My mothers AMD tower always had problems (mostly because she downloaded practically everything she saw) but recently, aside from all the hideous pop up ads and unwanted programs invading her privacy and downloading themselves onto her computer, her internet has gone completely offline. The CICERO tower was recently brought back from Future shops technical center because the technician informed my mother that the cause of her problem was overwhelming spyware.
When I heard of this I told her to give me the system as I foolishly assumed it would be as easy as getting rid of all the spyware that had attempted to infect my newly purchased AMD XP computer.
I installed my two favorite applications onto her system. BPS Spyware Remover ( http://www.Bulletproofsoft.com ) and Ad-Aware 6.0 ( http://lavasoft.element5.com/support/download/ )
After detecting and eliminating countless spyware infected registry keys, memory processes, files folders and literal programs, I rebooted the computer only to be bombarded upon startup with RUNDLL error messages. The messages are provided below
-Error could not execute main: The system cannot find the file specified (this one puzzled me the most)
-Error loading C:/PROGRA~1/NEWDOT~1/NEWDOT~2.DLL
-Error loading C:/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/stlbdist.dll The specified module could not be
found
-Error loading C:/WINDOWS/bsx5.dll The specified module could not be found
-Error loading C:/WINDOWS/bs2.dll The specified module could not be found
Now I remember a time when I removed a spyware component that activated a RUNDLL error when starting my Windows XP; "missing bridge.dll" and on this forums http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/member.php?userid=2466 provided the solution shown here http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/showthread.php?t=5591&goto=nextnewest
Can these RUNDLL problems be solved in a similar way? If so can someone show me how?
Also, after browsing a while on these forums I discovered that the cause of my mother’s internet problem could be directly related to possible spyware. That certain spyware component can reconfigure the TCP/IP protocol which would effectively screw up the internet settings. What can I do so that I can get internet back on the system; fix the RUNDLL error messages without having to reformat the computer? (She hasn’t even made her recovery discs which I think could cause some problems with the computer in its current condition)
Also, just as an FYI, I checked the TCP/IP protocol settings constantly making sure everything was checked to auto detect (I'm running Shaw cable) and I checked the Internet LAN settings dozens of times. All in all im pretty confident when I say that our LAN internet settings are configured properly. We also run our internet through a Linksys router, and our two other computers run just fine off of it. So the internet connection is obviously still there.
-Computer Model-
Specs: AMD Athlon XP 2200 (1.8GH) 225mb RAM, 80 GB hard drive)
OS: XP 5.1 (Build 2600) -I discovered this information off of a virus removal program called Extendia Anti-Virus, for some reason I couldn’t access the system properties menu.-
Manufacturer: CICERO