Hi,

Long story short, downloaded file (thought it was an update), became suspicious so I ran Mcafee Virus Scan. Which wouldn't start.

I looked in task manager and saw msa.exe and a.exe. I stopped the processes and tried following guidelines for the removal of MSAntispyware2009 (of which was NOT installed, but had the processes running). I could be horribly wrong.

I think I stopped it before it could do what it usually does (judging from what has happened to others):
I haven't gotten any Firewall or Security messages other than McAfee (from installing of programs below) and I haven't gotten any search provider blocks or ie problems (yet :S)

I tried Spybot, this won't start either.

Other programs I tried over the course of the night:
AVG - won't scan
Avira - won't scan (it did a first scan but no longer works)
HJT - shutdows towards the end
MBAM - won't scan (won't start now)
Spy Hunter - won't start
Smitfraudfix - shuts down after a while
ARSweep - won't scan

Basically, nothing SCAN related seems to be working,

I would post logs from HJT, but would you look at that, it's not working

I also am UNABLE to do a system restore as it refuses to OPEN!
I can't access it in safe mode command prompt either :S

PLEASE HELP ME!

Hi fms1, welcome to SAF

Sorry for the delay, I was out for the day.

Do NOT try to run fixtools such as Smitfraudfix !

- Run Ccleaner;
- Rename mbam.exe to 123.com. If it doesn't run, download it again and rename its installer.
- At this point, HJT may run if saved to its proper folder and renamed.

Post both logs.

Chris

Thanks for your time ,

I'm afraid things got much worse,

Windows could no longer open any .exe file.
In fact the only thing that did work was My computer (explorer wouldn't open either!)
So I took the opportunity and ran. I backed up any files that I knew were NOT backed up, (the files are on a USB) and reformatted.

BTW I tried to rename HJT folders and files and mbam to no avail,
It disabled everything, but any scans that did work couldn't detect a problem.

Now that I've reformatted there's one slight problem left...

The USB was connected to the PC whilst it still had problems, I'm not sure if the USB would be infected. Is there a failsafe way of checking WITHOUT deleting the important files stored on it.

Thanks very much!

Probably a win32Virut issue... it infects all critical .exe files if not detected soon enough to react.

In theory, your pendrives are safe, unless you stored infected .exe files on them.

After reformatting and reinstalling all, it would be wise to run mbam and HJT on the system to see if something remains.

Chris