Stubborn Viruses

heaumanepunk · 15 Aug 2010

I've been trying real hard to get rid of a virus, or should I say a couple. I've manged to find and remove some viruses using Forefron Client Security, Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus, and Malwarebytes, Ad-Aware has been used to. Full scans.

I've been at it for multiple days but my laptop still has signs of infection, for example not being able to get into Windows Update website, forefront wont Update giving me an error 0X8007efe, and sometimes I get redirected to a website I did not want to visit. I've manually removed some Fake anti virus software but still have problems, I've stopped my computer from crashing by removing the fake AV but like I said still frustratingly getting these problems. I really dont want to do a fresh install since I dont have a CD.

Can anyone help with these problems or maybe one of them. Please and Ty in advance.

-Heau

thathagat · 15 Aug 2010

give these three a spin...

hitman pro
dr web cure it
sas

Wishmaster · 15 Aug 2010

Is it not able to scan, or coming up with nothing?

Have you tried running malwarebytes in Safemode?

Another option:
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/WelcomePage.asp

Tews · 15 Aug 2010

I dont suppose you have any back ups that you can restore from?

heaumanepunk · 15 Aug 2010

Ty for your quick responses. I will look into the programs u recommended. Ty. Hoping thyere free. lol

Actually no I haven't and I was actually thinking about it after I had posted, but I did run Forefront in safemode. I will try to scan in safemode, Thnx again.

Ill keep this thread posted.

DirtRider · 15 Aug 2010

Lets us also know what virus it was if you do find it

whs · 15 Aug 2010

It is my experience that in a case like yours the most efficient approach is to reinstall (as I assume that you do not have any images). There are viruses that damage your system such that you cannot correct the damage even if you succeed to get rid of the virus.
So I suggest that you save your data, if possible have those folders scanned on-line, just to be on the safe side ( Popular online virus scanners ) Note: #14 is excellent. Then reinstall from the recovery partition or installation disk.
For the future, I recommend you image, image, image - e.g. with this program: Imaging with free Macrium

Wishmaster · 15 Aug 2010

whs said:

For the future, I recommend you image, image, image - e.g. with this program: Imaging with free Macrium

I couldn't agree more.
It very well may come to a clean install or re-image, I know I would.

Although I personally prefer Acronis, I can not tell you how many times a System Image has been a huge benefit to me.

In addtion to the advice whs has given:
I would also recommend that, if you do a clean install, As soon as your up and running activate Windows and make a clean system Image right then, with whichever program you prefer.

This way, worse case scenario, you ALWAYS have a clean Image of the OS disk, thats already activated, with nothing installed in case you wish to start fresh.

You can then save that Image to a DVD, external drive, or whatever. Just keep it somewhere safe.

cbs362 · 15 Aug 2010

thathagat said:

give these three a spin...

hitman pro
dr web cure it
sas

If those 3 programs don't help, try a bootable cd, which is able to search and get rid of viruses. These kind of CD-s are available from many security companies:

AVG: AVG - AVG Rescue CD
F-Secure: http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd#tba3
Kaspersky: http://devbuilds.kaspersky-labs.com/devbuilds/RescueDisk10/

and many others, these were only examples. (I personally recommend using Kaspersky)

heaumanepunk · 23 Aug 2010

Well I was able to remove the virus but guess what? It came back with a different name. I think I might need to clear the regisrty keys or something, malwarebytes is removing the virus but it keeps coming back, i might have to manually delete the regisrtry files. How is doing it's job by identifying these viruses? And I still havent gotten it to update. I might spend hours maybe days trying to fix this but it'll be worth it because i dont want to wipe out the system and start fresh. I've learned a lesson here, Download stuff on my desktop first then transfer it to my laptop. lol. I know viruses makes people money by giving companies the chance to make AV software but oh well this is just frustrating. I hate viruses. I'd rather do it manually sadly there arent alot of guides on how to do it. And there are so many viruses and they change the names. really difficult. does windows 7 come with a firewall? do Apple OS get viruses if installed on another computer other than a Apple computer? And ty very much to all u humans that helped.