Computer Problem Need Help

[father of 4]

Yesterday I was talking on MSN when a big red ball with an x in the middle showed up at the bottom of my computer screen. It said windows has detected spyware infection. When I clicked it, it downloaded something that said XP Antispyware 2009. My Antivirus came up and said it was a Virus but could not get rid of it. I tried to go to Add/Remove Programs but when I clicked remove for the XP Spyware, it just would say I have already installed it and would not do anything else. I then went to my system restore and it would only go to the time right before I downloaded the XP Spyware but would not go any further back. I got rid of the XP Spyware part but I cant get rid of the red ball with the x that keeps saying I am infected with spyware. WHAT DO I DO? I have Windows XP on my computer.

[wrwest]

try this site, it has worked for me in the past.

Ad-Aware @ Lavasoft - The Original Anti-Spyware Company - Lavasoft

It is a free down load.

Good luck

[CastandBlast]

I've had that happen. Had to run my anti-virus program 4 or 5 times. It finally picked it up and got rid of it. Good luck. I even emailed the spyware co. to complain and they said they weren't responsible for what outside marketing co's. did. I emailed them back to say I was going to every internet board I could find to complain about their co. Then they wanted to help!....lol.. but by that time my anti-virus had picked it up and removed it.

[superdave1984]

This is off a forum I frequent. It works. I prefer Avast to AVG. Either is better than Norton. You can skip the HijackThis part. You will have to go here and download the guide with the links to the programs.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=0...db6fb9a8902bda

Before following this guide, please make sure you have backed up all your documents, music, etc. If you don’t have a backup method, external hard drive, jumpdrive, etc, shame on you. Also, close any programs you have opened and any browsers. On very rare occasions, depending on how severe the infection is, your computer may be beyond repair and a fresh install may be the best solution.
Please make sure you read the complete guide first before performing the steps
If you don’t have an antivirus program installed or you are running any version of Norton or Symantec products, please uninstall them and install AVG, either the free edition or paid. Obviously if Norton or Symantec were any good, you wouldn’t be here right now requesting help right? If you have a paid version on Norton or Symantec, consider yourself scammed, take a loss and dump it immediately. You can download AVG Free or Paid Here
All programs listed here are either free or fully functional for 30 days then you have to buy the program to get more updates. We only need it for a day or more so these programs are still helpful. Afterwards you can always uninstall or buy; your choice. Those 2 programs are AVG Anti-Spyware and Trojan Remover.
Please download, install and update (if needed) the following programs:
Hijackthis2.0
· Hijackthis2.0 Tutorial
Smitfraudfix
· Smitfraudfix Tutorial
Vundofix
· Vundo Fix Tutorial
CCleaner
· CCleaner Tutorial
Cleanup! 4.5
· Cleanup! 4.5 Tutorial
MSConfig Cleanup
· MSConfig Tutorial
AVG Anti-Spyware
· AVG Tutorial

ComboFix
· Combo Fix Tutorial

Trojan Remover

When you are finished downloading, installing and updating these programs, please follow the tutorials if you are unfamiliar with these programs.
You more than likely have posted a Hijackthis log into your forum post and then again you may not have. If you haven’t or have; please follow this guide and then post your new log from Hijackthis.
First things first, make sure all the programs are installed and updated if needed.
Depending on what infection you have, you may not be able to access certain areas of your system. Please tell us if you are unable to perform a step in this guide and we will provide you instructions on how to do so.
Make sure Hijackthis has been installed to root of C:\ Doing so, the path will look like this C:\Hijackthis2.0 or C:\Program Files\Hijackthis2.0 – This is very important.
Next, navigate to Start, Run, type msconfig and press ok. Click on the startup tab, click on Disable All and then go back and re-check your antivirus entries. If you are running AVG, there will be an entry called AVGCC under Startup Item. Make sure you check that box otherwise in the next step, it will be removed and we don’t need that right now. So now the only thing checked is your antivirus. If you have a software firewall (which is useless) and you still want it, make sure that is checked also. Now click Apply, Close, and Exit without Restart.
Next launch MSConfig Cleanup. Click on Select all and then Cleanup Selected. If you were to go back in MSCONFIG via Start, Run, you will notice all entries have been deleted. This will make your system boot a lot faster and if there were any spyware/malware programs loaded in there, most of them will not run or half of the program won’t run meaning the particular spyware program had two processes running, one in some other directory in your hard drive and one is MSCONFIG.
Now reboot.
When you are back at your desktop you will see the System Configuration Utility. There will be a box in the bottom left hand corner. Put a checkmark in that box and then click ok. Doing this will disable it from reappearing when you reboot again
Make sure you have uninstalled any program via Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel that you find suspicious or that you didn’t install. If you are unsure, tell us the name of the program and we will let you know.
Then go to the Control Panel, Internet Options, Advanced tab. Then click the Reset Button. This will disable all add-ons within Internet Explorer. Make sure all programs are closed including IE.
Finally…..
Run the programs one at a time in this order:
Smitfraudfix
Vundofix
CCleaner
Cleanup!
AVG Anti-Spyware
Trojan Remover
Once all of those programs have been run and all traces of spyware have been removed or quarantined, reboot and then run Hijackthis and post a log into your forum post.
Depending on the type of infection you have, you may be required to install additional programs for proper spyware removal. You may be tempted to browse for additional programs for spyware removal, this is fine but you need to be careful in what you are downloading. If you have the WinAntivirus infection and you do a search for that, their website will appear first. Will you not knowing any better, you decided to download it, only making matters worse. So please be very careful.
Even if your system don’t have the spyware that the tools above are designed to remove, it will not harm your system.
When someone recommends certain entries to be removed, make sure it’s from a respectable member, preferably a Security Team Member as me, Osiris on Computer Forums - Powered by vBulletin Remove certain entries from Hijackthis may render your system useless.
You may be required to post several logs after certain entries are marked for removal; so be patient. Your log may look clean but still getting pop-ups, this is the time to be specific about what issue you are having like the names of the pop-ups, name if the Trojan, name of the spyware, did your desktop change colors, do you have a program asking you to scan your system and buy their product before removing, etc. These are very important pieces of information that need to be addressed. So be precise.

