Curse

DrSLUGFly · Jun 17, 2005, 10:31 AM // 10:31

Due to an endless bout vs. viruses I chose to reformat my computer and their were... issues. Because of my location it's a bit of a hassle to get the internet tech guy to come and reconnect me after reformatting so I need to wait a month or so before trying it again.

Before reformatting (and before the surge of viral evil) I connected fine and never had a single problem. After reformatting, when I go to the log in screen I lose my keyboard. I managed to get around half of my password in before losing it last time. When I try to click around, the cursor still moves but I can't minimize or exit, I can't click options, can't reclick the password feild... nothing... sometimes I lose my mouse for a few seconds at time (cursor freezes).

I can't alt tab out, I can't alt f4, I can't ctrl alt dlt. I can't do anything but hit the kill switch on my pc.

I tried uninstalling and I'm about to reinstall. Whether this works or not I'm curious if anyone has had a similar problem and might have a clue as to what to do or what might be causing it. As I said, I didn't have this problem before the reformat, with the same drivers, same hardware, same everything...

I hate computers... but I can't... step... away...

edit:

Reinstalling seemed to fix the issue (although there was a few second lag after I finished my pass and hit enter that kind of freaked me out). But I'm still curious if someone can shed some light on this issue...

2nd edit:

After loading Lion's Arch (where my char. last was) the computer rebooted... trying again

3rd edit:

I managed to actually make it into LA for a few seconds, chatted 2 lines with a friend then froze to a black screen with no reboot... I had to use the kill button again...

Dirkiess · Jun 17, 2005, 11:07 AM // 11:07

Oooh. Sounds like you had a lot of fun.

With regards to all the virus issues you had, when you reformatted, did you make sure to delete the partition before reinstalling windows, or did you just do a quick format of the partition where windows was?
If you ever have virus issues it's always a good idea to completely delete the C: drive and then recreate it when you start the Windows Install.

I would also try and get your hard drive fully checked over for any lingering viruses that may be located on any other partitions and files you may have stored.

Was it XP you are using?
What Virus software and firewall do you use?

Also, system spec would be helpful.

DrSLUGFly · Jun 17, 2005, 11:54 AM // 11:54

I'm using XP pro (5.1, Build 2600) no SP2 (long story)
P4X400-8235
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBios v6.00pg
processor: Intel Pentium 4 cpu 2.40 ghz, ~2.4ghz
512 mb ram
dx 9.0c

my vid card:
NVidia GeForce FX 5700LE
Integrated RAMDAC
128mb

my sound:
C-Media Wave Device

I'm using the older driver now (the one that came with the card) instead of the one on the website to see if that helps. I've spent the last hour reinstalling drivers, restarting, restarting, scanning, restarting, restarting (oh god...)

I use Avast, Hijackthis, spybot... hijackthis found a virus (or rather, I found it in hijackthis, it was there previously but I missed it) And I just now downloaded the trial of ZoneAlarm. It's looking good in that it has caught a lot already. I've got like 24 infected files. I'm going to do my best to clean them up and then run another scan in safe mode... I haven't tried getting onto guildwars in the last 2 hours since the net is also having some issues now too. So I know it's a virus thing and not a gw thing. Also, the ZoneAlarm live protection has caught about 20 attempted intrusions in the first minute or 2, but they've slowed down a bit now. And it also caught about 3 or 4 attempted connects from my computer.

I'm about to reboot and run a scan in safemode, then I'll try to connect to gw and see what happens. I'll post back here afterwards.

oh yeah, as for partitions... it's another long story, but this one is worth telling. I reformatted only last night. Deleted the partition and installed over drive C with a clean install and format. Because I don't have SP2 bundled, when the net techie came to hook me up a worm had gotten onto my pc within the first 2 minutes of connection...

He had to use system restore which brought it back to a deleted partition and the original C drive... which means my programs, system folder, registry, everything is the way it was before I reformatted. I don't want to reformat again since it's so tough to get a tech guy to come here... and a hassle when he does come.

In my nature I'm not a hateful person, but I would gladly extract all the teeth of a malware writer using a hammer...

