The Official Computer Tech Support Thread

[crukster]

I picked up a bulk of >1000 viruses/trojans/harmful **** yesterday from somewhere. I can only run my laptop in safe mode otherwise it crashes. System restore won't open, when I access the system repair on bootup it says there are no restore points. Haven't got any backups, dunno where my windows disc is.

How can I fix this? I was gonna get a friend of a friend to take a look but I'd rather solve it myself if anyone can help.

Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated cheers ****nugget ****stain

Windows 7

Samsung

3,00GB ram

32 bit operating system

Celeron (R) Dual-core CPU T3500 @ 2.10GHz 2.09GHz



...deleted my backups from the backup drive and used it to store porn...

[Freebase Dali]

Originally Posted by crukster

I picked up a bulk of >1000 viruses/trojans/harmful **** yesterday from somewhere. I can only run my laptop in safe mode otherwise it crashes. System restore won't open, when I access the system repair on bootup it says there are no restore points. Haven't got any backups, dunno where my windows disc is.

How can I fix this? I was gonna get a friend of a friend to take a look but I'd rather solve it myself if anyone can help.

Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated cheers ****nugget ****stain

Windows 7

Samsung

3,00GB ram

32 bit operating system

Celeron (R) Dual-core CPU T3500 @ 2.10GHz 2.09GHz



...deleted my backups from the backup drive and used it to store porn...

On another computer, download Malwarebytes (free program available online) to a thumb drive or other removable media and install it when you boot up to safe-mode. (Alternately, you can use safe mode with networking to have access to the internet if you want to download it straight to the PC) Once installed, update it and run a full scan. Let it fix everything it finds. After this point, you *should* be able to boot up in normal mode, whereupon you'll need to go ahead and get an anti-virus program like Avast, which is also free, and run a boot-time scan. Avast will also actively protect you from getting into the situation you're in right now.

If you are unable to install Malwarebytes in safe mode, let me know. You'll have to mess around in the registry.

[crukster]

Cheers for the reply, man. I managed to get onto the site but when I run the installer I just get an outline with an empty box. Don't worry about explaining the registry I think I'll leave it because I've at least got a bit of basic surfing for now, don't wanna mess with that so I'll give it to the friend of the friend on Tuesday.


I tried running "speedmax pc" earlier to try and clear up some malware, but as soon as it finished scanning it was asking me to pay money and register same as my anti virus software. Someone has managed to screw my laptop over pretty well heh

I couldn't get malwarebytes running but if anyone else is having problems I downloaded these programs to sort out my laptop and it's running ok for now

Free Windows Registry Repair
Rising PC Doctor (Trojan killer)
Comodo (firewall)
Super Anti-spyware freeware
CC cleaner (unneccessary file cleanup)

And 1 more that I'm not gonna tell you in case someone is using this to figure out a way to **** me over again!

Those are all freeware and do what it says on the label. Some of them can be upgraded but will work fine free. I went through a lot of programs which claim to be free and then ask money to fix things like Regclean Pro etc before I found these.

Thanks for reccomending looking at fixing the registry Freebase that saved me some weed money!

Tried malwarebytes and avast in normal bootup and they installed, barring another blue screen that's actually my laptop saved from critical state, ****ing awesome \m/

[crukster]

Originally Posted by crukster

Windows 7

Samsung

3,00GB ram

32 bit operating system

Celeron (R) Dual-core CPU T3500 @ 2.10GHz 2.09GHz

I damaged my laptop, and after the startup screen I get "Boot from AHCI CDROM: Operating System not found" any key I hit repeats the same thing, if I try recovery on startup I get this message still, the only thing I can access is F2 setup.


Is there anything I can do to have a go at fixing it, or is it physical damage? cheers

[Plankton]

Originally Posted by crukster

I damaged my laptop, and after the startup screen I get "Boot from AHCI CDROM: Operating System not found" any key I hit repeats the same thing, if I try recovery on startup I get this message still, the only thing I can access is F2 setup.


Is there anything I can do to have a go at fixing it, or is it physical damage? cheers

Go into your BIOS and set your HD to be the primary boot device.

If that doesn't work you may need to do a startup repair. A quick Gugle should get you going in the right direction.

[crukster]

Cheers guys I changed the bios, I made a recovery disc and run startup repair, so now I've got basic recovery options but the diagnostic says "a hard disc could not be found. If a hard disc is installed, it is not responding."

[Freebase Dali]

Originally Posted by fazstp

Yeah this one was well borked but I don't have any Windows disks to start fresh and he got the laptop off ebay sans disks. He reckons he just clicked on a Facebook link and it killed his computer. It was one of those fake antivirus viruses so I think he mistook it for his own AV software and okayed it without thinking anything of it.

