Topic: Problems since getting a virus/trojan??

[iomexico]

My pc is a Compaq Armada laptop which originally had windows NT on it but now has XP and Internet Explorer 6 and AOL 7.  AOL told me to downgrade from AOL 8 as it would improve the connection.

I had an e-mail virus which now appears to be cleaned, but has left the computer unstable as I have problems downloading files.  Some download OK and others won't load at all or only partially load like AOL has.  Therefore I have problems with getting onto the internet as its hit and miss whether AOL will start as it keeps freezing at the "Starting AOL" stage.  AOL have said that it's a windows problem

It also is sometimes slow to start up (10 mins) and I have shut down the programs manually.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Sandra]

Make sure that your av prog is up to date, hard if you cant get on the net to update it but try anyway.
Then turn off system restore and restart in Safe Mode and scan again, that may find other bits that are remaining which are protected from the scans in the system restore part of XP.
Do you know which virus you had ?
If you could tell us which it was then we may be able to find some more information about it for you  

[Dack]

Something worth trying with AOL is clearing out the AOL cache - if that gets corupted/full then all sorts of odd things occur e.g. software freezing on loading when you want to browse but not freezing when trying to connect for mail. This is not the standard browser cache but AOLs specific one and can be accessed from the AOL preferences option from the main windows start menu.

Also worth you checking for spyware after doing the virus scan.

[iomexico]

Thanks

I tried both ideas, getting onto AOL is still hi and miss.

I can't remember what the virus was, BUT my anti-virus says it cannot check all the files.  So, they could be damaged ones.  It also says winxp-039.exe and dbplugin.exe are probably infected by PE virus.

Any suggestions welcome.

[Sandra]

The winxp-039.exe is the patch that prevents the Madblast virus which was around last year.
Maybe you should delete it and download and re apply it to cure that one.

I dont know what the other one is but you can possibly uninstall and delete it and re download it from here :

http://fortunanetwork.com.au/catalogue_products.html

It appears to be something for a firewall  

[iomexico]

Did a search to find these files but could not find them and XP has only been on this machine since July 2003.
Getting onto AOL seems more hit than miss at the moment, although the last couple of days my keyboard keeps freeezing up or it goes mad and repeatedly strikes the same key.

This machine is doing my head in now.

[Sandra]

I dont know if this will help but its some information from Symantec about the PE Virus you mentioned earlier.
Which AV program are you using ?

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-gate.nsf/d7ea122f20637e2b88256ce6004a00c5/fc8a0f3d1166014788256bd0007e4bd3?OpenDocument&src=bar_sch_nam

[iomexico]

I am now using eTrust EZ anti-virus which says that I have no viruses but 50 files not scanned.

I was using Invir which said I could have infected PE files.

My keyboard keeps freeezing up or it goes mad and repeatedly strikes the same key.  Any ideas how to amend this please.