Member Avatar for starriinites

Good morning all.

So, I got the dreaded Vista Antivirus 2010, not once, but twice while trying to download a torrent (yeah I know-bad idea), anyway, I was able to remove it both times using spybot first followed by malwarebytes. However, now it appears I have a very heavy paperweight left as a laptop.

I am on an Acer Aspire 5050 running Vista SP 1, upgraded to 2.5 gig RAM couple months ago. I noticed after the last attack of virus that computer would start to intermittently freeze after a short time and I would have to hard boot. Now PC is totally useless unless in safe mode. Upon start up it will freeze within minutes. I have run a registry repair, spybot, malwarebytes and verizon virus scan, all of which have been on my pc for quite some time so I do not believe they are in conflict. I tried chkdsk on command prompt but it keeps saying disk is in use and will not allow the scan. I set it to chkdsk on next reboot but it is not initiating. I would venture to guess that my registry has been highly damaged but I just do not know quite where to begin.

If anybody can give me some suggestions on how to start a repair on this I would greatly appreciate. I do not have any disks that came with the system in my possession right now. I am out of town for a while and unable to get them. So I have to do this all with just trial and error.

Thanks to anybody who can help

  • 4 Contributors
  • 4 Replies
  • 177 Views
  • 4 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by k2k
Member Avatar for k2k

normally the best way to deal with virus is to backup your important works and do a complete system recovery. make sure you format the hard disk which your os is on after you backup your important files. virus usually copies itself to everywhere. i only had a few times successfully clean them all up with tools. and that takes longer too. simply reimage your pc is the fastest, and easiest way to get rid of virus.

_______________________

Edited by crunchie because: Removed fake sig.
Member Avatar for mjdodd

Are you absolutely sure it is a virus? Freezing of PC can be caused by a lot of reasons like
Memory failure
chips on motherboard addressing failure
processor getting too hot
overheating due to dust on fans mobo etc
cracked motherboard
loose hard drive connections
intermittant failing hard drive
missing files from essential windows files
registry problems (use a good cleaner and registry repairs realy need either good knowledge of the registry or a re-install from CD or backup.)
Finally it could be virus but if not being detected by a good anti virus it is unlikely!
Sorry to sound like a Jonah but diagnostic like this is too wide to do with the information given;

Good luck
M

Member Avatar for altuin

Did you try something more radical like combofix?
Did you check the Event Viewer?
If you did check it, did you see anything suspicious there?
Did you try something else other than Spybot and MBAM?
Give more details please!

Member Avatar for k2k

you may actually go to bios and run a memory test and hard disk check... just to get some idea if that was caused by hardware issues... a windows reinstallation will get rid of all the craps.... i do this to my laptop every 3 or 5 months.. simply backup all i need to reinstall the winodws. couple hour works and my laptop will be all fresh and agile again.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.