justpassingby

As another MS tech suggested the problem could lie in the registry.

See if you can learn from some friend what's the exact version of the Campus NAV you had installed. Norton 360 for instance doesn't use the same removal tool as the other versions.

Start in safe mode with your older account and make sure everything is unticked there under services (hide non-ms services) and startup. Then restart and see if you can log normally with your old account.

I'm not a big fan of registry cleaners, but see if ccleaner finds anything. Just report what it finds, don't remove anything yet. You can already make a complete backup of your registry with erunt.

I've asked some help from other staffers, maybe they'll come up with something.

jcgriff2

Hi Rocetmal (and of course, Justpassingby) -

I'd like for you to run some programs to get me a few system information reports to help me determine what can be done for you ... OK??

Please download and install Belarc Advisor then run it - it will aper in a web browser screen - please save the output in "mht" format (Top right of Internet Explorer screen; Page; Saved as; save as mht), as a web page (html) or as a Word document. You can download Belarc HERE

Also - please download these two executable files (nothing to install) to your Desktop - Deckard's System Scanner (DSS), HERE and Trend Micro's HiJackThis from HERE.. Then double-click on DSS.exe and it will ask you for location of HiJackThis - tell it - it's on your Desktop. When finished in a minute or two, a Notepad will appear with a file name of main.txt - save it as a text file. Then minimized will be another report - extra.txt - save it as a text file as well.

Then gather all three reports, zip them up and send them to me via email. I will send you a PM with my email address. If you don't get it - please send me a PM. Thanks.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

Rocetmal

I contacted my campus IT and they said they are unsure what version it would be, and directed me to the Symtec Tech Support. The Symantec guy Remote Assisted me and said he couldn't help because there was no Norton product on my computer. However, he did tell me that there is only one version of the Norton Removal Tool for all products.

As far as the Registry cleaner, I have RegCure. I'm not sure how big of a help it will be, because I've probably run it several times since this problem started in an attempt to seek out symantec or norton registries. And it always seems to find new things to want to fix...

Also since I did the windows repair, I have all of the Microsoft Windows Updates downloaded, but whenever I try and install them it says they all failed to install. The scans Jeff has me doing might report that I am not up to date, and that is why :)

johnhook

Rocetmal.

Did your Dell come pre-loaded with Windows XP SP2? If not, what version of Windows and Service Pack were originally installed on your PC when you purchased or aquired it? Most consumer Dell models come pre-installed with XP Home Edition unless your special order them with XP Pro.

The inability to install your XP updates might have something to do with the answers to these questions about. If you got an XP Pro (SP1 or SP2) retail or OEM install disk from someone else - to upgrade to XP Pro or XP Pro SP2, there may be a conflict between the versions you're trying to upgrade to. If you're having issues with the "Genuine Advantage" features - you might be dealing with a pirated or unproperly licesensed copy of XP. If this is what's going on - we really can't help you as it violates rules of this site.

Please let me know what version of Windows came orginally installed on your Dell PC - and what, if any subsequent version of XP you might have attempted to install or upgrade to after the fact.

- John

Rocetmal

I haven't tinkered with the OS at all. I have XP Professional SP2 right now, though I'm not sure if my computer was preloaded with SP1 or SP2. In either case, I have not had any major windows problems and have left that component of my computer alone. If it helps, my computer was ordered in June 2006.

If my computer was unlicensed, then shouldn't the update website have prevented me from downloading the updates in the first place? In any case, I have the key if it's on the back of my XP CD sleeve. My XP CD just says "Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Version 2005 with Update Rollup 2." This freezing happened before i did the Windows repair too (if that is what caused the Updates not installing properly).

justpassingby

The computer came with XP pro or with XP MCE installed ?

Had you uninstalled IE7 before doing the repair install ?

Go to start => run and type sfc /scannow (mind the space after sfc).

edit : Another solution would be to turn system restore off in case it could come in the way of the registry cleaning (this would delete all your restore points but since they seem to be corrupt anyway...) then clean the registry with ccleaner. Don't know about RegCure but ccleaner has options to remove a given program if it can finds remnants of it. But better wait for JC's answer if he found anything in your DSS log.

