HELP! I've Been Micro-Hosed

Myself | lafroste

[lafroste]

I've had what started out as a minor problem with my computer escalate way out of control. Two nights ago I got impatient waiting for all the junk on my computer to load after an installation reboot. I hit the reboot program before I should have, it clashed with a just loading Zone Alarm, corrupted a Zone Alarm dll, and all heck broke loose.

The corrupted file looped and brought my system to a standstill. I finally got it turned off (unless I highlight it or do anything to it at all), but I can't delete it (inpage error), I can't rename it, I can't delete its directory tree, I can't turn it off (I did manage to mangle the path, which is how I turned it off - but Norton System Works obligingly fixed the registry to match the new path and it kicked off again).

I can't get my computer to boot into Safe Mode (its a Windows 2000 Profesional) because it refuses to give me the option..

I spent hours preparing emergency boot disks (4 of them) from the original Micro-sludge disk. I ran the disks, selected "repair" and it promptly destroyed my system. It re-installed Micro-puke, and destroyed my development web server, my Office suite, my CAD program and my financial software (probably more than that, but I haven't finished surveying the damage). I'm posting this from a friend's machine that I agreed to set up for her. Also, I am still an administrator, but every time I try to change something (like file views), Micro-slut informs me that I don't have access rights to change that.

The final insult is that damned corrupted dll from zone alarm is still there and still blocking my network access.

How can I delete the Dammed thing?! dOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF IT?

Now excuse me while I go kick the dog...

PS: I may not be able to review this thread until tomorrow (and I don't own a dog :))

[GoLightly]

I'd "run" "msconfig" & disable anything & everything to do with zone alarm from "start up". After you've done that, run system works again.

[GoLightly]

I'd "run" "msconfig" & disable anything & everything to do with zone alarm from "start up". After you've done that, run system works again.

[Sprite518]

Actually there is a fix. Its two programs you have to run.. Once is called DLL (I cannot remember the full name), and the other is Kill box. They are real dangerous programs to run if you do not know what you are doing. Nevertheless, they should fix your computer. I fixed 3 computers that were really gimped with that software.

[lafroste]

Can you boot DOS? If you can boot to DOS, delete the file from the DOS prompt. You will need to enter the path by hand.

Tried that. I have an old DOS 6.x.x that I kept for just such an emergency, and also a Win98 disk. Trouble is that they can only read FAT files, this machine has NTFS so they don't see even the hard drives at all. (That was last night's adventure).

[lafroste]

That sounds promising, I'll try that. Thanks.

[lafroste]

Reinstall wind(bl)ows and start over.

Yeah I thought of that. But think of all the "freeware" I'll lose....

[Sprite518]

Here you go,

This is pretty easy to rid yourself of:
> Download both of these:
>
> http://www.downloads.subratam.org/DllCompare.exe
> &
> http://www.downloads.subratam.org/KillBox.exe
>
> Killbox I have just updated to ver 2.0.0.76 which will work in removing
> the
> files, so make sure you have this version.
>
> Run Dllcompare, by clicking the "Run Locate.com" then click Compare
> button... when done post the log..do not reboot becuase all the filenames
> will change otherwise. Have killbox ready, you'll have a few files to
> delete
> in a certain way.
>
>
>
> Open Killbox, click the option Replace on Reboot & click the box Use Dummy
>
> You'll see the path to the filename appear in the bottom box.
>
> copy & paste 1 at a time into the top box
>
> Click the red X, Say yes to the message box that comes up, then say No to
> the next box asking you to reboot.
>
> This is important becuase if you reboot before you are finished entering
> all
> the files, you will have to start over again.
>
> Do the same for this entire list
>
>
>
> when these are all done, also add(just in case)
>
> C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\guard.tmp
>
> Ok so a recap of this
>
> 1.)Copy a path & file (whole line) from the list here, and paste it to the
> first line(of killbox) 2.)Check the box 'Use Dummy' & click the Red X (for
> each File you enter, as it autoclears) 3.)Say "Yes" to first message, and
> "No" to reboot now(next message) 4.)Repeat for the entire list, and lastly
> enter
>
> C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\guard.tmp as the last file
>
> 5.)Reboot, run the DllCompare again and post a new log.
>
> Hopefully that will clear pretty much everything for files.

[Prime Choice]

The problem with the Mac for me has always been the fact that everything (hardware, software) is +25% more expensive than the Windows version.

Huh. I got the Mac Mini for the same price as a regular PC desktop (~$550). Needed software was either OEM'd or via Free Software Foundation.

TCO for the Mac has been the same as a PC running Windows for me.

[Prime Choice]

(plus Job's politics!)

Ever bothered looking at Bill Gates' politics? Ain't no better than Jobs'!

[gpapa]

Go to Zone Labs Service and Support, ZoneAlarm support for help.

