Computer/Browser problems

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All Forums > Tech Talk > Tech Talk Forum Page 55 > Computer/Browser problems

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Flash Golden Age Classic 11018 Posts 5/01	Posted - Aug 22 2004 : 1:56PM My roommate called me in last night after he had collected so much dataminers and malware that his computer had become essentially unusable. Most I've been able to remove, some manually some using AdAware 6 while the computer was in safe mode. He still has a few problems left though. When you boot up the computer it loads two processes both called 'winspoolx .exe' which use up all of his cpu. They can be shut down but I don't know what they are or what is driving them. Searching the drive just brings up a prefetch file called winspoolx .exe[with a string of characters].pf I'm assuming that these files aren't good. The other problem is when IE is loaded, it brings up two panels in the screen, a blank one on the left side and one with a bunch of tabs on the top in the right side, then it crashes. Any idea what could be doing that? Thanks in advance for anyone who offers any help. [Link]
Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00	Posted - Aug 22 2004 : 2:11PM I don't know what's causing the problem. But I had a friend the the same situation a few weeks ago. As well as running Ad-Aware, I had him run Spybot. His PC was in such bad shape that I had to download these programs and burn them onto a CD in order for him to install them. IIRC, Spybot found somewhere around 325 pieces of Spyware on his machine. [Link]
Flash Golden Age Classic 11018 Posts 5/01	Posted - Aug 22 2004 : 2:25PM Thanks, I'll give that a whirl. It sounds like the two machines are/were in similar shape. I had to download Opera and AdAwareSE onto my machine and burn them onto a CD and walk them 20 feet to his room. I ended up using AdAware 6 since that was still on his machine from the last time he had problems I had to fix and it was able to download the newest update. AdAware found 212 pieces of dataminers and malware last night when I ran it on his machine. [Link]
Flash Golden Age Classic 11018 Posts 5/01	Posted - Aug 22 2004 : 5:32PM Thanks again Bill, SpyBot found an additional 317 items that AdAware missed. There were a few additional ones, like an ad generating toolbar from some three lettered site that began with l, that both missed. There are still a few more problems going on though for anyone who might know about them. 1. Something is still generating pop up ads. 2. When the computer is started there is a message from 5jaejt5ja5yj5a5u5u (I have no idea what this might be - I suspect that it is a bad item): "10048 Address in use" 3. There are still several copies of "winspoolx .exe" in the processes menu that are using up all of the CPU. Again, thanks in advance for any help. [Link]
Saki At-Large 2087 Posts 11/99	Posted - Aug 22 2004 : 6:32PM Once a system is that compromised, it's highly, highly, highly recommended to re-install the operating system from scratch. There's no telling what vulnerabilities have been tucked away in the registry. Here's the suggested order: 1. Re-install Windows. Do not connect to a network yet. 2. Install a commercial desktop/personal firewall program. 3. Install a commercial antivirus program. 4. Connect to the network and download firewall and antivirus patches using the firewall and A/V update programs. 5. Don't use Internet Explorer until you've visited http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and installed all of the critical updates. This will likely require multiple reboots and multiple visits to Windows Update. 6. Download and install a different web browser and set it as the default. Turn off Java, , etc. 7. Use that new browser to download anti-spyware utilities. Recent studies have shown that an unpatched PC placed on the Internet without a personal firewall will be compromised in about 20 minutes. - Saki [faqs] [Link]

