Korean Job Discussion Forums

[RachaelRoo]

Crap. My friend just went back to America for two weeks and let me use his Sony Viau in his absence. Well, he didn't have any virus protection, so I installed AVG cuz it's free.
I was surfing the internet and the laptop got some crazy virus that the useless virusware couldn't stop. I had previously disabled the firewall to download my fav TPB episodes on Kazaa lite.
Now when I start the computer up the icons don't show. Before it's all booted up there's some warning of an internet explorer error.
I tried to get the thing into safe mode but no luck.
Am I a dead woman when my friend gets back in two weeks or can I at least somehow wipe the harddrive clean and get rid of the virus? He wiped his HD clean a bit before he left cuz of some othe virus so I do't think he'll be mad if I do that.
I know a guy who will wipe a harddrive and install an English OS for a good price - but is this possible with a virus that eliminates all the icons?

AHHHHH!!!! Help!!!!

[huck]

How did you get the virus? Did you download a program and run it?

[bourquetheman]

Sorry that happened but why with all the torrent sites out there would you waste your time with Kazaa lite? I know this doesn't help your problem, but it should be a lesson to you not to use Kazaa as it and other p2p programs are prone to virus but I can't remember getting a virus from a torrent, though I'm sure it's possible.

[cubanlord]

Go figure these idiots on Dave's ESL can do nothing but create more problems on your post rather than trying to lend you a helping hand. You guys should re-evaluate yourselves you bunch of panzies.

Anyhow, this is what you can do:

1. get his restore disks (if applicable) and restore is computer
2. get a copy (hopefully valid) of windows xp, use it as a boot disk, and format the drive manually (i did this not too long ago with mine). Then install the OS
3. Find Anti-virus and try running it from the cd (go into the BIOS and make the cd-rom read first).

You say icons don't show up. Does the PC actually boot up and you just can't see the desktop icons? If you are more specific, I can guide you. PM me if need be. Most likely, your best bet will probably be to format it using a copy of windows then re-installing a working copy of Windows XP. If he has restore disks, that is the way to go. If not, you will have to (after you install windows xp) go to the various websites and install the appropriate drivers for his laptop (just go to the laptop website, go to support, find the model, finally download the drivers).

Hope this helps.

[joe_doufu]

Tell him what you've done. It's the only way.
The computer may be salvageable... I can't really tell from your description. If he's written the great american novel and it's on his hard drive, you should NOT wipe the hard drive without first explaining the problem to him.

[BigBlackEquus]

Are you sure that he didn't damage it in some way before you got it? If he was wiping stuff off, he might have. How long did it work correctly, and it is possible that the problem/virus he may have had just got worse under your watch.

Can you do a clean repair installation of XP? Do you have an XP disk? Too bad you're not closer to Seoul.

I would attempt a repair install of XP, then remove AVG and install AVAST, then make use of the boot virus scan immediately after it restarts.

[jazblanc77]

Before you do anything, you should check to see if you accidentally hid the icons on the desktop. To do this, right click your mouse anywhere on your desktop and then click "arrange icons by>show desktop icons". If the icons show up, you are golden.

If you can get into safemode, that is the best computer state to do your AV and spyware scans since it is a minimal boot that won't allow the suspicious process to start. Try doing your scans again in safemode.

Can you access the internet at all? Is the start bar still at the bottom of your screen? Try going, 'START>run>C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe', does internet explorer start? If it does, go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and scan your computer for viruses from there. If you can't get online, go to work, download another virus scanner and install it. They almost always allow you to scan without a connection. A very common virus from Kazaa is CoolWebSearch and its many variations. You can get a cleaner called CWshredder, AV scanners, and pretty much anything else on www.majorgeeks.com, go there.

DON'T format a guy's drive unless you have a death wish.

For the future, the best tip I can give you is don't ever use Kazaa... EVER! There are better programs like Shareaza or Limewire which are tons better and virtually virus free.

[cubanlord]

oops..i forgot a the little tid bit about telling the guy first. You should DEFINITELY tell him what's going on and ask him what he wants you to do.

[huck]

I'm just not sure if it's a virus....that's why I was asking if she had downloaded and run any programs lately - besides videos, which generally don't come with viruses.

Can you access any programs? If so, run AVG, and find out the name of the virus.....then - if you can't access the internet - go to a p.c. bang, google it, and you should find out ways to fix it....maybe.

Were you scanning each file with AVG after you downloaded it? If not, then I don't think AVG ever had the chance to block it.

[whatshisname]

Hi, You might want to try a parrallel install of XP if you have the CD. To do this, you'll need to have another partition large enough to hold the new operating system. Install it and then you can copy over personal files later, after the virus has been found. Before you do any of this though, run this program if you can.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

If you can get the name of the virus from this program, you might have a chance of finding a fix for it. I also don't mean to be part of the problem, but anyone that has a system with a high speed connection and no antivirus, is just looking for trouble. Bummer you found the trouble for them. Good luck bud!

[Bulsajo]

F up a friend's pc.

Blame it on the a/v software you installed on it.

classic.

[RachaelRoo]