How do i clean my computer?

[newguy]

My computer is infected and i don't even know with what. Ad-Aware caught some adware (which is harmless since it's part of using Bearshare) and a trojan (i think) in C:/WINDOWS/smgr.exe

I have a suspicion its not catching evthg because i've scanned my computer countless times with it but my computer still keeps messing up (its very slow, and is processing a lot of things.) When i go to Windows Task Manager using Ctrl+Alt+Del, and click on the processes tab, things are constantly appearing and disappearing even when the computer is idle and no applications are running.

is there a way to completely clean my computer for free? I'm not even sure whats the cause of the problems. Please HELP!!!!!

i have Windows XP SP2 on a Toshiba Satellite A75-S206.

 

[mullered07]

My computer is infected and i don't even know with what. Ad-Aware caught some adware (which is harmless since it's part of using Bearshare) and a trojan (i think) in C:/WINDOWS/smgr.exe

I have a suspicion its not catching evthg because i've scanned my computer countless times with it but my computer still keeps messing up (its very slow, and is processing a lot of things.) When i go to Windows Task Manager using Ctrl+Alt+Del, and click on the processes tab, things are constantly appearing and disappearing even when the computer is idle and no applications are running.

is there a way to completely clean my computer for free? I'm not even sure whats the cause of the problems. Please HELP!!!!!

i have Windows XP SP2 on a Toshiba Satellite A75-S206.

you shouldnt double post you already have a thread with the same problem and i have answered you there

http://forum.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=32204

 

[devinXkillyou]

bring computer outside. grab hose. spray out inside of computer. computer all clean.

 

[Zero Cool]

put it in hot bath

 

[Casheti]

Hot soapy water, right as rain.

 

[technicks]

Get one of these. They will do the trick.

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

 

[m3lisk]

For those tough, stuck on stains, call up these guys:

 

[Zeratul_uy]

If water doesn't work...

BURN THIS MUTHA FACKA!!

 

[m3lisk]

And when all else fails...

Honestly though, just reformat if its that bad. Save what you have to on a flash drive, then reinstall windows. once again, thats just a last resort.

 

[keakar]

reformating the hard drive and reloading windows xp to start clean and fresh is the only totally sure way to get rid of hidden gremlins. unless you know enough to find, trace down and recognize things that don't belong to remove them you may miss something.

i don't understand why so many people avoid reformatting as though it were hard to do.

as long as you have a few hours to do it this is something that IMO should be done at least once a year as the only foolproof way to make sure your computer is clean and runs fast.

first make sure you put all your files on disk and put motherboard drivers on disk along with the drivers for video cards and anything else you have like printers and such. set bios to boot from cd.

put in your windows cd and restart to boot from the cd and follow the instructions there to install fresh copy of windows. delete the partitions shown then reformat the drives. after it's done it will reboot and begin the install of windows. follow instructions to set it up. thats it!

now install all your drivers, load windows updates, reload all your software and your files to finish.

 

[Zero Cool]

i don't understand why so many people avoid reformatting as though it were hard to do.

because you loose all your data, backing up 200GB onto DVDs is not fun. and will probably get you all the viruses onto your clean XP iinstall

 

[m3lisk]

i don't understand why so many people avoid reformatting as though it were hard to do.

Because that usually involves losing data.

 

[keakar]

because you loose all your data, backing up 200GB onto DVDs is not fun. and will probably get you all the viruses onto your clean XP iinstall

a one button backup external hard drive only costs $100 and takes only a few minutes to backup everything you have. IMO anyone with 200gb of data should never be without one to protect this data from loss.

if you only copy document files and photos you will not have any chance of bringing the virus along.

viruses will be found in zip type files, self downloading files, or anything containing .exe files.

program files will be lost but the data they contain can and should be saved. these can be safely transfered back into the correct folder after you are done.

i never suggest you simply copy everything and then put it right back or it is likely you will bring something along that way. you have to use common sense about what files to reinstall.

 

[Casheti]

Partitioning would save you all this hassle, then you only have to format C:

I've done it

 

[keakar]

Partitioning would save you all this hassle, then you only have to format C:

I've done it

do you mean to put windows on a seperate partition so your data is seperate and won't be lost?

i see where you are going, since viruses only corrupt windows mostly, your data should always be safe.

