My computer was highjacked---has this happened to you?

[Randomdude]

Originally Posted by janelle144

Well RIBBIT took the whole week to do it. I had to call them several times to see when they would be finished. Maybe they had a ton of other people getting the same virus----it takes awhile to scrub several hundred computers even though each takes a half hour.

I guess I will need to become the one to "fix" the computer. My hubby hates to do it and my SS knows how to build a computer and all about them but will he help us when we are having trouble-----NO WAY. So I am screwed.

I dont really blame your SS. It seems, once you fix one persons computer, you become the go to guy for everyone they know, and they all want you to do it for free or the same considerations you did it for the first person.

My brother fixed my uncles computer, and immediatley was farmed out to another uncle, and that uncles mother in law, and now all of them pretty much rely on him to fix everything. Some times its best just to play stupid or refuse.

[janelle144]

Yep, that is what my SS does. I don't know, is his answer. LOL

[Randomdude]

Originally Posted by NHDave

It does take more than a half hour. When you consider data backup, OS installation, service pack installation, windows updates, driver installation if needed, scanning of data backups to make sure your not reinfecting the computer, etc.

Depends on how fast your system runs though. The newer systems can put on a copy of XP in about 10 minutes or less. Depending on how much after service you need, it could take 30 minutes for newer powerful computers without much data back up needed.

The most painful ones, in my opinion, are the comps that are about 6 or 7 years old or better, the old Pentium 3's and 4's. These can easily take 3 or 4 hours.

It is my experience, that these are the most common computers amongst the "Oh no I got a virus and cant fix it myself" set. People with the more powerful computers and latest gizmos generally know enough to fix atleast wipe the system.

[noland123]

Originally Posted by noland123

I had the exact same problem 3 hours ago,it was horrible,I had red signs popping up all over my screen saying that I had an infected computer and that I had to buy this anti-spyware program for 49.95. After 6 hours of messing with the situation,my AVG Resident Shield pops up and states that I have a virus problem(no kidding) that was infecting my computer and so I sent it to the vault,thereby alleviating the virus problem altogether. You talk about a happy camper,I mean it was putting viruses or blocking a lot of my files such as solitaire,disk cleanup,disk defragmenter,system restore etc. and to the point where I couldn't log off probably,however I could get on the internet with ease.

The main thing is to stay patient and ask for advice ,either come here to this forum or ask somebody close at hand that has knowledge of computers.Stay away from porn sites and don't run a website that doesn't have a known publisher.I have average knowledge about computers,but I would say get the best anti-virus program that guards against everything,I am afraid your husband spent $200 he didn't need to spend.

I believe the way I overcame this situation was that I rebooted my computer and tried to get on certain files like disk clean-up and disk defragmenter before the bogus spyware appeared on my task bar and I was successful in getting to these locations before the monster appeared which ultimately may have wiped out the corrupted files and brought back AVG,this is the only explanation I have for my dumb luck.

[PITTSTON2SARASOTA]

Originally Posted by janelle144

Had an anti-spyware come on my computer saying I had a Trogen and was infected with a virus. Said to scan my computer but if I went into their software they wanted me to buy it for around 40 dollars. I have anti-spyware already and it said my computer was ok. I tried to ignore it but it was the trogen and it put an icon on my computer and took over. Kept popping up to say my puter was infected. Yes, with it.

Finally had to take it to RIBBIT and they had to scrub the computer and reinstall everything plus a new anti-spyware to protect it. GRRRRR charged 200 dollars. They said this can load on your computer without your knowledge, it is doing it in the background.

Just like the mafia taking over saying you will buy our protection from now on. There out to be a law.

The exact same thing happened to me, when I first got my computer. I finally got the trojan out with Mcafee security suite.....even though I have read "bad" reviews of Mcafee.

[Ceece]

I'm the "go to" person for cleaning up messes. I've been able to get rid of every virus we've ever had and have several tools I use. But honestly the best tool is another computer and Google, where you can search for the problem and see how other people fixed it. When my son was 13 he was home alone one evening and contracted a virus and was able to find a fix by using this method. He felt so smart!

[Ninjahedge]

Originally Posted by NHDave

If your refering to PC Tools Spyware doctor, I've found it has huge overhead, stopzilla is not on anyones highly recommended list here either. Nod32, Kaspersky, Avast are a few of the decent ones, and you can back them up with good free malware scanners like Malwarebytes, A-Squared or SuperAntispyware.

ANother is Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware (although they are not as good).

I also have Avira Antivir (free) and it has been working very well.

You just have to be careful where you surf these days, as browsers get more advanced, they get more integrated with your other system processes. Problem is, that opens more doors for hackers to try to slip something in.

Now you get Explorer giving you warnings about your browser not being safe, but when you use their settings, it makes it a PIT...... to click on anything!


Anyway, I go with what NHD is saying, plus what I have said. Get Malware, Get SAS and get Avira.

[Ninjahedge]

Originally Posted by Randomdude

Depends on how fast your system runs though. The newer systems can put on a copy of XP in about 10 minutes or less. Depending on how much after service you need, it could take 30 minutes for newer powerful computers without much data back up needed.

The most painful ones, in my opinion, are the comps that are about 6 or 7 years old or better, the old Pentium 3's and 4's. These can easily take 3 or 4 hours.

It is my experience, that these are the most common computers amongst the "Oh no I got a virus and cant fix it myself" set. People with the more powerful computers and latest gizmos generally know enough to fix atleast wipe the system.

Key is, there is nothing saying you have to sit there and watch it install. You can do other things while it is running, you just need to check on it now and again.

So while it may take a full day to do it, it probably will not take that many chargable hours to do so (especially if you are a professional who is set up to do this, not a family member that needs to hook up the computer on the living room floor....)

[mossomo]

I bumped into a similar issue before wrenching on a buddy's computer.

Do you get the below mssg?



If so, do you have any of these symptoms? First symptom is that Anti-virus sites will not launch nor will Anti-virus and anti-spyware software update. There's a variant also that will redirect your google searches to go.google.com.

What happens is this crap malware installs a driver which creates a host like file/service which redirects software updates to 127.0.0.1. Here's what fixed my machine:

Go to Start
Control Panel
System
Hardware
Device Manager
View
Show Hidden Devices
Scroll down to “Non-plug and Play Drivers” and click the plus icon to open those drivers.
Find “TDSSserv.sys”
Right click on it, and select “Disable”
Reboot
Disable system restore
Then update SpyBot/AVG/MalwareBytes Etc
Now scan and repair/remove threats - I scan with multiple softwares
When done, re-enable system restore and create a new restore point
Now that should fix your machine.

If TDSSserv.sys is not there, it is a good bet that you are infected with a Conflicker variant. Conflicker virus does the same as mentioned above, conflicker causes certain web sites to not load. There are plenty of tools to detect and remove it. Google.