Posted on 10/31/2008 10:12:07 PM PDT by lowbridge
This is a bit lengthy, so please bear with me.
Damn, but I did something stupid and downloaded something I shouldnt have (no, not porn. get your mind out of the gutter :-)). When I downloaded this virus, the cmd screen came up and showed the following: crack.exe, serial.exe, number.exe, keygen.exe AND readme.bat
I panicked, deleted those things, but it hasnt fixed my problem. It seems to have hijacked my internet explorer browser. When I clicked on the IE icon, it brought up the IE browser for all of a second or two before closing. (So, I used Firefox to browse the web, which is working, thankfully) Oh, the IE browser did appear, that is when one of those pop up advertisements comes up. Which I had NO control over. It came up whenever it felt like it, then it stays open untill I close it. BUT I could not use it to browse the web as there are no buttons, tool bar, address box, etc.
And it seemed to prevent me from running/installing spyware. Oh, I was able to download the applications of some spyware programs, but then when I tried to open the application and run them, the damn virus wont let it! I have run a scan with some freeware spy scanning programs and much to my shock they revealed over 250 problems. worse of which are named "spyware.igmonster", zlob, (also spelled out by one scanning program as zlop (with a "p"), trojan.infostealer.bankers
Some spyware programs seemed to be able to download, but when I ran them, they seem to have failed in getting rid of the viruses. (I am using freeware as I do not have any money to buy a good anti virus program) Some seem to do more harm than good as one such program seems to have made me delete some important windows files (a couple of ".exe" files. The spyware program warned me about deleting such a file because it was in my WINDOWS folder, but I chose to delete them anyways as the spyware told me that they were infected) because when I tried to shut down my computer, it gave me a blue screen and an error message (coooo21a). So I had to manually turn it off, but even sometimes that didnt work, so I have to unplug it.
That isnt the end of it.
It was bad enough getting that error message when I tried to shut down my computer, but after another attempted fix of the viruses, it got worse. Now I get that blue screen with the error message when I turn on my computer and try to boot up! I would get a blue screen with the folllowing message;
STOP: c00021a (Fatal System Error) The Windows Logon Process System process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0x00000000 (0x00000000 0x00000000) The system has been shut down
And the computer wouldnt do anything. It would just sit there with that message staring at me. I would try to shut down the computer by pressing the power button on the tower, but even that wouldnt work! I would have to unplug the computer to get it to shut off!
NOW I'm getting it when I'm trying to start up my computer! I've tried to get around that by starting it in safe mode, but then I just get the above 'fatal error" all over again.
How can I fix this? Can I fix this myself (I'm not computer literate) or do I need the services of a professional (how much do they usuallly charge?)
“When you turn on your computer, hold down the F8 key to get into safe mode.”
Cant. I’ve tried to do what you suggest, BUT after getting into safe mode, I STILL get that “Fatal system error” message.
I press on F8, it gives me those several options of starting normal windows, safe mode, etc. I choose safe mode, it goes to the blue screren with the error message.
At this point, I think I would consider whether or not there was anything on your hard drive that you couldn't live without. If not, reformat the drive and reinstall everything from scratch.
If there are files you need to get off, you have some options. You could take it to a repair shop. They deal with this stuff all the time. If it was my computer I would get a new hard drive, install Windows XP on it along with a good anti virus package. Then, I'd install the old hard drive in the machine and do virus/malware scans to clean it up before getting the files off of it. Lastly I would reformat the original hard drive to ensure all the nasties are gone.
Stick the XP OS disk in and follow directions.
I had the same problem many years ago. I went to a website that offered a game I wanted, cracked. The minute I installed it, all hell broke loose. I didn’t know much about how to fix hijacked hard rives and registries, so I wiped the hardrive and reinstalled XP. Now, I could have fixed it.
“Page Not Found”
Try fixing the problem suggested here before you wipe though. It could be just a virus problem. Do you have recovery disks?
You’ll need to do a full system recovery then. (booting from recovery disk)
Reinstall
If you want any files, use a a Knoppix to get it off to a USB Stick
Don’t try to start it up anymore
You are only making it worse.
oops, sorry, looks like I managed to cut off the end of the link. Try this:
http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom
There's nothing really important that I couldnt live without. But how can I "reformat" (and how does one reformat), when I turn on my computer and get nothing but that error screen? I press on alot of buttons on my keyboard, and it just doesnt budge. How can I get anything done, like a reformat, when the computer just wont respond, wont come out of that error?
I dont. M computer didnt come with them. (At least that I can recall). My brother on hte other hand has a windows xp service pack 2 reinstallation disc.
Can you boot from the Operating System CD?
There’s a way to change the drive order that your system looks at as it boots up. Your main hard drive will usually be drive C: & your set up will usually look on C: by default. As you boot up, there will be a screen that tells you to hit F2 to go to setup. You can change to your computer looking for your CD drive letter first.
If you can get your computer to boot from your CD, you can overwrite your operating system files & that might let you get back to booting normally again.
Does your brother’s computer use the same OS as the one you have on your machine?
Yes, were both windows xp. Though my “service pack” is number 3, his is number 2.
That might work. As long as it’s not an upgradeer.
Buy another computer. Seriously.
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