PC Help-I've been Nuked!

**BugDoc** · 01-24-2010, 11:51 PM

So my computer is on the fritz! My wife was editing a post on craigslist, and while doing so got an alert from McAfee that it detected a problem (what I don't know) she said "block" repeatedly. Suddenly all of the browser (IE) windows closed and our desktop went from our family photo to blood red (seems like a bad sign to me). We have ran a McAfee scan, Adware scan and Spybot Search and Destroy. McAfee found nothing, Adware little and SBSD found 13 items some of which were trojan horses, malware and the like. I thought after that we were good to go. NOT SO FAST!! I restarted the computer and now it boots only immediately log me off. We normally don't have a log in at all on our home PC. I have even tried starting and safe mode and still it doesn't boot all the way. One final hint for those of you that know anything about this stuff, while we were doing the initial cleanup we kept getting a poorly worded popup telling us that we needed to download "official intrusion detection system (IDS software)". This was obviously an attempt to download the deathblow. Any and all help/suggestions to get this cleaned up are greatly appreciated.

**isucyfan** · 01-25-2010, 12:03 AM

Looks like this one can be a little difficult to remedy. I'd register with this site, and follow the instructions in this thread:

Official Intrusion Detection System

Although, this assumes you can boot up your computer. I also saw another discussion about using a piece of software called Combofix to resolve the problem:

please help me remove "your system is infected" wallpaper [S

But again, not sure what you can do if you can't even get into Safe Mode. Did you ever click "OK" at the prompt to download the bogus software?

**alarson** · 01-25-2010, 12:05 AM

tried a system restore?

Viruses can be a ***** to get rid of, especially of the type that hijack your entire computer. Had one time that i got hacked into that the best solution ended up being just transferring the data off the hard drive and doing a format and reinstall, as every time i thought id found everything, id find something else. (the hackers in my case were using my system to host random movies and other files...)

**superfan** · 01-25-2010, 12:10 AM

Oh damn. Not even safe mode? That sucks.

Do you make a recovery CD or, failing that, do you still have the OS CD? You may be able to boot from the CD and do a repair - I'd do some Googling to get specifics and make sure you don't trash all your data.

Good luck, and in the future, maybe keep off the "Casual Encounters"

**alarson** · 01-25-2010, 12:13 AM

go ahead and unplug that system from the internet if its on... you never know if its out spreading that virus to other systems or who knows what else.

**BugDoc** · 01-25-2010, 12:37 AM

Originally Posted by isucyfan

Looks like this one can be a little difficult to remedy. I'd register with this site, and follow the instructions in this thread:

Official Intrusion Detection System

Although, this assumes you can boot up your computer. I also saw another discussion about using a piece of software called Combofix to resolve the problem:

please help me remove "your system is infected" wallpaper [S

But again, not sure what you can do if you can't even get into Safe Mode. Did you ever click "OK" at the prompt to download the bogus software?

No I didn't click OK. I'm not sure how to proceed if I can't even boot in safemode?

**BugDoc** · 01-25-2010, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by superfan

Oh damn. Not even safe mode? That sucks.

Do you make a recovery CD or, failing that, do you still have the OS CD? You may be able to boot from the CD and do a repair - I'd do some Googling to get specifics and make sure you don't trash all your data.

Good luck, and in the future, maybe keep off the "Casual Encounters"

No casual encounters. I do still have the OS CD. How do I boot from the CD? How do I do that? If you haven't figured it out already, I am fairly computer illiterate.

**BugDoc** · 01-25-2010, 12:45 AM

Originally Posted by alarson

tried a system restore?

Viruses can be a ***** to get rid of, especially of the type that hijack your entire computer. Had one time that i got hacked into that the best solution ended up being just transferring the data off the hard drive and doing a format and reinstall, as every time i thought id found everything, id find something else. (the hackers in my case were using my system to host random movies and other files...)

Again, I am a ******. How do I do a system restore? There really aren't any important files on our home PC but I would prefer to retain what we do have. If I can't then so be it.

**alarson** · 01-25-2010, 12:52 AM

you can usually do a system restore by popping in the OS disc, booting from it, and using system restore in one of the tools.

If nothing works, if you want to get your files, get yourself an adapter or enclosure so you can hook up your hard drive to another PC, then just hook it up to that pc and transfer your files to it. then format and reinstall.

**BugDoc** · 01-25-2010, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by alarson

you can usually do a system restore by popping in the OS disc, booting from it, and using system restore in one of the tools.

If nothing works, if you want to get your files, get yourself an adapter or enclosure so you can hook up your hard drive to another PC, then just hook it up to that pc and transfer your files to it. then format and reinstall.

This sounds like I need to physically remove the hard drive from the PC, stick it in one of these dohickies and transfer the files. Is that right? Doing this isn't going to infect the other PC will it?

**superfan** · 01-25-2010, 01:11 AM

Originally Posted by BugDoc

No casual encounters. I do still have the OS CD. How do I boot from the CD? How do I do that? If you haven't figured it out already, I am fairly computer illiterate.

I've been fortunate and haven't had to do it, but hopefully this can help:

Windows Repair - How do I Perform a Startup Repair or Repair Installation of Windows?

That should be able to step you through some of the steps better than I could, including booting from the CD - but read carefully, or else you could accidentally do a "clean" installation and wipe your files.

**BugDoc** · 01-25-2010, 01:35 AM

Originally Posted by superfan

I've been fortunate and haven't had to do it, but hopefully this can help:

Windows Repair - How do I Perform a Startup Repair or Repair Installation of Windows?

That should be able to step you through some of the steps better than I could, including booting from the CD - but read carefully, or else you could accidentally do a "clean" installation and wipe your files.

Thanks. Does this just fix my start up problem? If so, then I can follow some of the other suggestions above or will redoing this remove the scourge from my machine?

**superfan** · 01-25-2010, 01:44 AM

Originally Posted by BugDoc

Thanks. Does this just fix my start up problem? If so, then I can follow some of the other suggestions above or will redoing this remove the scourge from my machine?

Probably won't handle the virus. If it works, I'd boot in safe mode, back up all my files (word files, music, spreadsheets, etc. - anything you'd want to retain) to CD or external hard drive and try virus/spyware scanning again, and hope for the best. If that doesn't work, it may be system restore/reformat time, but at least you won't lose your stuff....

**BugDoc** · 01-25-2010, 01:54 AM

Originally Posted by superfan

Probably won't handle the virus. If it works, I'd boot in safe mode, back up all my files (word files, music, spreadsheets, etc. - anything you'd want to retain) to CD or external hard drive and try virus/spyware scanning again, and hope for the best. If that doesn't work, it may be system restore/reformat time, but at least you won't lose your stuff....

I'll give this a try after work tomorrow. Thanks for all of your help.