Think I've got a Virus - is this the place to get help?

Is the black screen after the BIOS startup and before you see any Windows XP logo or after the initial Windows XP logo (and before any logon screen)?

Blue

 

ok. i'm back. 20 minutes, prox, restart...

nothing looks/looked any diff upon restart. windows security still doesnt recognize BSafe...

and i think i was asked if i've really got BSafe and does it have a virus scan/checker thingy?? it IS Bsafe and it is an all-in-one thingie and it does scan for viruses. for the record, i really hate it. you have to manually update. stupid stupid stupid.

 

oops, sorry. missed this one. yes. the one i wask talking about was before the windows logo. but then, after the logo pops up, it hesitates for a while (minute? two?) before the log-in screen comes up...

dear son is also complaining we've got no sound. i'm assuming its all the same problem...

 

On the sound, a simple reinstall of the drivers on top usually fixes that. Depends what you have. I have Creative/Sound Blaster Live and just take the unified driver executable and run it. Nothing else. Works fine.

If you perform a Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the task manager, how many processes are running? Are there any suspicious ones (say random collection of all consonants, no vowels, that don't relate to anything familiar at all)?

Blue

 

ok. do you see the totally BLANK look on my face are you suggesting i know where the drivers for our sound system are? or can i find them online? i have no idea what we've got... lol...

40 are running.
most are .exe files
nothing that looks suspicious, as you say

 

I was wondering about that..... If the PC uses integrated sound, drivers will usually be provided by the PC manufacturer and can be downloaded from their website. It will be an executable file and handle all the install details. Basically the same applies with a dedicated sound card except this file will be available from the sound card manufacturer. In my case, I have a Creative Sound Blaster Live! (basic cheap Dell installed) card. If I go to the Creative site, and click Support/Downloads/let them know where I'm from (to get the language right) and them walk through the product families Sound Blaster>Live!>Live! I'll be able to download an executable that will do everything except for basic confiuration for me.

Hmmmm.... Is the PC sluggish still or just slow on restart?

Blue

 

(i'll have DS look for the box of CDs from this computer set-up...)

sluggish? not till yesterday; day before... or perhaps we've just gotten used to it but usually, if we go to a website, it pops right up, etc...

editing to add: it doesnt seem real sluggish right now, altho i'm trying to keep usage to a minimum... but then i've not tried to run a virus scan...

 

Since I'm on the East coast and am about to turn into a pumpkin (actually, I guess that happened about 35 minutes ago...), I'll be signing off soon.

What I'd recommend is the following:

• If it doesn't seem sluggish (saw you last post), perhaps try an AV scan first to see if there are any identified malware issues
• Let's verify that there are no remains of KAV on the system. That was probably clear from the task manager, but if not, download Process Explorer and run it. When you run it, go to the main menu bar, select View>Select Columns and make sure the following at least are checked: Company Name, version, Image Path, and Command Line. Verify nothing connected with KAV is there. Verify that all the processes shown are ones you expect and want.
• If things seem flaky, let's do the obvious first - in this case that would be an uninstall-restart-reinstall of BSafe. Obvious since we can anticipate that there could have been some issues from KAV. When you do this, do a couple of restarts - is the system faster or the same?
• Are Windows updates current? Manually verify this by launching Internet Explorer and selecting Tools>Windows Update. Go with the Express install.

Let's see where that leads....

Blue

 

thanks, blue. i wondered how much longer you'd be able to stay up. i'm running on MT (empty) too and am signing off. i'll log back in in the morning and do what you suggest.

should i just use the BSafe AV?

i know i've updated windows, but running 3 comps, i dont remember if this comp was one that got updated, lol.

again, i'll check it all in the morning. i'm just too tired now to think straight.

thank you for all you've done.

 

Since you have it, I'd say yes unless you have a compelling reason not to. As with all software, this is a choice only you can make.

I assume all three PC's are configured similarly, so if problems are localized to one PC, they could be traceable to difference in the configurations or a local corruption unique to that PC. Differences could be related to either a specific software conflict or an application waiting for something that is never found, never arrives (i.e. there is a timeout or it's blocked). Sometimes these are easy to diagnose, sometimes not. Since the BSafe Online product has it's own firewall, I would disable Windows native one (Start>Control Panel>Windows Firewall. General tab, select Off, OK).

Good call. All of my own bad computer moves seem to involve doing "just one more thing" in haste before bed or before heading out.

Blue

 

there are different options for this Process Explorer. i know i'm running XP, but not sure about the other options:

32-bit or 64-bit

 

• 
  
  >> ran the BSafe AV and it went smoothly. it found one trojan (it seems its been there for a long time) that it isolated or whatever it does w/them (i'd sure feel better if i didnt see it anymore; it BSafe would make it go away...), but it ran quickly; not sluggish like it did sunday.
  
  

>> yes, windows is up-to-date on this computer.

as far as all the computers being connected, only two of them are; we also have one at our business that i take care of to the best of my abilities...

 

well, perhaps i'm ok now... i ran the BSafe AV and it went well. the compy is not sluggish; web pages are coming up nicely. we discovered the sound problem - someone had turned the levers down, blarg...

still have the slow start-up, tho.

...where do i go to get help on our Win 98 computer? BSafe gets hung up on it when its trying to do its scan. somehow we lost MSN messenger. because the compy is win 98, we cant download the latest version but cant download even an older version. scandisk cant run. decompression gets hung up... sigh. so many problems... will the same 'fixes' that've been given here work on a win 98? (such as the CClean, etc)??

 

Sounds good. If BSafe is behaving in what I'd call typical fashion, it will quarantine the suspect file and wait for intervention on your part to perform the final deletion. The details should be covered within the online help or in a user guide (if supplied). If you can get to a window that displays quarantined files, it is generally something like select by clicking on followed by hitting the delete key, or right-click and select a delete option. Something along those lines.

Blue

 

The PC equivalent of not plugged in...lol, it gets you every time.

This could be due to a number of issues and it's hard to diagnose without additional symptoms.

Well, for legacy versions of programs, go to an archive site such as OldVersion.com. The do have a bunch of MS Messenger versions here ranging from version 1.0 on up.

As for CCleaner, it does list Win98 as a compatible OS, so it should be fine.

Blue