(Vanity) Need Advice Removing Rapid Antivirus

vanity ^ | 4/15/09 | me

[girlangler]

Can any freepers give me some advice on how to get rid of the Rapid Antivirus that appartently has infected my laptop?

I am desperate. I have some deadlines and even my Internet Explorer, Firefox won't operate. FRUSTRATING!!

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[JoeProBono]

http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-rapid-antivirus.html

[Frantzie]

What antivirus do you have on there? Give us more info.

Freebies:
Malwarebytes anti-malware
AVG Anti-virus
Avast AV

I personally like
PC Tools Spyware Doctor & AV but it is not free.

[TomGuy]

Also this webpage:
http://www.spywareremove.com/removeRapidAntivirus.html

What anti-virus program are you running?

[Kerretarded]

I like solo antivirus and then I run spybots, then ad-aware. If things are still not fixed, I will run hijackthis.

[Melissa 24]

I have found an antispyware tool that is free to download and will remove this malware. The software is SuperAntiSpyware. Its friendly and works well.

[girlangler]

First off, I have to admit I am totally illiterate when it comes to computing (except writing my articles, emailing them to the publisher, and surfing the net, mostly FR).

I have McAfee antivirus software, don’t even know what version. About 1 1/2 years ago I had a problem with downloading a spyware, and a freeper (a dear friend) suggested Spybot Search and Destroy. I have depended on that since, and have had no problems.

I am now on my laptop, at my Mom’s (she is elderly and sick) and last night I was trying to write a column, surfing a few websites (keywords about wildlife, animals in a certain state, for article ideas), and suddenly I had all these popups telling me I had a virus. Since I had that experience before, I knew better than to hit any button loading this *** up. I hit NO, or the X, to no avail, I still ended up with an icon on my desktop that I now know is that rapid antivirus.

I had to leave today (attended TWO Tea parties in small towns). I want to write a (promised) report of these, as well as a column that is NOW overdue, but all day I can’t even open Firefox or IE.

I am on here now, so apparently I have somehow managed to resolve some of these issues, but I need to get this danged virus off. I don’t want to even think about paying for anything right now, if necessary I will later.

Thank you all for your advice. I’ll probably be up all night trying to download what you suggest and try to resolve this.

Crazy **. I don’t undertand it. I spent the past 15 years or so using MACs on my job (when I worked fulltime) and for companies that had experts to take care of all this for us. Since I have decided to work at home, and use a PC, it has been a nightmare mostly. I think I will go back to being a MAC user!!!

[Prophet in the wilderness]

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

[Prophet in the wilderness]

http://www.avast.com/

[Prophet in the wilderness]

If you do manage to get a good anti-virus scanner downloaded, you might want to restart your computer in SAFEMODE ...

[Lancey Howard]

I swear by Webroot Spysweeper and AntiVirus. Great program.

[wardaddy]

I use AVG, Spybot and StopZilla

rarely can I not kill the bug

but insidious crap ...trojans mostly ...leftover crawls in yer registry start-up and mimics other .exe stuff....

iexplore.exe, bbsubi.exe, qqtask.exe and all sorts of HP junk, adobe program files, java and lost run.dll crap and just continues to slow ya down..you get duplicate start stuff and can’t figure which is real and which is a worm

I’m not sure anyone short of a real seris tekkie can totally clean a computer that is heavy net use.

good luck

google yer precise bug and check the forums, beware lots of sites sell the cleaner and some are proably the same folks who made the bug to start

[BlueDragon]

If you can download what you need from the laptop onto a USB drive, or burn it to CD using the laptop, then you could transport the info to another computer. The trouble with this approach is that it can possibly transport the virus. It may, or may not...depending. But if it's just documents that you have created yourself, then I'd suspect the chances of transporting the virus would be low. Still, having anti-virus software on the computer you would take the USB drive or CD to, would make good prophylactic sense.

I don't know if the anti-virus stuff could be loaded onto the laptop using a USB port device or if you'll need burn a copy to CD. Since you say that your browsers won't work, then you might have to bring the medicine in the form of CD or USB device.

Otherwise, if all efforts of getting antivirus software transported to the lap-top fail ---
You might try booting from OS (operating system) disk, if you have a copy.

Hit F12 early, within first few seconds upon start up, which should open a choice of booting normally, booting from disk, etc. Choose "from disk". You will need to utilize the up-down keys on the keyboard, for the mouse won't work at this juncture...

If successful to here, you will then be offered a choice of reloading the OS (don't do this unless NOTHING else works!) or emergency repair. Choose repair, of course.

At this point it's easy to get confused, for after following the on-screen instructions, it will ask if you have a "repair disk". The OS disk is not a repair disk, so take the choice which requires the computer to search for the program. Sound crazy, I know, but it is an MS platform...

