A Virus, Help?????

[Oni-Paranoia]

Alright, I have a Virus on this computer. Most likely Spyware or Malware. Ive been using "AVG" and a program called "HiJackthis" to try and clear it but doesnt seem to work. This comp runs slower and slower each day and soon it wont run at all, any Suggestions???

[UnkownMan]

Reboot your computer. It will take away all the un wanted files and probably the ones with thee viruses, like the programs you mentioned.

[Mr.Nothing]

Free online scan and cleaning.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

[fido123]

Try Defragging...sometimes your computer just gets to a point where it gets like this but all it needs is a good Disc Clean up and a Defragmentation...might not be the case but it's worth a try.

[Oni-Paranoia]

Originally Posted by UnkownMan

Reboot your computer. It will take away all the un wanted files and probably the ones with thee viruses, like the programs you mentioned.

Reboot as in Format is out of the question. This computer has programs I cant get and this is the House comp, so im not the only one who uses it, jus 90% of the day.

Edit: Gonna go through the Defragmentation process once the AVG scan stops.

[Reach]

A defrag won't do anything...a defrag rearranges hd data in order to free space, usually to improve speed.

If AVG can't get rid of it you could be in some trouble. It's probably a trojan horse, which doesn't replicate itself like a virus does, but usually serves to hijack files and slowly destroy your computer.

You probably can't delete it with any mainstream programs at this point, since it has probably hijacked files to prevent such a thing. You can try other various problems...or deleting it manually in safe mode. There's a good chance this won't work either though, since typically a good trojan horse will change file names on every restart.

Reformat is definitely the best option, regardless of it being out of the question, unless you get lucky with other programs and they can remove the problem. If you continue to let it get worse you're going to lose all of your data and potentially more anyway. You might as well burn everything you need now and format it.

[Ground_Breaker]

I've used Ad-Aware by Lavasoft for a long time, and it's worked great for all kinds of things. I'm not really an expert in this area, but Reach is right in saying that a defrag won't do anything against a computer virus.

[Oni-Paranoia]

The good question will be now... How to remove 10 Gb + of needed items... ive used ad aware before for a similar problem and it did nothing -.- So my choices are "Ouch".

[Phynx]

Did you know that a system restore from before a virus has always fixed them for me? Hehe, give it a shot. :P Hopefully you have system restore enabled.

[Coolboyrulez0]

Run fullscan for Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy in Safe Mode overnight.
That's the only advice I can give that hasn't really been given.

[fido123]

Originally Posted by Reach

A defrag won't do anything...a defrag rearranges hd data in order to free space, usually to improve speed.

There have been a few times where my computer was going slow as **** and I hit all this lag like a wall. I defragged and it worked and has a few times, wasn't saying it was the problem but it never hurts to try. And yeah, if all else fails, reformat.

[Im Vince]

try spybot it works real well for me
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

[Oni-Paranoia]

Im using XP System Restore is... umm idk where i searched for it and it doesnt exist, ill spybot in sade mode overnight and will defrag on my next restart. Wierd thing is, I kno exactly where it is, C drive/Windows/System32. Its always around there when i scan

[fido123]

Yep, that's a virus...if you can't get rid of it you have to reformat.

[Gibson63]

Too Much P0rn heh?

[tsugomaru]

Originally Posted by fido123

There have been a few times where my computer was going slow as **** and I hit all this lag like a wall. I defragged and it worked and has a few times, wasn't saying it was the problem but it never hurts to try. And yeah, if all else fails, reformat.

Your computer wasn't going slow because of a virus though. Reformatting is the wuss way out by the way. This is probably not the best place to ask for advice when it comes to a virus problem, go to some computer geek forum and they'll be better able to help you.

~Tsugomaru

[WorkonMe]

Originally Posted by Oni-Paranoia

Im using XP System Restore is... umm idk where i searched for it and it doesnt exist, ill spybot in sade mode overnight and will defrag on my next restart. Wierd thing is, I kno exactly where it is, C drive/Windows/System32. Its always around there when i scan

This will be a lot easier. Talk to the people around your house about backing up their files. Then ask them about setting the computer back to factory settings. Which of course is kind of obvious what will happen but it all depends on what manufacture your computer was from..so if you want to do this then just tell me who your manufacture is.

[Oni-Paranoia]

Heres how im screwed.
The problem with reformatting is that theres programs on here that i cant re get, this computer was used for the school department of my city. This use to belong to my mother but now its jus the house computer. Backing up 15+ Gb is difficult. Which is why im resorting to reformatting last. I don wanna visit any geek forum when i kno theres som ppl here who can Def help.

2 gibson: Explain that to my cousin whos gonna be a pornstar x.x

workon me: Dell

EDIT: Analyzed about the Defraging and its clean so thats not needed in anyway.
Im also gonna start taking screenshots and posin them here as well, its better to visualize

[OrganisM]

Originally Posted by fido123

Yep, that's a virus...if you can't get rid of it you have to reformat.

Interesting how you can conclusively say it's a virus simply from the fact that it's in the Windows system folder, without anything from logs posted about it.

If you know exactly what file it is, and that it is indeed a virus, download MoveOnBoot (google that) and select the file you want to delete, then restart. There are a lot of viruses that get tied to the Windows environment, so you can't delete the virus because it is active and has threads currently running to it. That's why you use MoveOnBoot which will run outside of the windows environment (no, safe mode won't work) and give you a cleaned up system when you restart.

Otherwise, you can use programs like Ad-Aware and smitfraudfix which can clean out your registry and check the critical areas of your system.

PS - those who suggest formatting the HDD need to be shot. ****ing seriously. That's like committing suicide because you're constipated. There are very few situations in which a complete format is needed, and the system must really be in dire straits to need such a thing. If you format, you'll have a hell of a lot of work configuring everything and reinstalling all of your programs, and it gets even more hellish when you don't have a specific crucial driver and you have no way of getting it, etc.

The one last thing I would suggest is to ask elsewhere, like forums with a knowledgable group of users. Tomshardware.com is a good place to start. Here, anytime you ask anything, the solutions people give you work as well as a guy with palsy doing brain surgery with a pipewrench.

[OrganisM]

Originally Posted by UnkownMan

Reboot your computer. It will take away all the unwanted files

Originally Posted by Reach

Reformat is definitely the best option... You might as well burn everything you need now and format it.

Originally Posted by fido123

And yeah, if all else fails, reformat.

Originally Posted by fido123

Yep, that's a virus...if you can't get rid of it you have to reformat.