@ johnhook : congrats on the promotion !

jcgriff2

Hi. . .

You are missing 83 Windows Updates that really have no chance of installing at this time. Your system has items related to a virus on it as well as many system-resource intensive applications like AIM, and Yahoo. Personally, I would re-format and re-install XP. You are home from college and most likely no longer need many of the installed programs now taking up 120GB or your 160GB hard drive.

Other than that, I would recommend that you go to our Security Center and follow THESE 5 STEPS prior to posting your HJT logs there.



Thanks.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

jcgriff2

Just noticed other's prior posts -

Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600)

OEM key

-the 2GB RAM is probably being eaten alive by installed programs and web reporter/redirection activity by viral-relted items

- Hidden admin account active thus probably surfing IE w/proteced mode off leading to such as above

- windows firewall disabled - something else there, not sure what

- installed windows updates that failed go back to August 2005 (yes - 2005)

- ironically WMP fails he most

- installed windows updates that installed and passed security 4/2008

-
.

Rocetmal

I find that interesting. When I *had* Norton, it detected nothing. Spybot S&D detects nothing. The panda scan did detect something.. what I can't remember right now. The NOD32 online scan detected nothing. I guess I'm just wondering how sure you are? Obviously I would then take this matter to the Virus forum for their help, but I want to be sure that it's not a XP problem, but is definitely a malware issue. Don't take this as me second guessing your expertise, more of verifying before I go down that road. I have no doubt i've had some questionable downloads, but with so many Anti virus programs telling me i'm more or less okay, I guess i'm just a bit surprised. I will make a post in the HJT forum.

As far as a reformat, I reformatted my Laptop a year or so ago and it was such a pain to get everything back and running. If it comes down to it I can do that though.

@ JustPassingBy, I just ran the sfc /scannow, I'm not sure if there is a report somewhere that you want or not that it would have generated? Also I guess the computer came with MCE. The reason i've been saying Professional is because when it boots the screen says "Windows XP Professional." I figured MCE was just a subset of that.

Thanks so much for all the help guys.

justpassingby

Nope, sfc doesn't give you a report. If it detects corrupt system files it'll replace them with a good copy from the windows\system32\dllcache folder and if it can't find a good copy there it'll ask for the CD.

You could post a log in the security section as JC suggested, but if the problem ends up being some sort of registry corruption that a repair install can't solve I'm afraid the fastest solution would be to reinstall from scratch.

Rocetmal

Okay, thanks. I'm running a panda scan right now and so far it has detected 14 infected files. I just wonder why the different anti viruses are so inconsistent, especially with NAV and NOD32 being two of the better ones. I'll post there and see what happens, if nothing fixes this i'll have no choice but to reformat I guess. I hate taking up this much of your guys' free time.

johnhook

Rocetmal,

Not all Anti-virus/Internet Security suites are created equal. It's not unusual to have some programs find malware/viruses where other programs don't. If any of these programs are detecting malware, the safest bet is to assume that they are detecting this malware correctly and use the appropriate repair or cleanup actions to remove the malware from your PC.

There's more going on with your situation that simply the possibility of malware. Your PC is not installing Windows updates as it should. Microsoft publishes and distributes their service packs and updates because these patches address specific known bugs with their operating systems. Without having these service packs and/or updates installed on your PC, it's impossible to rule out the lack of these updates as a potential cause of your problems.

I agree with justpassingby in that your best bet is to reinstall from scratch. I say this as someone who only recommends this as a last resort. There are SO many issues with your PC that if there were some "magic bullet" fix, the team of techs here would have figured it out by now.

If you are the original owner of your Dell PC, you should have a system restore CD or DVD that shipped with the system. This is going to have the Dell OEM version of Windows that was factory installed on your Dell PC. If you DO NOT have that disk, I would contact Dell and get a copy of it. You could purchase a retail copy of Windows, but there's no guarantee that this version of Windows will have built-in drivers to support your Dell hardware.

Once you've restored your PC to factory state using the Dell recovery disk for your PC, you'll want to connect to the Internet and download and install ALL updates and Service Packs BEFORE installing anything else!

