Virus? Mom's PC has problems and I have ??'s

[Extreme1]

My Mom's PC seems to have a virus. When booted up it prompts to connect to the internet (dial-up dialog box comes up). I have to hit "Cancel" 30+ times before it stops. It won't allow Norton Anti-Virus to start until after the dialog box stops popping up, then it must be started manually.



It probably got infected when the old (Norton 2002) version of anti-virus couldn't update the definitions before I installed the new (Norton 2004).



I thought it might be one of the mydoom viruses so I went to the Norton site, downloaded and ran a fix but it didn't find anything.



Any suggestions?



BTW, my PC mentioned here still reboots. It wasn't overheating (I finally got the motherboard graphic to work that shows CPU temp) but the motherboard crapped. Ye-ha. It cost me $42 to find that out... Now to get it fixed.

 

[Casey Ray]

Check out this site: Symantec



Scroll down to "Check for security risks" and then run the virus scan. If you have a virus, this will find it.



cul,



Casey

 

[BGiles]

Try this.

This is a FREE web-based Virus scan.



http://housecall.trendmicro.com/



Brian

 

[AKAMAC]

It's a spyware virus. Start the system in "safe" mode and get online. Download spyware (do a search) software and install it. I use "spybot" as it is free.



The problem is that there is now a que in your system registry that points to directed site.



You can do fix that will let you start in "normal mode". If you have a DSL/Cable connection, disconnect it from computer. After startup open Internet Explorer. (You will get an error message) Open "tools", internet options, and type in after the http//www. " TDR1.com" Open a search engine after you have established a connection and type in "spybot", download and install. Your "home page" will be the TDR. You can change later. Mike

 

[dresslered]

Extreme1-

I had exactly the same problem. It was really ticking me off as I knew that I didn't have a virus or any Spyware. It actually occured when I updated to the latest version of Norton Anit-virus. I can't recall exactly what it was, but it is a problem with Norton conflicting with Internet Explorer(?). I found the solution on their site which requires you to change some settings in the "Internet Options". Once I did that, everything seemed to return to normal--it was still a Norton bug if you ask me. I'll try to dig around and see if I saved the fix.



P. S. My dial-up would also occur when I was shutting down the computer.

 

[dresslered]

I think that this was the solution:



http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...88256b4c00760ad1?OpenDocument&src=bar_sch_nam

 

[PC12Driver]

I'd say it's a porn dialer. Handy little program that will dial 900 numbers and download porn automatically. Can get really expensive.



Two of the best spyware programs currently out are Ad Aware 6. 0 and Spybot - Search and destroy. I currently run them both, since one will typically not catch everything. Even both won't fix everything sometimes. I'll end up having to do it manually.



www.ad-aware.com (make sure you use the dash, without will take you to an imposter site)



And Spybot can be downloaded from www.download.com. Just search for spybot search and destroy.



Both programs are freeware, and both should be updated each time you use them (there's a "search for updates" button or something similar in each one)



And run them in Safe mode for best results.



Another possibility is a trojan worm that is trying to spread itself automatically. That needs a current version of McAfee or Symantec Antivirus with the latest definitions to clear up.



Do a Windows Update (www.windowsupdate.com) while you're at it, and do all of the "Critical Updates". That will plug a bunch of holes Microsoft left open. You may have do do it a couple of times to get them all. Most of the bad stuff gets in using one of these exploits. It's also something most folks don't do.



Good luck...

 

[dan brooks]

The first thing I'd do is go to http://www.pestscan.com and use their online scan tool. I had a similar problem and Pestscan found a ton of garbage, including some spyware that was causing pop-ups and auto dialing.



The next thing I'd do is quit using IE. I'm using Mozilla Firefox and I like it a lot better than IE. You can download it for free at http://www.mozilla.org . I'm also using Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Outlook and it's a lot safer.



I've also dumped Norton in favor of ZoneAlarm Security Suite - it's much better, IMHO.

 

[Extreme1]

Thanks for the info. Spybot and Zone Alarm installed on this machine and I run them frequently. I'll run dresslered's fix first (when I have time).



The funny thing is... It isn't doing it now! It does run the hard drive for a while on start up though.