&*^%$!!!

[67impss]

Looks like your getting lots of good help but for insurance d/l a live cd of a linux distro I recommend PCLinuxOS 2009 then even an infected PC can be booted . You may even drop M$ for good I don't like Mac's though I don't knock them , Puters are a personal thing. Linux is 99.98% pure virus free I love it was running Me & was infected 3-4 times a day in the end, now virus free for 3 years even Mac's viruses. OBTW linux is free open source

[Blake Noble]

f@#king great.

After having a decent running comp for only 6 days, I'm back in the FUBAR zone again. My computer keeps asking me to install Adobe Flash. Pop-ups sometimes show up in IE, which I never use, meaning something is making IE open other than myself. I just found a "TorrentMan" searchbar for IE which I didn't install and uninstalled through my C drive, because it didn't show up in my add/remove programs list. Google now redirects me to some generic search site again.

Avira caught 3 infections and they were all removed, somehow they still persist.

f@#k my life and f@#k my PC.

Edited September 9, 2009 by whiteknight

[Blake Noble]

So Avira caught 2 more infections and I uninstalled Adobe Flash. I'm not getting anymore annoying pop-ups from IE or anything asking me to install Adobe Flash every 20 minutes 3 times in a row, but Firefox is still acting like Firef@#ked.

I'd like to find every person on this $h!ball of a planet who likes to make computer viruses, line them all up in a row, and turn the firing squad loose on them. People who find some sort of enjoyment out of the destruction of another person's private property are worthless f@#king scum.

[FAPTurbo]

Usually they're made in order to steal your keystrokes, passwords and sensitive information... aka, profiteering. The days of the script-kiddie making the bugs are over, and it's now organized crime that's in on it.

I'd say it's time to just back up any files you need, have them scanned, and then do a full reformat. When you have a fresh install, your PC will run much more smoothly. Then just download the good free programs you have, and they'll work much better right from the get-go.

Otherwise, you'll continue to be putting up with crap, and who knows how much of that muck is recording your information and sending it to some Russian botnet.

[Blake Noble]

Well I'm archiving all of my music, pictures, and documents right now over a span of five to six DVDs and then I'm going to copy some programs over to another DVD so that I won't have to spend all day downloading and reinstalling.

I don't know why I didn't do this earlier. I guess I forgot I had blank DVDs lying around to use for data storage.

Looks like I'm going to be pulling a hell of an all-nighter to fix this. Good thing I slept for almost 12 hours today. I just need to make a run at around 6 a.m. or so to pick up a pack of cigarettes.

Here's to finally making this damn PC run brand-new again and not like a broken-down POS.

Also, here's to me buying a Mac as soon as I pull the money out of my ass.

Edited September 9, 2009 by whiteknight

[capriceman]

something is wrong and its not the computer

[siegen]

Well I'm archiving all of my music, pictures, and documents right now over a span of five to six DVDs and then I'm going to copy some programs over to another DVD so that I won't have to spend all day downloading and reinstalling.

I don't know why I didn't do this earlier. I guess I forgot I had blank DVDs lying around to use for data storage.

Looks like I'm going to be pulling a hell of an all-nighter to fix this. Good thing I slept for almost 12 hours today. I just need to make a run at around 6 a.m. or so to pick up a pack of cigarettes.

Here's to finally making this damn PC run brand-new again and not like a broken-down POS.

Also, here's to me buying a Mac as soon as I pull the money out of my ass.

It's easier to just pick up another hard drive and start fresh on it, rather than burning everything to DVDs, hoping you don't forget anything, and reformatting your main drive. Here is a nice cheap drive for $40 (assuming you have SATA ports on your MB). That way you won't lose any data (things like bookmarks and settings are easy to forget).

If you do it that way, I would advise keeping the old drive unplugged while you install Windows on the new drive, and using the BIOS HDD boot priority to select the new drive to boot from when you plug the old one back in. That way Windows won't try to build a boot entry for the old drive (with the infected OS), which you will eventually reformat and use as a backup/data/page file drive.

It seems easy for me, since I can install Windows on a new drive and be up and running in 10-15 minutes. I have an nLite version of my main OS with some of the major components slipstreamed in though. I also download all the drivers and programs on my other comp while Windows is installing, put it on my flash drive, and then load those once it's done.

It's funny, Adobe suite takes longer to install than Windows does. lol.

You're at a crucial point right now. Kind of like a fork in the road. You can keep at it and eventually reach a level of mastery many on this board have reached (take the red pill), or you can stop trying, switch to Mac, and not worry about it (take the blue pill).

[67impss]

It's easier to just pick up another hard drive and start fresh on it, rather than burning everything to DVDs, hoping you don't forget anything, and reformatting your main drive. Here is a nice cheap drive for $40 (assuming you have SATA ports on your MB). That way you won't lose any data (things like bookmarks and settings are easy to forget).

If you do it that way, I would advise keeping the old drive unplugged while you install Windows on the new drive, and using the BIOS HDD boot priority to select the new drive to boot from when you plug the old one back in. That way Windows won't try to build a boot entry for the old drive (with the infected OS), which you will eventually reformat and use as a backup/data/page file drive.

