Troubleshooting PC Performance Problems – Suspected Malware

From: Mary
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 10:40 AM
To: Russell Mickler
Subject: I was in your SE583 class this past summer and I’m hoping you can give me a suggestion

I’m hoping you can make a suggestion regarding my home desktop computer. We seem to have contracted something – a virus or whatever – and my specialty is accounting more than computers. I’m hoping you have a suggestion that’s better than just randomly trying to choose an antivirus software and hoping it will work, which is where I am now. The symptoms are:

• Internet running VERY slowly
• Random websites opening without warning (not just popups)
• Warnings appearing frequently to say that a Google link may be broken (Oops! This link appears to be broken – 83.149.75.33/info.png?)
• ‘HTTP 404 This site is not responding’ with an isp address instead of a website name and not when we’re trying to open anything

Help!

Sure Mary. Follow these steps.

1. Uninstall any browser that isn’t Internet Explorer (IE). So if you have Firefox, Safari, whatever – uninstall them through the Control Panel, add/remove software. Reboot when prompted.

2. Uninstall any anti-spam/anti-virus you might have through the same process. Reboot when prompted.

3. Open IE. Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Install all critical updates. Reboot when prompted.

4. Make sure Internet Explorer isn’t open. Open the Control Panel and access Internet Settings. Under the Advanced Tab, click RESET. Follow the dialog to reset IE.

5. Download malwarebytes. http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button

6. Run/execute Malwarebytes. Allow it to install, update, and do a simple scan (it’s first option). Clean anything it finds. The system will reboot.

7. Again, run Malwarebytes. Do a thorough scan. Clean anything it finds. The system will reboot.

8. Download Free AVG from http://free.avg.com. Execute and install. Have AVG do a thorough scan. Reboot where required.

9. Download Zonealarm from http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/1025_update/zaSetup_en.exe – save and then run it.

10. If you’re running Windows XP, download Windows Defender and install it.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=435BFCE7-DA2B-4A6A-AFA4-F7F14E605A0D&displaylang=en&mg_id=10134

All of this would be one step in the right direction; it’s not perfect, but it will bring you to a state of stability.  When you’re ready, you could buy a commercial product (Norton or McAfee) and remove Malwarebytes, AVG, and ZoneAlarm for superior performance.

Best wishes –
R

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