What to do, so viruses wouldn't come back

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Freeman14

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Hello TechSpot staff. I am new here In need of serious help.

The past few weeks I've been having strange symptoms of viruses, BSODs, sudden reboots, which made me re-install my computer 3-4 times. It didn't help, the same symptoms kept coming back.

Now, I am on the stage where one BSOD appears while loading Windows, it doesn't even allow me to Safe Mode.

Now, I want to ask your staff WHAT shall I do while re-installing to prevent from the viruses etc. to come back.



While re-installing I have tried to clean with various anti-virus programs, such as Malwarebytes, F-Prot, Kaspersky, Ad-Aware, AVG, NOD32, ComboFix, CCleaner and HijackThis.

I didn't use these anti-virus programs in the same install of Windows, but It found, cleaned(ignored a few) and it didn't change ****.

If you are wondering if this may be caused by new hardware, your wrong. I didn't plug in any kind of hardware in the computer when It started.

I have cleaned my RAM with an airblower and a vaccum, blowed the dust off the CPUs etc.

In my 14 year old experience of computer technology, I have NEVER seen anything like this, so I am kindly asking for your support, I hope you will answer my post.

In conclussion, I need a step-by-step guide to avoid viruses and BSODs, while reinstalling Windows from scrach.

I have a Windows XP Professional Operating system, Intel Pentium 4 processor and a 128MB video card.(Yes, I know, time for a new computer, for which I got no money for)

Regards,

Freeman14.
 
The full BSOD is:

** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF789E524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
This is the code I get now when I try to get in Windows or Safe Mode.

I also used to get other various codes such as 0x0000008E and 0x000000C2.


The strange symptoms are that this thing keept happening after reinstallation, I even turned System restore off. I haven't plugged in any new hardware in months.
 
Okay, lets take a look at the error codes.

0x0000007B: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
Windows lost access to the system partition or boot volume during the startup process. Typical causes: Installing incorrect device drivers when installing or upgrading storage adapter hardware, or a virus.

0x8E are almost always caused by hardware issues and of these RAM is usually the main culprit.

0x000000C2: BAD_POOL_CALLER
A kernel-mode process or driver incorrectly attempted to perform memory operations. Typically, a faulty driver or buggy software causes this.

* With these error codes it is a good chance that the issue isn't with your reinstallation itself but hardware and some third party drivers. So the next step is to do the following standard diagnostics:

A. Run Memtest on your RAM.

1. Go to www.memtest.org and download the latest ISO version. It is free and perfectly safe.

2. Burn to a CD.

3. Place CD in your drive and reboot with CD in drive. (You might have to place your drive as first bootable in your BIOS) The test will take over.

4. Let it run for a LONG time. The rule is a minimum of 7 Passes. There are 8 individual tests per Pass. Many people will start this test before going to bed and check it the next day.

5. If you have errors you have corrupted memory and it needs to be replaced.

6. Also, with errors you need to run this test per stick of RAM. Take out one and run the test. Then take that one out and put the other in and run the test. If you start getting errors before 7 Passes you know that stick is corrupted and you don’t need to run the test any further on that stick.


B. Run a full harddrive diagnostics by utilizing the free utilty provided by your harddrive manufacturer. If you can't find the name go to Seagate's Website and download and install their excellent SeaTools. Make sure you run the Long DST test.

* Get back to us with the results.
 
Test results

I have scanned my PC with both memtest and SeaTools.

No errors occured on memtest(ECC was disabled by default, I don't know if it's needed or not) and I've done the Long Test on my C: drive with Seatools and it passed.


What shall I do now?
 
Okay, next step is to attach your minidump files (not the folder). Use the Manage Attachments button next time you post (it will be below your posting under Additional Options). Attach your five most recent dumps. Please don't zip each and every one; you can Zip up to five together.

Run ChkDsk in your Run box.

How many Passes did memtest run?
 
Adding and asking

Allright. As I was running SeaTools, my second Hard drive failed at the test, 1 error occured, but the drive is not the one where the system files are.

Now, I should reinstall windows now, to attach mindumps?

I don't really know how to run ChkDsk...


What's writen in the outline it is interesting, but I allready have a D-Link router and i only forward several game ports.
 
Are your harddrives SATA or IDE and was the second one slaved?

For ChkDsk go to Start Menu > Run Box .> type in ChkDsk > click Okay. This test is fast. There are three steps. On step 2 tell us if it says it is recovering lost files.

Attach your 5 latest minidump files (not the folder). Zip all five together, not individually.
 
Questions

My drives are IDE slaved.

Ill perform the ChkDsk scan and attach minidumps, but tell me DO I need to reinstall Windows now?
 
No on the reinstallation. A repair befor and reinstallation might be order. Did you detach the second harddrive (the slave) from your system?

Also, attach your 5 latest minidumps.
 
Route44 said:
No on the reinstallation. A repair befor and reinstallation might be order. Did you detach the second harddrive (the slave) from your system?

Also, attach your 5 latest minidumps.
Click to expand...



I haven't detached the second harddrive, if I would, SeaTools wouldn't have found the drive.

Now the ChkDsk thing, I need to boot my Windows XP CD and go to the Recovery Console?

Just tell me the step-by-step what I need to do now, cuz I am a little lost at the moment.
 
Uhm..

Route44 said:
No on the reinstallation. A repair befor and reinstallation might be order. Did you detach the second harddrive (the slave) from your system?

Also, attach your 5 latest minidumps.
Click to expand...



I haven't detached the second harddrive, if I would, SeaTools wouldn't have found the drive.

