norton, task manager won't start, anyplace i type "V i r u s" (including here) closes

tried that stinger thing, didnt seem to work, do i need to try in safe mode?
I tried the symantec online scan, came up empty.

still stuck with v irus, out of suggestions.
any more?

Yes. Reformat. That fixes anything You can't tell us you can't back up stuff, right?

Just thought I'd mention about the files that came from nowhere in the my music folders. There are a number of virii out there that are aimed at p2p because that is unfortunately one of the easiest ways of spreading them. Anything that says 'keygen', 'serial', or 'crack' that just appears from nowhere is quite likely due to a virus, basicaly because those are some of the most downloaded items in the software section of Kazaa. Sad, but true. If they are deleted, some virii will recreate them. Sometimes they can be gotten rid of permanently by removing registry entries, but not always. Also, most virii these days only run in the Win32 environment. If you can set up an AV to scan before Windows boots, you can sometimes get rid of it that way. In this case I'm not sure what to do though. It may well be that a format is required.

well thanks anyways, but unfortunately format is difficult because i have lots of school provided (and expensive) software preinstalled, not to mention no xp disk.

Have you tried editing the registry? Look for some of those .exe files that you mentioned earlier and delete them from the registry.

Also this looks as if you have the W32/Bodiru-A worm. There is a fix you can try for this. If you cannot access Norton then try Sophos.com

They have a complete breakdown of this worm.

Hope this helps

Tina

Your computer seems like a huge mess. I'd go with reformating, that's the very best way. Just make sure you disconnect your means of the internet from the PC.

Reformatting is also good in a sense that your PC get's a "Fresh start".

And before connecting to the internet, install anti-virus and a firewall. And then the first time you connect to the internet, make it your priority to first download updates to the software.

Same problem

I have almost the same problem as mintaddict. The computer is extremely slow, as if the CPU is working very hard. But I can't open the Task Manager (sometimes I see it for a second before it closes), I can't use ctrl+alt+del and I can't open the registry. I've scanned the discs with a couple of different anti-virus-programs (including Stinger), but no viruses are found. Very frustrating.

Wow, sounds like a pretty vicious virus/worm. I understand your concerns for trying to save all of your backed up data as I've been there at a time with a different virus. Does anyone understand how it works yet? Does it attach itself to .exe's or something like that?

How about running msconfig in the run bar. Can you edit your startup programs before the window closes on you?

How is your computer set up? Do you only have C:\ or is your HD divided into partitions, or do you have multiple hard drives? I'm thinking if you have a spare computer around, you could maybe link up your hard drive to that spare computer, make sure that the system already has good virus protections installed, and then do a virus scan on that infected hard drive from a clean Windows. Only risk in that is that it could spread to your clean drive, and thats why I stress you to have the most up to date virus definitions and full blown protection on all your crap. Don't run any program from within the infected drive, and don't even access folders in it. Just choose the drive and let your Virus scan program scan it.

i have managed to run the latest virus scans online in safe mode (where v irus does not seem to appear) and it comes up with nothing. msconfig will only run in safe mode, but i do not see anything suspicious in it. i tried the diagnostic startup, which removes everything in the different lists and ini files and whatnot, but it still somehow loads the vi rus or whatever it is.

Do any of you have a second HDD with unpartitioned space on it?

If so, use that space to install a fresh copy of windows. From there, you can access the other partitions to save data (be careful to scan it for virii before using it). Otherwise, you could install an AV on this fresh installation and scan with that. This should work, as anything starting up with your current installation shouldn't start on a fresh one.

Other than that, has anybody tried rebuilding their Master Boot Record in the Recovery console (XP)? It could be a virus residing in the mbr.

try a AV scan with a heuristic scan mode, this will find more stuff than a basic scan will, since it not only compares files with a definition file, it also compares properties of the file and can find virii that have yet to be identified(it can also turn up quite a few false positives so be careful) At this point I'd also try spyware removers, since your problem vaguely reminds me of something I had once(it popped open an IE window with ads when I typed specific words) not exactly the same, but it is close enough that I would try it.
You can also go to the Registry link in my signature, read the guide and look through the registry for anything suspicious(use caution when doing that)

i give up, my computer is unfixable

Well, one last longshot...

Try with another PSU...
I've had some similar problems with a computer at work,and last night the PSU just died... Installed a new one, and hasn't had any problems yet...

It never looked like a PSU fault, but rather virus, as it died when norton loaded, didn't like visiting certain anti-virus sites, changed text-formats in documents...
But now everything is peachy

i found the problem program... wininit32, but im not sure this if this is a system file or not. is it safe to delete?

try these articles
http://ktp.e-isa.com/av/Viruses/W32.Xabot.worm.htm

http://se.trendmicro-europe.com/enterprise/security_info/ve_detail.php?VName=BKDR_IRCBOT.R

ok, so i fixed the virus and removed everything, but i cant open regedit because "Registry editing has been disabled by you administrator."