screen problem

[Guest giddyup]

My neighbor had little protection and got all sort of malware, trogans

etc. in her computer. I tried to find by using Lavasofts Adware, Spybot

search and destroy and Avast anti-virus which I installed on her

computer because she had no antivirus at all. Anyway, after hours of

finding hundred of crap through the 3 programs we still had the same

problem with the homepage hijacked and an exclamation mark in a yellow

triangle in the traybar by the clock. I finally told her I would take

the hard drive and scan the drive as a USB Drive and used Norton on my

computer to do so. I found eleven more and removed them also. Vundo

was one of them.

Now after placing the drive back into her computer it seems to work fine

except that the wallpaper only show about a quarter of the left side of

screen and the rest of the screen is white. I have never seen anything

like this before, any ideas?

 

Thanks

 

Windows XP home SP2

Internet Explorer 7

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: screen problem

 

 

"giddyup" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message

news:OEvOHs36IHA.4112@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> My neighbor had little protection and got all sort of malware, trogans

> etc. in her computer. I tried to find by using Lavasofts Adware, Spybot

> search and destroy and Avast anti-virus which I installed on her computer

> because she had no antivirus at all. Anyway, after hours of finding

> hundred of crap through the 3 programs we still had the same problem with

> the homepage hijacked and an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle in the

> traybar by the clock. I finally told her I would take the hard drive and

> scan the drive as a USB Drive and used Norton on my computer to do so. I

> found eleven more and removed them also. Vundo was one of them.

> Now after placing the drive back into her computer it seems to work fine

> except that the wallpaper only show about a quarter of the left side of

> screen and the rest of the screen is white. I have never seen anything

> like this before, any ideas?

>

> Thanks

>

> Windows XP home SP2

> Internet Explorer 7

 

To me an infected computer is a compromised computer, especially

if it has been afflicted by so many viruses. I would have backed up

her files and formatted the disk straight away, and I still would. Just

because you spent so many hours trying to fix the machine does not

make it any better. It is still badly compromised. It's the same as with

a car that's been in a bad smash: No amount of panel beating will

turn it back into a good, reliable car.

[Guest Ken Blake, MVP]

Re: screen problem

 

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:44:53 -0500, giddyup <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:

> My neighbor had little protection and got all sort of malware, trogans

> etc. in her computer. I tried to find by using Lavasofts Adware, Spybot

> search and destroy and Avast anti-virus which I installed on her

> computer because she had no antivirus at all. Anyway, after hours of

> finding hundred of crap through the 3 programs we still had the same

> problem with the homepage hijacked and an exclamation mark in a yellow

> triangle in the traybar by the clock. I finally told her I would take

> the hard drive and scan the drive as a USB Drive and used Norton on my

> computer to do so. I found eleven more and removed them also. Vundo

> was one of them.

> Now after placing the drive back into her computer it seems to work fine

> except that the wallpaper only show about a quarter of the left side of

> screen and the rest of the screen is white. I have never seen anything

> like this before, any ideas?

 

 

"Hundreds of crap"? Your chances of successfully cleaning a computer

that badly infected are next to zero. The only good solution is a

complete clean reinstallation of Windows.

 

--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

Please Reply to the Newsgroup

[Guest giddyup]

Re: screen problem

 

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

> On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:44:53 -0500, giddyup <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:

>

>> My neighbor had little protection and got all sort of malware, trogans

>> etc. in her computer. I tried to find by using Lavasofts Adware, Spybot

>> search and destroy and Avast anti-virus which I installed on her

>> computer because she had no antivirus at all. Anyway, after hours of

>> finding hundred of crap through the 3 programs we still had the same

>> problem with the homepage hijacked and an exclamation mark in a yellow

>> triangle in the traybar by the clock. I finally told her I would take

>> the hard drive and scan the drive as a USB Drive and used Norton on my

>> computer to do so. I found eleven more and removed them also. Vundo

>> was one of them.

>> Now after placing the drive back into her computer it seems to work fine

>> except that the wallpaper only show about a quarter of the left side of

>> screen and the rest of the screen is white. I have never seen anything

>> like this before, any ideas?

>

>

> "Hundreds of crap"? Your chances of successfully cleaning a computer

> that badly infected are next to zero. The only good solution is a

> complete clean reinstallation of Windows.

>

Thanks, figured that was probably the case. Just trying to avoid the

inevitable.

[Guest Ken Blake, MVP]

Re: screen problem

 

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:32:30 -0500, giddyup <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:

> Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

> > On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:44:53 -0500, giddyup <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:

> >

> >> My neighbor had little protection and got all sort of malware, trogans

> >> etc. in her computer. I tried to find by using Lavasofts Adware, Spybot

> >> search and destroy and Avast anti-virus which I installed on her

> >> computer because she had no antivirus at all. Anyway, after hours of

> >> finding hundred of crap through the 3 programs we still had the same

> >> problem with the homepage hijacked and an exclamation mark in a yellow

> >> triangle in the traybar by the clock. I finally told her I would take

> >> the hard drive and scan the drive as a USB Drive and used Norton on my

> >> computer to do so. I found eleven more and removed them also. Vundo

> >> was one of them.

> >> Now after placing the drive back into her computer it seems to work fine

> >> except that the wallpaper only show about a quarter of the left side of

> >> screen and the rest of the screen is white. I have never seen anything

> >> like this before, any ideas?

> >

> >

> > "Hundreds of crap"? Your chances of successfully cleaning a computer

> > that badly infected are next to zero. The only good solution is a

> > complete clean reinstallation of Windows.

> >

> Thanks, figured that was probably the case. Just trying to avoid the

> inevitable.

 

 

You're welcome. If it were me, I wouldn't even try cleaning it. Even

if the cleaning software told me everything was fine, I wouldn't

believe it. I think you just need to bite the bullet and reinstall

cleanly.

 

 

--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

Please Reply to the Newsgroup