Now the ChkDsk thing, I need to boot my Windows XP CD and go to the Recovery Console?

Just tell me the step-by-step what I need to do now, cuz I am a little lost at the moment.
 
Okay, let's look at what has been done so far and tell me if I missed anything:

1. Memtest and SeaTools on your C harddrive are negative. In other words, no errors were found with either the memory or the master harddrive, correct?

2. The slaved IDE drive was discovered to have one error but it is the one you used to use Seatools on the Master C Drive, correct?

3. Maybe I missed something (or I am dense) but when you ask if you should reinstall Windows, did you uninstall from your C Drive? Sorry if I am totally misunderstanding what you are asking/stating.

4. ChkDsk can run from the Run Box in the Start Menu.
 
Route44 said:
Okay, let's look at what has been done so far and tell me if I missed anything:

1. Memtest and SeaTools on your C harddrive are negative. In other words, no errors were found with either the memory or the master harddrive, correct?

2. The slaved IDE drive was discovered to have one error but it is the one you used to use Seatools on the Master C Drive, correct?

3. Maybe I missed something (or I am dense) but when you ask if you should reinstall Windows, did you uninstall from your C Drive? Sorry if I am totally misunderstanding what you are asking/stating.

4. ChkDsk can run from the Run Box in the Start Menu.
Click to expand...


1. Correct.

2. No. The drive where the error was found is my second harddrive. I ran seatools through a CD and booted. But I ran the scan on the Master C drive, yes.

3. I didn't uninstall anything. You're just telling me to run ChkDsk through Start Menu, but I can't boot to windows or safe mode, still....I get the 0x07B

4. I can't boot so how can I go to Start menu?
 
I wanted to make sure I get on the same page as you. The next thing I want you to do is uninstall your slave IDE harddrive cable from your motherboard. Then, if you can, boot up and immediately enter your BIOS and disable your IDE harddrive. Save and exit.

Are you still getting the 0x7B error?
 
Done

I unplugged the IDE cable from the Primary IDE slave drive(my second harddrive) went into BIOS and set it to "Not Installed". Saved, Exited and attempted to boot.

Unfortunatly, I got the 0x07E error again.
 
Route44 said:
Okay, I am going to ask a stupid question. Is your C Drive set as Master?
Click to expand...

Yes. As instructed on the harddrive, I have removed the chip. I even tried to unplug ALL of the other drives, including the floppy and CD/DVD-ROM and tried running on only the Main drive.

Error still keeps coming.

Maybe I should try to install Windows on my second drive? The current main drive may be failing. If you want to know, I have no usefull files in any of the drives, so I can format them both.

Any other suggestions?
 
The problem I have with installing to the second harddrive is that it has shown an error. Sometimes the harddrive utilities can correct the error depending on the kind of error.

I don't know if you have access to a second computer but I have seen people take their harddrives and slave them that way and be able to access, etc. I am wondering what would happen if you did this and ran the utilities and antiviruses again.

I once had an infection so bad on a WD IDE drive that even after cleaning, scanning with WD diagnostic utility, uninstalling, and reformatting twice, then reinstalling I still had a bad sector. Time for a new harddrive.

I reread your first post. You mentioned some viruses were ignored. How were these ignored infections dealt with?
 
Oh cmon...Does anyone else besides Route44, have any suggestions that I could try? (No offense).

It's really annoying that no-one knows what this might be and I've been having this problem for over 2 weeks now. PLEASE someone suggest something, It's really hessitating.
 
Route44 said:
The problem I have with installing to the second harddrive is that it has shown an error. Sometimes the harddrive utilities can correct the error depending on the kind of error.

I don't know if you have access to a second computer but I have seen people take their harddrives and slave them that way and be able to access, etc. I am wondering what would happen if you did this and ran the utilities and antiviruses again.

I once had an infection so bad on a WD IDE drive that even after cleaning, scanning with WD diagnostic utility, uninstalling, and reformatting twice, then reinstalling I still had a bad sector. Time for a new harddrive.

I reread your first post. You mentioned some viruses were ignored. How were these ignored infections dealt with?
Click to expand...


Well, I do I have second PC, but the thing is...It is ALSO getting a BSOD while logging in, but I think I can access Safe Mode...Ill try doing it.


The infections we're multiple same processes. Like 10 svhost.exe, services.exe. Sometimes several cmd.exe opened for no reason...I've tried deleting them, but while I have been doing scans, I was getting BSODs.


Let's say I plug in my main hard to the second PC as a slave, what else?
 
With the infection(s) you've had to deal with and if I read you correctly some couldn't even be deleted, I am wondering if you have a boot sector virus.

a. All disks and hard drives are divided into small sectors.

b. The first sector is called the boot sector and contains the Master Boot Record (MBR). The MBR contains the information concerning the location of partitions on the drive and reading of the bootable operating system partition.

c. During the bootup sequence on a DOS-based PC, the BIOS searches for certain system files, IO.SYS and MS-DOS.SYS. When those files have been located, the BIOS then searches for the first sector on that disk or drive and loads the needed Master Boot Record information into memory.

d. The BIOS passes control to a program in the MBR which in turn loads IO.SYS. This latter file is responsible for loading the remainder of the operating system.

Boot sector virus is one that infects the first sector, i.e. the boot sector, of a floppy disk or hard drive. Boot sector viruses can also infect the MBR.
 
That might be it. While the PC is booting, the Windows XP screen comes up and before the blue loading panel could start, I get the BSOD.

How can I check for a boot sector virus etc.?
 
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