Dirkiess · Jun 17, 2005, 12:51 PM // 12:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrSLUGFly

I'm using XP pro (5.1, Build 2600) no SP2 (long story)
P4X400-8235
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBios v6.00pg
processor: Intel Pentium 4 cpu 2.40 ghz, ~2.4ghz
512 mb ram
dx 9.0c

my vid card:
NVidia GeForce FX 5700LE
Integrated RAMDAC
128mb

my sound:
C-Media Wave Device

I'm using the older driver now (the one that came with the card) instead of the one on the website to see if that helps. I've spent the last hour reinstalling drivers, restarting, restarting, scanning, restarting, restarting (oh god...)

I use Avast, Hijackthis, spybot... hijackthis found a virus (or rather, I found it in hijackthis, it was there previously but I missed it) And I just now downloaded the trial of ZoneAlarm. It's looking good in that it has caught a lot already. I've got like 24 infected files. I'm going to do my best to clean them up and then run another scan in safe mode... I haven't tried getting onto guildwars in the last 2 hours since the net is also having some issues now too. So I know it's a virus thing and not a gw thing. Also, the ZoneAlarm live protection has caught about 20 attempted intrusions in the first minute or 2, but they've slowed down a bit now. And it also caught about 3 or 4 attempted connects from my computer.

I'm about to reboot and run a scan in safemode, then I'll try to connect to gw and see what happens. I'll post back here afterwards.

oh yeah, as for partitions... it's another long story, but this one is worth telling. I reformatted only last night. Deleted the partition and installed over drive C with a clean install and format. Because I don't have SP2 bundled, when the net techie came to hook me up a worm had gotten onto my pc within the first 2 minutes of connection...

He had to use system restore which brought it back to a deleted partition and the original C drive... which means my programs, system folder, registry, everything is the way it was before I reformatted. I don't want to reformat again since it's so tough to get a tech guy to come here... and a hassle when he does come.

In my nature I'm not a hateful person, but I would gladly extract all the teeth of a malware writer using a hammer...

Sounds like you have a serious case of spyware and viruses all over your PC. That could explain the major hits your getting with the firewall. Also, if these are already infecting your PC when you come to install firewalls and virus software, there are some that detect this and get around the install of these pieces of software.

Where are you located and how PC Tech savvy are you? Also, what ISP are you using and waht connection? Cable or ADSL?

Only reason I ask, is because it's not difficult to rebuild a PC with XP after you have deleted the C: partition. If you are savvy, then the next bit won't help much, otherwise, it's very useful.

You setup the CD as your boot device and place the XP disc in the drive. XP pretty much does all the work for you. All you have to do, is choose clean install and delete the C: partition and then create the partition again. Run a Full NTFS Format and New install and sit back and reply to the odd thing that appears.
It will prompt that the deletion will remove all data from the partition. That's not strictly true, as there are programs that will detect files still located on these partitions, as long as a full wipe is not run, but it does help if there are viruses and spyware located on the C: drive.

As far as the Restore Point goes, I'm surprised your tech guy even considered that as an option. That I would say is very lazy on his part, as he has put you back in exactly the same situation you were already in.

The only other things you would need, is Graphic and mobo drivers from the original sources to get around any possible contamination on your hard drive. And then install a clean install of the Zone Alarm suite before reconnecting to the internet. This will prevent any files getting into your machine, that may be going by your ISP. (Had a similar problem with my friends Cable ISP. Connected them up and BAM, a file got in and infected the machine straight away. Had to do a full clean and reinstall and Installed Firewall and Virus first.)

Make sure you install a copy of Zone Alarm before trying the following. Personally, getting the Full Security Suite is a good thing. I use it, and it's a great program.

Do you have a 2nd PC that has XP? If so, hooking this hard drive into that machine as a secondary drive, will enable you to check for any viruses and spyware, without having to worry about loading any of these into memory when you boot up. Will also enable you to clear the C: partition of all files, except any work that you may have located on there, and start again with a clean build.

