[Jim Highlander]

Can anyone offer assistance?

This problem started about 2 weeks ago.

First, my home page is yahoo, and I have a my yahoo page set up with the links that I like. I used to be able to hit the "my yahoo" button on the standard yahoo start page, but this button dissapeared? After this I had to access my yahoo through a yahoo search, followed by going to the login page to access the "my yahoo" page. Then this morning, I found that I was not able to access this page at all - it just comes up completely blank? In between these 2 occurrances, I noticed a couple of pages that I used to visit were coming up as "page currently not available"?

I tried a "system restore" point in XP to no avail.

Can anyone help? I hope this is the correct forum - I'm new here.

Many thanks in advance.

Jim

 

[petercj]

Hi Jim welcome to TSF

First, try going up to TOOLS>Internet Options and delete cookies and temporary files, then on the Programs Tab click on 'Re-set websettings'.

Follow that with a scan here:-
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Then with your XP CD in a drive go to Start>Run and type sfc /scannow - press the OK key and allow the file checker time to verify and replace any damaged IE files.

If that doesn't help I would suggest doing a post on the High-Jack-This board which has people who specialise in detecting and removing malware:-
http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=15968

If there is anything on the intro that you have not yet tried then follow the advice offered and see if that helps, if not, do a post (on the HJT board not this one) describing your problem and what you have tried so far.

Peter

 

[Jim Highlander]

Hi Jim welcome to TSF

First, try going up to TOOLS>Internet Options and delete cookies and temporary files, then on the Programs Tab click on 'Re-set websettings'.

Follow that with a scan here:-
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Then with your XP CD in a drive go to Start>Run and type sfc /scannow - press the OK key and allow the file checker time to verify and replace any damaged IE files.

If that doesn't help I would suggest doing a post on the High-Jack-This board which has people who specialise in detecting and removing malware:-
http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=15968

If there is anything on the intro that you have not yet tried then follow the advice offered and see if that helps, if not, do a post (on the HJT board not this one) describing your problem and what you have tried so far.

Peter

Hi Petercj

Thanks very much for the time you took to respond to my problem - very kind and I greatly appreciate it.

I followed all of the steps you suggested and I can now access the "my yahoo" page. However, the "my yahoo" button on the standard yahoo web page is still not present. Not a big deal as I can get to the page in different ways, it was just a convenience to be able to click on that button on their start page.

It was a little disconcerting as the scan revealed a virus - TROJ_AGENT.GC and several spyware / adwares, all of which were sucessfully deleted. The virus looked like it came from the mini clip game site that my son visits. I'm very upset as I run a 2004 Norton Virus scan every day which is supposed to pick up the spyware and virus stuff. I run Norton live update regularly and so it should be up to date, I often even download the updates manually as the auto update only updates once a week. I don't understand why this would not have been detected? Is the Trend Micro program that much better? I feel like I've wasted my money with Norton, I even just purchased the 2005 version 2 days ago and have yet to install it and I wonder whether I really want to any more.

One step that I'm not sure if I followed correctly was the sfc/scannow step with the Win XP disc in the CD drive. Stupid question here, but was I supposed to type the CD drive letter first? I didn't, and I'm not sure if ran at all. After typing it and hitting the run button, a DOS screen appeared for a split second and then dissapeared? Too quick to read what it said or anything.

Warm greetings and best regards to the UK South Coast.

Jim

 

[petercj]

Hi Jim ... glad to hear things have improved

As far as Norton goes, I think it's generally regarded as marmite is: you either love it, or you really don't like it!

If you do a search within the forums you will find plenty of comment on it.

I use AVG (the free version) which comes with daily updates and I also run the Microsoft anti-spyware prog which seems pretty good. Every so often I run Spybot Search and Destroy, and Adaware-SE, plus Trend Micro Housecall, which I rate as being as good as it gets.

All the above is free and I know quite a few of the techs on TSF use them too.

In relation to the file checker - there is a space after the sfc: sfc /scannow and it won't work without that space. You just type the text in bold in your RUN box and click ok - if you have some damaged files and the back-up folder is not on your PC it will stop and ask you to put your XP CD in a drive (I usually suggest putting it in first - but if someone has a recovery set-up instead of a windows disc, this may not be necessary). When it's completed the check it just disappears - without so much as a farewell, etc... I think it would have been a nice touch if Microsoft had added a smiley face with thumbs up at the end! (Bill, if you take this suggestion up I won't charge you for the copy-right on it!)

All the best Jim - post again if you need any further clarification.

Peter