It seems easy for me, since I can install Windows on a new drive and be up and running in 10-15 minutes. I have an nLite version of my main OS with some of the major components slipstreamed in though. I also download all the drivers and programs on my other comp while Windows is installing, put it on my flash drive, and then load those once it's done.

It's funny, Adobe suite takes longer to install than Windows does. lol.

You're at a crucial point right now. Kind of like a fork in the road. You can keep at it and eventually reach a level of mastery many on this board have reached (take the red pill), or you can stop trying, switch to Mac, and not worry about it (take the blue pill).

Or keep his old puter take the black/white pill(penguin/Linux) save the money and not worry about it. Don't fear the penguin he's your friend :wink:

[capriceman]

http://www.ubuntu.com/

[67impss]

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

[FAPTurbo]

Yeah dude, unless you need an Apple, you can use one of the Linux builds suggested above which will do all the basic stuff you want on your existing equipment. No need to shill out extra coin for that. If you want to run mainstream software and games, then having Windows XP as a second boot option is all you'll need to do.

Also, ditto on the extra HD like siegen said. I have a network hard drive which I save all my crucial stuff to, and it has saved my ass countless times. Internal drives are cheap, and so are external drives. Plus, they're easy to move stuff to, and you don't have to worry about burning to disc's you'll likely only use once, and then throw away.

[FAPTurbo]

[Blake Noble]

$300 black Friday laptop special + Reaper + Audacity + Boss Micro-BR recorder for $60 used = better Mac alternative.

I was wrongggggg.

[Blake Noble]

Had to reformat my desktop again after three months. What bullshiit.

[FAPTurbo]

What the hell? What went wrong this time?

And that 300 dollar laptop would suck. Probably didn't even have a decent CPU and amount of ram. =/

[Blake Noble]

The $300 laptop in question was an HP with 3GB of RAM. I think it was Intel-powered too.

As for what went wrong, something installed a very obtrusive "anti-virus" program on my computer that prevented the use of just about everything.

[FAPTurbo]

3GB wouldn't cut it too well even if it had Win 7. Plus, Intel as a brand doesn't mean the CPU is fast; if it's powered by a 'Core2Duo' then you're likely in business, but if it's a 'Celeron' then stay away.

As for the 'anti-virus' crapware install, did you get that through a bad webpage? Often browsers like Chrome and FireFox inhibit that stuff from working. Hopefully you weren't using IE. If you used the software we recommended one or two pages back, that shouldn't have happened. =/

[Blake Noble]

3GB wouldn't cut it too well even if it had Win 7. Plus, Intel as a brand doesn't mean the CPU is fast; if it's powered by a 'Core2Duo' then you're likely in business, but if it's a 'Celeron' then stay away.

Found the computer, checked the specs, it does have a Celeron processor.

As for the 'anti-virus' crapware install, did you get that through a bad webpage? Often browsers like Chrome and FireFox inhibit that stuff from working. Hopefully you weren't using IE. If you used the software we recommended one or two pages back, that shouldn't have happened. =/

No clue. It bust onto the scene while watching YouTube. It even disabled Avira from functioning correctly.

[FAPTurbo]

That's really strange. Did you DL any software from possibly non-legit sources, and scan it with Avira before opening? Was Avira set to automatically update and scan on a regular basis?

[Blake Noble]

Nope and yes.

[FAPTurbo]

Well then that's the damndest thing. That's never happened to me, and it's not like I'm doing anything special. I can only think it's to do with a website installing some crap because of a wrong mouseclick or something.

[Blake Noble]

I'm starting to think maybe I shouldn't own a PC.

Now on to downloading iTunes. Again. Then it's time for transferring 3/4ths of my music back to my harddrive. Again. Then I have to redownload Audacity. I've also lost a bunch of multi-track files for some music I was still mixing.

[Croc]

Dude, you need to learn some computer skills.

ETA:

:sigh:

Public Service Announcement: Torrents are great for transmitting viruses. If anyone has a problem with viruses and uses torrents, consider that as a possible link. NOT SAYING ANYONE DOWNLOADS ILLEGALLY, but just as an FYI...

Edited December 1, 2009 by Croc

[Z-06]

A news not known - go to Amazon.com and in the mp3 section search - "free music." You get a lot of contemporary and good music for free that is legal.

[Croc]

There are also sites like the Hype Machine that can get you free mp3s that are legal, and there are also "download embedded"-type Firefox extensions as well. The Hype Machine is great for new music, since its search aggregates music industry blogs, so you can be ahead of the curve.

[Blake Noble]

That sounds great and all, but I'm not the sort of person who wants just one song -- if I like an artist, I want full albums.

[FAPTurbo]

Yeah, I dunno what to say. You've got music backed up, so that means you have an external hard drive or something, which is a good start.

Something's weird here. I don't think you're doing anything out of the ordinary compared to the rest of us, so I'd advise maybe using Google Chrome as your main browser, and then FireFox for when you need to use extensions. Chrome is really good at keeping you out of trouble when it comes to websites with malware.

