[tburg]

Hi & thanks in advance. Running Vista Home Premium & Microsoft Security Essentials (will call it MSE). 4 days ago: I was researching the possible value of some comic books and obviously hit a bad site. I will do my best to write here all the exact messages I've received since then, but there are many and I was only able to jot down a few, so if you need more specifics on a particular error message let me know and I'll try my best. First, MSE popped up - "MSE detected 1 potential threat and suspended it. Click 'clean computer' to remove this threat." I did so. I shut down for several hours, came back to work on some things. On start-up got "Failed to connect to windows service" (again, there may have been more to this message I couldn't jot down??) About 2 hours later - "Host process for windows services stopped working and was closed. A problem caused..." At this point I decided a problem existed and did some basics - disk cleanup, MSE scan & Malwarebytes scan. MWB found 29 issues (!) The trojan word popped up in there a few times...so I let MWB clean all that. Did another scan with both. Nothing found. Started my puter the next morning - "Security Advisor has found suspicious activiy on you PC" MSE found another threat, which I cleaned. I did a little work (on ebay, etc) and got MSE detected 1 potential threat...." again. Went to click on it (lower right) and the icon went away before I could! I could not find MSE in programs either, did search, found it, clicked on it and got: Windows has (either found, encountered or...) a problem and will close in one minute. Please save all work" Then it went to a black screen for about 10 min. I did a long press on power button since nothing else seemed to work. It shut down, rebooted itself and went to black screen again. VERY frustrated by now so unplugged the damned thing. Waited, replugged. Went to safe mode screen, I picked "Safe" mode. It then went to a black screen with "Safe Mode" in four corners. Oh, and somewhere during all this I read, while investigating this mess, to check my Event Log. I followed the directions and pulled it up. Lots of red (!)'s from that day (4 days ago) but no red X's. there were three red X's but from long ago...if that helps. Now today -- I decided to try booting it up again. It started to boot fine, welcome screen, then black screen. Restarted and f8'd - it is now at "Advanced Boot Options" screen with a dozen or so options. I don't want to touch it without advice. Thanks.

 

[CatByte]

Try "Last Known Good Configuration"

then run the following scans

(download them on another machine if you have access to one and transfer over via USB if you have no internet connection)

Please download DDS from either of these links

LINK 1
LINK 2

and save it to your desktop.

• Disable any script blocking protection
• Double click dds to run the tool.
• When done, two DDS.txt's will open.
• Save both reports to your desktop.

---------------------------------------------------
Please include the contents of the following in your next reply:

DDS.txt
Attach.txt.


NEXT


Download GMER Rootkit Scanner from herehttp://www.gmer.net/download.phphttp://www.gmer.net/download.php to your desktop. It will be a randomly named executable.

• Double click the exe file.
• If it gives you a warning about rootkit activity and asks if you want to run scan...click on NO, then use the following settings for a more complete scan.
  
  
  Click the image to enlarge it
  
• In the right panel, you will see several boxes that have been checked. Ensure the following are unchecked
  • IAT/EAT
  • Drives/Partition other than Systemdrive (typically C:\)
  • Show All (don't miss this one)
• Then click the Scan button & wait for it to finish.
• Once done click on the [Save..] button, and in the File name area, type in "Gmer.txt" or it will save as a .log file which cannot be uploaded to your post.
  
• Save it where you can easily find it, such as your desktop, and attach it in reply.

**Caution**
Rootkit scans often produce false positives. Do NOT take any action on any "<--- ROOKIT" entries

 

[tburg]

Well, thanks much for the reply, but I think it'a too late. Tried powering up several times this morn to do the steps you recommend and during one of the boot screens it stops and at the bottom says, disk read error, press cntrl alt delete to restart.... have tried several times - same thing. HDD is set as first boot. New HDD needed? If so, a link on choosing the right hdd to buy/formatting/re-installing from my windows vista cd would be great. My Gateway Puter is only a couple years old... 120 gb? Sorry, I'm quite tired of looking specs up, running scans, blah, blah. I don't need anything tricky, very basic, no gaming, just pics, word, browsing.... Thanks. signed...."dead in the water"

 

[CatByte]

are you able to boot up at all?

Have you tried booting into "safe mode"

To Enter Safemode

• Go to Start> Shut off your Computer> Restart
• As the computer starts to boot-up, Tap the F8 KEY repeatedly,
• this will bring up a menu.
• Use the Up and Down Arrow Keys to scroll up to Safemode
• Then press the Enter Key on your Keyboard
• go into your usual account
  

Have you tried "Last Known Good Configuration"?

How far does it get into the boot process?

I'm sorry, but hardware isn't my thing, so I'm the wrong person to ask about new hard drives, but check with our experts in the hardware forum if you decide that's the way you need to go.

 

[amateur]

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