If you get that far following the on-screen instructions, it's possible(?) the OS can be repaired. I cannot guarantee this as a fix, for I'm no expert, but I do have an old Windows 2000 OS dependent laptop which I have to periodically submit to this treatment to keep the USB port wireless working.

Otherwise, if one needs to reload the entire OS, be aware you will LOSE all the documents you have. If that turns out to be the case, I sure hope you have some USB thumbdrive devices and their needed software already loaded on your computer, so that you can download onto them what is on the laptop which you wish to "save".

This reloading of the OS is called "nuking", like nuclear weapons, so be careful. It will wipe out all info not on the original OS disk, for reloading the OS is overwriting. Avoid it as being only a last ditch effort. And that to save the machine only, for the data will end up nuked into (near) oblivion. Only a highly skilled and well equiped pro would be able to restore the info at that point.

[Peace Is Coming]

bttt

[cva66snipe]

Go to www.malwarebytes.org and download that and run it. Next dump McAfee and go with AVAST anti-virus. You can find it at www.downloads.com under anti virus and both the programs are FREE. I also run Spybot and Super anti spyware on all my computers including laptop.

[girlangler]

Thanks CVA.

I appreciate and respect your opinions.

Did you make it to a tea party today? I went to one small one today in Jellico (of all places), and another in Jacksboro, which had a HUGE turnout!!!

There is hope for our country. Those voters who stayed home in 2008 were out in force, the SILENT majority.

Thank God. It’s about time Americans wake up. The last election was a farce, we need to take back our country!!!

Now back to my computer problems.

Instead of posting this I need to be writing about my experiences today!!!

[SERE_DOC]

[cva66snipe]

I didn't make it down there. I sort of avoid crowds when I can. Besides with my luck I'd been arrested LOL. Ya know that county I live in. One of the Overlords in the court house got some of my money a while back for me speaking my mind on a matter before him. It was the senile overlord that got me :>} I was almost made a guest of the Riverside Motel at the bridge too :>}

I should have went up to Jacksboro today but I wasn't thinking. Mainly I stick to writing protest letters to politicians. Seems I've had to do a lot of that lately also.

[cva66snipe]

BTW Spybot runs in the background. It should pick up on anything wishing to change the registry on the computer. I had McAfee Security on a Laptop {came with it}. I'm on dial up and it was taking it several hours to do updates so I deleted it and went with Avast. Before that I used AVG but it no longer scans e-mails so I dropped it. I'm keep three machines going with the same protections. Avast updates several times per day and is pretty quick about it even on dial up.

On the other programs I mentioned make sure you keep them updated and do occasional full scans at least once every two weeks or so.

Oh yea with Avast run the scan in normal range. The full scan takes probably 8 hours and really isn't necessary. The basic virus scan will take about 30 minutes and won't interfere with your memory doing other task. IOW not much RAM drain on the system. The scan set up takes a little bit of gettting used to at first.

[LuLuLuLu]

None of those work with Linux. Any ideas for those of us who won’t use the Bill Gates approved software?

[cva66snipe]

LOL No not really. I'm no Gates fan myself and I believe M.S. has put of some systems they should have to give refunds on namely Windows M.E. and VISTA. I'm not displeased with XP considering three machines and only one reformat between them. That was on a machine I bought when XP first came out and I just did it a few months ago.

IF Winders can't develop another OS as reliable as XP and leave out their peekaboo stuff I'll likely change to the Penguin when I'm forced to. In the mean time I have an old machine with 98/2 stil on it I might put the Penguin in to learn on.

[ansel12]

The avast scan depends on the computer, on my 2002 pentium 4 the deep scan only takes about 150 minutes on my other really cheap $199.00 2003 computer it takes about 5 hours.

I only do deep scans and I do them a lot, once you get in the habit it is no problem, when I am leaving the computer I flip on a scan based on what I am doing, if I’m going to work I do a avast scan, if I’m watching a DVD or going to the store I do a antispyware scan.

I guess with newer, better computers that you can do your scans while you are on the computer with out noticing it.

[girlangler]

Thanks all you freepers responding to this.

I was up till about 2 a.m. downloading and trying several of the solutions suggested, and something apparently worked (knock on wood). I ran several scans.

I awoke this morning, started up my computer, and was able to get on here without any problem (knocking on wood again).

I can’t thank you all enough.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OK we have this article...its somewhat dated but still applies I think::

Free Agent: Linux Firewalls and Antivirus--Needed or Not?

*******************************EXCERPT*****************************

Antivirus--Not Just for Windows

Here's another reason Linux tends to deflect spyware: By default, most Linux distributions wisely set you up as a lower-privilege user, with a type of account that generally can't allow malicious code to take over the system. Were you to somehow permit a Linux virus or worm to run on your computer, the fact that you are not logged in on the all-powerful root account prevents the malware from attacking the system's (and other users') files. That's why you typically have to log in as root (with the root password) to change Linux system configurations. In contrast, the default Windows XP user account is the full-privilege administrator, which gives viruses and other threats greater leeway to infect and damage the PC.

