Safe Speed Forums

It never rains, it pours!

Mrs. M's Netbook has a horrid virus. Not sure how it got there, but it seems to be more than one now. She says it started with a fake antivirus popup window that looked rather like the AVG one. Whatever she clicked on, it seemed to dowload thousands of its scummy little trojan mates! Firing the netbook up up now just fills the screen with popup "threat detected!" windows, and more worryingly, it appears to have "installed new hardware"! (which is now "ready to use")! I've re-booted it in Safe Mode and AVG (the real AVG!) is scanning it as we speak, but it seems to be finding lots of "locked file - not tested" entries.

ANYWAY...

Simultaneously, downstairs, the kids' PC has gone belly-up too! I don't think it's related. This one just tries to boot up, you get the Motherboard screen flash up for a second, then the Windows XP logo for a couple of seconds and then it does it all again. Trying in safe mode, I get an "Unmountable boot volume" message.... Oh how I love computers!

Sounds like a trip to PC World Mole. I hate to plug them and I don't know what they charge lately but it's the sort of thing they fix with their own fancy software and stuff, as I know you will know so I don't know why I'm saying it

I've got an unmountable girlfriend which is bad news.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I have a local PC guru who has fixed a couple of computer-related problems for me. I would say that is your best bet, rather than PC World, but unless you have a personal recommendation it depends on taking pot luck through the Yellow Pages.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Mole, try just unplugging / plugging the hard drive cable at both ends and give it a bit of a wiggle, had a similar problem a while back, worked for me

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

It sounds like the "Spyware Protection" scam.

As far as I know, this program sneeks in via bona fide web sites that have been compromised, and instals itself under the guise of a Windows Update. Or it might have been a site called "OverFlowingBoobs.com" (or not if it was your mrs that was using it at the time!)
It stops you opening any form of repair or defence, and is particularly sticky, and good at hiding itself.
Even Task Manager is blocked so that you cannot switch off the process even if you could identify it?

Start up in safe mode by pressing F8 or F12 before Windows launches.
Select Safe mode with network support.

If you don't have it already, download Spybot Seek And Destroy, and install it - with updates.

Run Spybot - and while it runs, search for a file called "Defender.exe" and rename it - something like "Deceiver.txt"!
(right click on the search result, etc. etc - not sure if your gran knows how to suck eggs!)

When Spybot has finished scanning, it should show the threats highlighted.
Click "Fix Problems" and then re-start the PC.

For future peace of mind;
Go to "add and remove programs" and TRASH Windows Defender - Microsoft's malicious software removal tool, as it is useless, apart from taking up bandwidth updating itself!

Use SpyBot which Microsoft used to recommend before they developed their own ineffective product, AND MAKE SURE YOU UPDATE IT REGULARLY.
You can use the Task Scheduler if the PC is always on at certain times of day/night.

Hope it IS just the spyware, and that the fix works for you - it seems to depend on the way the PC is set up apparently.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Just to add, if this IS the one I think it is, the reported viruses are actually fakes.

I think this is known as "Ransomeware" as they ask you to pay to register the fake antivirus software to get rid of it.

Watch out for OTHER sites offering "removal tools" which they want paying for too!

Google Spyware Protection and see what come up!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I would never EVER take a machine into PcWorld.

Your best bet is to google how to fresh reinstall windows back on it.

Sounds like you're nearly ready for Linux. A few more infections should do the trick (shouldn't take too long to get those !!)

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The Box said "Windows XP or better" ... So I installed Ubuntu

Boot from the repair disk.
Run chkdsk /r
I quite like linux.
Except they are getting more like windows every update.
You've just got it as you like, then along comes an update that f##### it all up. Again.
Es

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The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

I had assumed it was a Netbook with no drive?

My son's Samsung Netbook has a Repair CD and no drive... how does that work then unless you have an external drive?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Hi Mole.

Had a word with the man who can at work who does all the PC stuff for us.

In his words "Try a reload if this doesn’t work could be hdd or mother board" "It puts too in many registry entries than it can cope with or more than one copy of the virus on the hard drive. That’s why you need to keep regular backups.”.

He’s had this happen at work and sorry to say you have to reload the OS and all software. Again, in his words, “You need to start again from scratch, it’s the only thing that will work”.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

That's why I recommended a fresh install of windows.
I also said google how to do it because a netbook doesn't have an optical drive.

If you want to test that your hardware is ok and have a spare usb thumbdrive (preferably as large as you have handy) then go to HERE and follow the destructions.

This will create a "Live USB O/S" that you can use without installing and you will know your hardware is ok. You could also install an anti virus program into it and scan your windows install !!

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The Box said "Windows XP or better" ... So I installed Ubuntu

Thanks all, invaluable as ever!

Mrs M's netbook was, indeed, cured by using the backup facility. It arrived with a couple of Samsung recovery CDs (which rather confused me as it didn't have a CD drive!) anyway, it turned out that when it was first supplied, it came with a partitioned hard drive and one part of the partition is set up to hold an image of the contents of the hard drive when new. I was able to start it in safe mode and tell it to restore that image and delete the existing one - which it did, and it worked like a charm! Only problem was that it went back to being 2009 when we first bought it. Fortunately, she had nothing important on it, so the worst that happened is that it spent most of the weekend downloading updates for all its own software! Since using the facility, I have backed up the newly restored (and updated) drive contents again, so if it happens again, at least we can restore it.

The kids' PC did seem to be the hard disc itself (that's TWO Maxtors that have died on me in the last 6 months)! Anyway, at least this one was quite old. There was another one in the machine so I just ended up installing Windows on to that (your man was spot-on, Tone) and have been downloading updates ever since!

Thanks all!

He wants them fixing, not a hole in his wallet.