 

[Zero Cool]

yea but backing everything up will back up viruses which are not in windows folder too

 

[keakar]

yea but backing everything up will back up viruses which are not in windows folder too

well that goes back to my comment about you have to be smart about what you open and run to be able to trace it back and find the infected file. more often then not it is limited to a few recent files to find the virus there.

most viruses will change or corrupt other files to allow the virus to run and even if you manage to find and remove all of the virus files, the damage that was done to those corrupted files cannot be undone. at that point you are running windows that is slow and acts funny, or may actually crash at times. so avoiding a reformat after you are infected is IMO an exercise in futility.

 

[Casheti]

Viruses can't jump partitions. If it's on C:, then it won't be anywhere else etc..

Once you've found the source, format the bastard.

 

[newguy]

Recovery CD?

Thanks to all who contributed (actually contributed), especially keakar. So if i understand u all correctly, using a recovery CD (mine is called a Recovery and Applications/Drivers DVD) to set it back to factory settings will definitely get rid of any and all malware, as long as I'm smart about backing up my important files and data?

if so this is what i'll do.

PS: How long does a recovery usually take? Any precautions during recovery I should consider?

 

[Mediocre]

yeah sometimes those disks dont work and you get hosed. I would find someone with an actual copy of windows (home or pro whatever you have) and use YOUR CD KEY. Thats perfectly legal. Use it if you need too...

Also, be sure to double check your backup files. Nothing like burning a CD and then format to find out CD doesn't work...

Oh, and be sure to select 'clean install', choosing recovery won't format the drive. With format should take 1-2hrs.

 

[keakar]

Thanks to all who contributed (actually contributed), especially keakar. So if i understand u all correctly, using a recovery CD (mine is called a Recovery and Applications/Drivers DVD) to set it back to factory settings will definitely get rid of any and all malware, as long as I'm smart about backing up my important files and data?

if so this is what i'll do.

PS: How long does a recovery usually take? Any precautions during recovery I should consider?

get a seat cussion lol.

it all depends on the size of the hard drive and they can take up to an hour and installing windows takes about a half hour more, then there is about 300 updates for windows to download about 2 hours more and several reboots (why the hell they never did a SP3 i dunno).

so you see it takes a few hours but is well worth it to be totally clean to start fresh.

like we covered above you must be carefull what you put back into your computer, if you aren't sure if something is clean and you really need the file then try to get a known clean version of the file from a friend.


EDIT: about the recovery cd, it will contain all the drivers you need for your computer as it was when you got it but anything you added to it later like better sound or video card you will need to load those drivers yourself.

also when you finish everything go to the control panel and click on "add hardware" and it will find all the hardware installed on your computer and tell you if it needs software or driver installed for it. but the device must be powered on to be found. this will ensure you didn't miss anything.

 

[DaMulta]

Viruses can't jump partitions. If it's on C:, then it won't be anywhere else etc..

Once you've found the source, format the bastard.

lol yea right

Virses can go over the network, different drives, and even hide its self on a CD you just burned. I can tell you havent had a bad one yet.

 

[Casheti]

lol yea right

Virses can go over the network, different drives, and even hide its self on a CD you just burned. I can tell you havent had a bad one yet.

I'm wrong? Oh well

I've had a keylogger, a trojan RAT, and the scvhost.exe thing.

 

[newguy]

hey thx guys. appreciate it. i've installed the latest avast! antivirus and scanned my computer. it caught a lot of stuff (including several trojans) during the boot b4 loading windows so my computer seems a bit better but there's still constant popup ads whenever i'm online. im gonna try doing a full scan with it and see if it fixes evthg. if not, i'll do the recovery cd.

just in case i don't have to resort to that, do any of u guys know how to fix this problem:

whenever i open any window (eg browser, control panel folder, etc) there is no corresponding window in the taskbar (u know, where the windows minimize to). evthg else in the taskbar (Start menu button, Quick Launch buttons, time, etc) shows up fine.

just wondering. thx again guys.

 

[keakar]

it sounds like your pop up blocker is turned off or dissabled somehow. most of those popup adware will be in the browser so go to add/remove and roll back your browser to explorer 6 then reboot and reinstall explorer 7 should clean it all out. don't forget to activate the anti-phishing filter to block cookies.

if your using another browser then uninstall it,reboot and reinstall it.

also it is good to turn off system restore reboot then turn it back on, this will clear the backup files to be sure nothing was saved in there you're trying to get rid of.