After your log has been cleaned, it may be time to consider using a different browser that relies less on user interaction. Most people hammer IE7 because it’s the browser that gets infected the most as it’s the most widely used so virus and spyware programmers target these big name corporations and then they go to say FireFox is better, etc. Well if the tables were turned, everyone would be saying IE7 is the best because it’s new. I mean, who wants to target a less used browser? They can make more money off of IE7 than FireFox. This is a money game. Once FireFox gets to be more popular, the same thing will happen to it. It’s just a big money making vicious circle. In this case, for the time being, use Fire Fox or Opera. I use IE7 with IE7 Pro. You can download the following programs here:
FireFox
· FireFox Plug-ins
IE7
· IE7 Pro Add-On
Opera

I know there are other spyware programs out there like Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D which seem to be the most common, but that’s just what they are, common programs that really can’t remove any of those serious infections. You can download and use them with this guide if you choose too. All they seem to remove are cookies, some spyware, etc.

[backtocrappie]

Beware of free anti adwares, they typically install more adware that another anti malware has to contend with. I found A square does a fine job on all of them.

a-squared Free (formerly a² free) Freeware! A2 is a free of charge Anti-Trojan, Anti-Worm, Anti-Dialer and Anti-Spyware Software - optimal protection

Also do a secondary free scan with either Panda or Trend micro, these are used by companies and are really accurate.
Trend Micro HouseCall - Free Online Virus and Spyware Scan - Trend Micro USA
ActiveScan 2.0 - A second opinion on the security of your PC

[CrappiePappy]

Yesterday I was talking on MSN when a big red ball with an x in the middle showed up at the bottom of my computer screen. It said windows has detected spyware infection. When I clicked it, it downloaded something that said XP Antispyware 2009. My Antivirus came up and said it was a Virus but could not get rid of it. I tried to go to Add/Remove Programs but when I clicked remove for the XP Spyware, it just would say I have already installed it and would not do anything else. I then went to my system restore and it would only go to the time right before I downloaded the XP Spyware but would not go any further back. I got rid of the XP Spyware part but I cant get rid of the red ball with the x that keeps saying I am infected with spyware. WHAT DO I DO? I have Windows XP on my computer.

Here's some options for you to look over :

XP Antispyware 2009 - Google Search

Sounds like you've only deleted the cookie to XP Spyware, and there's still some artifacts left, maybe.

... cp

[FishCrazy]

Try this link and run the free housecall tool that finds virus and such and deleats them. I have had sucess with it in the past.

Free Tools and Services - Trend Micro USA

[oldwun]

This probably a dumb question but what happens if you restore you system to an older date?

[superdave1984]

System restore won't take care of a virus or recover deleted files/programs. All it does is use an older copy of your registry and settings. Many viruses target the system restore files as well.

[birddog]

I have cleaned several computer of this recently and the only true and simplist way I have found is to Google a file called mbam-setup.exe. Download and run it.

This infection will disable your Anti-virus software until you run mbam twice. (run, reboot run again, reboot, run anit-virus software, twice. Remove everything it finds.

And the best part is it is totally FREE.

I hope this helps.