Possible Virus???

Electra_King

Hope someone can help me. I have had a number of problems with my computer for some time now but have never got to the bottom of it. I regularly check the task manager (to see what is slowing up the computer) but nothing seems out of place iykwim. I also check the event viewer and have had a number of errors but I don't know what they mean.

Anyway I did a search on explorer.exe. I know it should be there but I seem to have 5 different applications. How do I find out which is the correct one? and How do I remove the others safely if they are viruses?

As follows:
C:\WINDOWS\ (1,009KB)
C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB938828$ (1,008KB)
C:\WINDOWS\$hf_mig$\B938828\SP2QFE (1,009KB)
C:\Office\FILES\OSP\1033\IE5\EN\IE4SHL95.CAB (168KB)
C:\Office\FILES\OSP\1033\IE5\EN\IE4SHLNT.CAB (174KB)

To be honest for all I know they all could be legit but I don't want to take any chances.

Thanks for reading.

alanwjones

Could you download and run hijack this from http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html,

Follow instructions and someone will be along to advise you

superscaper

What kind of problems specifically? And what security do you have and use?

superscaper

Go through the malware removal guide (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=133269) just to make sure it's as clean as it can be. The Hijackthis program alanwjones mentioned is actually part of the guide (it's the last stage). Best to eliminate as many possibilities first before that stage.

Electra_King

Thanks for the responses.

alanwjones Sorry for sounding dumb but what is hijack this and what is it used for?

superscaper I have McAfee Virus scan. Running Windows XP sp2. As for problems where do I start ....
I will try and list as many as I can:
Here goes…

Every so often my computer starts to make a funny clicking noise then a blue screen appears saying:

kernel_date_inpage_error
blah blah blah
atapi.sys
blah blah vlah
beginning dump of physical memory

when I restart the computer (by switching off at the socket and back on again) a screen appears with:

disk boot failure_insert disk

---

along with this I get the following message:

VPU recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was not longer responding to graphics driver commands.
Please tell ATI technologies.

I have checked the event viewer and have a number of errors as follows:

The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.

The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort2, did not respond within the timeout period.

Error code 00000077, parameter1 c000000e, parameter2 c000000e, parameter3 00000000, parameter4 035c5000.

Detected circular dependencies demand starting Remote Access Connection Manager.

Error code 0000007a, parameter1 c03e12b4, parameter2 c000000e, parameter3 f84adca8, parameter4 1be60860.

The list goes on……..

To be honest I was not sure it was a virus/malware etc. I regularly check the virus checker log and none have been detected. Do you think it is worth me going through the malware removal guide anyway?

iviv

Hmm, it could be a problem with your hard drive. Just in case, back up all important files you have onto CD if you can.

Next, go start>run, and type in 'cmd' (no ')
In the command prompt, type

chkdsk c: /r

And press enter. It will say

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Say yes, and restart. It will scan the hard drive for errors, and try and fix them.

superscaper

Electra_King wrote: »

Do you think it is worth me going through the malware removal guide anyway?

Can't hurt and at least you'll more definitely eliminate that as a possible cause. I wouldn't really trust McAfee anyway. I've seen first hand its inability to pick up that a PC was infected with quite a nasty worm.

superscaper

Although, along iviv's thinking it does sound more like a "hardware" issue or a corruption somewhere.

Electra_King

iviv Thanks, I have run chkdsk in the past and nothing has changed.

superscraper To be honest I have had a number of problems running the McAfee On demand scan. What do you recommend?

I think you are both right that it is probably a 'hardware' problem but what do I do next?

superscaper

Electra_King wrote: »

iviv Thanks, I have run chkdsk in the past and nothing has changed.

superscraper To be honest I have had a number of problems running the McAfee On demand scan. What do you recommend?

I think you are both right that it is probably a 'hardware' problem but what do I do next?

I currently use Avast or Antivir (both free) on different PCs. On my own personal PC I pay for Eset Smart Security. If you choose any remember to download or obtain first then uninstall McAfee before installing the new anti virus. Along with uninstalling use the removal tool (available here http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=1033) MCPR.exe. Like Norton, McAfee as well as being not highly rated it's also quite bad for leaving rubbish behind on the pc.

iviv

Have you run it since having the crashes?

This page says you should upgrade to SP2 if you haven't already. If you do, try downloading the hotfix that's about half way down the page.