Also, what is the reason you don't use XP SP2? I would highly recommend having this installed before you start installing anything else, once you get your machine up and running fully.

One last point. Fire your tech guy, he sounds pretty useless to me.

DrSLUGFly · Jun 17, 2005, 01:31 PM // 13:31

I'll lay all the cards out which will probably illuminate the whole situation. I'm in Korea, and it's tough to find English OS here. I have a bootleg XP pro (which is why no SP2). Also, my tech guy doesn't speak english, I speak rudimentary Korean... I don't think he understood right away that I reformatted because of the virus problems, he just recognized that I had the virus problems after having connected to the internet. Had I known a bit more (I'm not tech savy yet) then I would have made a restore point after the clean install. He at least figured out how to get the updates onto my machine without connecting to the internet.

After 4 hours of running scans, restarting, safe mode, scanning, searching for files that are found by the scanners but don't exist in the specified locations (wtf?) and doing it all again... I just tried to get on gw and I crashed/rebooted at log in. This time however, it told me that it was a problem with my graphics driver, so I'm going to try to install the newest from the NVidia website.

My plan... If I can survive the next two weeks without my computer or if I can make it work reasonably... I can still go online, but gw is a serious addiction, I'm getting the shakes already

. If I can hold out that long, I get paid in 2 weeks. I'm going to line up early an imported windows xp and I'm going to actually buy a virus program. I'll have to do some canvassing to find out which one to buy... I don't want to have to buy 5 to keep my computer safe, bad enough I have to download 5 just to keep it functioning.

*sigh*

Dirkiess · Jun 17, 2005, 01:50 PM // 13:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrSLUGFly

I'll lay all the cards out which will probably illuminate the whole situation. I'm in Korea, and it's tough to find English OS here. I have a bootleg XP pro (which is why no SP2). Also, my tech guy doesn't speak english, I speak rudimentary Korean... I don't think he understood right away that I reformatted because of the virus problems, he just recognized that I had the virus problems after having connected to the internet. Had I known a bit more (I'm not tech savy yet) then I would have made a restore point after the clean install. He at least figured out how to get the updates onto my machine without connecting to the internet.

After 4 hours of running scans, restarting, safe mode, scanning, searching for files that are found by the scanners but don't exist in the specified locations (wtf?) and doing it all again... I just tried to get on gw and I crashed/rebooted at log in. This time however, it told me that it was a problem with my graphics driver, so I'm going to try to install the newest from the NVidia website.

My plan... If I can survive the next two weeks without my computer or if I can make it work reasonably... I can still go online, but gw is a serious addiction, I'm getting the shakes already

. If I can hold out that long, I get paid in 2 weeks. I'm going to line up early an imported windows xp and I'm going to actually buy a virus program. I'll have to do some canvassing to find out which one to buy... I don't want to have to buy 5 to keep my computer safe, bad enough I have to download 5 just to keep it functioning.

*sigh*

Well, in the case of you having a Boot Leg version of XP pro, that is up to you.

This isn't me being harsh, but more for the fact you are using an Illegal Piece of software and as such, there is no point in trying to help you out, as who knows what else you have that is illegal.

Probably the whole reason you have so many viruses and spyware programs on your PC.

So, from my point of view, there will be no more help on my part, so you are on your own I'm afraid.

Also, don't expect any help from GW Support as they won't support you in any case what so ever.

The one solution you can do. Buy a Legal copy of XP and install all the security updates that a Legal copy of XP will enable you to install.

DrSLUGFly · Jun 17, 2005, 02:21 PM // 14:21

I suppose I expected that... I would never promote the use of bootleg software on forums centered around a piece of software or a dev team. I understand you withdrawing advice, since you're right, you can't be sure of how my system is working with an illegitimate OS. As a by-thought though, I hope you understand why I'm using this. I could have had a legitimate Korean OS that came with my computer when I bought it, but I spent two years blindly navigating the innards of my pc, all programs automatically in Korean, all utilities, updates, and (the straw that broke the camel's back) all warning and error messages in Korean...

... I'm a ninja, I can work my way through this...