A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2006 HELP!

I did a Google image search for, of all things, bobcats, then lynxes. Honest to gosh, I did NOT type in anything naughty! I didn't use any synonyms! Cross my heart and hope to die!
My computer has been hijacked by some bizzare group of viruses or spyware...I tried to run Ad-Aware and Spybot, but both were hijacked before they could finish. When I type control/alt/delete, you would not believe all the weird programs that are running, and I cannot delete any of them, my system just locks up and I have to reboot. I only just managed to get back online by some miracle...any suggestions how I can deal with this?

hhmm.....that sounds REALLY bad....let me see if i can look a few things up to tell you what to do...i'll try to get back to you. i'll be looking!!! Good luck to you though!

Norman!

YES! And now I keep getting absolutely SLAMMED with all these ads saying "You may be infected. You should click here if you want spyware."
I've had this happen before, and I've heard if you click on either "yes" or try to hit the close window, all h*!! breaks loose. I got rid of it before with spyware, but it's not working now. I thought it was safe to use Google Image!

what types of security do you have on your computer?

can you name a few of the virusus?

can you report to google?--i've never checked if you could or not, so, if you can, you should. tell them what you told us.

It's locking up my computer...even ctrl/alt delete does nothing. It's stopped listing anything on the taskbar. There's a small message window saying that this program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down, but I'm afraid if I click on close, it will start some hideous virus program...I think it's some trojan. Sigh.

I did, too.
That is scarey.

Dave, Just talked to Dan and he said try and run EWIDO. If you do not have it, you can get it from Ewido.com.

what if you pull the plug from the computer and destory all the computers memory, u'd have to install everything else... but that is a LAST RESORT

maybe a computer technician can help, or a new memory chip, but that is on the price side

how old is your computer--is it under any warrenty?

Where's Amigatec when you need him? He'll know what to do! Good luck Dave.

sorry--i'm just trying to think of everything possible here....i'm getting to the point of no return...

I was going to say the same as Christina..
Where's Pat/Amigate???
He'd be your best bet..

What it sounds like to me,
is a virus called "Info Stealer"
They are almost next to impossible to get out..

I'll try to log on again tomorrow, I know a couple of tech's who might help if I can't fix things. I'll let you know how it works out...I'm grateful for all the help! What kind of creeps would set up these boobytraps?

Jerks who obviously have no gardens...

Peppereater, restart your computer in Safe mode and disconnect from the internet. Then run your virus scan while in Safe Mode and all your other scan removers.

To run in Safe Mode click on Start,Then Turn Off Computer , then Restart. Your comp will turn off for a second and then come back on with the open reboot (black screens) screens. Hit F8 when each screen stops and goes blank for a second until you get a menu that asks several options, one of which is Safe Mode click on that one and you will reboot but in a safe mode that SHOULD paralyze any viruses. when it frebbots your Desktop picture will NOT show, just a black screen with all your folder like normal. Also, unplug from the internet. You might also want to do a system restore.

Please Post if your in the clear? Or I will try to talk to a few brain pc people I know...
Good luck, indeed I know what a mess this can be?

Are you running XP where you can take your computer to an earlier setting before all this started happening?...If worse comes to worse I would do a TOTAL RESTART of your computer.. Erase everything and just start over...
That was the only way I could fix the problem when I had it..

Nice to see you Dave!!

What version of Windows are you running?
What Anti-Virus are you running?
What firewall if any are you running?
Are you running IE?

It sounds almost like CoolWebSearch.

That @#%* CoolWebSearch! :p

Yep that was a rough one. Almost impossible to get rid of.

Okay, I just now got back on. A friend had me do scanreg /restore, and it's working right now...I have McCaffee, but I uninstalled it because it was as bad as a virus...wouldn't let me do anything without clicking a bunch of stuff. I hope I'm good to go now. Whatever took over my coomputer wouldn't even let me shut down, I had to turn it off to get to the DOS prompt. I'm still running 98, stone age technology.

YAY!!!! Welcome Back! Here, have an Habanero! I use AVG PRO. I got it off of TorrentSpy.com for free.

When in doubt I always do a system restore! It's never failed me yet.

I love tracking down Malware, but I've had a few that were pretty rough. (Most recently a month ago.)