A couple of motnhs ago, I downladed a file from the internet to watch something and almost immediately my PC started misbeahving. I put 2 and 2 together and believe that I have a virus (at the time, I did not relaise I had no anti-virus proection).

I have tried scanning my PC with the anti-virus scans of McAfee and one or 2 others, but they have been unable to identify and destroy the offending file or code.

The symptomns of this virus are:

- windows closing automatically
- arrow disappearing, only to reappear shortly afterwards when I move the mouse
- losing control of arrow / cursor
- menus flashing up

My PC was assembled by a friend of a friend. My PC is a Intel Celeron processor 443 MHz, 128 MB of RAM. I use Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version 2002.

I wondered if anyone could advise me what to do.

Thank you.

Ok, I think I can help.

1. Do a Update For the virus deffinitions
2. Restart Computer in Safe mode
3. After it boots up in safemode, run a virus scan

Hope I could help!
-Rob-

First of all, welcome to the forum tazmania :thumbs:

If what God of Computers doesn't work, you should then run a couple of online scans.

Start by running Panda active scan.
Then run this Windows security trojan scan.

Also. Have you run any spyware scans?.
If not, i recommend installing Ad-Aware SE and Spybot search&destroy. Update them both and run them, have them remove anything they find.

Let us know if this helped solve your problem tazmaina .

If it didn't help you may be asked to post a Hijack This log. You will be given full instructions if you need to do this :-)

Originally Posted by God Of Computers

Ok, I think I can help.

1. Do a Update For the virus deffinitions
2. Restart Computer in Safe mode
3. After it boots up in safemode, run a virus scan

Hope I could help!
-Rob-

Please can you tell me how I do such an Update and restart in safe mode. Which virus scan should I use?

Thank you.

Originally Posted by tazmania

Please can you tell me how I do such an Update and restart in safe mode. Which virus scan should I use?

Thank you.

Somewhere in your Antivirus menu there should be the option to 'Update'. Just click on this and follow any instructions it gives (sorry i don't know the exact process with McAfee).

To boot in to safe mode:
Restart your computer. As soon as you turn your computer on start tapping f8. Tap repeatedly until the boot screen pops up. This screen will have a few options including 'Safe Mode'. Select safe mode and the computer will carry on booting normally. The pictures and text will appear strange, this is normal and nothing to worry about.

If this sounds a bit of a fuss, try the online scans i left the links to earlier. You can run these while on the internet .

Thanks for the guidance.

I will try the online scans and report back soon!

I tried Trojan scan after Panda but it found no infection.

However, it also displayed the following message:

Unable to scan C:\System Volume Information - Access is denied

Any ideas?

Thank you.

Originally Posted by tazmania

I tried Trojan scan after Panda but it found no infection.

However, it also displayed the following message:

Unable to scan C:\System Volume Information - Access is denied

Any ideas?

Thank you.

Tazmania, that is normal to find that system volume access is denied. That is where certain things are stored. and althought there are ways to access it, you don't need to.

I would suggest you turn off system restore, and right click on your C:\Drive and run the clean up utility, deleting previous system restore points.

Go back online and redo the scan. You could have had infected files within your system restore, by turning off sys restore and deleting all previous restore points, you are making 100% sure that there is no risk of a virus lurking in your restore.

Once the scan is complete, turn system restore back on if you use it.

~Viktoria