Download/install/run Malware bytes on the machine in regular and safe mode, deleting anything it finds, then download/install/run/do a full startup scan with Avast Antivirus in both regular and safe mode. Delete anything it quarantines.
In both scenarios, let the programs update themselves while connected to the internet, and before running the scans, disable the internet connection.

Both programs are free.
If either/both of them don't solve the problem, get a look at one of the fake antivirus virus popups if possible and google it, as they usually have specific fixer programs for some of the more entrenched viruses like that.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend randomly deleting stuff from the registry unless you are 100 percent certain that the keys you're deleting are not detrimental to the operating system. If you get the virus defeated with the above methods and want to clean the registry, download Ccleaner (free) and run the registry cleaner on it, which will get rid of any issues and keys that don't have any function.

Originally Posted by crukster

Cheers guys I changed the bios, I made a recovery disc and run startup repair, so now I've got basic recovery options but the diagnostic says "a hard disc could not be found. If a hard disc is installed, it is not responding."

In the bios, if you do not see the hard drive listed, the drive is either dead or not connected. If you do, it's possible that the partition table or master boot record on the drive is corrupted.
If you don't see the drive listed, reseat the hard drive and try to boot. If you do see it listed, assuming that the file system is not corrupt on the hard drive, you can connect it to another computer and access it like you would a secondary drive, and salvage any data, then wipe the drive and reinstall an operating system on it.
Also, you can download a program called MsDart or ERD Commander, (not free, but you can get it pretty easily or use a trial version with a 30 day limit) as a .iso, and burn it to a cd (as a bootable cd) and inside the program after you boot to it, there's an option for Disk Management that will let you mount the hard drive and explore it.
If the drive is unmountable, there is a problem with the MBR or partition table. If that is the case, you may still be able to retrieve the data by choosing not to mount the drive but exploring it anyway. If the file system is intact, you will be able to browse the contents and back up any data straight to an external drive.
If you can't even explore the contents of the disk, you're likely not going to be able to retrieve any data, and should just wipe the drive, format it with NTFS, and see if you can access it normally on another computer. If so, then that's your option.
If you can't format it/doesn't show up in Disc Management in Windows, the drive is dead and will serve the rest of its purpose as a paperweight.

Good luck.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

Download/install/run Malware bytes on the machine in regular and safe mode, deleting anything it finds, then download/install/run/do a full startup scan with Avast Antivirus in both regular and safe mode. Delete anything it quarantines.
In both scenarios, let the programs update themselves while connected to the internet, and before running the scans, disable the internet connection.

Both programs are free.
If either/both of them don't solve the problem, get a look at one of the fake antivirus virus popups if possible and google it, as they usually have specific fixer programs for some of the more entrenched viruses like that.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend randomly deleting stuff from the registry unless you are 100 percent certain that the keys you're deleting are not detrimental to the operating system. If you get the virus defeated with the above methods and want to clean the registry, download Ccleaner (free) and run the registry cleaner on it, which will get rid of any issues and keys that don't have any function.

Thanks for the tips. I did manage to disinfect my friends laptop but I will look into these. He is running Microsoft Security Essentials but it seems to have a pretty big performance hit and it did allow him to install this virus so I'm not sure it's the best option for him. I don't know that anything will actually stop a virus once you choose to install it though.

I might give these a try on another friend's computer. He has a persistent memory stick virus that has been pretty tough to remove. It auto-installs on any stick plugged into the computer and adds an auto-run to the stick so it infects any other computer it's plugged into.

[crukster]

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

In the bios, if you do not see the hard drive listed, the drive is either dead or not connected. If you do, it's possible that the partition table or master boot record on the drive is corrupted.
If you don't see the drive listed, reseat the hard drive and try to boot. If you do see it listed, assuming that the file system is not corrupt on the hard drive, you can connect it to another computer and access it like you would a secondary drive, and salvage any data, then wipe the drive and reinstall an operating system on it.
Also, you can download a program called MsDart or ERD Commander, (not free, but you can get it pretty easily or use a trial version with a 30 day limit) as a .iso, and burn it to a cd (as a bootable cd) and inside the program after you boot to it, there's an option for Disk Management that will let you mount the hard drive and explore it.
If the drive is unmountable, there is a problem with the MBR or partition table. If that is the case, you may still be able to retrieve the data by choosing not to mount the drive but exploring it anyway. If the file system is intact, you will be able to browse the contents and back up any data straight to an external drive.
If you can't even explore the contents of the disk, you're likely not going to be able to retrieve any data, and should just wipe the drive, format it with NTFS, and see if you can access it normally on another computer. If so, then that's your option.
If you can't format it/doesn't show up in Disc Management in Windows, the drive is dead and will serve the rest of its purpose as a paperweight.

Good luck.

Cheers for that man, I already sent it in to get looked at. I'm pretty sure the hard drive is dead, because it was being listed as unknown, but if it comes back unfixed I'll have another go and try that.