My computer is hugely Fucked over

[KingRanter]

I just reformatted a week or so ago, and now its fucked up again. this time much worse than the last. MUCH worse. I have to open explorer.exe and a bunch of other stuff through task manager otherwise it wont open at all. what should i do? should i reformat again? cause I can access my files so as soon as i find my USB stick i'll be able back stuff up and do that.

PLEASE HELP!!

[KingRanter]

also, my computer keeps getting ads, and my internet is slow sometimes. im assuming this is all going to tie together with spyware. >_>

[dester55]

ya, probly a virus or spyware. so get scanning and if it isn't that then come back and we'll try to help you more.

[KingRanter]

i scanned, nothing came up. due to Norton 360 >_>

I also seem to lose access to browsers from time to time, and i have to restart to make it work again >_>

[dester55]

norton is a problem all its own of course....

what do you mean you seem to lose access to browsers from time to time? like your internet browsers just stop connecting or something like that?

[C-zom]

Almost positive you have a virus or spyware judging on the next symptoms, and general weirdness. You said you reformatted so thats bizzare. When you reformatted did you put a lot of files on a USB stick or CD? One of them must be infected and transferring this virus/bot.

Basically, reformat and delete the windows.old file. Don't use anything off the USB stick. Reinstall drivers, get a clean slate, install virus and spywayre programs (I recommend Avira Antivir and Superantispyware respectively) and then run them. If nothing is picked up, install the files off your usb/cd. SCAN THEM FIRST by right clicking the drive/CD in my computer. Install. If anything weird happens, restart comp and mash the F8 key until you're in safe mode. Run the virus scan/spyware

If you don't get a virus off the CD/USB, you're set.

[nIveK oGre]

what brand computer?  what O/S?  and how did you "reformat" your HD?

this kind of issue is easy to fix.

worst case scenario is you buy a new HD and have to reinstall the O/S on that, cheap

[KingRanter]

naw things are lookin better, but I think a reformat is still in order.

it's fine, i backed some stuff up, i'll let you guys know how things went after i settle it all down, but its not as bad anymore. im still getting ads and other stuff but it'll all be over soon.

[Amoston]

If you don't have anything to prevent you from reformatting, I'd say do that. On a fresh slate (Assumed winxp) upgrade to SP3. Then, grab firefox off the net, followed by noscript. After those two, nab off Avast antivirus and Spybot S&D. If you weren't at your computer the whole time and a sibling/child was able to get near the computer (and internet access), run atfcleaner, avast's scan, and spybot's scan. <_< Just in-freaking case. Then immunize with spybot, and always always always update spybot, avast, noscript and firefox when asked. NOW grab your drivers. I say to do this after all that shit, because you've generally got a bit of looking around to do, and there's lots of places which could drop off some spyware/viruses. As far as backups go, I'm not a sentimental type of person. I'd rather just throw it all away.

This is actually what I do to my father's co-workers computers, for $100/ea. I'm not getting ripped off at $20/hr doing this stuff, because I'm usually also drinking/eating their foodstuffs while watching TV.

[KingRanter]

holy piss u guiyyss i completely forgot about this topic

i already reformatted, its all set and everything is fine, and i was considering a reformat from the beginning anyways

also, Amoston, not to rant you out because i dont mean to do that, im just lettin you know the following things

-im not spending any money on anything. like im serious, NOTHING, not a thing, otherwise i might follow some more of your advice. im 16 and i dont have any income comin my way atm so im not spending anything. this seems to cancel out some of the stuff you were talkin about, or at least it seems, considering i wouldnt know what to say about where i stand with my computer knowledge, but i know i can get by with most software issues and other things. anyways.
-i ALWAYS use firefox. nothing else. its the best and i bet you know it better than i do.
-i already picked up the 2 programs that C-zom suggested, im just gonna avoid norton altogether from now on. im happy with what i've got and if this isnt enough then i might have something extreme on my hands. but thats for another day
-i HAVE to back stuff up. i feel horrible if i lose everything i had worked so hard getting
-idunno where this point fits in up there, i seem to have left this out, but this is my own laptop and no one else has access to it because i dont let them have it. i didnt expect anyone to know that without me telling them and i didnt rly say anything about it. also, i have no child, and my only sibling has her own laptop, and my parents have their own comp. so even if i allowed access, no one would bother with it.

i just wanted to respond to all of your hard work typing that stuff up. not that typing is hard work >_>

and to conclude, im positive the viruses were due to a few torrents i was using to get the full Spore version for PC cause i didnt want to spend any money, not even just $10 (back to the not spending money point). i might decide to wait for my friend to buy so i can rob him of his CD or just buy it myself. but i am not using torrents for games ever again, not after this experience. >_>

[C-zom]

Glad its resolved. <_< Happy to help.

[Amoston]

-im not spending any money on anything. like im serious, NOTHING, not a thing, otherwise i might follow some more of your advice. im 16 and i dont have any income comin my way atm so im not spending anything. this seems to cancel out some of the stuff you were talkin about, or at least it seems, considering i wouldnt know what to say about where i stand with my computer knowledge, but i know i can get by with most software issues and other things. anyways.


and to conclude, im positive the viruses were due to a few torrents i was using to get the full Spore version for PC cause i didnt want to spend any money, not even just $10 (back to the not spending money point). i might decide to wait for my friend to buy so i can rob him of his CD or just buy it myself. but i am not using torrents for games ever again, not after this experience. >_>

Each program I mentioned was freeware, the $ was what people have paid me in the past to do just what I told you to do, step by step.  'sal free stuff, but c-zom's stuff is gonna work just as well, I'd imagine.

<_< I wouldn't go so far as to stop torrenting stuff, but I'd definitely look into better protection when doing it. I've never had any virus issues with Avast (Yay P2P shield!) but I haven't had any experience with Avira. It's probably just as good.

[C-zom]

Avira has the best detection rate in the business if you buy it, with the free version being just as good but doesn't come with that many settings. It still gets the same daily detection updates though, and it has a shield too. I use this with comodo firewall: If I stealth my ports on Comodo and turn on Avira's shield, I've never had one virus on this comp OR an intrusion successful from torrenting.

[Leo]

also, my computer keeps getting aids, and my internet is slow sometimes. im assuming this is all going to tie together with spyware. >_>

Yeah, that's what happens when you let it sleep around.