Hello folks,

Apologies if this has come up before but I have tried my best (have spent most of the day in fact) to try and find an answer to this but to no avail.

Currently running XP on an AMD machine (Athlon and 1.2 processor I think) at 768meg ram (sorry for the haziness as I usually use another computer more at the moment and my problem, which I am just about to share, is making it difficult getting into the system area of the cpu). On it I run AVG Antivirus and Zonealarm Firewall.

Today I have, and it would seem rather foolishly, downloaded the following file..

Setup_ver1.1856.0

which when doing a google search brings up only a couple of Virscan.org hits and relates it to a Trojan zlob (?).

I tried deleting it but couldn't. I then went into the Command Prompt and managed to get rid of it from there. Unfortunately it has not fixed the problem following in any way..

Symptoms are.. taskbar changes from XP's usual to classic mode, all icons on my desktop turn blue (as if being selected), disappear and then the computer restarts. (typing shutdown -a as found in another thread does not stop this - occasionally delays it slightly though).

If I try and run my anti-virus (AVG) the computer restarts. I have tried running vcleaner and also restarts just as it loads up (even if I rename it and access it through the command prompt - although it does seem to last a little longer before it does). I have also tried running MS Malicious Software Removal Tool but this barely starts before computer either restarts or the computer freezes for sometime then reboots. Basically if I try and do anything to fix it my computer reboots! - sometimes it just freezes.. particularly after having unchecked the auto restart (right click My Computer-Properties-Advanced-System Restore - as again found elsewhere).. either that or I get the BSOD.

Currently I have removed the internet connection cable from the back of the computer (have tried all my tinkering with it offline since thinking I might be infected) and am out of idea's.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've just had a Blue Screen Stop Message which reads..

c000021a 0xc0000005 (0x00000000 0x00000000) fatal system error

I've done some digging but not gettting very far.

If anybody could help I'd be very grateful..

If the HD can't be saved.. what would be the chances of moving the infected hard drive to a slave position, having a new drive with a fresh operating system, and recouping my files before a reinstall?

Would this work?

As ever i have a lot of stuff I could do without losing!

Thanks