Possible Virus? PLEASE HELP!!!!

[Johnny_37]

Recently my Computer started acting strange. For Example; From my START menu I am unable to get into my Control Panel, My Pictures & a few others. It DOES allow me get into MSN or EXCEL or Microsoft Pictures from the Start bar. Also, Two short cut icons that Ive placed on my Desk top have stopped working. They just "Flash" but dont do anything more.Also, When I attempt to access these faulty programs listed above, my Lower right hand Tool bar CLEARS certain Icons completely! I must reboot my computer to get those Lower left tool bar Icons to return.Somebody advised I download "Spy Suspect" and I did & I cleaned up my system accordingly but the problem still remains. Somebody else said it might be a Rapid Blaster Worm & had me Download the Rapid Blaster Worm Killer BUT the Killer required a Microsoft Office disk which I do not have.
Im TOTALLY L-O-S-T and would GREATLY apreciate ANY help from you computer geniuses out there.
Thank you in advance for your time & hopeful help.
John

[Roger Faucher]

Johnny:

Try the free antivirus product from here:

http://www.free-av.com/

Let us know the results.

Make a great day!

Roger

[Norman_21]

Hello,

I have seen strange behaviours like that was solved with the following softwares:

Spybot search & destroy:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22262,00.asp

SpySweeper:
http://www.spysweeper.com/download.html

Free online Virus scan from Trends:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Please keep us updated!

[Perignon]

Hi Johnny,

Gorrect guess I'm afraid. Run an updated AV or ask a friend of yours to give you a copy (on floppies) of his proper "rescue disk". Then boot out of the first floppy created from his AV and run that "rescue disk" application.

Alain.

[Ramesh Pakkath]

Hi John,

This is a typical sypmtom of Rapid Blaster spyware.

Procedure 1:

Download and install the uninstaller utility of Rapid Blaster spyware from the following weblink:

ftp://65.19.149.101/whizatpc.com/Patches/rapidblasterkiller.exe

This is a direct download link. Save the file onto the desktop and double-click on the downloaded rapidblasterkiller.exe. Restart the system which will resolve the issue.

Procedure 2:

If the issue persists, please download and install Spyware removal software. A trial version is available as download from the following weblink:

http://im0.intermute.com/bin/downloads/spysubtract/SpySubtract.EXE

However, there is a promotional offer for full version available only to HP Customers. Please visit the following weblink for more information:

http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/hp/offer/030904/

NOTE: Please visit the following weblink before scanning the system for the spyware:

http://www.hp.com/united-states/cpc/hp/updates_faq.html#11b

Hope this helps.

Ramesh Pakkath.

[Johnny_37]

I apreciate all the suggestions. Ive tried just about EVERY single one & installed & Run them...unfortunately, the problem STILL remains.I dont know anybody to get the "rescue Disks" from but tried everything else. One program said it found a Trogan Horse EXE and I deleted it & rebooted as instructed but upon Reboot,Im STILL locked out of the Control Panel and several Desk top Icons...just as before.
Anybody got any new idea's?
Im getting bummed out.
Apreciate the help.
Johnny

[Roger Faucher]

John:

Did the antivirus product(s) reveal any viruses? Did you record the virus names? If any, please post them here.

Are you confident that you've removed all the 'spyware' from your system? When you run whatever spyware removal tool you chose to run, does it now run 'clean'? Did you get the latest upgrades from the appropriate website before running?

Try a different program to remove the worm. Here's one:

http://www.onlinepcfix.com/spyware/spyware.htm

Roger

[Johnny_37]

Roger,

I am such a novice at this. However, The programs that I've run have located all the Adware items on my computer and I check them and removed. No actual viruses were indicated to my knowledge. I reran Antivir and it appeared to run clean. Unfortunately I am still locked out of hardware applications (Control Panel, My Computer, My Pictures, etc) I have no problem running any software programs (Microsoft Word, Excel, Internet log on, etc.) I will try the link that you attached and advise to my progress. Thank you for your time and advice.

John

[Roger Faucher]

John:

One more thing: please post exactly what happens when you try to launch each of the failing items.

Thanks!

Roger

[Ron Kinner]

John,

Let's start over. First what kind of Operating System do you have? Win 95,98,ME,NT,2000,XP,2003?

Can you get into Safe Mode (Usually tapping the F8 key several times right after the manufacturer's logo disappears from the screen during a boot will get you into Safe Mode.)

Can you do Start Run? Can you type regedit? Does the registry editor come up when you hit Enter? Close the editor and do Start Run and this time type msconfig and then hit Enter.

Can you right click on Start and select explore? Does Windows explorer come up?

Ron

[Johnny_37]

Issue finally resolved! Thank you all for your feedback as I have certainly learned a great deal. I was able to obtain Norton Antivirus 2004. I did a complete scan of my system for the umpteenth time and it detected 39 threat items. I click all to delete. Norton only deleted 6 items. As far as the other 33 items are concerned Norton was prompting me to "Exclude" or "Skip". My inexperienced brain couldn't determine the difference. However, my system (Windows XP) is now allowing me access into My Computer, Control Panel, My Pictures, etc. Which leads me to believe that the infection was one of those 6 items quarantined. Any ideas on how handle the other 33 items to prevent any further mishaps? Another thing I discovered was that my system was unable to find my MSN Home page upon log in. So I uninstalled MSN completely and reinstalled. It's working fine now as well. Thank you again. Please advise if I left out any answers to questions you may have.

Johnny

[Ron Kinner]

Johnny,

You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you had mentioned that you had XP. Unless you turned it off, XP automatically makes copies of the system periodically and all you need to do to get rid of an infection is tell it to use one of the earlier Restore Points made before your PC got sick. (I think that the automatic restores are only kept for a few months then dumped to make room for new ones but manual ones are kept forever.)

Now that it is working, go in and make a manual restore point and call it something like WorksOK then if it fails again you can always back up to this point. For more info read the Help on System Restore.

Ron