Pc problems and what to do?

gk172

I think this is an ongoing problem and i dont know where to go from here, weve had the pc about 3 years now and about a year ago our antivirus (nortons) stopped working although we were fully licenced it just gave us the error not protected, so we went down and explained all to the pc shop who suggested it could be faulty hard drive then blamed it on the ddr memory so all these were replaced but still we couldnt run antivirus and we tried a few differant ones inc nortons 360 which again just wouldnt protect, the only one i could get up and running was nortons 2005 so thats been running since june till now, its picked up a backdoor.sdbot and nortons cant get rid of it although it finds it but cant quarentine or delete it:mad: and adaware doesnt remove it either. Ive ran live update but nothing newer to install and ive tried to run a scan in safe mode but the pc wont allow it and throws up microsoft errors. Im running xp home licenced on the pc.

Is it time to get a new pc as something is stopping 360 and mcafee working or do i keep guessing which part is faulty?

Can someone please help as to what i do or try next?

espresso

gk172 wrote: »

Is it time to get a new pc as something is stopping 360 and mcafee working or do i keep guessing which part is faulty?

Are you saying that you have both Norton and McAffee installed?

Dave_The_Rave_2

Disconnect from the internet(i.e. switch off your router, or disconnect from the phone socket), then delete all virus checkers(add/remove programs from control panel), and reinstall one of the legal ones you have by disk. Alternatively download a legal free copy of the excellent avast virus checker from http://www.avast.com/

Then reconnect to the internet, get the latest virus updates (it should do this automatically).

If your PC is not performing as you think it should, it may be down to errors on the disk. Right-click your C: drive, select properties, Tools, Check Now option, tick the "automatically fix file system errors". This will then do a check on NEXT shutdown & restart of the PC.

Failing all that, you may have to do a System Restore, and highlight a day/time, prior to when you were having these problems. This is successful 4 times out of 5 although does not always work well with virus checkers.

Hope that helps.

gk172

Ive never had both running at the same time and have done full reformats inbetween virus installation as ive heard nortons can be a bit bad if not properly uninstalled so formatted the pc about 5 times in the past year.

I will try running a chkdisc now.

amcluesent

>formatted the pc about 5 times in the past year<

As it's three years old, and causing this much bother, I'd just scrap it.

mitchg

When uninstalling Norton you should also use their own uninstall tool to make sure everything is removed correctly, the add/remove programs wont remove everything. Thenafter doing the uninstall go and delete anything that is left in your registry that is associated wth Norton antivirus symantic then reinstall the legal software and get the updates if this fails then contact Norton direct they will help you they are pretty good with the help service they provide. I doubt very much if it is hardware related aas in hard drive or the ram. Another program i use is Window Washer use this on power up it will help delete stuff that can cause a problem too.

albertross_2

malware can stop av working. do you have a router? are you installing service pack 2?

what are the safe mode errors?

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2002-051312-3628-99&tabid=3

gk172

Thanks all for your replies;) I ran the chkdsk and it reported my disc was clean and i had the pc switched off till this morning as i dont know how this will affect the pc and im now running avast which has picked it up wouldnt let me put it in the chest but hopefully it let me delete it but its still showing infected but is still mid scan, i will post back later once the scan has finished.

gk172

albertross wrote: »

malware can stop av working. do you have a router? are you installing service pack 2?

what are the safe mode errors?

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2002-051312-3628-99&tabid=3

Its a cable modem for the moment as i have sky broadband coming in the next few weeks hence trying to get it sorted beforehand and service pack 2 is included in the xp home version, also when i tried booting into safe mode this morning it wouldnt let me not even getting the option to boot into safe mode when hitting f8:mad:

pchelpman

Please SAVE any scan report you have done then post the report here. It may reveal something.

Please also post a HijackThis log to help give us more clues as to what's wrong.


PCH

oldagetraveller

I had to contact Symantec, through their website, just a couple of days ago using their live "chat" facility for tech. support. My 2006 version just stopped working. They were very helpful and because I still have a valid "key" then they provided an upgrade to 2008.
It was a bit scary because I gave the rep. control of my PC!!! However, he did everything remotely, uninstalled the old version and installed the new, I just sat there and watched. Not for the faint hearted though.
Give it a go, you've paid for it.