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...
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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.