So simply by not disabling the existing firewall, and by not logging in as root for your day-to-day Web browsing and e-mail, you'll avoid the vast majority of threats. Keep yourself even safer by updating your software regularly to close the inevitable security holes that expose your machine to worms, rootkits, and other exploits.

However, should someone you know lose their head and log in as root, and then run a program that happens to be infected with one of the few Linux viruses known to exist in the wild, that virus could definitely destroy or steal user data. And even if you think you're smart enough to avoid infection, the files moving through your mailbox, Samba file shares (shared files mounted as drives), and other storage mechanisms could still contain viruses destined to infect other systems. These are valid reasons why you might want to use antivirus software on your Linux computer.

Although commercial Linux antivirus products exist, save your money and start with one of several excellent free utilities instead. Even better, pick one that is not only free but open source: the delightfully named Clam AntiVirus. In addition to binary packages (no compiling necessary) for most major Linux distributions, ClamAV is also available for Windows and Mac OS X.

If you'd prefer antivirus software with a commercial track record, try the Linux version of Grisoft's renowned AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. Because of Linux's inherent safety, the system you save may not be your own, but you'll be doing your part to curb malware altogether.

PC World Contributing Editor Scott Spanbauer is sitting in for Free Agent author Matthew Newton this month.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You ought to have a Linux LiveCD for emergencies so you can always get on the net....lot’s of choices depending on your specifics....Puppy Linux is small and seems pretty good for figuring out hardware issues...I assume you are using a portable...

[cva66snipe]

I ran a thorough scan on my newest desktop in 2 hours 11 minutes. But its a lot faster than my older desktop where I had tried it before. This one has a dual core 1800mHZ processor, 2 GB RAM, and 235 GB HD half full so that was pretty good on the scan time. On my old Presario 6000 that's about 7 years old it will take considerably longer I'd say. My wife usually uses it and it doesn't go on line that much except for MS updates and I'm a real strict on getting that done. I run full system scans on the spy ware and malware programs always though.

In 10 years I've had maybe 2-3 minor viruses and a lot of false hits especially when I had Trend Micro on this one. It had a conflict with one of my spy ware programs too IIRC. When the trial time was up I went to Avast.

Worse computers I saw was one three my cousin gave me because they wouldn't work anymore. They all had Blubster on them and about 180 Trojans. He didn't believe in anti-virus programs or updates. I got plenty of spare parts though :>}

[cva66snipe]

Glad it worked out.

[ansel12]

Today I loaded up a stick memory with all the goodies, worked on someones computer for five hours and I think we won.

I removed over a 100 nasties, put him on auto updates and installed service pack 3 and dozens of other windows updates, installed avast and windows defender, and the windows firewall, and I tried to show him how to update and use the malwarebytes and superantispyware which he may never do but I put them on there for my rescue scans and I hope that he will come to try them.

My minimum that I leave people with that I know won’t ever become proactive is auto windows update, auto update and full scan windows defender and malicious malware remover, auto update avast with the toughest settings, and auto update windows firewall.

I think those minimums will keep them functioning for a long time even if they won’t scan.

[Mr. Jazzy]

Some good suggestions here, but I did not see one important item.

Make SURE you clear all previous restoration points that have been created and then do a disk clean up to clear your temp files. These nasty programs will install themselves in multiple locations and the restoration files are a favorite place.

Avast, SpyBot Search and Destroy 1.6.2 and Malwarebytes will do the job of getting rid of the pest and running the programs once a week will keep it clean.

[Grammy]

I spent yesterday fighting with my computer too! I haven’t fixed mine yet though.

(*sigh) Guess I’ll need to be nicer to my tech guy.

;-)

[ansel12]

What is going on with yours?

[Grammy]

I woke up to find my AVG had been removed from the computer! Then I couldn’t get on the internet. Mr G. is my tech guy and has had a number of emails with the AVG support people. We have been through at least 3 rounds of what doesn’t work, have a 4th we need to try.

[Landru]

"...beware lots of sites sell the cleaner and some are proably the same folks who made the bug to start."

HA!!

Can't tell you how many times I've suspected the same thing, myself.

[cva66snipe]

I leave Windows Update on Notify mainly because of dial-up. That and I just feel safer doing it myself I guess. But yea if I was fixing one for somebody I'd make it automatic also. That 238 MB update was a pill also. I don't understand why they didn't split it up. There's still a lot of us out there that due to rural location have to use dial-up. That's one thing I like about the laptop. I throw it in and got get a burger with Free Broadband on the side to do the upgrades.

I haven't put the 230 plus MB update on the laptop yet though. Last I heard some doing so were having problems from it on laptops only for some reason or another. Whatever glitch there was should be worked out by now though I'd think. I might as well give it a try pretty soon.