Help me help my PC (viruses and Monitors)

Reigner

Alright, somehow last night, I think I picked something malicious up on my PC. It slowed down pretty badly and anything that required more effort than opening up google caused it to have a seizure.

Unfortuantely, before virus scan managed to finish, problem 2 arose. I forgot to turn off my screen saver last night and the computer froze while it was scanning. I turned it off, and went to turn it back on, and something strange started happening to my monitor. It now turns on, shows the monitor brandname (ACER by the way) flickers to a black screen, turns itself off, turns itself back on, and loops. This is while the PC is off mind you, when the PC turns on, it goes through this same loop but it shows my desktop for a split second as well.

I would like to think that this is just an odd coincidence, but I dont want to go out buying a ton of monitors and 'breaking' every one of 'em. What would have caused problem 2, and if I can fix that, what is the command/steps that I go through to show that list of items that you guys (or other forums) can go through and pick apart what I need, what I don't need, and what is a virus.

Daedalus

Boot from a CD and see if your monitor still works there. Otherwise, man, that's a weird coincidence.

Reigner

Hmm actually, I just thought of something, is it possible that my PC is completely fine, but it's just my monitor that's fritzed out? As in, I go to do something with my PC, my PC loads it fine without all the slowdown that I'm 'seeing' but the monitor itself isn't catching up?

Odd thought, but it would make sense and eliminate the coincidence.

ElectricTurtle

I doubt it's the monitor at all. Can you get to safe mode?

Reigner

Reigner wrote: »

It now turns on, shows the monitor brandname (ACER by the way) flickers to a black screen, turns itself off, turns itself back on, and loops. This is while the PC is off mind you

So no, I can't get into safe mode.

Ruckus

Have you tried disconnecting power to the monitor for 10 seconds?

Reigner

No I hadnt yet.

Monitor problem aside, once I get that fixed (or get a temp monitor to fix the virus first) What is the command/steps to generate that list of stuff for you guys/other forums/google to pick through?

Ruckus

Reigner wrote: »

No I hadnt yet.

Monitor problem aside, once I get that fixed (or get a temp monitor to fix the virus first) What is the command/steps to generate that list of stuff for you guys/other forums/google to pick through?

I'd say that once you get your monitor fixed/replaced, boot to safemode and run your AV scanner first, see if you can't find anything that way.

Thanatos

Unplug your monitor from your computer, unplug it from power for 10 seconds, then plug it back into power, see if it does the same thing.

Reigner

Alright, well it was definately a fucked up coincidence as my monitor is now completely fried. I replaced it with a temporary junk monitor we had lying around, booted it in safe mode and cleaned up what my AV scanner said I needed to. Unfortuantely I'm still having major slowdown/freezing that I haven't had before yesterday, so there's still some sort of virus somewhere.

So, back to you guys with some help/ideas/etc. I know for one thing I need to uninstall AIM because I cant get in my PC to do anything because I have it said to auto-connect on startup.

fun times!

Ruckus

Reigner wrote: »

Alright, well it was definately a fucked up coincidence as my monitor is now completely fried. I replaced it with a temporary junk monitor we had lying around, booted it in safe mode and cleaned up what my AV scanner said I needed to. Unfortuantely I'm still having major slowdown/freezing that I haven't had before yesterday, so there's still some sort of virus somewhere.

So, back to you guys with some help/ideas/etc. I know for one thing I need to uninstall AIM because I cant get in my PC to do anything because I have it said to auto-connect on startup.

fun times!

You should be able to either set AIM to not autoconnect or uninstall it from Safe Mode.

Other than A/V scanners, you should run an Adware scanner like Adaware or Spybot too.

Thanatos

To be perfectly honest, it's probably going to be easier to reformat than get rid of the malware you've got. Odds are, it has downloaded other malware, and you're going to go nuts trying to delete it all while it's trying to download more.