Using Windows Vista with a possible Malware problem

[Xylia]

I originally put under the Window's Vista thread, but I'm not sure that it actually belongs there. So just to be safe, I'll put it here too. I hope that this doesn't cause too much irritation because I feel a bit lost at the moment.

But concerning my problem, originally, I thought I was dealing with the w32. sircam. worm@mm worm/virus.

And according to what help has been posted onto the net concerning it, I pulled up a forum that told one how to 'check and see'. I was a bit iffie about it considering it dealt with someone using Windows XP, but I was able to pull up Command Prompt in Safe Mode all the same and attempted to check with the steps that I had written down from the forum.

Alas, I didn't see the "%1" %* coding that gave away the sircam culprit. But like I said, I'm using Window's Vista instead of XP and I wasn't confident that the possibility had been completely excluded. So, I hooked back up my other tower and opted to copy down some of the errors that keep popping up and I noticed that the only things that WOULD come up (allowed usage of a program/browser) were random anti-virus programs.

I realize it was a bad idea to go ahead and click 'yes' and let them load, but when I realized that was the case, I went ahead and copied down the errors and held down the power button before anything could load. (Not saying it prevented anything, but there wasn't much else I could do.)

When I hooked up my older tower (of which I'm on now), I went ahead and googled some of the errors that kept popping up and I found some forums, including this one, that gave step by step of what one could do to remove the problem and set their computer straight. However, even though it seems easy enough to follow, I don't want to do anything without an educated opinion and a short run through of how I can do this on my own since I'm using Windows Vista and not Windows XP.

Can anyone help me?

My computer is a Desk-top HP Pavillion, it uses Windows Vista Home Premium/64-bit edition with the first Service Pack edition. It's only a little over a year old. It has 640 gigs of hard drive space and 6 gigs of system memory.

If do you need to know more about the system I use, please give me an idea (if you could) of where I could find/locate it.

[Dr Jay]

Hello, and welcome to Computer Hope.

Please note the following information about the malware forum:

• Only the Malware Specialist Team is allowed to give advice on removing malware from your computer.
  
• From this point on, please do not make any more changes to your computer; such as install/uninstall programs, use special fix tools, delete files, edit the registry, etc. - unless advised by the staff I noted above.
  
• Please do not attach logs or post them in Quote/Code boxes unless requested.
  
• Please do not ask for help elsewhere (in this site or other sites). Doing so can result in system changes, which may not show up in the logs you post.
• If you have already asked for help somewhere, please post the link to the topic you were helped.
• We try our best to reply quickly, but for any reason we do not reply in two days, reply to this topic with the word BUMP
  
• Lastly, keep in mind that we are volunteers, so you do not have to pay for malware removal. Persist in this topic until its close, and your computer is declared clean.

Please download ComboFix from BleepingComputer.com

Alternate link: GeeksToGo.com

Alternate link: Forospyware.com (Click the green button on the page to download it).


Rename ComboFix.exe to combo-fix.exe before you save it to your Desktop

• Disable your AntiVirus and AntiSpyware applications, usually via a right click on the System Tray icon. They may otherwise interfere with our tools A guide to do this can be found here
  
• Click Start then copy paste the following command into the search box & hit enter: "%userprofile%\desktop\combo-fix.exe" /stepdel
  
• As part of it's process, ComboFix will check to see if the Microsoft Windows Recovery Console is installed. This will not install in Vista. Just continue scanning, and skip the console install.
• When finished, it shall produce a log for you.  Please include the contents of C:\ComboFix.txt in your next reply.

[Xylia]

But see, that's the thing. I'm actually using Windows Vista. I was able to pull up safe mode and do a system restore, and even though my computer isn't 'crashing' it still seems a bit off. I went ahead and tried using combofix, but after it's install, it said it couldn't be used.

[Dr Jay]

Placing it on a flash drive will probably work. Then, transferring it to the infected computer.

What message did it give, that it could not be used?

For example, 64 bit machine... incompatible, etc.