Sony Vaio laptop

MothballsWallet

I'm trying to fix a Sony Vaio laptop for a friend by installing antivirus and anti-spyware tools (it runs slower than a snail trapped in glue at the moment), running Windows XP Media Center edition with Service Pack 2.

I can get the machine to boot, log in (my friend gave me the login so I can get to work), but after logging in, the machine displays the message: "Warning! Spyware detected on your computer! Install an antivirus or spyware remover to clean up your computer."

The problem is I can't seem to get past this message, which is a whole screen, so I can install some tools to fix the machine from my USB pen drive. Does anyone know how you do this?

Unfortunately, the Enter and }# keys are broken (switches damaged and key tops loose), so key combinations that need these will be tricky (I can simulate Enter with Ctrl-M, but } or # will be more difficult).

Browntoa

you can put this on a CD

http://www.free-av.com/en/tools/12/avira_antivir_rescue_system.html

Browntoa

can you get into safe mode ??

http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml

you may be able to get into msconfig

http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html

and remove any dodgy looking entries and then try to reboot.Then install from the usb drive Malwarebytes

Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.

• Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
• Double-click on mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
• When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
• When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked:
  • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• Then click Finish.
• MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan. If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself. Press the OK button to close that box and continue. If you encounter any problems while downloading the updates, manually download them from here and just double-click on mbam-rules.exe to install.
• On the Scanner tab:
  • Make sure the "Perform Quick Scan" option is selected.
  • Then click on the Scan button.
• If asked to select the drives to scan, leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button.
• The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient.
• When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found".
• Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process.
• Back at the main Scanner screen, click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found.
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
• When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad.
• The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
• Copy and paste the contents of that report in your next reply and exit MBAM.

Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you may be asked to reboot your computer so it can proceed with the disinfection process. Regardless if prompted to restart the computer or not, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot normally (not into safe mode) will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware. MBAM may make changes to your registry as part of its disinfection routine. If you're using other security programs that detect registry changes, they may alert you after scanning with MBAM. Please permit the program to allow the changes.

MothballsWallet

Browntoa: many thanks for those, I'll give them a whirl.

The laptop does boot into Safe Mode, but I've yet to see a taskbar appear on the screen from doing so. It takes so long for this machine to start, even into normal mode, that I don't know how long I will have to leave it for a taskbar to appear.

Browntoa

I'd go down the Cd route first , then try and boot and install Malwarebytes as that message you are seeing in probably Antiviusxp2008 or one of the other SCAM sites that ask you to buy some software to "fix" the problem . MBAM will remove that and most of the others

MothballsWallet

I've done the Antivir CD, and that's made a world of difference.

They've got Sky Broadband security centre (McAfee), but no antivirus, and something called Advanced XP Fixer & Advanced XP Defender - both of these threw up reports of Trojans in the Antivir rescue scan, so I've now uninstalled them.

I'm putting AVG on there as well as MBAM, Spybot, Ad-Aware, CCleaner and Spyware Blaster to cover as many bases as possible. The machine runs a lot faster now Antivir's cleaned the carp out.

I'll keep that CD handy in case any of my own systems need it, cheers for the tip!

Browntoa

MBAM will kill the rest