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Suspected virus disabling IE and Mcafee

Discussion in 'Virus and Malware Removal' started by hippo430, May 15, 2009.

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  1. hippo430 Newcomer, in training

    I have experienced a number of strange things on my computer. #1, When hitting "Start" the icon on the right that used to say "Documents" now has a string of letters and numbers but double-clicking it will get me into my documents. #2 A more troubling development is that I can no longer use IE as my browser (I have XP serv.pack 3, had been using IE8). IE will start but most of the page remains blank. Along with this I noticed a warning from McAfee stating my anti-virus was turned off. It will not turn back on so I de-installed it and tried to re-install it but it would not download. Tried Norton also but with the same results. I had a current McAfee disk and tried that but it would not work. The message says an error prevents it from doing so. I spoke with a McAfee rep. who was unable to help me and said it sounded like a bad virus and I needed to take my machine to a repair shop. Any suggestions?
    Thanks,
    hippo430, May 15, 2009
    #1

  2. touch Newcomer, in training

    touch, May 16, 2009
    #2

  3. hippo430 Newcomer, in training

    Question re. 8-step removal

    Thanks for your reply and directions. I encountered a problem on the first step, however. Part of my original problem was that I could no longer run the scan for McAfee. I have tried downloading other anti-virus products (downloaded Avira from your recommendation) but they could not install because they could not connect to the internet. With Avira, I got the message "A secure internet connection is required to activate the product (SSL) encrypted. This could not be established)
    This may be because my IE is not functioning. I have IE8 when clicked it acts like it is opening and working but most of the screen does not fill out as normal and no connection is made. I am able to access the internet via Mozilla but the various anti-virus programs have not accessed through it even though I have chosen Mozilla as my default browser.
    I am running XP sp3.
    Is it okay to proceed on the 8-step program without any anti-virus program?
    Thanks
    hippo430, May 16, 2009
    #3

  4. Bobbye Helper on the Fringe

    No. Better to leave it on the system since you have internet access with Firefox.. Touch will have you do a virus scan and update later. Go ahead and run the programs, use a flash drive if you need it to download them from the internet, then install on problem system.

    Attach the 3 logs when through.

    And a suggestion for IE: remove v8, drop back to v7 and see if that works.

    I'm doing the easy work> Touch gets the hard stuff!
    Bobbye, May 16, 2009
    #4
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