[Intrepidation]

Cleaned up the posts a bit. Keep things on the D/L what need to be kept please.

[Blake Noble]

Yeah, I dunno what to say. You've got music backed up, so that means you have an external hard drive or something, which is a good start.

I backed up almost all of my pictures and music to a set of five 4.7GB DVDs (20GB total are music). I'm still losing about 10GB of music, though. (I had about 30GB before yesterday's reformat.)

Something's weird here. I don't think you're doing anything out of the ordinary compared to the rest of us, so I'd advise maybe using Google Chrome as your main browser, and then FireFox for when you need to use extensions. Chrome is really good at keeping you out of trouble when it comes to websites with malware.

I'll give Chrome a try as a Firefox back-up/IE replacement.

Edited December 1, 2009 by whiteknight

[FAPTurbo]

If you have some money, I'd explore the idea of getting an external HD. I've probably said this before, but they're incredibly handy to have because you can save all your important files on it, and if disaster strikes, you don't have to keep track of DVD's, or lose anything.

All my music, schoolwork, and stuff for my business is backed up on a network drive, and it's saved my ass more times than I can count on my hands. Barring that, if you can find even a cheap SATA or IDE hard drive on Craigslist, you can install that in your PC, and have that be your place for backing up files.

[intrigued]

Wow, IDE hardrives... I forgot all about those.

[Blake Noble]

Guess what? Same intrusive shit that disables my antivirus and just about every other program other than Firefox showed up again.

This website explains what keeps happening:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-antivirus-system-pro

I'm trying to remove it manually before I shoot myself in the mouth with a rifle.

Edited December 3, 2009 by whiteknight

[FAPTurbo]

By the looks of it, this particular program is installed through clicking on those dumb ads that say your computer has viruses, or from illegitimate codecs. Have you downloaded any codec's for running certain files recently, or do you have any on those DVD'S?

It may also be because you want to view something on a website that requires a plugin codec, which is actually just a way to get you to download the virus.

From Wikipedia:

PHSDL - Project Honeypot Spam Domains List[4] tracks and catalogues Zlob spam Domains. Some of the domains on the list are redirects to porn sites and various video watching sites that show a number of inline videos. Clicking on the video to play activates a request to download an ActiveX codec which is malware. It prevents the user from closing the browser in the usual manner. Other variants of Zlob Trojan installation are in the form of computer scan that comes as a Java cab.[5]

Usually, people get this stuff from browsing porn. I'm not saying you are, though. But you may be looking, or wanting to look at videos that require these false codecs.

Edited December 3, 2009 by Captainbooyah

[Blake Noble]

This happened again after I re-installed Photoshop 7.0 from the DVD back-up and restarted the computer. It asked to install Adobe Reader 7.0 and the whole works went to hell. I ran a search found a file in the Reader 7.0 folder that had a name similar to one of the files I found on another manual uninstall walk-through.

Right now I'm giving the advice in the link I posted a second try. Both Avira and Malwarebytes found infections, I deleted the files and rebooted the computer, and it came marching back again.

I refuse to reformat this fucking HP again. If that's what it takes, then I simply won't be using a computer for a while.

[Intrepidation]

Download Adaware and Spybot

For antivirus, Download avast or avg, if you have XP, i forget, if so run a boot time scan, then (if vista just do this) load in safe mode with the internet disable, run antivirus and anti spyware. Scan you backup disks as well.

[FAPTurbo]

Knew it! I'm assuming this Adobe Photoshop was acquired through a 'two click discount' right?

That's why you gotta scan your stuff. I had a gut feeling those DVD's were the culprit.

[Blake Noble]

Actually, someone here linked me to their Rapidshare of PS 7.0 ages ago. It ran great and I used it for ever. Then this last re-install ...

[Blake Noble]

Download Adaware and Spybot

For antivirus, Download avast or avg, if you have XP, i forget, if so run a boot time scan, then (if vista just do this) load in safe mode with the internet disable, run antivirus and anti spyware. Scan you backup disks as well.

At the moment I'm running a very through scan of my C and D drives using Malwarebytes and Avira. I've caught another two infections in the first scan using Avira's guard feature and Malwarebytes. Now I'm using Avira for a total scan and then I'm going to reuse Malwarebytes again.

I'm going to delete PS 7.0 just to go another extra mile.

Then I'm going to run C Cleaner a few times to see if it can find any registry issues and delete them.

[Blake Noble]

Oh and one last thing: I can't upload anything to Photobucket. It gives me a "Network Error" message.

[Blake Noble]

After running several system scans last night, it's still here ...

I'm not going to be back until I have a new computer.

[Drew Dowdell]

Sounds like you have a rootkit

[FAPTurbo]

Dude, you know what the likely culprit is. Just bite the bullet, do another reformat and then everything should be hunky-dory. A new PC doesn't really solve anything, unless yours is unbearably slow and you need the upgrade.

[daves87rs]

Sounds like you have a rootkit

Agreed. Those suck....