Topic: Have I got a worm?

[lindwall]

Hello,

Wondered if anyone could help. When I start my computer I get a window open entitled 'Registry Editor'. It gives me the message: "Cannot import sysdll.reg: Error opening the file. There may be a disk or file system error."

I'm struggling in my search to sort this out. Any help appreciated.

Cheers

[Clive]

Hi Lindwall and    One of our techies will be along shortly to try and help with your problem.  Do you have antivirus software installed and is it updated?

[Sandra]

Hi Lindwall, can you tell us which OS you are using and does this prevent you starting your pc, ie are you using a different PC to get on line at the moment ?
When did this start happening and have you downloaded and/or installed anything recently ?
As Clive suggested check that your AV program is up to date and run a scan.
Are you sure that the message wasnt SYS.DLL ?

Sorry about all the questions  

[lindwall]

No need to apologise for the questions. Thanks for the help.

Answers -

Windows Me.

Downloaded a film preview this morning and the problem emerged straight afterwards.

I am able to use the PC - I can close the 'Registry Editor' window and continue (apparently) as normal.

Error is definitely described as "sysdll.reg".

Thanks again.

[Simon]

Can you use System Restore to go back to before the problem started?  That might be the first, and easiest thing to try.

[Sandra]

From reading this article :

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;183887&Product=winme

I think that as its starting up its trying to scan the registry but cant open the SYSDLL.REG file to allow it to do so.

Did the film preview that you downloaded earlier ask you to download something to allow you to play it ?
If so this may have replaced the file that ME cant find now.
As Simon suggested, the simplest way would be to try and restore to a point prior to downloading the film, although this may not be possible as, if it would allow that then I think it would have restored the registry back to its correct configuration instead of bringing the error message up  

It doesnt sound like a virus or worm as you say it appears to be running ok but it may be wise to update your AV prog and run a scan to be on the safe side.
Hopefully someone will be around soon who knows what the missing/corrupted file is and how to fix it properly  

[lindwall]

Hmm, I've now tried the system restore - with no luck, unfortunately. I'll have a good look at the link and hopefully progress.

In the short term, the fact that no-one has recognised it as a worm or virus allows me a little more time than I feared I had (I hope!).

Thanks again for the help.

[Sandra]

There is a bit in that article about running scan reg, may be worth doing that but it appears that it wont be able to find it to repair it.
If you do try to run it and it cant, then it will confirm that it is a registry problem then we can think along those lines as to what action to take next  


Edited to add :

To start the Windows Registry Checker tool, click Start, click Run, type scanregw.exe in the Open box, and then click OK.

Try that please and see if it will run or not, I suspect it will say it cant  

[Dack]

This might be relevant:
http://www.pestpatrol.com/PestInfo/s/sysdll2.asp

Looking at google newsgroups http://groups.google.com/groups?q=sysdll.reg&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&scoring=d&filter=0 seems to indicate a lot of people have had this problem in the last few days, all OS's.

You might want to ty and run Spybot security.kolla.de or pestpatrol, or adaware etc. Remember to do the updates to whichever one you choose before scanning.

Failing that if you download and run HJT from tomcoyote.org/hjt/ then post the log here - we can have  a look at it for you