[GoLightly]

BTW, I ended up formatting my mom's hard drive to get rid of zone alarm, after the firewall disabled her cable. Uninstall didn't do the trick & she didn't have anything worth backing up on her computer anyway. I couldn't get a ping & the only thing tech support was able to get through to her machine was a change of her ISP.

If you can get a good copy of the dll, you could overwrite the bad file. If your friend's computer runs the same operating system as you have, you can make a single boot disk. It's on one of the tabs in "Start" "Settings" Control Panel" "Add/Delete programs". It boots you on your "A:" drive & you'd need to know a little bit of DOS to do the overwrite.

[Sprite518]

Ontop of this I would still uninstall Nortan and Zone Alarm too. I had one computer we had to uninstall Nortan after we dill the Dll Compare and Kill Box. Once we did that the computer was running as smooth as it was the day he first purchased it.

[lafroste]

It didn't work. I got to the screen saying "Press F8 for Advanced Options" and the boot froze solid when I pushed F8. It ain't going to let me get to Safe Mode.

I think a "format c:" is in my immediate future.

[Hank Rearden]

I would get a Macintosh, because it's a fool-proof system.

Being stuck with a MacMoonie toy computer would be far worse.

[lafroste]

Now this is weird. I wrote that comment about reformating the HD while I was waiting for it to boot up again so I could start salvaging data. Both my office suite and CAD are back. The last 10 boots they've been dead, dead, now they're back.

It must have known that this time I meant it. It's clearly trying to save its worthless hide. Too late, the bi&ch is toast.

[Hank Rearden]

You may have acquired the worm, but regardless - I'd do what an above post suggests . . . . get another hard drive installed as Master (disconnect your munged drive for now), format it, do a clean Win2k install, then (after installing current antivirus software) add your existing/fragged drive back in as a Slave drive and copy all your data files over to the newly-prepped drive.

If you find your old drive's directory structure is trashed, take your old drive offline, use the new drive to download and buy a copy of a software program called "Active UnDelete" (use Google to find it). That program has saved me a couple of times when a drive's structure was totally trashed - it's an amazing utility that can discover and recover data from "erased" drives like nothing I've ever seen before - it's amazing and not expensive.

With Active Undelete, you can recover/copy your data from the old drive to the new one, if necessary. Just don't do anything really rash like formatting or repartitioning until you've exhausted all other options.

Good luck. And oh, just to be safe - don't buy a Mac. You've already got a religion, right?

[konaice]

I think a "format c:" is in my immediate future.

Well it might have a corrupted ntfs partition, which can be fixed, usually with a significant amount of blue words.

If you can get anything off of it, (your contacts, taxes, quicken, etc) I'd try that first.

If you can't get it to boot far enough to get anything off, you can take it to your local hacker or tech shop, and they can put the drive into another machine as a secondary drive, and perhaps rescue stuff that way.

OTOH, if there's nothing there you need, the sooner you nuke it the sooner you will be done with that task.

Surf over to Buy.com, you can get wireless routers (even if you don't need the wireless part) for around 30 bucks these days. With that, you can kiss zone alarm good bye, along with most worms, etc. Its the best hardware investment you can buy. Software firewalls for windows are a fairly flaky solution.

Oh, and in my business, the machines that walk in the door with the most problems ALWAYS have norton on them. So if you Nuke/reinstall, give norton the heave-ho, and go get the free version of Grisoft AntiVirus.

Other than Anti-virus, norton is crapware. If you only knew all the stuff it does to your registry... Horrors!!

[Ichneumon]

I had a nasty self-reloading, self-renaming virus one time, that I finally nailed by using the Windows XP "permissions" settings (via the File Properties dialog) -- I reset its read/write permissions so that no one, not even the operating system, was allowed to access or run the file. I clicked "Deny" on every option.

Windows 2000 has similar permissions setup. Try that on the offending file. When Windows can't load it, it'll just skip it. If that causes another driver, DLL, or app to freak out (like another part of ZoneAlarm that might still be half installed), then disable *that* one as well. Rinse, repeat, until you get a clean boot which isn't using the offending DLL. You can either leave it that way, or then try deleting the bad DLL (you'll now be able to delete it, since it won't be "in use" anymore).

[GoLightly]

LOL Sorry, I don't mean to laugh at your misery. Formats are a PITA. My own machine is way, way past due. I used to do it about once a year, to clear off all of the old garbage.

If you still have the install zone alarm file, you could reinstall the worthless... Or like I said, "run" "msconfig" & disable the dang thing in the "start up". Zone Alarm "uninstall" didn't totally uninstall it from my mom's machine. I never could get her machine to start in safe & my own machine won't start in safe either.

Now that you have your machine running a bit again, make that single disk start up floppy!! Your computer will not start with a disk in an older version of the operating system. You can do that up until Win98, but later versions won't allow it.

[Deetes]

It must have known that this time I meant it. It's clearly trying to save its worthless hide. Too late, the bi&ch is toast.

LOL