[OT] Sickly comp....

[Dribble Joy]

My comp's been generally fine since I got it, the occasional spy/adware, but not much and easily dealt with.

Alas a while ago a virus got in and all hell broke loose.

Spybot and adaware did what they could and with the help of a some anti-virus software the vast majority has been sorted, even the one that covered my wallpaper for over a week is gone.

Alas it's not over, there are still processes running that they can't find. IE keeps popping up with random windows (I use Firefox for browsing), though I have blocked any site it tries to then look up and the process window is full of stuff that I don't know if it should be there or not (svchost.exe being a prime candidate, several instances of it running but I have no idea which are legitimate and which ones aren't).

My housemate mentioned something about editing the registry/setart-up file, but I have no idea how.

This is really getting annoying now as it's killing my NC playing. Any hit, either to my char or one I do to a mob/person causes the fps to hit zero for an instant. Hunting WBs with my nibby painy spy is an utter nightmare.

Time for a format/re-install? Anything else I can do before that? Thinking about an upgrade anyway as I recently got NWN2 and it creeps along at 2 fps on the lowest settings.

[Geniusjones]

Yes bro, time for a fresh install of Windows and Neocron. There are definitely ways of making your current system right, but it's a LOT easier just to back whatever you need up, reinstall windows, and reinstall your apps.

Free reliable Anti-Virus and Spyware:
AVG, from Grisoft
http://free.grisoft.com/

Use Mozilla instead of IE
http://getfirefox.com/
Mozilla Firefox

Myself, because the client is so finicky about tab-switching and the like, I run it using WINE on my Mac under OS X, and it behaves a LOT better. Or at least I can switch in and out without it acting weird. Framerates are awesome because the game is old. I do the same thing with Guild Wars and it's a lot better than rebooting to stinky, crashing, unreliable, slow, 'comes to a dead stop constantly while doing inane things like opening a folder', Windows.

Best regards,
GJ

[CHA0S]

run msconfig and can look at see what starts but if u dont know what supposed to be running then like its time for a format..........tried system restore? if enabled

but quickest option would be to do a clean install.......just think......the speed it will be again ......for awhile hehe :lol: :lol:

[Zheo]

go buy Nod 32 :) and don't do dumb stuff like turn your virus protection off because a download wont work, or turn your firewall off to play a game.

[naimex]

if you and your housemate run the same os, for instance Windows XP Service Pack 2 English Language.

You can just copy and replace your svchost.exe with his. It might fix some of the problems.

Else you can try to scan your svchost.exe with for instance AVG in safemode, or do a dos scan (it's a bitch to get a dos scan to actually scan, atleast i think so).

---------------------------------------------------------

As suggested, you can try doing a start menu -> run -> msconfig

And see if it starts up any services that you can't recognize (requires quite some knowledge about various services used by various programs), remember to hide microsoft services so you don't fuck up your windows too badly if you indeed do fuckup in it.

There you can also see what programs start up during startup of windows.


Random popups in internet explorer, are often due to unwanted addons installed in internet explorer 6 edition 2 or internet explorer 7, you can find it in the internet explorer menu in the top under functions "manage add-ons" or something similar, it doesn't take much knowledge to know which ones you put in, and which ones are unwanted, but of course a bit of knowledge is needed.

Simply disable the ones that are unwanted.


A way more drastic approach and also a viable option as to why it randomly pops up stuff, is that you have gotten a trojan down whilst surfing on less ordinary sites :p

These are often dll files that hide various places in your temporary internet files, downloaded program files under windows, your windows folder, your system or system32 folder under windows.

You would be able to find these suckers by either having an EXTENSIVE knowledge of the various oddnamed dll files used by windows and other programs. ABSOLUTELY ONLY FOR BEYOND SUPER ADMINISTRATOR USERS! else you will simply make your windows FUBAR.

To cross-reference your observations in the last matter, it is advised no matter how much you think you know about the files used, to double check by searching through each and every RUN and RUN32 and RUNONCE folder in the registry database, to see if dll files that doesn't belong are loaded on various run events.



Sometimes you can find the suckers under something called "search assistants" they are amongst other places also found scattered over the entire registry database. Again a good deal of knowledge is required, but you can fuck things less up here. Since search assistants are good at adding themselves again, which also makes it a pain to remove the bad ones.



Hope it's of any help to you.

[Necpock]

Google Ccleaner

[Sharper Blade]

svchost.exe is your speakers, i ended that .exe and had no sound. had to restart =)

[Lightpipe]

svchost.exe is your speakers, i ended that .exe and had no sound. had to restart =)

lol, svchost.exe manages 32-bit DLLs and other services like windows update etc. It is an integral part of windows and cannot be stopped or restarted manually. It controls a host of services so that is why your sound stopped working when you ended it :D

Dribble, your best bet is to find out exactly what spyware is on your computer and google it for possible removal solutions. I have sorted many an infected computer this way but it can take a long time! As previously mentioned, a reinstall is usually the fastest solution.

[nEo-1664]

Have sent a PM DJ - have a read through, need any further help/advice details in the PM

[trigger hurt]

go buy Nod 32 :) and don't do dumb stuff like turn your virus protection off because a download wont work, or turn your firewall off to play a game.

*nod* to NOD32. Bought it a few months back and haven't missed Norton or McAfee or any of the others since. Great software, fast updates and low overhead.

[nabbl]

Just use WinVista with Firewall turned on, UAC turned on, AVG and maybe Spybot. Spybot only when u dont use the Windows Defender...

Works fine for me.. last Virus which wanted to get on my Computer came through the router firewall, trough the winfirewall (was turned off :() and got blocked from the UAC. AVG killed it then.

[awkward silence]

format... i do it if i even suspect theres a problem.

[aKe`cj]

.. last Virus which wanted to get on my Computer came through the router firewall, trough the winfirewall (was turned off :() and got blocked from the UAC. AVG killed it then.


Last time I checked, firewalls were not supposed to act as viri-scanners :)



Time for a format/re-install? Anything else I can do before that?

Infected System => clean reinstall... you can do many thing before that e.g. have a smoke - won't help the problem tho :p

[nabbl]

Last time I checked, firewalls were not supposed to act as viri-scanners :)

yeah youre right, my firewall should block unauthorized incoming and outcoming connections.. i mixed it up with the trojan i got last time.