You'll also want to get a decent Anti-Virus/Internet Security suite installed on your PC after you restore it to factory state. If Norton caused you problems - then go with NOD32 or McAfee. Other here may have different opinions, but Norton is slow and problematic and Panda lacks features found in NOD32, Norton & McAfee. I’m told that NOD32 is the fastest and best.

If your PC was in fact corrupted due to a malware infection - be careful NOT to install the same stuff that you installed in the past (i.e. browser add-ons, shareware programs, games, utilities, etc.). Stick to ONLY known, commercial programs that you NEED and avoid anything found on pop-up ads in websites or unsolicited email messages).

If you need assistance backing up your user data (documents, pictures, music, etc.) from your existing PC prior to reinstalling from scratch, please reply here and one of us should be able to help.

- John

Rocetmal

Alright I will come to terms. I suppose after 2 years a reformat would be healthy. The Dell disks I have are the "Drivers and Utilities" and "Operating Systems" discs - only 2 that came with my computer. Though, I had a problem with my CD drive and had it replaced by Dell (they put in a different one). That shouldn't be affected should it?

I would appreciate some backing up advice. I have about 6.5 GB of music that I would rather not lose, in addition to many other things you would suspect (e.g. many documents). My d: is DVD RW, though I have never burned a DVD before.

Also, I seem to remember a website where you can upload a file and it scans it for malware. Do you know what i'm talking about? I just want to make sure everything I back up to DVD is 100% malware free, and I might want to zip up some programs like Office for ease of reinstallation (who knows where those discs are). Any help would be appreciated, I just have this thought of staring at an Empty windows filled with the Dell factory Windows garbage (free trials, etc), and not being able to get it back to normal.

Thanks John

justpassingby

No problem with the new CD drive.

Easiest solution would be to burn the data on DVD's. You probably got some burning software with the computer, else you can use imgburn.

free online malware scans :
http://www.virustotal.com/
http://virusscan.jotti.org/

edit : copying the office files over won't work since the registry entries will be missing. You'll have to reinstall. You can use a friend's Office install CD but you'll need your own product key.

justpassingby

Don't forget to export your internet favorites, outlook mails and the like before you reinstall.

If you can live with the computer in the state it is for a few more days then follow the malware removal steps I advised in post #3 and wait for a security analyst to review your log (the HJT section is very busy so it can take up to 4-5 days before you get an answer).

Rocetmal

i can live with it, but jcgriff and john think it's beyond repair? I wont be able to do this for a couple days anyway, so maybe in the mean time i'll have someone in the virus forum take a look and give another opinion.

When I ran the panda scan, I had left my XP CD in the drive and it scanned it, and told me there are 2 trojans on that disc haha.

justpassingby

Cleaning the infection would prevent you from backing up infected files.

johnhook

Rocetmal,

Yes - you'll absolutely want to cleanup any viruses or malware BEFORE you back up your data. One concern is that if you're not able to bring your PC up in Normal mode (i.e. Safe mode only), this can limit your ability to burn files to DVD or copy files to a flash drive - since USB doesn't usually work under safe mode.

Is it still the case that you're unable to bring your PC up in Normal mode? Let me know. There ARE bootable programs out there which will allow you to backup files.

- John

Rocetmal

Yes I can boot into normal mode. I've found a bandaid fix for this problem. I have another user account on my computer in addition to the one I use. What I do is login to that other account, the system freezes, I Ctrl Alt Del and "Log Off" from the task manager. I then login to my main account and it loads normally.

I made that thread in the Hijackthis forum, but it looks pretty backed up in there - one random thread I looked at the poster waited a week until he got a tech, so I have some time to sort out my backup plans :)

johnhook

Rocetmal,

This is good news. Once you've completely scanned and cleaned your PC of any malware using the tools recommended on this site - then you're going to need to backup your user data:

1) Documents, templates, pictures, music, media files, program data, etc.

2) Internet favorites

3) Email client data files (outlook, etc.) and configuration for email accounts/settings

4) Any other downloaded software or programs that you no longer have access to.

I would recommend using a USB Flash drive if you have one available. A 2-4 GB USB flash drive is affordable and will store all of this data without the hastle of burning CDs or DVDs. An external USB hard drive would also work. DVD-R media would work too - but you'll need software to do this.

- John