Computer help?

[Jim Hatch]

Hey Computer Guru's,

My Compaq Presario 2.6G Walmart special
at the ripe old age of 1 year has just
aquired 5 virus's and some hackware. It
includes 3 worms and 2 trojans according to
the on line Panda virus scan consisting of
rootkit, class loader.e, sdbot.ftp, fu.a, and crypt.s. It means absolutly nothing to
me but apparantly my computer is taking it
all to heart. My Cd rom drive will not
read any disc's, I can not activate my on
line virus protection, I can not delete any
programs or even access most of them, and
attempts to download on line virus programs
have been unsuccessful as well. Oh yeah, I
no longer have access to any of my built in
restore functions. Is this the point where
I should administer the "coup de grace" or
will it just likely implode at a certain
point? Frustrated in SC! Warm regards, Jim

[MOturkE]

Jim,

A couple of options...

Buy Norton System Works and reboot from their CD (place disk in CDRom and then restart computer). Choose to boot from CD, then chooses to run rescue option and Norton should scan for viruses and eliminate them before the operating system starts. Then install Norton to protect yourself.

However, you may feel you're at the point that requires professional help. Some folks find it worth the $$$ to avoid further aggrevation. Avoid the big "box" computer stores for help and find a local "mom & pop" computer shop to get things cleaned up.

Or, you could just start all over again with a clean reboot of your entire system using your startup disks that came with the system. This should be your LAST choice as it forces you to reload everything on your system.

Hope this helps...



------------------
There's almost nothin' wrong with the first lie, it's the weight of all the others holdin' it up that gets ya'! - Tim

[Jim Hatch]

Thanks MoTurke,

That sounds pretty good, except for the
fact that the cd rom will not read the discs.*G*

I have spent the last two days pulling
hair and researching on line and I got
lucky earlier this evening and found a
free download for AntiVir XP. It seems
that the free download found and removed
the virus's successfully. A number of my
programs have resumed working again, but
not the cd rom. I have my email capability
back though and a working virus program. It
has also restored my recovery options in my
XP software.*G* Thats enough for now.
Gonna catch my breath and get back at it
tomorrow. Thanks for the response. Warm
regards, Jim

Jim,

Go to ZDnet.com and download AVG antivirus, free edition and keep it updated (it prompts you automatically).

Then download ZoneAlarm, free edition and let it do its thing. Top rated firewall.

Then download SpyBot Search&Destroy, free edition.

Norton System Works and McAfee Suite take over your machine and bog it down with unnecessary functions that don't really do anything. I have gotten viruses with both.

Check out ZDnet and Cnet. You may still have something "archived" or "embedded" that needs to be cleaned-up before you're home free.

Regards, Jim

Just reread your salutation; Hey Computer Guru's. I'm not a guru, the above information comes from Network Administrators and geeks in the Computer Sciences program at the college where our Academy is located.



[This message has been edited by jsentell (edited 22 November 2005).]

[mdram]

you may also want to try ad-aware for spy removal, it has a free version
but i second th avg recomendation.

even if a virus caused the cd not to read after boot, you should still be able to set it to boot from there in the bios, before the virus starts. it could be that the cd is a diff cause, they do go bad. and a new one only costs about 20

a local shop will treat you better than the big stores, as has been mentioned.



------------------
--------
roger
princess anne, eastern shore of md.

[drolfson]

The CD-ROM not functioning any more is probably due to the ROOTKIT issue. That one is NASTY and usually gets installed when you play a music CD that was published recently by SONY. (Thank you very much SONY and the RIAA. In trying to stop pirating, they opened the world to ROOTKIT viruses! Oh, yeah, they did it on purpose to!)

There are a number of new articles about it since the fertilizer has hit the ventilator over it in the tech world news lately. There should be a fix to remove it, but you may have to reinstall the drivers for the CD-ROM.

Don

[Jim Hatch]

Hi Gents,

I was running AVG at the time. Have
for some time. The firewall was Norton.
Not sure why they went down.

Hey Don, Last night I shut her down
and booted back up three times in a row and
it identified the cd rom as "new hardware
found". While I was searching on the HP
site for the driver, it found and downloaded
one in the system, but gave me a window that
it might be corrupted!? It didn't give me
a choice and automatically downloaded it.
Now I gotta find it and delete it and download the HP driver from the site.
Hopefully that will restore the cd rom. I
swear these danged pewters can be darned
confusing to an over the hill redneck.*G*
Warm regards, Jim

Jim;
You should be able to get rid of the driver in "Add & Remove" Programs.
Drolfson;
Thanks for tip. I don't play music and now I won't!
Jesentell;
I forgot to put ZDnet on my new pc, will do it today. Thanks!

[Jim Hatch]

Hey Jack,

I was able to delete the driver in the
device manager. When I rebooted, it loaded
a new driver without any cautions about
possible corrupted software. Still no joy
however. Next step is to break my system
down, go inside the tower and check the
connections. If no joy there, I guess it's
time to replace the cd rom drive. Thanks
for the help folks and if anyone has any
other suggestions, I'll be watching.*G*
Warm regards, Jim

[Brian Moffitt]

Jim,

Here are few suggestions. Just to echo one already given try booting off the Norton AntiVirus CD-ROM. Whether the CD-ROM is recognized by the operating system (Windows) is unimportant, if the CD-ROM is recognized by the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) the system will boot from it. This should allow you get the virus' removed from your system. If you do have a problem with a Rootkit, then the only easy solution is to blow the system away and start from scratch. I'm not sure about HP systems, but I know most consumer systems just don't come with good reinstallation media so you may need help from HP tech support to restore your system, if they are providing a backup of the OS on a hidden partition on the hard disk.

It sounds like from your messages that the system is recognizing that the CD-ROM exists, it just isn't reading media, but that could be a result of a virus (known to happen). If you do end up buying a new CD-ROM be sure to get it somewhere that has a no questions asked return policy and no restocking fee in case it doesn't solve your problem.

Brian Moffitt
MCP, MCSA, DCSE [Microsoft Certified Professional, Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, Dell Certified Systems Expert]