A Very Sick Computer

[AlanHo]

I have spent 4 hours at an elderly relatives house today helping him to sort out his errant 1 year old computer which kept freezing and was getting steadily slower when browsing the internet or using Email. He uses BT Broadband and was under the impression that BT provided adequate virus protection.

I found that he had no anti virus or spyware programs installed - relying on the Windows XP firewall (which was activated) and Windows XP2 as protection.

His Windows auto update was activated - set to download at 3.0 am when his computer was switched off - perhaps why his download history on the MS website showed that nothing had been downloaded since March 2005. I downloaded and installed 9 critical updates.

I installed AVG - which found and deleted two instances of Trojen Horse Backdoor Agent.2.H. No other viruses were flagged up.

I installed Spybot Search & Destroy - this found 85 items of malware - on the first run it deleted all but 17 which were in use and thus locked. A reboot and second scan removed the remainder.

I installed AdAware which found 135 items - 42 not being harmful (so why does it flag them?) but I deleted them all anyway.

I installed Spyware Blaster.

I also installed Crap Cleaner which found countless errors - all of which I actioned.

Finally I used Diskeeper to defrag his hard drive.

The diffence in computer performance was striking - his broadband was formerly as slow as dial up but is now acceptable. All his programs now load and operate sweetly and it appears the Explorer freezing problems have been cured.

He is not an experienced computer user - he bought his computer from a national retailer who assured him that it was loaded with SP2 which would provide full protection from internet nasties. Hence he was shocked to witness all the problems found and will certainly ensure he updates his protection software regularly from now on. I too am not all that experienced - but being a long standing member of this forum I have gained a fairly sound general idea about what is required.

There must be thousands of well meaning people like him who have been given poor advice from retailers they regard as knowledegable. No wonder there are so many virus and trojan infected computers about.

[-pops-]

As a sometime builder of computers, I've looked at probably hundreds with similar symptoms - all owned by people who have been told by their dealer that the machine is fully equipped with all the latest malware protection and other such nonsense.

Yes, OK, the malware protection may have been there but no instruction about updating was ever given so the machines were effectively wide open for every modern virus, trojan etc., etc going.

It is very worrying and, like you say, "No wonder there are so many virus and trojan infected computers about."

[Alan2273]

I went to a freinds the other day and spent 3 hours doing exactly the same thing.

He was also on broadband with no firewall or antivirus and no SP2, I found 4 viruses and Spybot S & D found 447 files to delete and CC foun nearly 670 mb of crap.

He also had the microsoft updates set to 4am in the morning when his computer was switched off.

After cleaning it all up I installed SP2.

His computer is running a lot faster now and he is a lot wiser concening internet crap and the need to keep programs up to date.

[andsome]

Alan, why not play safe and post a Hijack this log foe him? Personally, I would not touch any of the large manufactures or dealers with a barge pole. As I am not into building computers myself, I have twice used a reputable local builder and have recommended two friends to the same company.

[dadyassa]

Smaller firms rely on word of mouth for a lot of their sales and usually know more about the products they use because its more hands on.

The larger ones just tell their staff what is neccesary for a sale and probably a few mistakes are made.

A classic example was when i got my plasma tv, the one on show had no speakers on the sides which I thought was strange. No speakers said the salesman the sound is built into the tv, it also said this on the box.

But when I opened the box, two seperate speakers that fit on the side. ;)

[doug]

Catgate made some posts here that I've moved into a separate thread in Hardware Troubles.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Why doesnt Spybot S&D,Adaware or MS Antispyware see these files?...Thats what I'd like to know :S

It is really a combination of multiple antispyware programs that keeps you safe. Ad-aware has become close to useless; I have uninstalled it from most computers. Spybot S&D is normally quite effective, but it needs to be updated every Wednesday.

I haven't heard of Evido, but I will have a look at it.

P.S. another useful tool to run on infected computers is the Malicious Software removal tool. It can be launched from Start -> Run mrt /f - make sure you download the latest version first.

[andsome]

I must be doing something right, Ewido found absolutely NOTHING

[-pops-]

An Ewido scan found 2 bits of spyware that my other collection of malware detectors had missed and a few spyware cookies that my Yahoo spamtrap had in quarantine.

[nellie2]

You need to think about buying a PC a bit like buying a car.

If you buy a new car it runs nicely and doesn't give you any trouble (unless you get a lemon, but that is another story). But it is up to you to maintain and service that car, to clean it and look after it. If you don't then you will have problems. A car retailer wants to sell you the car, he will sell it with good brakes but he won't tell you how to replace those brakes or where the brake fluid bottle is... it is up to you to do this.

Its the same with PC's, the retailer wants to make a sale... it's up to you to maintain and look after your computer. SP2 and the latest hotfixes will ensure that you are protected from nasties on the look out for vulnerabilities in IE or XP. But if you download an email with a virus attached to it, or visit a website with driveby downloads hidden in it or try a bit of software that happens to come bundled with spyware then it is down to you to be informed and to protect yourself from these potential hazards