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Help. No browsers working

1K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  Tomken15 
#1 ·
Hi. I'm very new to this.
As my subscription to Webroot was about to expire, I decided to change to Mcafee Total Protection as it was cheaper. I uninstalled Webroot and downloaded Mcafee. Mcafee had some issues installing due to Trend anti virus which I eventually managed to delete.

After that, Skype worked fine but no Internet browsers. Google Chrome will load but any site shows a 103 error. IE9 tries to load but then gives up before a window appears. I later added Firefox which just stops responding. All programs are fine in Safe Mode with networking. Chrome in normal mode will load https sites but not http. I've tried downloading and running spybot and ccleaner - no difference.

I have also tried system restore without luck. I've tried the system with all firewalls off and after removing Mcafee with their removal tool - no difference. I've also tried other things I've read but not fully understood including msconfig, winsock and things in command tk do eith ping - all ok and ipconfig.

I really hope someone can help - fed up eith late nights dealing with it.
 
#3 · (Edited)
As you are able to browse in Safe Mode etc. then that would suggest their installation was okay.

McAfee isn't the best of AVs and can be problematic when it comes to connectivity.

This is an active link for its uninstaller http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe

Choose Save so you can run it a couple of times and it's run as a .exe from where it was downloaded to - either in Safe Mode etc. or in Normal Mode.

You're supposed to use Windows uninstall first and then run the .exe but I've gotten rid of it by just running the mcpr.exe.

As a belt & braces, even though you no longer have Webroot on your computer - use these instructions to download the uninstaller .exe to ensure there aren't any remnants left in the registry that could be causing problems Webroot - Support

To give you some protection while you're sorting the browser problem should it not be AV related, then download/install MSE Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows

If you're still having problems after running those AV uninstallers, then perhaps doing a clean boot How to perform a clean boot to troubleshoot a problem in Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 could ID where the conflict is.
 
#4 ·
Thank you both for your replies - really grateful people are trying to help me.

Ok - I tried the Google Chrome fix but the file was already there so this did not make a difference. I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling IE9 with no effect.

I tried the Webroot and Mcafee uninstallers which worked fine but still no access to any browser. I also tried the clean boot but still no browser would work. I don't understand why the browsers work in Safe mode but the clean boot still does not allow them to load.

Finally, i downloaded Malwarebytes which on a quick scan found a pup.bundlesinstaller.sol followed by two entries of pup.adware.relevantknowledge. I have no idea what either of these things are but have removed them. I still don't have access to any browser outside of Safe Mode. I have now uninstalled Chrome but can't reinstall til my Internet is back properly.

Any ideas? Thank you all so much.
 
#5 · (Edited)
As you will see from this article you have some very dangerous Trojans on board and it's highly unlikely that MBAM has successfully removed them.

In Safe Mode etc. only basic drivers are loaded so whatever these Trojans have attached themselves to may have been isolated which is why Safe mode works and the clean boot doesn't.

I haven't really read through their removal suggestions as I've seen someone on another forum still struggling with a pup trojan for about a week in their security section.

Best advice - open a new thread in the forum's Virus & Trojan section after reading http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...-posting-for-malware-removal-help-305963.html and let these experts deal with it.

If there's anything you are unable to do for whatever reason, then say so in your opening post.

It's a busy section but if you haven't had a response after 72hrs then give the thread a Bump by typing that word in your next post in that section.
 
#6 ·
Thank you for the advice and help. I read the article and it didn't overly match with what I had found. I wasn't getting redirection from home page etc. I used things like Spy Doctor which only found a couple of low level threats.

In the end, I gave up. I backed up by pictures and documents and then did a factory reset. This seemed to do the trick and I now have Internet access again through my browsers without having to use Safe Mode.

I still don't know what the cause was; I can only think it was something to do with maybe uninstalling Webroot and Trend at the same time as installing Mcafee caused some file somewhere to corrupt?

Anyway, everything is now fine and Mcafee is also installed and working fine. Thanks ever so much for your help - it's refreshing to know there are people out there who are prepared to give their time and knowledge to help others.
 
#7 ·
If there are active remnants of another AV in the registry they will conflict with any new one installed, causing anomalous problems and it sounds as though McAfee detected as much because of its troublesome install.

As far as I know, only MSE can be fully uninstalled via Uninstall in Programs and Features with all the rest requiring their own uninstallers/uninstall methods.

A factory reset would have resolved had there been any remnants left but it can also be the quickest way to resolve an infection if any had remained after the scans.

Thanks for the update and glad you got it sorted.

If you're happy and don't have any other problems then you can use the Thread Tools dropdown to Mark as Solved.

Tom.
 
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