Virus causing computer to freeze

Mubox · 07-20-2009, 03:03 AM

Hello.

A few days ago, I was infected with a virus. I went through a lot of processes to detect the virus, and a while later I found out what it was.
I used a lot of programs, included were:

-Spybot
-Adaware
-McAfee
-Malawarebytes
-RootRepeal
-SuperAntiSpyware
-HijackThis

I wasn’t able to scan my computer in regular mode due to the virus, so I resorted to Safe Mode. Everything worked fine in Safe Mode, and I was able to locate where, and what it was. I was then later able to remove the files; there was about 14 of them, all located in the System32 folder, most of which were .dlls. Two of them were .dat files, I had 1 .sys file, and two .tmp files in my C:\WINDOWS\temp folder. They all had really long names, and had no particular sense to them at all, just a bunch of letters. I was unable to deleted them manually as they were hidden, so I had to use RootRepeal to remove them (they were definitely the virus, they weren't any key files for windows, as I've never seen them in there before. I made sure they weren't anything important before deleting them).

After that, I was able to run anti-virus programs in regular mode. So I ran everything I had in regular mode, and they all checked out clean. I looked at the scan logs, and everything looked fine. However, a while into this, my computer froze. I thought it was just a glitch, so I rebooted and went into Firefox. About 10 minutes later, my computer froze again (I tried it a couple more times, doing different things such as running some music, and opening programs to see if it would freeze again, which it did). I rebooted, and thought of reasons why my computer could be freezing. I tried a couple things, such as scanning my registry, thinking something had been messed up. A few errors came up, and I fixed them. None of them being “The” issue, it was mostly just a collection of errors that would naturally pop up after a while of computer use. I then thought maybe something had fried in my computer, or something wasn’t in right. So I took apart my computer, and everything looked fine, and I properly plugged everything back in. I noticed a lot of dust, so I went out and bought a can of air to clean everything out. I booted it back up, and it’s still freezing. Sometimes my monitor doesn’t detect a signal, so I have to use a different monitor. It can’t be an issue with my monitor, as it was working fine before the virus. I tried taking out and putting my graphics card in, which didn’t really work.

I then thought of using System Restore. I ran it and set it back a few days before I encountered the virus, and it seemed to have progressed just fine. However, when it rebooted and went back to Windows XP, it said it failed, and that no files were changed. This lead me to believe that the system restore files are corrupt, probably a result of the virus. I don’t have a Windows XP CD, either, so I can’t just fix/replace them. Nor am I in contact with anyone with an XP CD (I do have a legal version of Windows XP installed, but it came installed on my computer, as I bought it from a store, it only came with a disk to reformat the computer). I just disabled it/re-enabled it, so past restore points have been removed, due to it being a suggested step in cleaning your computer of the virus.
I’m really running out of options here. Reformatting my HDD is out of the question, as I have a lot of very important files on my computer that I can’t just simply back up very easily, as it's a couple hundred Gigabytes.
From what I've done, it's been able to buy me quite a while on the computer before it freezes. However, it still freezes regularly, and I would like to fix this.

I would be very grateful if anyone here can help, as this is very frustrating as you can imagine. I can scan my computer again with a program and post a report here if you’d like. Just name your preferred program and I’ll use it.

**TheBruce1** · 07-20-2009, 04:17 AM

Hello and Welcome to TSF.

We want all our members to perform the steps outlined in the link I'll give you below, before posting for assistance. There's a sticky at the top of this forum, and a

Quote:

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link at the top of each page.

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07-20-2009, 03:03 AM	#1 (permalink)
Mubox Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1 OS: XP SP3	Virus causing computer to freeze Hello. A few days ago, I was infected with a virus. I went through a lot of processes to detect the virus, and a while later I found out what it was. I used a lot of programs, included were: -Spybot -Adaware -McAfee -Malawarebytes -RootRepeal -SuperAntiSpyware -HijackThis I wasn’t able to scan my computer in regular mode due to the virus, so I resorted to Safe Mode. Everything worked fine in Safe Mode, and I was able to locate where, and what it was. I was then later able to remove the files; there was about 14 of them, all located in the System32 folder, most of which were .dlls. Two of them were .dat files, I had 1 .sys file, and two .tmp files in my C:\WINDOWS\temp folder. They all had really long names, and had no particular sense to them at all, just a bunch of letters. I was unable to deleted them manually as they were hidden, so I had to use RootRepeal to remove them (they were definitely the virus, they weren't any key files for windows, as I've never seen them in there before. I made sure they weren't anything important before deleting them). After that, I was able to run anti-virus programs in regular mode. So I ran everything I had in regular mode, and they all checked out clean. I looked at the scan logs, and everything looked fine. However, a while into this, my computer froze. I thought it was just a glitch, so I rebooted and went into Firefox. About 10 minutes later, my computer froze again (I tried it a couple more times, doing different things such as running some music, and opening programs to see if it would freeze again, which it did). I rebooted, and thought of reasons why my computer could be freezing. I tried a couple things, such as scanning my registry, thinking something had been messed up. A few errors came up, and I fixed them. None of them being “The” issue, it was mostly just a collection of errors that would naturally pop up after a while of computer use. I then thought maybe something had fried in my computer, or something wasn’t in right. So I took apart my computer, and everything looked fine, and I properly plugged everything back in. I noticed a lot of dust, so I went out and bought a can of air to clean everything out. I booted it back up, and it’s still freezing. Sometimes my monitor doesn’t detect a signal, so I have to use a different monitor. It can’t be an issue with my monitor, as it was working fine before the virus. I tried taking out and putting my graphics card in, which didn’t really work. I then thought of using System Restore. I ran it and set it back a few days before I encountered the virus, and it seemed to have progressed just fine. However, when it rebooted and went back to Windows XP, it said it failed, and that no files were changed. This lead me to believe that the system restore files are corrupt, probably a result of the virus. I don’t have a Windows XP CD, either, so I can’t just fix/replace them. Nor am I in contact with anyone with an XP CD (I do have a legal version of Windows XP installed, but it came installed on my computer, as I bought it from a store, it only came with a disk to reformat the computer). I just disabled it/re-enabled it, so past restore points have been removed, due to it being a suggested step in cleaning your computer of the virus. I’m really running out of options here. Reformatting my HDD is out of the question, as I have a lot of very important files on my computer that I can’t just simply back up very easily, as it's a couple hundred Gigabytes. From what I've done, it's been able to buy me quite a while on the computer before it freezes. However, it still freezes regularly, and I would like to fix this. I would be very grateful if anyone here can help, as this is very frustrating as you can imagine. I can scan my computer again with a program and post a report here if you’d like. Just name your preferred program and I’ll use it. Last edited by Mubox; 07-20-2009 at 03:15 AM.