Flash Golden Age Classic 11018 Posts 5/01	Posted - Aug 22 2004 : 7:09PM Thanks Saki, I was afraid I was going to have to tell him that. For those who are interested, Winspoolx turned out to be virused along with several other files. [Link]
Spew Deactivated User Bend over for the rod and staff of Jesus! 334 Posts 7/04	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 12:21AM ha, u got it Edited by - I spew on my face on 8/23/2004 12:21:33 AM [Link]
Spew Deactivated User Bend over for the rod and staff of Jesus! 334 Posts 7/04	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 12:22AM IE is fucked, use something else [Link]
Saki At-Large 2087 Posts 11/99	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 12:27AM It should be pointed out that it's very difficult to keep Windows up to date on patches without using IE, since Windows Update only works with IE. Also, the OS uses IE for Explorer. But you can switch to another browser for most purposes. - Saki [faqs] [Link]
Spew Deactivated User Bend over for the rod and staff of Jesus! 334 Posts 7/04	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 12:41AM Saki wrote: It should be pointed out that it's very difficult to keep Windows up to date on patches without using IE, since Windows Update only works with IE. Also, the OS uses IE for Explorer. But you can switch to another browser for most purposes. Click to expand Disable auto-update, and manually update your OS [Link]
EL_ Member Browsing with Mouse Gestures 193 Posts 7/04	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 1:54AM try going run msconfig and disabling the process in the startup tab. u probably already did this but hopefully it will stop it from starting up in the first place. How many processes do you have running after boot up? [Link]
Spew Deactivated User Bend over for the rod and staff of Jesus! 334 Posts 7/04	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 2:13AM I have 19 at first runup, after a day or so I have 30 or so average. [Link]
Joey Starr Senior Member Still wanking after all these years. 8082 Posts 10/00	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 4:13AM I spew on my face wrote: Saki wrote: It should be pointed out that it's very difficult to keep Windows up to date on patches without using IE, since Windows Update only works with IE. Also, the OS uses IE for Explorer. But you can switch to another browser for most purposes. Click to expand Disable auto-update, and manually update your OS Click to expand Get a Mac! [Link]
Spew Deactivated User Bend over for the rod and staff of Jesus! 334 Posts 7/04	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 4:31AM they're expensive [Link]
Kperv The Cuddler *struck (She slipped) 1818 Posts 1/04	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 2:37PM As long as we're bashing Microsoft anyway: Get Linux! [Link]

FallofBecause Member Do you have a masturbation escape plan? 251 Posts 10/03	Posted - Aug 23 2004 : 3:51PM I use IE for updates and Mozilla Firefox for browsing. Thanx to the pop-up and malware blocking features of Firefox, my Ad-aware has become virtually redundant. [Link]
Flash Golden Age Classic 11018 Posts 5/01	Posted - Aug 24 2004 : 12:20AM EL_ wrote: try going run msconfig and disabling the process in the startup tab. u probably already did this but hopefully it will stop it from starting up in the first place. How many processes do you have running after boot up? Click to expand Yep, that I've already done. I can't remember the full count but he has a lot of processes, I'd guess 25 after boot up. I don't even recognize what half of them are. [Link]
Evil_Rip Senior Member Power overwhelming 1117 Posts 12/99	Posted - Aug 24 2004 : 3:16AM goto http://www.blackviper.com to find out what they are and learn which processes to keep. Also to configure your win2k/xp boxes to have the correct services running. I've found by disabling services I didn't need and setting some to manual. My computer runs a lot faster, boots up faster. and rarely crashes. [Link]
driven Member 73 Posts 9/03	Posted - Sep 5 2004 : 12:30PM To prevent this problem from happening again puchase pestpatrol and enable cookie patrol to run in the back ground at start up. this software is a godsend. deletes the stuff when its placed on the drive. excellent protection from trojans too. pestpatrol.com [Link]
Joey Starr Senior Member Still wanking after all these years. 8082 Posts 10/00	Posted - Sep 6 2004 : 6:41AM I spew on my face wrote: they're expensive Click to expand The eMac is dirt cheap, it's a great machine, I have one [Link]
Joey Starr Senior Member Still wanking after all these years. 8082 Posts 10/00	Posted - Sep 6 2004 : 6:42AM The iBooks are relatively inexpensive if you prefer laptops, I also have one (12" screen). [Link]
oatmeal Meat Popsicle Seeking Beauty 1738 Posts 8/04	Posted - Sep 6 2004 : 11:03AM Joey Starr wrote: Get a Mac! Click to expand And do what with it? run a windows emulator on it? Wait for Mac-versions of popular software to be released 6 or 12 months later at inflated costs? People, read the text that appears on screen and think before you click Yes! Pirate versions are often laced with trojan horses. Warez sites and some free porn sites are laced with trojan horses, viruses and hijackers. Think of the internet as New York City, not all of the neighbourhoods are friendly and safe. Learn how to use the software on your computer and keep your OS, Browser, AntiVirus and Firewall up to date and turned on. If you don't know what you're doing press F1, buy a book (and read it) or take a class edited to remove the exclamation marks. Sounded like I was telling people off, which I wasn't Edited by - oatmeal on 9/7/2004 12:43:01 PM [Link]

All Forums > Tech Talk > Tech Talk Forum Page 55Computer/Browser problems

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