I got infected by a nasty malware while surfing a news forum. It rebooted my computer (XP sP2). Now my situation is:
1. Even in safe mode, I canot run any anti-spyware software: Malwarebyte's will close in one second after starting scanning. SuperAntiSpeware will close after about 10 seconds of scanning. Then the .exe application file will no longer work. When I tried to run them again, it will say "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate premission to access the item." On the first scan, SAS did found a few vundo etc spywares before it got closed down. Later, when I copied another SAS.exe from another computer and tried to run, it no longer reports finding anything before it got closed down. (I did restart computer in between though.)
2. Cannot connect to any website, it always shows trying to connect. (The wireless connection itself shows OK).
3. It removed the system restore tab from system property, and does not run system restore claiming that it is disabled by group policy. I got around and brought back that tab and enabled restore, but the restore point table shows only August and there is no restore points. I can't move to other months.
4. Worst of all, after I downloaded HijackThis using another computer, copied onto the infected desktop, and tried to run, it ended up the same as any anti-spyware software - it closes itself immediately after scanning started and become inaccessible afterwards. So I can't even post the HijiackThis logs.
There could be other symptoms I have yet to discover. Never seen this kind of nasty stuff. Please help!!!