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oh my god this is pissing me off.

nefffffffffffnefffffffffff Registered User regular
edited September 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
Alright, I'm having this problem with my computer, and I was wondering if any of you guys can help.

Any time I restart, I am prompted to install an anti-spyware software. My desktop has changed to a screenshot of a window telling me to update my virus software, saying that my computer is infected with "adware.virtumond". any time I try to google any of this a ton of results come up, but they are all blocked. Only pages concerning this particular problem seem to be blocked however, and everything else is still accessable.

please help, anyone?

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nefffffffffff on

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    AurinAurin Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Either look up the information on another computer, then move all the required fix tools over to your infected computer on a disk...

    Or just reformat it. >.> It's a nasty infection, unfortunately, they like to block all the sites with virus scanners and don't let the virus scanners get to the net to update either. =/

    Aurin on
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    YarYar Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Advice #1: Write meaningful thread topic lines so as to get more attention.

    #2) Sounds like you've got a pretty bad virus there. Try downloading and installing Avast, it's free. Download their free cleaner to a bootable disk on another computer. It should be able to manage a cleaning.

    #3) Backup documents and reinstall windows and all software if you want to be really sure.

    Yar on
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    urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Yuck. This virus is pretty nasty. Honestly unless you want to spend hours and hours running anti-virus/spyware programs I'd just go ahead and format and reinstall.

    Also: stop using Limewire. :P

    urahonky on
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    ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator mod
    edited September 2008
    Second for Avast!.

    Also Hijack This! is a lifesaver, but a bit more involved.

    ceres on
    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
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    acidlacedpenguinacidlacedpenguin Institutionalized Safe in jail.Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    if you have your windows disk handy, go and look for ultimate boot cd 4. With it you essentially slipstream a custom dvd boot disk install of windows xp that has tons of tools for dealing with these issues. Caution, it's only "legal" if you build this boot disk using your own windows disk.

    this thing has gotten me out of trouble so many times I can't believe I've ever been able to function with out it.

    acidlacedpenguin on
    GT: Acidboogie PSNid: AcidLacedPenguiN
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    exoplasmexoplasm Gainfully Employed Near Blizzard HQRegistered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Is it this? http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-xp-antivirus-2008-2009

    The suggested program on that page seems to work pretty well.

    Also look into the smitfraudfix tool: http://siri.geekstogo.com/SmitfraudFix.php

    exoplasm on
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    GrimmGrimm Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    exoplasm wrote: »
    Is it this? http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-xp-antivirus-2008-2009

    The suggested program on that page seems to work pretty well.

    Also look into the smitfraudfix tool: http://siri.geekstogo.com/SmitfraudFix.php


    Thats what i was thinking it was too. I just had to clean that pain in the ass off my cousins computer last week.

    Grimm on
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    BurguBurgu Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    it is anti virus xp?

    Download malwarebyte's anti-malware.
    http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

    I had the same thing, and it was the only anti-virus software that could get rid of it. Make sure you update it fully.

    Burgu on
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    TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    Yuck. This virus is pretty nasty. Honestly unless you want to spend hours and hours running anti-virus/spyware programs I'd just go ahead and format and reinstall.

    Also: stop using Limewire. :P

    Agreed, virtumond is just a pain. Formatting is most likely going to be the path of least resistance.

    Note there are numerous strains of this out there. I spent 3 days or so trying to clean it off my system before finally just giving up and formatting. It has nasty tricks to respawn itself when you reboot, even if you clean it off in safe mode (or using an Ubuntu boot disk, even...)

    Tomanta on
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    ZireZire Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    IMO if you get to a point where your system is so infected you need to reformat. Maybe you can clean/repair it but at this point you can't trust anything on your computer. If it is editing your search results it can easily be keylogging everything. Don't take the risk, nuke it.

    Zire on
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    DrFrylockDrFrylock Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Yep that is probably a Virtumonde variant. Avast, Symantec, AVG, and other normal anti-virus tools are basically useless, but MalwareBytes Anti-Malware might help.

    DrFrylock on
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    nerdgaymernerdgaymer Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    if you go the virus removal route, as opposed to reformatting, do the removal stuff in safe mode, and turn off system restore while you are removing the bugs, viruses can hide in there.

    and yes virtumonde can be nasty, there are a range of variants out there though. some are worth the time to try and remove, some are so nasty that you might as well reformat. regardless back up your important stuff before doing any of this.

    nerdgaymer on
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