# Help!



## Doctor Timewolf (Dec 26, 2009)

As of now, though some reason I am not sure of, I have 34 virus on my computer. The virus scan stuff won't run, system restore is impossible. Help me!

Reply ASAP.


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## quayza (Dec 26, 2009)

Take it to a place that can help but be prepared to spend quite a bit unless your lucky.


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## Doctor Timewolf (Dec 26, 2009)

quayza said:


> Take it to a place that can help but be prepared to spend quite a bit unless your lucky.



Can't do that either. I'm not 16. I really sincerely hope that the files are benign, or however you spell it, but if the antivirus stuff won't work, then it's hardly benign


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## quayza (Dec 26, 2009)

That many viruses can really fuck up your computer. My grandma spend almost over $200 to get it fixed.


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## ArielMT (Dec 26, 2009)

Reboot in Safe Mode with Networking, download MBAM from http://malwarebytes.org/ and install and run it.  Reboot into normal mode, and repeat a scan.  By then, you should have enough control for other anti-malware programs to clean up the rest.


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## Doctor Timewolf (Dec 26, 2009)

Well, my Dad is great at thwarting this kind of thing, so he fixed it. Something with entering safe mode. Thanks for your help anyways!


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## Runefox (Dec 26, 2009)

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that in many cases, virus alerts are fraudulent unless you're doing a scan with a program you trust. For that matter, the number of infections reported are the number of infected files - That could very well have been a single virus if it was indeed true.

Keep your antivirus up to date (and if it's provided by your ISP, you may as well toss it and grab a free copy of AVG or Avast), and keep an assortment of tools to scan and remove this kind of stuff on hand (MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware is quite useful in this situation, and is a good first response to signs of infection).

... Also, if someone charged over $200 to remove spyware/viruses from a computer, then your grandmother got ripped off unless there were hardware issues. We didn't even charge $100 to backup the files and flatten the thing with a fresh operating system where I worked. If people really are charging in excess of $200 to repair that kind of issue, I should really open up a computer shop in Florida and completely undercut/raep the competition.


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## incongruency (Dec 27, 2009)

Runefox said:


> ... Also, if someone charged over $200 to remove spyware/viruses from a computer, then your grandmother got ripped off unless there were hardware issues. We didn't even charge $100 to backup the files and flatten the thing with a fresh operating system where I worked. If people really are charging in excess of $200 to repair that kind of issue, I should really open up a computer shop in Florida and completely undercut/raep the competition.


Thankfully for the elder population here in Florida, nobody does that. Yet.


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## ToeClaws (Dec 27, 2009)

One bit of caution in addition to RuneFox's advice - it would be advisable to get a rootkit scanner or two and check the system out.  Rootkits are a little more evil than a virus in that they basically give control of the system, at a very low level, to someone who is not you.  Microsoft's own advice for that is "Best to reinstall".  The advice was much the same in my SAN Ethical Hacking/security course.  They're not nearly as common as a Virus though, thankfully, but still better safe than sorry.  Here's a link to some decent scan kits:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20#rootkits


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## Doctor Timewolf (Dec 27, 2009)

In regards to rootkits: How low a control level are we talking about?


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## Runefox (Dec 27, 2009)

Doctor Timewolf said:


> In regards to rootkits: How low a control level are we talking about?



By definition, usually the kernel or as a driver. As in, it becomes a part of the operating system itself, rather than running as a program that you can terminate.


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## Kairuk (Dec 28, 2009)

*What in the h-*

What in the hell did you do!?
Did you try to force shut down and start it in safe mode?
Do you know what the viruses are?
What you're going to have to do is...
*Retrace the things you have downloaded since your virus
* Get norton 2010 or if you dont have money AVG antivirus free
*DO a virus scan wish Avg or Norton, and lock them in the vault
*If that dosent work you might have to wipe your harddrive and reboot the OS.

Hope I helped;
Kairuk the Tech Savvy Wolf.


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## incongruency (Dec 28, 2009)

Doctor Timewolf said:


> In regards to rootkits: How low a control level are we talking about?


Working on the computers at school (Windows XP Pro, everything from SP0 to SP3) I've seen some pretty bad ones.  As Runefox noted, usually as part of the kernel or a driver.  The worst I've seen were on the newer computers we have that leverage the virtualization abilities of newer Intel chips, where the rootkit actually runs as a hypervisor to the OS.  That's about as low as I've seen it go; rootkits are some really nasty things to deal with.  The best way to remove them is to simply format the drive and reinstall from a known clean install source.


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## Carenath (Dec 28, 2009)

*Re: What in the h-*



Kairuk said:


> What in the hell did you do!?
> Did you try to force shut down and start it in safe mode?
> Do you know what the viruses are?
> What you're going to have to do is...
> ...


Redundant Post is Redundant, if you had read what was posted earlier you'd see the guy fixed his problem by booting into safemode.


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