting this I need to be writing about my experiences today!!!
I should have went up to Jacksboro today but I wasn't thinking. Mainly I stick to writing protest letters to politicians. Seems I've had to do a lot of that lately also.
On the other programs I mentioned make sure you keep them updated and do occasional full scans at least once every two weeks or so.
Oh yea with Avast run the scan in normal range. The full scan takes probably 8 hours and really isn't necessary. The basic virus scan will take about 30 minutes and won't interfere with your memory doing other task. IOW not much RAM drain on the system. The scan set up takes a little bit of gettting used to at first.
None of those work with Linux. Any ideas for those of us who won’t use the Bill Gates approved software?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.